- NVIDIA SHIELD NETFLIX 4K ANDROID
- NVIDIA SHIELD NETFLIX 4K PRO
- NVIDIA SHIELD NETFLIX 4K PC
- NVIDIA SHIELD NETFLIX 4K PLUS
- NVIDIA SHIELD NETFLIX 4K TV
NVIDIA SHIELD NETFLIX 4K PC
In addition to on-board services, the Shield also has Chromecast Built-in, allowing you to cast content from your smartphone, tablet or PC to the player.
NVIDIA SHIELD NETFLIX 4K TV
A select few of these (Netflix and Vudu) offer Dolby Vision right out of the box, but one app you won't find here is Apple TV, which has recently released on a number of other platforms including Fire TV and Roku. Speaking of services, most of the main players are all here including Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube, Vudu, HBO, Twitch, Hulu, Sling TV, Crackle, EPIX and many, many more.
NVIDIA SHIELD NETFLIX 4K ANDROID
Go through the quick and painless setup process and you’ll be greeted by the latest version of Android TV, Google’s smart TV platform that uses rows and blocks to show you content.Ĭompared to Roku’s barebones interface and Amazon Fire TV’s Amazon-heavy UI, Android TV tries to show you a buffet of content from different sources: the top row is your most regularly-used apps, with several rows underneath that follow content recommendation snippets for each of the main services. (Image credit: Google) Features and Android TV It’s not a deal-breaker, but it does mean that you’ll have to periodically replace the remote when it runs out of juice. The only problem with the remote? It uses two AAA disposable batteries rather than a rechargeable Lithium Ion battery. Like last year’s pack-in remote, the new Shield remote has a built-in microphone that you can use to ask Google Assistant for assistance, and a neat surprise in the form of HDMI CEC support to control your TV’s volume through the volume buttons on the remote.
NVIDIA SHIELD NETFLIX 4K PLUS
On it you’ll find all the basic playback control functions plus the two Android TV buttons (Home and Back) as well as a dedicated Netflix button. As you’d expect, the remote itself is plastic but it has a good feel in the hand. The last piece of the design worth covering is the new triangular (pyramidical?) remote that has backlit buttons and a built-in remote finder feature.
NVIDIA SHIELD NETFLIX 4K PRO
Stepping up to the Shield Pro gets you an extra 1GB of RAM and 8GB more storage, plus two USB ports and support for a PLEX media server, Samsung SmartThings and Twitch broadcasting from the console.Īs you can imagine, a decent processor like the Tegra X1+ makes the Nvidia Shield a top-of-the-lin streaming player - and a fairly competitive micro-console as well - but we’ll cover that in more detail below. Inside the device you’ll find the newly upgraded Tegra X1+ processor, which is vital to the AI upscaling process that we mentioned earlier, plus 2GB of RAM and 8GB of storage. The new Nvidia Shield (on left) next to the new Nvidia Shield Pro (on right) that looks almost identical to the 2017 model. (We were able to get 4K streaming over Wi-Fi, but the ethernet port is a great solution for folks with a less reliable network.) Why does it have ethernet? Although the box is compatible with 802.11ac Wi-Fi your best bet for consistent 4K video streaming or GeForce Now gaming is going to be running an ethernet cable directly from your router into the box. These connectors are all tucked inside a cutaway cove in the player itself, which helps protect the ends from damage in case something falls behind your media center. The reason for this, according to Nvidia, is to allow you to tuck it into the back of your entertainment center - away from your TV - which they say cause signal interference.Īdmittedly, we didn’t notice a massive difference in wireless performance from the Nvidia Shield and a more traditional player like the Amazon Fire TV Cube that sits right next to the TV, but the cylindrical design is aesthetically unique if nothing else.Īlso unique is that the inputs and outputs of the player are located at each end - on one side is the power and ethernet connectors, while on the other you’ll find HDMI-out and reset button. While the Nvidia Shields of years past looked like a proper micro console, the 2019 iteration of the Shield looks more like a sideways Amazon Echo than it does a streaming video player.