NVIDIA Shield Android TV game console review
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Fox2232
8W, small package, passive cooling. How does that thing feel to touch after prolonged use?
If it gets hot, may we get IR photo?
Price is quite good. I wonder if there are people using it for other than intended purposes.
(And I do not mean Doorstop.)
Spets
GeForce Now is probably the more interesting part of it all, it runs surprisingly well and can see it taking off eventually.
Thanks for the review Hilbert 😀
It's a powerful little device and definitely worth it.
nhlkoho
I've had one of these since release and its an amazing little box. I mostly use mine as a media center with Kodi and Netflix but the Nvidia game streaming capability works great too.
Lowice
I have had one for 4 month now and I'm using it for media center and playing my pc games from my pc in the office to the living-room.
I have it connected to a Marantz SR-7010 and a 3d Projector with 125" screen and I love it.
It can play all my movie formats (.iso - .mkv - .avi etc. etc.) and most .iso formats it can also view the blu-ray menu.
For now Kodi supports DTS-HD - DTS X - Dolby TrueHD - Dolby Atmos and of course all the other lower codec like standart DTS - Dolby digital.
I have no issue with streaming games from my pc in 1080p60fps over LAN.
Only thing I would like to change is that you have to manually go in and switch between 1080p 60Hz - 1080p 50Hz - 1080p 23.976Hz.
So when you want to play you need 1080p 60Hz and for most movies 1080p 23.976Hz.
I still miss the option to see 3D movies but it might come along.
nhlkoho
Maybe this will help.
http://kodi.wiki/view/3D
trentbg
Since Kodi 16 FPS auto switching is fixed to play 23.976Hz, so you dont need to manually switch anything. Leave it on 60 in the main settings and than in Kodi set it to Auto on.
trentbg
The Shield console is the best media box you can get today, I have many other Chinese boxes and a few Amazon Fire ones, even small HTPCs like MSI Cubi and HP Stream Mini, all of them have one or another issues playing high bit-rate sound and high quality sound, with the Shield all that is a thing from the past.
trentbg
The cooling is active, very quiet and efficient one.
schmidtbag
It seems very good for it's price, but I personally wouldn't want one. I'd rather pay extra for a gaming console or PC.
Y'know what I don't get? This device is basically a Jetson TX1 with a nice enclosure, software, and accessories, but it costs a lot less. Sure, you might not be able to tweak it as much as the Jetson board, but if you wanted a small, powerful, and efficient PC, you could just buy one of these Shields and replace the OS on it. I've thrown around the idea of getting a Jetson TX1, but I'd much rather buy this Shield and gut it.
Any chance of seeing the innards of this thing? 🙂
nhlkoho
I agree, the new Fire TV comes close in media capability though. I've gone through a ton of these boxes my self and these two are by far the best. I have the Shield in the living room wired to my LAN and the new FireTV in the bedroom over WiFi and both have no problems playing any HD movies I have.
mR Yellow
But the winner for best bang for buck must be the Fire TV. At $87 it's a steal.
Fox2232
I wondered why one corner is thicker. Yeah, 8W is at edge of passive cooling and poses no challenge for smallest of active. So it may be very quiet.
schmidtbag
Honestly, I think if Nvidia made the housing out of some sort of metal, this could've been made with passive cooling. Keep in mind too - if 8W is the power consumption of the entire device, that would include the power draw of the fan itself, as well as other components unrelated to the processor. I can't imagine the CPU itself being more than 7W in this case. It's hard to know for sure though - the Tegra X1 is marketed as a 10W chip.
armartins
Since it has KODI, it has a good enough GPU, one can hope MadVR support since kodi is adding support in 6.1?
nhlkoho
That all depends on what you want to use it for. If you are strictly using it for a media streamer then yes I would get the FireTV.
schmidtbag
If you want it strictly for a media streamer, there are cheaper options. I guess that depends on what your media expectations are, though. For example, if you watch a lot of 2K+ media and/or use surround sound, that'll lower your chances of finding a good cheap option. But if you're fine with 1080p and stereo, there are plenty of cheaper devices. Though these days, sometimes buying a smart TV is the best choice.
prof72
Looks great but it is unclear if you can stream your own games from your own PC to it or only games from the subscription service.
Could someone confirm please?
mR Yellow
I've got a smart tv...and the CPU is sheit. Standalone is still better and you can load Kodi.
You can stream your own games from desktop.
cyberfredxxx
I confirm : absolutely no problem with autoswitching now 😉
all frequency work like a charm : 23.976,24,25,29.9,30 or 60 !
I suggest to use SPMC instead of kodi (SPMC is based on latest version of kodi) , optimised for nvidia shield 😉
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.semperpax.spmc16&hl=fr
schmidtbag
Some TVs are complete crap. I personally have one based on Roku and it's actually pretty good. Every once in a while it fails to play some of my media, but it otherwise never stutters.
It is based on Android, which supports platforms like VNC or Miracast. So yes, you should be able to stream from your PC.
