Inside Nvidia’s 10-year effort to make the Shield TV the most updated Android device ever
- Thread starter JournalBot
- Start date
It's unfortunate that are not planning a hardware refresh (I read this article looking for such a hint). I would love to use this over my TV's built-in, but I just can't buy 7 year old hardware on the hope it is better. It's the same reason why I couldn't buy the valve VR kit in late 2024... As the article notes, $200 is a bit much to experiment for a set top box
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Thanks for this article 
I have been regretting not buying a Shield for the past 10 years...
But with Amazon moving the FireTV line from AOSP to their own OS, I think I may join the cult.
I have been regretting not buying a Shield for the past 10 years...
But with Amazon moving the FireTV line from AOSP to their own OS, I think I may join the cult.
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It's probably less of an experiment than you fear, as the Shield has proven itself year after year after year. Look for one second-hand if you prefer.
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This 3D printed "condom" works great for preventing accidental presses of the dreaded Netflix button: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4774016
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I've got three that still see daily use - an original, the mini version, and the "newer" tube version. Have recently experimented with a Fire Cube as I wanted the HDMI passthrough but its not great and I'm already wishing I'd just got another tube.
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I would immediately buy it if Nvidia would release a new version. I still own a 2015 version that still runs okay, and getting a 2019 version would be an outdated model for me. But a completely new version. That would rock!
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My Sony Bravia tv's horrible version of Android became slower and slower even after I spent ages debloating it, irrespective of whether I used the stock launcher or a custom launcher. I finally got a Shield when it became unusable. The Shield is phenomenally fast, I cannot even describe what a difference it makes having a version of Android that has minimal bloat - btw one can get rid of all the bloat on the default Android skin that the Shield ships with (and change the launcher as well) - the Shield makes all of that very easy. In addition, I have connected the Shield to my NAS via a LAN cable and now I have all of my personal content (movies, TV shows, Photographs) available via a Jellyfin server I'm running in a kubernetes container on the NAS. My TV went from being an unusable piece of garbage to the most used item in my household. My wife loves the fact that we can just browse through our old photographs via this setup. I don't even use the Shield for gaming, I prefer using my SteamDeck for that. Of course, your mileage may vary, but this purchase, for me, completely changed my entire perspective towards how I manage my content at home. A last note - around 1 year after my purchase of the Shield, it froze and would not start again. Nvidia were absolutely marvellous at handling this and they just sent me a new one via the RMA process, no questions asked.
(Edited to change one sentence I had earlier worded confusingly)
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I mapped the dreadful Netflix button to pause/play. Now it’s my favorite button because it can be easily found without looking on the remote.
I don't remember the name of the tool but it uses the accessibility options of the system to remap the button. It works everywhere except Jellyfin (it’s just a dead button there, no launching Netflix app terror).
I‘d also recommend an alternative launcher to get rid of the ads. In contrary to something like a Fire TV it stays active after a reboot and after system updates so far.
Makes the shield a nice alternative to all these enshittification machines out there.
I don't remember the name of the tool but it uses the accessibility options of the system to remap the button. It works everywhere except Jellyfin (it’s just a dead button there, no launching Netflix app terror).
I‘d also recommend an alternative launcher to get rid of the ads. In contrary to something like a Fire TV it stays active after a reboot and after system updates so far.
Makes the shield a nice alternative to all these enshittification machines out there.
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I still have the OG shield tablet for similar purposes. But as a TV set top box currently Apple TV has such a huge lead in terms of hardware and UX that it’s not fair. My use is fairly niche- I use it for Zwift- an online indoor cycling platform and it runs it better than most mid range full size PCs.
For any 4K streaming Apple TV is flawless
For any 4K streaming Apple TV is flawless
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Get a used one?
My Pro was bought in 2019 and it's rock solid. Replaced a Amazon Stick, Chromecast, Roku 4k and an Apple TV 4k with it and it's been the best streamer I've had.
Yeah I do wish they'd update it. Seems NVIDIA can't be arsed to do much of anything these days but make 'AI' chips or whatever that junk is.
edit: And a bonus they run retroarch really well so old emulation is nifty to use on it. Has been a while since I messed with it but it's a nice to have.
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I used Button Mapper. Single click to open Youtube, hold to open Plex.
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As it has passthrough for all relevant audio codecs, it is a number one choice for home theater enthusiasts in possession of AVRs. Adding support for Dolby Vision layer 7 would be nice though.
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My 2019 ‘Pro’ has seen heavy use over the last 5 years, primarily streaming full remuxes of UHD and HD discs. I’m constantly amazed at how well it ‘just works’. Almost all bugs are the fault of companies building shitty apps. With Projectivity Launcher it’s nearly on the level of an Apple TV in terms of UI and UX. Better yet, it doesn’t PCMify all audio (Apple I’m looking at you). However, the X1 has begun to really show its age and a refresh with a new chip would be great.
It’s good to know the team is still dedicated to it and I hope to see a new generation at some point. Until then I’ll keep using mine
It’s good to know the team is still dedicated to it and I hope to see a new generation at some point. Until then I’ll keep using mine
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As I was reading the article, the thought crossed my mind that the only thing that bugged me about the Shield TV was the shape of the box itself, with those rather silly, angled chunks on top, that makes cleaning it that much more difficult.
I bought the 2019 pro model when it was released and it's still tucked under my TV and going strong, 6 and a bit years later.
When I got to the part of the article about the Netflix button, I immediately reacted "oh, that is definitely the biggest problem". I must have been hitting that thing accidentally about once a month, since 2019.
The article had some extra interest for me, as it covered various of my career events. I joined Nvidia's mobile division (as the Tegra division was called then) just a little while before new Tegra hardware was released internally. I left a few years later (to move back to games dev) before I heard anything about the Shield TV being in the works. I did end up going to the launch party though (along with some people from the company I'd moved to) during GDC 2015.
I bought the 2019 pro model when it was released and it's still tucked under my TV and going strong, 6 and a bit years later.
When I got to the part of the article about the Netflix button, I immediately reacted "oh, that is definitely the biggest problem". I must have been hitting that thing accidentally about once a month, since 2019.
The article had some extra interest for me, as it covered various of my career events. I joined Nvidia's mobile division (as the Tegra division was called then) just a little while before new Tegra hardware was released internally. I left a few years later (to move back to games dev) before I heard anything about the Shield TV being in the works. I did end up going to the launch party though (along with some people from the company I'd moved to) during GDC 2015.
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Long term support is great, but I and many others have had to sell our shields and by other systems because Nvidia refuse to release updated hardware with AV1 support.
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The Shield-TV is the only Android device with Apple polish ever created if you ask me.
10½ years later my original Shield-TV still runs just as smooth as Android TV does on a brand new highend TV.
Amazing functionality and value for money. My only complaint is that they sunsetted the functionality which let me render games on my PC and stream them to the shield.
10½ years later my original Shield-TV still runs just as smooth as Android TV does on a brand new highend TV.
Amazing functionality and value for money. My only complaint is that they sunsetted the functionality which let me render games on my PC and stream them to the shield.
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I like my Shield TV (non-Pro) 2019, it works fine. I wish I'd bought the Pro to run a Plex server on.
Honestly what I really yearn for is a living room PC with a frontend that has the elegance of a streaming stick's UI. I guess it's content protection issues but no one has built such a beat to my knowledge. Plex is good for local media but it doesn't seamlessly combine all the streaming services under one roof.
I have super high hopes for Steam Machine but have since read they don't plan to roll out with a streaming interface.
I'm sure it's "not that easy", but man that would be the holy grail for me.
Honestly what I really yearn for is a living room PC with a frontend that has the elegance of a streaming stick's UI. I guess it's content protection issues but no one has built such a beat to my knowledge. Plex is good for local media but it doesn't seamlessly combine all the streaming services under one roof.
I have super high hopes for Steam Machine but have since read they don't plan to roll out with a streaming interface.
I'm sure it's "not that easy", but man that would be the holy grail for me.
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Since January 2017, my home theatre is powered by a 2015 Sheid TV. I was looking for a media player to replace my HTPC and while there were cheaper options available, the guys at avforums.com said the Shield was the best. They weren't wrong.
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My husband and I are still using our 2015 first-gen Shield TV. It's a great device, absolutely worth buying, and if they release an updated version with support for newer codecs and better HDR-support, I will absolutely be there to buy it. I wish I could tell someone in charge at NVIDIA to just hurry up and make one!
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The best value for your money is getting a cheap Android TV box that works with CoreELEC, which actually runs on true Linux, not Android. It's a custom distro made for AmLogic chips that boots into Kodi. I got a $40 box years ago, and they keep hacking/updating it to new kernels. In fact my box can do Dolby Vision now, which wasn't even initially possible on that model.
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To Mr. Bell:
First thank you, still enjoying my Nvidia Shield TV 2015.
The message: I never, ever buy new technology or product on the release date, but if Nvidia release a new Shield TV, be pretty sure I’ll be ordering immediately.
First thank you, still enjoying my Nvidia Shield TV 2015.
The message: I never, ever buy new technology or product on the release date, but if Nvidia release a new Shield TV, be pretty sure I’ll be ordering immediately.
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Well, if you ever make up your minds for a new one:
Include all Dolby profiles, HDR10+, AV1, HDMI 2.1, throw us an NVMe m.2 port, optionally a 2.5GB nic, and we'll be breaking buck.
Still rocking the 2017, I love that little thing.
Include all Dolby profiles, HDR10+, AV1, HDMI 2.1, throw us an NVMe m.2 port, optionally a 2.5GB nic, and we'll be breaking buck.
Still rocking the 2017, I love that little thing.
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Projectivity launcher is great. Removes ads from Google and lets you fully customize your home screen.
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Slightly OT, but the Shield Tablet was my 2nd favorite tablet, just behind my 2nd gen Nexus 7, until I dropped it and shattered the screen.
I've not found an affordable worthy replacement to either of those - either no-name junk, ad-riddled FireOS stuff, or too expensive. Like GPUs, the mid-range sweet spot seems to be mostly gone.
I've not found an affordable worthy replacement to either of those - either no-name junk, ad-riddled FireOS stuff, or too expensive. Like GPUs, the mid-range sweet spot seems to be mostly gone.
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I'm away from mine right now and the name of the app escapes me, but there's a free app that allows you to remap your remote buttons. I made my Netflix button do nothing.
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That’s one thing I’m absolutely resentful about: the fucking ads being shoved down our throats.
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I would like to have more information on the tool to map the netflix button and what custome launcher to use.
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After all these years.. I still haven’t, for the life of me, figured out how to properly and fully use the game controller. Some button presses (particularly ones without tactile feedback) seem hit or miss at best.. either that or I’m just “doing it wrong”.
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XSportSeeker
Ars Scholae Palatinae
A bit of fluff in the article, but in general, yeah... nVidia Shield was an effort above the norm - which is why it served as a showcase for Nintendo Switch hardware. As some will know, the first Nintendo Switch uses the same Tegra X1 chip that the Shield has.
I dunno for sure, but seems to me that if the Shield didn't work the way it did, Nintendo likely wouldn't have chosen it's hardware to be at the core of Switch, if even though of the Switch as it is at all.
The console is majorly a thing that came to exist because Google and Apple failed to capitalize on gaming up to that point. They didn't understand the market, how to approach developers, how to make efficient use of the hardware, and many other things - so Nintendo took it.
A few things though... well, back in 2015 gaming was already huge, and Android set top boxes weren't exactly a new idea. The spectacularly failed Ouya came out back in 2013. xD
Original Chromecast also came out in 2013. nVidia Shield came out on a trail of mostly failed or niche experiments, on the Android side I mean. Good to note too, it also was among the first to introduce cloud gaming before the fad.
Of course, not only those, but it was at a time lots of companies were throwing out ideas like that to see if they stuck.
It's still ridiculous to this day to compare longevity and update cycles of mainstream brands to nVidia Shield, but if you had or have good hardware running on custom ROM, chances are it can still be up to date.
It does take extra work, but it's because of all the extra crap put on top of AOSP. If the OS/skin doesn't have too much shovelware on top of AOSP, minor changes in hardware evolution aside, there isn't a whole ton of impediments for an older hardware to run it.
This is also the reason why manufacturer OSs became more lightweight, less burdened with shovelware, and whatnot over the years.
So this is a thing that is more ridiculous that it's not the norm, rather than being unique to the Shield itself. It just shows that the limiting of update cycles is much more of an artificially imposed planned obsolescence style anti-consumer measure from mobile devices manufacturers rather than something we should have to live with.
Heck, my phone is from 2019, and it still works perfectly fine. And I'd root it and install a custom ROM to keep using it indefinitely, with proper security and system updates, if it wasn't for the fact that some important apps I need have surreptitiously started using Google Play Integrity which disables them if I root my phone. This is just how insidious the whole thing is.
Back in 2015... I was rockin' a Sony Xperia Z3. Not sure how useful it'd be today.... probably very sluggish. But still plenty useful as backup or alternate usage, if it wasn't for the imposed obsolescence. I broke the screen and replaced it a couple of times, plus battery changes, the 3rd time it just wasn't worth it anymore.
Anyways, back to the Shield... I almost bought it a few times. But it just didn't quite fit a need for me... I have always had my PC connected to the main living room TV since way back in early 2000s, so it doesn't make much sense to have a dedicated box for it as a separate device.
Then the Switch came out and it became a more apt replacement for the Shield, for my purposes I mean. I understand that for others it filled a need they had.
But yeah... for me, some aspects of the nVidia Shield displays what we all could already have, if we weren't so burdened with anti-consumer monopolistic bs. If AOSP had base level gamepad support and screen mirroring, just a few years after nVidia Shield everyone would have smartphones capable of working like it does.
And then you start thinking of all the things that we could've achieved if it wasn't for planned obsolescence, anti-consumer moves, and everything else that still dictates the market to this day.
I bet I could have a single Linux device running almost everything I need, with a docking station to expand hardware a bit for more specialized tasks. Then I'd just need a few monitors around the house switching back and forth when needed, perhaps with an extra machine for backup and home server stuff, which I'd be far less worried about (again, if it wasn't for monopolistic anti-consumer stuff).
I dunno for sure, but seems to me that if the Shield didn't work the way it did, Nintendo likely wouldn't have chosen it's hardware to be at the core of Switch, if even though of the Switch as it is at all.
The console is majorly a thing that came to exist because Google and Apple failed to capitalize on gaming up to that point. They didn't understand the market, how to approach developers, how to make efficient use of the hardware, and many other things - so Nintendo took it.
A few things though... well, back in 2015 gaming was already huge, and Android set top boxes weren't exactly a new idea. The spectacularly failed Ouya came out back in 2013. xD
Original Chromecast also came out in 2013. nVidia Shield came out on a trail of mostly failed or niche experiments, on the Android side I mean. Good to note too, it also was among the first to introduce cloud gaming before the fad.
Of course, not only those, but it was at a time lots of companies were throwing out ideas like that to see if they stuck.
It's still ridiculous to this day to compare longevity and update cycles of mainstream brands to nVidia Shield, but if you had or have good hardware running on custom ROM, chances are it can still be up to date.
It does take extra work, but it's because of all the extra crap put on top of AOSP. If the OS/skin doesn't have too much shovelware on top of AOSP, minor changes in hardware evolution aside, there isn't a whole ton of impediments for an older hardware to run it.
This is also the reason why manufacturer OSs became more lightweight, less burdened with shovelware, and whatnot over the years.
So this is a thing that is more ridiculous that it's not the norm, rather than being unique to the Shield itself. It just shows that the limiting of update cycles is much more of an artificially imposed planned obsolescence style anti-consumer measure from mobile devices manufacturers rather than something we should have to live with.
Heck, my phone is from 2019, and it still works perfectly fine. And I'd root it and install a custom ROM to keep using it indefinitely, with proper security and system updates, if it wasn't for the fact that some important apps I need have surreptitiously started using Google Play Integrity which disables them if I root my phone. This is just how insidious the whole thing is.
Back in 2015... I was rockin' a Sony Xperia Z3. Not sure how useful it'd be today.... probably very sluggish. But still plenty useful as backup or alternate usage, if it wasn't for the imposed obsolescence. I broke the screen and replaced it a couple of times, plus battery changes, the 3rd time it just wasn't worth it anymore.
Anyways, back to the Shield... I almost bought it a few times. But it just didn't quite fit a need for me... I have always had my PC connected to the main living room TV since way back in early 2000s, so it doesn't make much sense to have a dedicated box for it as a separate device.
Then the Switch came out and it became a more apt replacement for the Shield, for my purposes I mean. I understand that for others it filled a need they had.
But yeah... for me, some aspects of the nVidia Shield displays what we all could already have, if we weren't so burdened with anti-consumer monopolistic bs. If AOSP had base level gamepad support and screen mirroring, just a few years after nVidia Shield everyone would have smartphones capable of working like it does.
And then you start thinking of all the things that we could've achieved if it wasn't for planned obsolescence, anti-consumer moves, and everything else that still dictates the market to this day.
I bet I could have a single Linux device running almost everything I need, with a docking station to expand hardware a bit for more specialized tasks. Then I'd just need a few monitors around the house switching back and forth when needed, perhaps with an extra machine for backup and home server stuff, which I'd be far less worried about (again, if it wasn't for monopolistic anti-consumer stuff).
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Yeah I'm not super thrilled with the 'now showing' line but it's not bad enough for me to deal with alternative launchers and all that headache and set up.
I see the home screen for about 10 seconds. I'll survive.
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I think it still has life/refresh out there. In a recent interview with Jensen Huang there was clearly a ShieldTV remote on his coffee table. If the CEO is still using it as his daily streaming device I think that's a good sign.
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I suspect they are only selling these still because they are old enough that they don't compete with data center products for process node space.
Nvidia seems more than willing to abandon consumers when it doesn't make as much money as other verticals, so hats off to the guys who managed to keep Shield updates coming along, but I wouldn't bank on it always being like this.
Nvidia seems more than willing to abandon consumers when it doesn't make as much money as other verticals, so hats off to the guys who managed to keep Shield updates coming along, but I wouldn't bank on it always being like this.
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Still use my Pro daily. At this point it's simply a matter of who released new, modern hardware and codec support: Apple or nVidia, likely first to release gets my money.
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