We've used several other HDMI streaming devices for our TV. They were all "underpowered" and gave a poor viewing experience with more frustration than there should have been.* We've been using the nVidia Shield for several months now, and it's GREAT! Very stable and snappy performance (as you'd expect from a company that specializes in video). All the streaming platform apps we've tried so far (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney+, etc.) have worked flawlessly, hardly ever a pause or freeze. The Shield is obviously more expensive than the cheaper alternatives, but it is well worth it to get a great viewing experience. I'd recommend it to anyone. * While they mostly worked, there were lots of delays when you first sit down to watch, while they slowly load all the preview images etc. Noticeable delays after button presses before the action happened. If an app crashed or hung it could take a long time to get back to your show. The whole experience just felt very clunky.

First, write this down and save it for when you need it, how to reset the remote when it locks up and new batteries don't help: "Remove one of the batteries, press the home+dpad center button & slide in the battery. Continue to hold the buttons down till you hear a audible beep." That happens about 6-9 months apart and knowing how to fix it makes this a flawless system. Can't say that about upgrading my win 10 box to win 11 but the Android TV box that Shield TV is works well. I have it on wired Ethernet because the house has that. As does Marantz receiver, Samsung QLED TV, BluRay player (UHD streaming is not as good as disks, I'm on fast fiber, Amazon prime custom content and new Paramount+ Star Trek stuff being exceptions). They all work together and I have an Amazon 4k fire stick that does well but can't Chromecast. I cast things that aren't available in streaming form, a typical example is MLB have highlights, available on phone app. Clunky if you try them via browser (exception is watching on the computer directly). Generally I stream a lot including a lot of ad free YouTube. News, science and IT training videos (how to software stuff). The shield works well, up scales okay but the fact is that this is not the same as real 4k content, which the Shield does flawlessly. The remote is easy to use, unlike the horrible QLED remote. If only Harmony would recognize the Shield. I may shelve my 4k Fire stick, but I have the additional box to DVR broadcast stuff, which the Shield doesn't do. I don't use that anymore, once in 2 months, so I'm debating just removing the Fire stick. The shield just works but doesn't have enough apps. What it needs is a music player that works with my Asustor NAS box. I can use Plex on NAS to stream a few hundred DVD disks I own and ripped, but music doesn't work. Select a folder and it often just jumps to the root. I can cast (there are several phone apps on my Pixel that do that well) but a phone screen is small when I have folders of folders, couple of thousand CDs of music, over half is classical. Easy from PC, moderate from phone but it doesn't work well in cast mode. Often I really to drill down to a folder - far quicker than artist or album (by probably a factor of 50-100) and then selectively play favorites. Nobody does that well in cast mode. Local mode to headphones is fine but not casting. I'm not interested in connecting a large multi TB drive to the shield as FAT32 winter cut it, NTFS will be necessary (I don't use Linux except wsfl so EXT4 is out). Mostly I use YouTube, Plex (client mode), Paramount+ and may migrate from Fire Stick: Amazon Prime & Amazon Music. I dumped Hulu (on an old Roku) years ago, and Netflix because I didn't find much content worth while. Paramount+ is close to that now, likely after the next season of Brave New Worlds. If Netflix hadn't turned Formula One into a racing version of real housewives I might still subscribe. The apps, though, work well and it was easy to use any that I wanted except music on Plex (movies and documentaries are fine). I'd highly recommend the Shield TV. I saw an interesting YouTube video on Android TV boxes, the video was about security, specifically if they have a modified version of Android that allowed spying on your home network traffic. The answer was, and the person tested dozens of boxes, YES they do support spy with 2 exceptions. Shield was one, and it runs native straight Android and was clearly declared to be the one that should be considered trustworthy in this regard. The others had source code that was modified and some didn't even try to hide it, the findings were enough to lose sleep over. Search YouTube for this:"Android tv box security" and one by Lon TV about "Is Your Android TV Legit?" is the one to start with but NordVPN "Pre Installed Malware on Android TV Box" is the other. Watch before you buy (these were made earlier in 2023) if you are thinking of a $40 Android TV box. So get a cold one or as I'm writing in December, since hot chocolate, sit back in your recliner and enjoy some excellent content available these days. Side note is that it was easy to get Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, combo from Microsoft, to work with the shield TV. The problem is more about how it isn't easy to use them sitting in a recliner. But they do work. Just so you know.

I've had all the diff kinds of fire sticks, Google boxes, even the tube shield. This is by far the best of all of them. Even on wifi, it is 100x better than the FS's, on broadband, it's 1000x better than all of them combined. No memory issues, I have a 128gb flash drive, plenty of memory for me. No lag or buffering like the others, smooth, quick and very responsive. I'm waiting on a game controller to try the ge force out. Will edit after I get that going and figured out. Overall, easiest decision I've made. I've wasted enough money so I got the best. Not cheap but it's worth every penny. Set up was a breeze also, everything I've installed on it works perfect. I have zero complaints about this. Very happy with the purchase! Also love how it ties into my Alexa and doorbell, making life a lot easier, being handicapped it's a lot easier to see who is here on the tv. Love it!!!

buen producto supero mis expectativas

The nvidia shield by far has to be the most strongest android box I've ever come across. I bought the android box when my mom moved into her house in 2020 because she wanted to watch tv but she didn't want to pay for cable. So I told her that we can watch all the streaming services on the android box. She was hesitant at first knowing that we've tried android boxes in the past and they were slow clunky and couldn't keep up with anything at all. I told mom that I worked with nvidia before and I use them for my graphic card and that they're Services are decent. I said if they can make graphic cards they'll do good making an android box. So we opted to pay the price which I can say is expensive at $250. (one of the downfalls) it's easily double if not triple the price of a standard android box. The operating system on the box is a bit older it's only Android 11 and as far as we've known it hasn't had a operating system update since. Which I know what you're thinking yeah it's out of date which it is but does that affect the performance, speed quality anything like that no it keeps up for itself. The only thing I'm ever worried about is I know the older the system the more at risk it is for security but if you're not downloading a lot of sketchy apps and you stick to just the google play store you should be fine. It does get the occasional update here and there but just not an operating system update. Picture quality is crisp and clean, the sound quality is crystal clear, running the system is got to be really easy way easier than some of the other menus out there. Since this is running the standard android operating menu and not some sort of wonky off brand one it's easier to get through. What I really like about this system is that it's more than just your standard android box that can play videos and show you some pictures through a usb stick, this system can do much more than. It's got the ability to play games right off the system itself which is unheard of from any type of android box I've ever seen and I think that's due to the capabilities of it being run by nvidia. Mom's been using the android box now for 4 years and we have not had any major issues whatsoever other than every once in awhile the Box will freeze up on her but it's so rare that it only really happens when the house loses power for a few seconds and even when the house loses power for a few seconds it doesn't always freeze the box up either, but it's not a big deal just unplug the cord and plug it back in. Let's talk about the negatives. One of the biggest grapes I have with this system is not so much the system itself but the remote. It's such a weird shape it's not a flat remote like standard it's a triangle-shaped remote. It's Unique in its own way it lights up every time you pick it up instead of the standard remote where you have to press the button to see the lights come on that's the only good thing with this remote. The bad part about the remote there's a few things I really don't like. One is it has a giant netflix button on it which saves you time having to go through the menu to click on netflix (which isn't hard to do anyways) but I find it's a pain in the arse and it's inconvenient cuz it's on the bottom of the remote and the second you go to pick up the remote to go change the volume etc if you got large hands you're pushing that netflix button when you don't want it on and it's a very sensitive button too. I would say a good chunk of the time I'm hitting the button by mistake. Another problem I find really irritating with the remote is if you are using the nvidia remote to control the volume it doesn't have a dedicated mute button. So if you get a phone call or somebody's talking to you when you're watching a show and you go to mute it the only thing you can do is press both the volume up and down button at the same time to mute the tv. They need to do a redesign to the remote to add a mute button and to not have any shortcuts for the streaming services. The last and only thing left about the remote I don't care for is when it's time to change the batteries out. The battery cover on the back of the remote is tricky to get off. There's a little triangle button on the back but it doesn't really protrude out you kind of have to dig your fingernail in and then slide the cover down it it's a little bit harder than what it should be.(Its a learning curve) Other than that the remote does its job like any other. So overall it was well worth the money at the end. Yes its expensive especially in these day and age but mom's got every penny worth out of it. The features alone make up for it. To have a android box do what it does especially this one, yeah I would say highly anyone that's looking to get an android box in the future or needs a replacement get one. If you can afford it and get it on sale buy it especially if it's on sale don't hesitate. Sure there is some negative points but it's mainly in the remote and that just could be me. I like the box so much that I'm going to be buying some of them for my own place to use around the house. 10 out of 10

Stunningly best

We all know this is old now, but it's still pretty quick. Android TV imo needs a new front end, if for nothing else but to get rid of the adverts. Luckily the Shield is more than happy to accept one. Instantly better. What is odd is that the Shield won't play android games from the store, admittedly this could be cheap SSD I added as extra internal storage, so I am going to test that with a better one when it turns up. Edit: yup, certainly was the cheap ssd hard drive, I got a Samsung SSD and it. Is. Glorious. Talking of which, extra expenses: 1. You will need an SSD to expand the memory, 16gb including space for the OS is frankly a joke. 2. A decent hdmi lead. 3. The possibility of needing a high speed hdmi splitter if your TV wasn't made yesterday. My TV has four 4k hdmi ports but only two super high speed, one of which is arc. That's fine, but the arc is taken up by my fancy soundbar and the other super high speed port is taken up by my Xbox. This means the shield can currently only go into a normal 4k port and that means no Dolby Vision or HDR10 etc. And really this box needs those settings as it's just a bit lack lustre without them. 4. You might also need to consider buying a powered USB 3(+) hub. There isn't a massive amount of power to spare in the Shield and obvs running the usb takes up some of it. So to avoid digital drudgery, extra power might help. CEC is tricky to set up as it appears to conflict slightly with the rather nice IR settings you can tweak. I'm not yet savvy enough with the system to figure all this out yet, but I have hopefully stopped it randomly shutting down the Shield and my TV which was just annoying. My intention is to run this as a retro gaming/TV box. It's not the easiest thing to set up, but after a few days of nerdling around I think it has potential... it's just slightly out of my grasp so far. Edit: mostly got everything sorted for emulation. It's fiddly and it's a fine line between shaders and a CTD! Oh and the remote is very cool, if a little bit sensitive. Edit: all other controllers now feel old fashioned!

It’s perfect