NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV Streaming Media Player; 4K HDR, live sports, Dolby Vision-Atmos, AI-enhanced upscaling, GeForce NOW cloud gaming, Google Assistant Built-In, Works with Alexa

I'm well versed with smart tvs, roku's, and Chromecast, but this Shield TV blows them all out of the water. My 1 year old Vizio P series (best model offered by Vizio) is so slow verse this Shield TV. I currently have this connected to my older Vizio tv as it didn't offer any "smart functionality" and I really just wanted to pick up one remote and watch Youtube TV without having to cast it to a previously added Chromecast. You know the deal, make dinner, sit down, turn on the tv, and of course your cell phone is back in the kitchen. That was getting old. That all being said, this Shield TV is very polished. Setup took about 3mins as I connected directly to a Ethernet cable (no wifi). A couple more mins for a few updates to install and I was on my way. Syncing the Shield remote to the this Vizio TV was done in less then 10secs. I remember my Xfinity/Comcast taking 10-15mins of trying code after code to find the right one that worked.Post setup, I had to test my Plex server first. A little background, my Plex server is 10+ year old Dell XPS (1st gen) laptop running Win10... a very low powered Plex Server by most people's standards. I have one 4k movie and this Shield TV Pro plays it with no issues. My other "New" Vizio P-Series TV with its native Plex app, can't play this same 4k movie with out stuttering ever 10secs. While I though for the longest time it was the server, it actually is the TV's Ethernet port which is limited to 100mb, while the Shield has a gigabit connection... Simply the Shield TV has the connected bandwidth to play 4k in a local network with out issue. A lot of people over look these kind of issues with Plex Server and waste money on upgrading the server when the network connection speed is the problem. A little tip for you allAs I moved on to setting up all the apps YoutubeTV, Amazon, etc, I was really blow away with Netflix. I couldn't believe how fast the app launched and the moves started playing. On my new Vizio tv with the Ethernet connection, it would typically take 30secs to fully open Netflix and another 10-20secs for the movie/show to start playing.... Everything with the Shield is near instant. It like running a PC with SSD for the first time, you had no idea how much faster something can be.Lastly I want to talk about the remote. It's a little on the small size which makes it a little awkward like I'm going to drop it. For example I have a Samsung S20 Ultra and if a friend hands me a old and much smaller iPhone, it just feels out of place in my hand. The other thing I don't like and a lot of TV remotes do this, is the over shape can't tell you which direction the remote is pointing without looking at it. For example if you are familiar with Logitech Harmony remotes, they used to have a hour glass like shape, but the top and bottom aren't the same width, with a little muscle memory you can grab the remote and know which way it is pointing. With this Triangular Prism shape it looks cool, but if you pick it up without looking, you can't tell which way the remote is pointing. People with argue that this doesn't matter as this is bluetooth remote, but it isn't about pointing the remote at the tv it about knowing where each button is on the remote without looking. Kind of like learn how to type on a keyboard, the goal is now to look at each button. Now imagain every time you stop typing, you keyboards moves around, and you have to reoriented it before you can start typing again. It really not a huge issues, but it is still annoying.A few positives about the remote... I do like how the buttons are illuminated by lights. Very useful for dark room while watching a movie. As well, I really love the "find my remote" feature. No longer do I have to go from family member to family member interrogating them on where they left the remote. Lastly, the voice search it super impressive and fast. I like the fact that I can tell it to launch an app and the app will be launched before it can finish confirming your request.In summary, I haven't test the gaming functionality of it yet, so once I get some controllers connected I'll update this review. As for my overall impressions of this, I really really like it. If they had a slight bigger and better shaped remote, I would love it. I still give this a 5 stars, when I really want to get it a 4.5 stars. I don't think the remote should stop anyone from getting this. I know I've only seen the tip of the iceberg with all that can be offered with the Shield TV, I'll be getting another for my second tv as I'm really that impressed by it.

I got a new LG C4 but unfortunately because I remotely access a Plex server I’m not able to stream 4k content. My only access to 4k content was through my other streaming services (Hulu, Disney+).My brother suggested this to upscale the Plex movies and tv shows. I have to say this thing really does a great job at upscaling 720/1080 to 4k. It’s amazing! I kept the upscaling to medium since the high setting over sharpened the image and it looked awkward on some videos.I love the simplicity of the set up and the ease of use. Most of all I love the simple extras that your typical streamer doesn’t have like find your remote (pages the remote and the remote makes a sound) and the remote is backlit.Overall I’m very happy with the device. Yes it’s expensive, but my three points I made above make it well worth it.

Nvidia hit it out of the park with this product. I got tired of the inconsistent firestick products and decided to change it up and I'm glad I did. The interface is easy to use and setup. You can easily sign in with your Google account and sync it with other devices. The remote is easy to use. Great for playing games too, just use one of your XBOX controllers and game on. No lag when streaming or playing games. I've owned this product for 18 months and it's still going strong. Will highly recommend to anyone looking to get away from the fire devices.

Works as intended jut not so friendly interface

Good

**** Updated 6/25/21 *****I am leaving my original review in tact so you can see what you COULD be getting and just how awesome the device used to be and what I would be recommending if greed wasn't the sole driver that apparently causes Product Management to get out of bed in the morning at Nvidia and Google. I literally had a a new Shield TV Pro in my shopping cart to replace an aging and failing Roku that I am now not purchasing unless and until Nvidia gets a clue and fix this abomination.The most recent update of the Shield TV with the "Highlights" UI change from Google has ruined the interface. The only reason it exists is to drive some utterly miniscule ad revenue for Google. It does not make the system easier to use, it does not remove superfluous interface components that get in the way, it does not fix the few annoyances the previous interface had. It does not make the interface prettier in any way.What this new UI DOES do, with the level of outrageous obnoxiousness only a company like Google who doesn't care what God or anyone thinks can muster, is insert ads at the top of the screen that span almost 50% of the viewable area. Many of the ads automatically play video, and most of the ones I've seen thus far are full of SJW-pushing messages or half-dressed people. I don't want my kids seeing most of these that I've seen thus far, and the ones that play video have all had something in them I didn't want them to hear. This is utterly unacceptable and if I wanted to see ads, I'd just stick with Roku, where at least their ads don't keep me from actually using the device as quickly and easily as I am used to, and they aren't full of images I consider in poor taste if not outright lewdness.If Nvidia gets a clue and restores their excellent skin, I'll restore my highly favorable review and purchase additional units as I've been intending. I will go back to recommending the device as well!**** ORIGINAL REVIEW ****I have to admit this review is as much of an indictment of the Amazon Fire TV Stick (and a little bit on the Roku as well) as it is a review of the Nvidia Shield. Apologies for how long it is, skip to HERE'S THE ACTUAL REVIEW if you want to skip my rant on the Fire TV Stick.I have been using Fire TV Sticks since the first gen. I have an N-2 model in a guest room attached to a 55" Sony and one that has been in my Master bedroom on a Sharp Aquos 65" TV. I am not using the latest 4K device, but do have the previous version with the Alexa voice remote.The Nvidia Shield TV is what Amazon COULD have turned the Fire TV into -- they're both Android devices so Amazon had the power to make better choices. But like most things hardware-releated with Amazon it seems, they are more interested in margins than a product that gives the customer the best possible experience. Just one area I have fought for years speaks to the fact of this. I have an EXCELLENT WiFi setup. I have an Eero Pro kit (I so desperately hope Amazon doesn't destroy this hardware), with APs on all three floors of the house, and the Stick is less than 50 feet through only 1 wall to get to the upstairs AP. The Stick itself says signal strength and quality are always excellent, but I regularly buffer at the TV, but a tablet or a phone in the same room, further away from the AP than the stick is can be playing the same media with ZERO buffering and perfectly smooth playback. I've done this test with every streaming service I subscribe to and get similar results, and my Roku NEVER buffers (so it's not the service or the Internet connection). I've removed the Internet from the equation by streaming off a Synology NAS device on the same network, with the same results.The performance of the Stick itself just demonstrates how under-powered the hardware clearly is. I routinely experience lag with pushing buttons on the remote, as well as what I call 'over-reception'; that is I push the button once, and it is off to the scrolling races and only stops when it gets to the end of the seemingly endless list of lame channels I have no interest in subscribing to, but Amazon insists must be placed on my home screen, apparently just in case I suffer a massive head trauma and suddenly get interested in British seaside comedic tragedies or whatever it is that they put in that list. I mean, with all the data they have on me, it is apparently too much to ask that they actually put information on the home screen relevant to my actual viewing patterns, I guess. To say the least, the performance of the TV Stick is awful, and I am now convinced that I will never go back unless they make significant investments into that hardware. I haven't upgraded to the 4K device because I have no faith that the thing could actually spit out 4K content without falling down.What does falling down look like? Well, like the current Stick's performance (beyond the remote lag). I regularly, as in 3 to 5 times a WEEK, have to reboot it, or it bogs down so significantly it can take 15-20 seconds to move between apps on the home screen. I mean, come on, this isn't Windows 3.1. This is Android essentially on a Pi device in 2020, and I've seen Pi devices do amazing, harder computational things than what I'm asking of Fire TV with less hardware!!! And yes, I have factory reset it, no I don't have a ton of apps on it, I have no games hogging up the space, I simply have a few streaming apps (Hulu, Netflix, Disney+, HBO, and Amazon Prime). It simply doesn't have enough power.I was enduring all this because the Roku set top device I have on my main TV in the living room isn't significantly better, so I thought this was just how it is. I also like knowing what the competitive platforms are doing (I'm a gadget geek) so owning both was okay. While the performance on the Roku is better, it has its own quirks, and I've just kind of assumed this is the life of a cord-cutter. My experience with the Fire TV Stick has been so bad I've not looked at a Roku stick because I am afraid their proprietary OS is likely to perform worse on hardware you can fit into an HDMI-port sized stick. That's not fair, I know, but I don't want to just spend money every week on new TV devices. I want the TV device to blend in and just deliver content, you know?Things came to a head for me with HBO Max and the goat rodeo of that app vs HBO Now, vs HBO Whatever, vs HBO Go, vs HBO Stop, vs HBO Doesn't Have a Clue, vs HBO Fired All the Execs Who Knew What They Were Doing, vs whatever the other apps are being called and none of them working right on Fire TV Stick now. After getting side-loading to work on the Stick so I could keep HBO (it is just skinned Android after all) and getting the APK for Max to load and work for a few days, it decided to just stop. Nothing I've done has been able to make it work again, and I know my way around side-loading an APK.The HBO Max debacle just pushed me over the edge, frankly. I am sick of being a pawn that has put my money into these clowns' coffers just to have them flip me off uncermoniously every time they want to get into a peeing contest over a few pennies. If I didn't get HBO Max as part of my Internet subscription w/AT&T, I would have cancelled it at the same time I unplugged the Fire TV Stick. It is unconscionable to me that these behemoths care so little about the people who MAKE them behemoths that they essentially give us the finger over getting content through these devices. They so easily forget that we do actually have choices. I decided to execute one of my choices.I took the plunge into Nvidia and Android TV and dumped Amazon's ecosystem.SO HERE'S THE ACTUAL REVIEWThe good:- Initial setup: This unit is so simple to setup it was absolutely amazing. After plugging in the HDMI and the power cables, I decided to try the WiFi rather than use the gigabit connection at my television, to compare it to the Fire TV Stick that was previously on this television. So no ethernet cable to connect, just start the setup.Crikeys. This was simple. I didn't have to spend a bunch of time repeatedly typing things into an on-screen keyboard with the remote. It saw the wireless network and found my phone on the same network, asked if I wanted to copy my WiFi and account settings over, and bada bing, the system was up and running after security verification on my Google account. It saw updates and immediately asked if they could be installed or deferred until later. I chose to update and the process took less than 3 minutes to download, install, reboot and apply the update to the remote. After that I was off again to finish setup and start playing with the system.In a refreshing twist to most setups involving remotes, the remote worked right out of the box -- no pairing, no fighting with it to see the device, it. just. worked.- The Remote: Back lighting, customizable keys, AND 3rd party device control? WOW! Someone has actually put thought into what it takes to make a customer WANT to use the device. I wish Amazon would actually do that instead of taking the Apple approach and assuming we're all idiots and need to be told what we like! Buttons matter. If I have to push a button to execute voice control, it isn't VOICE control so stop pimping it and give me a remote that controls things. Give me buttons or make voice controls really work. Don't half-do both.In less than 10 minutes, I had the remote controlling the Shield, the Sharp Aquos TV and the Samsung sound bar perfectly -- with no Internet research. It's simple to understand the settings and find the right ones to make things work. The Shield remote replaced a really old Harmony One IR remote in a flash, without any complex button sequences or remembering which button does what. You hit the power button and the TV comes on, the Shield comes on, and the Sound bar comes on, ready to stream in less than 10 seconds. Now, that said, I don't have anything else on the TV, so I don't have to worry about people changing my HDMI port and things like that, but it appears to me that it can handle that, too!The find my remote function of the Shield phone companion app means you are very unlikely to ever permanently lose the remote again. That function works extremely well, and the remote issues a loud enough sound you're likely to hear it under a sofa cushion or under the bed.While the triangular shape is different, it doesn't offer any real ergonomic resistance or discomfort in its use. All the buttons are easy to find (even in the dark since they're backlit) are clearly marked and easily used. It is also a very responsive remote / device connection.- Performance: Double crikeys. I have been fighting with the Fire TV Stick for so long, I just thought this was how streaming was supposed to be. A dedicated settings button on the remote means I'm not scrolling through 12 menus at an abysmal performance rate to check a setting or a notification. Unlike the Fire TV, where settings are all the way at the end of the top row, then at nearly the end of the next set of icons, you can just get right to settings to make a change.This interface is snappy! Not only do I not buffer (still haven't moved off WiFi to a physical connection!!!!), but applications come up IMMEDIATELY. I just thought Netflix really took 20-30 seconds to come online due to authentication. Netflix comes up right away now. Hulu, too. This hardware is just fast. Yes, it costs more than a Fire TV Stick so it BETTER be fast, but Amazon spends a lot of marketing talking up how they make their subsequent generations faster and better and blah blah blah. I now have objective, measurable proof that those claims are suspect. In relation to each other, maybe that half a gigahertz change between n-1 and today's stick is faster, but it's not fast. A thoroughbred pulling a cart is faster than a donkey, but it ain't a Corvette.- The Interface: How many times can I say crikeys before you stop reading my review (if you even got this far) :-). This interface is SUPER CLEAN and easy to use. I've used Android phones for years and know how borked up Android can get with skins and 'customizations' as well as how easy a clean basic Android interface is to use, and wowsers. Nvidia hit this out of the PARK. I don't know how much of this is Android TV requirement and how much of it is just Nvidia being smart, but since the device is labeled Nvidia, they get the credit.You can customize the home page. You hear that, AMAZON! LET THE CUSTOMER CUSTOMIZE THEIR ANDROID EXPERIENCE AND THEY GET HAPPY AND LIKE YOU! When I say customize, I mean several things. First, you can easily add, subtract and change the order of the apps, with no fuss. Second, you can remove the annoying 'suggested stuff' row from the screen ENTIRELY. Third, you can change the order of the rows of information to prioritize the streaming apps list and their recommendations easily, so my YouTube channels are at the bottom since my wife only really cares about Netflix and HBO Max, for instance, and they're at the top. Wonderful, easy to execute, but small stuff they clearly sweat to make it a great customer experience.There is a genius feature (that only seems to work with HBO Max) called Play Next. It notices when you're watching something, especially a multi-part series, and drops them into their own row, so you can start back up right where you left off. No opening the app, selecting a profile, finding the Continue section and selecting the episode. It pulls up the app, asks for the profile and goes straight to the episode. I really wish this worked across multiple apps so that it would keep all the different shows I'm watching across all the platforms right there. It's an amazing little ease of use thing that changes the experience.One feature I like is that while the app shortcuts are all across the top-most row, so they are easy and quick to get to, the individual apps have their own row below Play Next, and the top 10 or so recommendations from that service for the most recently logged in profile show on that row. It's a neat little way to maybe look for something new, but unlike the way Amazon deals with their home page, it isn't obtrusive with a bunch of other channels they're trying to sell me. It is information I actually WANT. Of course, Roku doesn't bother with that kind of thing, they just put the app shortcuts right on the home page and I've long thought that superior to Fire TV. It's not a bad design that Roku uses, as it allows them to run their ads out of the way on the side of the screen without making me jump through hoops to get to content, but this contextually driven approach on the home screen is even better than the Roku no-information simplistic approach. This makes the device useful to me as more than a content pass-through.Since this is tied to my Google account, my subscribed YouTube channels all appear on the YouTube row, which makes it easy to watch Jelle's Marble Runs on the big screen!The meh:- Voice search: I've been disappointed in voice search for so long with other devices, my bar was really, really low on this. It seems to me that with all the rage these days being APIs, the content providers could easily introduce an API that allows logged in users to search the platform for a title and give back a simple 0 or 1 return code that a streaming device like the Shield could provide back as a yes or no answer to a title search. That said, Amazon's voice search with Alexa on the Fire Stick was a joke, not being able to actually find things on most other services and sometimes not even their own, and Roku's being tied to their specific remote meant it wasn't going to be used in the living room where I've heavily invested in REMOVING remotes, not adding yet another one.Generally speaking, search on Roku has always excelled that of Amazon, especially as it relates to cross platform searches, and it seems (as of right now) that Shield TV's is somewhere in the middle. It doesn't seem to get content from Disney+ or HBO Max, but it can find things on Netflix, Hulu, and Prime Video successfully for me, as well as returning a result for an app I don't even have installed (Fandango). I'm guessing, that since I have Fandango's app on my phone or somewhere else in my Google ecosystem, it assumed it could search there, or maybe it's just part of what Android TV search is allowed to look for. I don't find any settings for it, so I'm not sure.I intend to keep experimenting with this search capability to see how successful it ultimately is and if I uncover anything will update the review.The bad:So far there hasn't been much bad. I actually want to watch television in my room again :-). I do have a few issues though:- Heat: This little guy gets hot. Not hot enough to burn when touched, but I do worry about heat over time wearing the internals down. It does have a fan apparently, since it can be put into quiet mode, but I've never heard it come on despite the warmth to the touch. When I say it's warm to the touch, it's about a hot cup of coffee warm, so it won't light a piece of paper on fire if left on it accidentally, but you'll notice it.- The shape: A tube. Really? This is a real stumper to me. All this goodness with the device, and it somehow seemed prudent to shape it into a perfect tube, because most entertainment centers in the world aren't FLAT SHELVES? I mean, if it had a narrow flat strip somewhere on it instead of being a 100M dash baton, I could see it as a way to change the entertainment center aesthetic. If you look at the Shield Pro, it definitely has its own aesthetic thing going on, but it at least WORKS on a shelf. With cables coming out of both ends, there's no really good way of setting it up so it isn't nerd-looking cable city. If your shelf isn't 100% level, be prepared for the slightest nudge to start it trying to roll. And I'm not kidding. It really can roll with the right permutation of cable lengths, placement and a kid throwing something or being clumsy. It's not like there's a clean way to mount a round device on the back of a television or on a wall, either. It's just a REALLY bizarre design choice, and if I cared what my bedroom entertainment area actually looked like, it might have given me second thoughts. I'm glad I don't, because I really, really like this thing, but man, Nvidia, come on. Put some design thinking caps on and make this a thing that deserves its place in the entertainment center on more than just raw performance.- The cost: I know I said it before, but this thing is quite a bit more expensive than the Fire TV Stick. But if you like actually watching TV with your significant other without scheduling a pre-session to fight with your streaming device before the show begins, the cost is worth it.Bottom Line:For only a little more than the Roku Ultra, you can get better gear and a better interface. While significantly more than the Fire TV stick, you get a wildly, exponentially better user experience, performance, and an interface that's actually geared toward getting you to the content you want to watch quickly.NOTE: I didn't test any gaming on this device. I don't have a console in my Master bedroom, and if I wanted to play games on that TV, I would. I may connect a DualShock controller to it and try to play something at some point, but console gaming deserves a console IMO; I've been shocked so far, so I will eventually push the thing to its limit and see what it does.Hope this helped someone see the beauty of the Nvidia Shield TV and convince you to pull the trigger.