Installation and the main menu

Installation 

Connecting the Shield Android TV is a piece of cake. Simply connect the HDMI cable to your TV and it'll auto-detect HDMI compatibility and accompanying resolution of your screen. We have hooked up the unit to my tiny petite Samsung 65HU8500 4K Ultra HD television (hey only guys know why). Once the box is powered up you'll be guided through some basic installation steps + you'll need to hook the unit into a Google Gmail account, much like your smart-phone (hey this is an Android install remember).
  

 
At the end of our configuration the unit detected a firmware OTA update, which we applied. Android 7.0 (Nougat) being the latest build. Yes, you can see it already next to the placeholder, we indeed have an active HDMI 2.0 connection at 2160p60 (whew - Samsung did not screw me over when they claimed full HDMI 2.0 support).
 

 
How do you know if HDMI 2.0 works? Well, press the info button and if it says 60p or 60Hz at 4K then it is, if it says 30p... it's not. You'll now be welcomed by an introduction screen and before you say hoopsiedayseeh your remote and controllers will want to update to new firmware as well. Yes, another ten minutes lost. After all updates and upgrades we're now good to go. The introduction screen shows your standards and most recent activities (can be a game, a movie, some music, Youtube videos, recent other activities with apps). In the settings please check if your resolution is setup properly like shown above.
 

This will be the stage where you'll put aside your Nvidia Shield Game Controller as it is bulky and not handy to operate an Android menu with, it's good that Nvidia delivers the remote for free as it is the bomb to navigate the GUI with. Above your welcome screen.
 

The upper and previous photos pretty much show the main menu and options. You can hit the Google Play (shop) to download your compatible apps. Stuff like Google Play, Plex, Youtube and Netflix are already installed. Google is all over the place though, up-to the point that it gets a little irritating. If you search an audio-book or movie, rest assured that you'll be forwarded to something Google so you can purchase it (perhaps they should rename it to Google Pay). All the way below you can find the preferences, likely you do not need to alter any settings as the Shield Android TV is set up pretty darn well straight from the box. But if you need to add a new device or configure a new WIFI setting, this is where you'll need to be.

Obviously if you have a modern HDTV bought in the last year or two, (and preferably an ultra HD TV if you bought a 55-inch screen or larger) you'll already have some of these smart app features. The Nextflix app of course is all too familiar. It works really well in Ultra HD and offers pretty good playback quality with Ultra HD series, it offers HDR content too.
  

 
Very handy is the Youtube application and yes I pick my screenshots well - buns baby :) Just browse through the menus to watch the most popular broadcasts and videos.
  

 
Also here's where the remote comes in handy, remember the voice recognition I talked about? Just press search and speak, "guru3d" for example immediately loads up the Guru3D YouTube channel and some videos.