Features:

  • World Class performance - blazing fast and versatile enough to be a streamer, game console, media server, and smart home hub. Fully customizable, SHIELD continues to evolve and get smarter with new features
  • 4K HDR home Theater - enjoy the ultimate visual experience with 4K HDR quality, immersive sound with Dolby Atoms and dots-x Surround sound pass-through, and the most 4K entertainment; Power: 40 W power adapter (5-10 W typical consumption)
  • GeForce Now Beta access - transform your shield TV into a powerful GeForce-powered PC gaming rig. Play hundreds of supported titles like Fortnight and access Features like cloud saves and cross-play
  • Limitless content - apps for all the movies, TV shows, games, and music you dream of. Cord cutting apps. Chromecast apps. View Google photos and search for entertainment with simple voice commands
  • Google and ecosystems - the Google Assistant, Google play movies and music, and works with Google Home. Alexa controls SHIELD hands-free with echo, Plus Prime video and music. Some HDMI to DVI/VGA adapters may not support Audio. If possible, Connect your shield TV to an HDMI port on your TV without using an adapter
my favorite streamer

Had some time to play with SHIELD and wanted to share my thoughts. I've tried a lot of the other streamers and i feel SHIELD is my favorite device. I have an Android phone, so i love that it has Google Assistant integration. It's great to have integration with my google photos - you can press search and ask SHIELD to "Show me my pictures from xyz". Also nice that you can see what's on your google calendar and cast directly from your android phone to your TV. 4K HDR catalog is great because SHIELD has Netflix, Amazon Video and Vudu in HDR. Youtube experience is better than other streamers - you have full search integration, but you can even say show me the latest Tonight Show or ask to play any Music Video and it just direct plays into the Youtube Video. It also seems youtube on SHIELD supports 360 so you can use your remote to see shows in 360 on SHIELD. i know neither of this works on my Roku or Fire TV. I also use Plex and it seems SHIELD is the only streamer that supports Plex as a client and server device. Finally, it is nice that SHIELD has also integrated Samsung Smartthings Hub. I am just started to set up a smart home in my home and it is nice that i can turn on/off my lights via my SHIELD, and set routines through Samsung Integration. I know it is a bit more expensive than other streamers, but i use my streamer more than 10 hours a week so i think it is worth the extra money.

FANTASTIC =)

I’ve used Android Boxes, 1st & 2nd gen Firestick/Fire Tv boxes/Chromecast to Ruko what a waste of time the Nvidia shield TV blows them all out of the water – Streaming Netflix/YouTube/Starz works GREAT – I use KODI a lot and it works PERFECT, best box for any Kodi user. I even joined GFORCE GO it best place for games – I love to be able to play these games and not have to store the data on my box. I love begin able to use Ethernet cable, 2.4 & 5g connections. You can MINIMIZE your apps too so I can have KODI load up and get that ready to be used MINMIZE it and play a game until I’m ready. Youtube works great when bored. You will need more storage I went with the SanDisk Ultra Fit 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive - SDCZ43-128G-GAM46 and it works PERFECT. CON: The REMOTE volume slide function is pretty cool idea but I hate it! The slide function is too sensitive, every time I grab the remote I seem to hit the volume slide and it goes straight to max volume or max low. Makes me not want to use the remote – Wish there was a silicone cover skin for this remote. Unable to hook up WIRELESS Xbox 360 controller. PRO: Gaming CONTROLLER volume slide function is PERFECT love it – 100% better than the remote volume slide function. I now only use the game controller with everything I do even Kodi. The game control is pretty AWESOME and you are better off getting the $200 version than the $180. Small box and looks and works GREAAAAAAAAT! VERY GLAD I GOT THIS

Best streamer I currently have

I've had it only for a day (the base version, not Pro). So far I love it's streaming apps. Netflix, Amazon, and Plex support 4K HDR, Youtube, Google Movies, Vudu and Ultraflix and a few others support 4K (no HDR for those yet, rumored to come later for Vudu, Google Movies and Youtube). The Netflix app had to be updated on the Google Play Store to get HDR support. Sadly, the Sony Ultra app (where you can own or rent Sony's 4K HDR movies) is available but is unable to play 4KHDR items. Feels much faster and responsive than my Roku, and better than my Apple TV as that only does 1080p. Sadly, no Google Home/Assistant support with handsfree mic yet - that apparently comes later this year, even though Nvidia has been touting it as if it's already supported. For now, you have to press a button on the remote or the controller to talk to the system. That works very well. An annoying thing initially - accidentally touching the vertical touch area for volume control on the remote would pop up a message saying volume is controlled with the amp. I solved it in Settings by enabling CEC Audio. Now the little Shield remote also seamlessly controls the amplifier volume, and no annoying popups on the TV when that area is accidentally touched - easy to do. The interface is fast. Launching apps, browsing content in them, playing is almost instantaneous. It supports Dolby ATMOS in Vudu. My Shield is connected to my Denon amplifier which supports ATMOS. I have not explored the gaming aspects at all. Improvement requests to NVIDIA: 1. It currently upscales everything to 4K. I wish it'd give an option to send content at the content's original resolution and refresh rate to the TV, and let the TV upscale it. 2. Support the TWC (now Spectrum) app for live TV. 3. Add 4K support for Hulu. My XBOX One S already does, which I use for 4K blu-rays and 4K content on Hulu. 4. HURRY UP with the "Google Home" handsfree update. To me, this is the best streamer on the market now that includes pretty much all the popular streaming content apps. The handsfree microphone update (like Google Home), when it comes, will make it an amazing device.

More than rather good! Shield vs Xbone vs Roku stick

Well where to start! This little thing is amazing! Let’s start from the beginning, I’ve always run a DLNA server using Serviio, with 10Tb of media, and no transcoding. First off I used the Xbone, which as many know is pretty bad when it comes to its media player, it’s great till it doesn’t like a file or crashes! (Note I used my 2 Xboxs daily for years now, but it got so bad that change had to happen) Secondly I decided to go for a medium option, the Roku, great little stick that had much promise. It played okay but had big problems with H264 and other file codecs, it was a little figity and likes to buffer for minutes on end. But it played more than the xbox, and had a stunning picture, BUT NOT FF OR RW! So for me, useless! But it’s totally worth being in the spare bedroom for guests to enjoy a movie once they retire. Now for the Shield, this tops all. Beautiful, fast, reliable. I used The Kodi app which compliments Serviio nicely, very nicely. Yes there’s a $110 difference, but holy cr*p is it better! It’s taken every file I’ve thrown at it, including full 4K video and it didn’t stutter once! Had a couple frame drops but it’s to be expected with 7.1 pass through... other than that literally no faults! Remote is a little bad but hey who care about a remote! It’ll use any you pair with it anyway! Nice feel all round. If your looking for an easy-ish player that’ll help your life out to no end look no further, the Shield is hands down the best mainstream device!

I really don’t understand all of the negative reviews.

Why you SHOULD get it: This is hands-down the best tv streaming device out there. You just need to know (or google in about 5 minutes) how to use it. Most apps you need are in the included Google Play store, but you can side-load any android apps that aren’t (google it). You can put third party apps on the home screen by adding shortcuts to them (google that too). It has Netflix and Amazon streaming apps pre-installed (you need to have an account for those respective services to use them). It can play any audio or video file type with the right app. You can plug-and-play an external hard drive, and transfer files to and from other computers and drives on your network. You can stream from any device on your network. The interface is better than Fire TV, and the new Fire TV doesn’t have USB input for extra storage. You can use any programmable or learning (aka “universal”) IR remote. You can use any Bluetooth controller. You can stream live TV with the right apps if you’re a subscriber to that live TV service. It’s fast. It’s small. It looks pretty cool. Not only does it work, but there is absolutely nothing I can think of that anyone would want to do with it as a video streaming device, that this device can’t do. It is far and away the absolute best device for that purpose. If it’s defective or faulty or DOA, return it and get another one. Now, having said all of that, a caveat regarding gaming: The pocessing power is there. You can stream games from PC with the right setup, and it will work for that. In the long-run though, it’s an android device. If your main intention for getting the Shield is gaming, I would recommend going with a PC, or a console instead. Retro games are flawless on the Shield, but for hardcore gamers of current games, I don’t think it’s the best choice. As a TV, Movie, Video, and retro-games media center though, the Shield TV and an external hard drive are the best possible option out there. As for the price. It’s a little more expensive than some other options. It was massively on sale during the Thanksgiving and “cyber” sales period. If you want the best video media center, it’s worth it. Why you SHOULDN’T get it: Maybe you don’t need all of that. If you just want to stream Amazon and Netflix, a Fire TV is much cheaper and performs those functions just fine. The Shield is for people who want a lot more options in their media and more control over what, where, and how to play it. You just have to know or learn how to use it. If you don’t need those extra perks, or the time and energy required to learn how to get it to do what you want isn’t worth it to you, look elsewhere. As far as giving it one star because it was defective or DOA: return it for a replacement. As far as giving it one star because you don’t like the remote: use a different remote. As far as giving it a bad review because it’s too expensive: you knew how much it cost and paid for it. While I can appreciate that these issues might be frustrating, none of them is a fault of the product. If it doesn’t do what you thought it would, you didn’t do the research first to see what the device is capable of. I did a ton of research before purchasing the Shield TV. For me, it’s not only the best option, but far surpasses the capabilities of any other choice on the market right now. I just don’t understand all of the negative reviews.

Why did I wait so long to buy this?

This thing is awesome. Holy moly am I so happy to not be using my Samsung TV for streaming anymore. You know... One of the coolest things, it's so small... When I turn on the Shield, it tells my TV to turn on which tells my sound bar to turn on and vice verse. The volume control on the shield controls the sound bar. Everything just works. I got this as a mini project... A tiny 128GB USB drive to store android apps and games in the first slot. And a 4TB Passport in the second right on top. Install the Plex Server... Got myself a Homerun HD Tuner. Now I schedule and record everything and anything on TV. And the shield quietly records it all whatever I'm doing for later play. Great product. It just works. Still getting quality updates. Amazon Prime streaming? Check. Netflix? Check. Crunchy roll? Of course. HBO Go... YouTube... All there. No BS. P.S. Get this one. You'll love the size. If you need storage, buy a dang 4TB tiny passport for $150 and voila!

King of the Cord Cutter's Living Room

There is a lot to love about the 2017 Nvidia Shield TV console. It's not perfect, but for $199, it's an amazing machine and the perfect front end my media center. Who is the Shield TV for? This device is perfect for cord cutters of all flavors. It's simple enough for non-geeks to plug in and start streaming Netflix, Amazon, Google Play, etc. If that's all you need, though, you might consider saving some money and going with either a Roku or Fire TV, but I will say that I prefer the interface of the Shield TV to either of those options. However, if you're like me, and a big nerd about this stuff, then forget all the other options: the Shield TV is the king. I'll get into some reasons (as well as some frustrations), but there are so many that I'm sure I'll forget some. 1. Ticks all the streaming boxes: Netflix, Amazon, Google, Hulu and everything else you can think of (except Apple, of course): Not only is it the only machine that can say that, but it does it right: 4K all around, and for Google, you get the entire Play Store ecosystem and an official (and slick) YouTube app. Most of these are also integrated to the point where you can do one search to expose content in several services (except Amazon Prime Video, that is still in its own silo). 2. Home media integrations: As someone with a large collection of digital media, this was a big one for me. The Shield TV has so many options for playing local and network files ranging in simplicity from plugging in a USB drive to hosting a Plex Media Center and lots of in-between options. Personally, I am using it as a Plex Media Client with my server still hosted on my PC, but I also use Kodi and have my media library on my PC mapped as a network storage location on the Shield, which then allows for my library to be accessed from Kodi. As long as you can get to the media, you can play it on the Shield TV one way or another. You can also plug in a USB 3.0 drive and use it as adopted storage for your Shield TV, which I recommend if you are going to be installing apps and games much. All of these capabilities work as expected, but I did encounter some error messages along the way. However, after a few tries, everything turned out OK. 3. Gaming: the gaming capabilities of the Shield TV are awesome, but confusing and sometimes unreliable. The simplest option is to install games from Google Play Games. Nvidia has even ported some PC games over to Android specifically for this purpose, but as long as the game works with a controller, you're pretty much good to go for Play Store games. Next, you have GeForce Now, which is like Netflix for games, and it rocks. The selection of games is a little small for now, but I found plenty that I liked. This is a great option for people without dedicated gaming rigs and even on my low-tier internet package, it was serviceable. Finally, there's Gamestream, which is my preferred way to play. In fact, I went and and bought a EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti SC GAMING, 4GB GDDR5, DX12 OSD Support (PXOC) (04G-P4-6253-KR) just so I could do this. When it works, it's amazing, but so far I've found it only works on about half the games I want to play. For Example: Borderlands 2 is a "go", Mass Effect 3 is a "no-go". 4. Hardware: Speaking of gaming, the included controller is amazing (comparable to the XBox 360 controller which is very familiar to me). The remote is pretty good but not quite perfect: they took away the headphone jack, which is too bad. The volume control is a neat idea, but not responsive or obvious enough for me. Also, I wish the thing just had a power button. The integration of the IR blaster is awesome though: I love being able to turn my TV on and off with the device and control the volume of my receiver from the same little remote. They also axed some of the storage options for the non-pro model. I really wish that they had put in an extra USB port or something, especially when you're basically forced into using one of them for adopted storage. I don't have anything in the second port now, but it stresses me out to think I can only plug one more thing in, whatever that eventually is. The hardware is amazing where it counts though: it's super fast and looks great. 5. The Future! As fun and functional as the Shield TV is, there is the additional promise of the big update that incorporates Google Home functionality using the controller as the far-field microphone input. This, along with the Spot microphones which add additional interaction points to Google Home, will add a whole new dimension to the device. I can't wait for that! Some buggy stuff: 1. The initial setup was harder than it should have been. There was a bug that prevented me from authenticating my Google account from my phone, as it tried to have me do. Then it failed to update after downloading the entire 1-gigabyte file, which it had to start over. Hopefully by the time you're reading this they've managed to iron out these details. Nothing kills your enthusiasm like running into bugs in the initial setup process. 2. I purchased the Samsung 128GB BAR (PLASTIC) USB 3.0 Flash Drive (MUF-128BC/AM) to use as adopted storage specifically because it was one of the few that were recommended by Nvidia for this purpose. However, getting it to work was a pain. First appeared to freeze during the process of formatting the drive and then it wouldn't be found or the format would be incorrect, I had to restart several times. Then it reported that the drive might be slow, which doesn't make sense because it's USB 3.0 and specifically recommended as the one you're supposed to use!

Simply the best android box out there.

This is the best android box out there. It's a shame to have to classify this in the grouping of those inferior boxes but it is an android Operating system. It is 64bit though. This has been such a great experience for me (windows fan) I bought another and replaced a dedicated htpc. This works amazing and is only getting better. It has a company that backs it so I am sure it will only get better. I have no complaints at all. It is able to bitstream Atmos through Plex and netflix. The has adequaternary 3.0 USB spots. It has a micro usb connection spot to hook up to a pc for easy navigation as well. I highly recommend this for use for a htpc. I will be sure to update this as the months past if they become defective or unusable in anyway. If this review has helped in anyway please hit the helpful button. Thank you.

Hindsight is better than foresight;

If I could give this more than five stars I would. I have had a Firestick and an H96 Pro Plus before this and I was beginning to think that streaming was not going to be a good way to see movies. They stopped while playing and generally did not work well. The Shield is like driving a Ferrari after driving a Pinto. It is unbelievably fast and works perfectly. Don't waste your money buying the others just because they are cheaper. The Shield is worth every penny.

Its amazing, very fast and 4K looks great on it

It's the best for streaming, I use terrarium tv and love it. No issues at all. I also purchased a second one for my dad.

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