[fredphoesh]

Hello all,
After two days with an Nvidia Shield Android TV , there are many pluses and minuses, but over all, it has BY FAR the best hardware of any android based box on the market... no question at all about that, but there are some pluses and minuses. Here are the ones that affected me and my needs using the box:

PLUSES
- amazing smoothness in interface - no jerky, delays etc at all
- superb playback of all media, smoother than any box I have seen
- 192khz 24 bit audio output (kodi and mxplayer but I am not sure if they are able to output at that HD rate)
- very well built, sexy touch activated standby button
- very easy to get up and running with controller etc
- shield game streaming service is flawless, fast, smooth, HD
- gaming controller is high quality, has a microphone for voice input and a headphone socket, which work well.
- Voice search within Play Music for artist or track works very well, extremely fast.
- playing Flash-based websites like TennisTV.com etc on Dolphin in Desktop mode is way better than any other box I have tried (and I have tried MANY) It seems to play back as well as my desktop PC.


MINUSES
- have to sideload many apps you may want, like TED, BBC iPlayer, IMDB, Spotify, Movie Mate etc.. even Chrome Browser - but relatively easy to work around using APK Extractor to get APK's from your phone, and Chainfire's sideload launcher.
- no up front display of non-Android TV specific apps
- no recent apps
- no way to get to "now playing" with some apps like Spotify if you had returned home, unless its a leanback app
- no notifications
- no mouse on desktop, backpace key on keyboard not working as backspace but as left mouse click
- Keyboard is USA only, so UK users have to know, for example, that " and @ have swopped places
- voice search from the home screen does not find music artists on google play music or spotify, but only youtube... so "play van morrison" will play a track from youtube, and not from the 25 van morrison albums I have already uploaded to Play Music.
- my tv keeps on cropping a lot off the screen, there is no way to adjust the screen crop size, to reduce size so it fits better on my screen... I can adjust my screen but that is a hassle.
- very little customisation, settings limited too.

There is at least one NON-Android TV ROM for this device, so you can fix almost all of those Minuses, and you can run it using Squarehome or NovaLauncher or whatever you like, but I am not sure I actually NEED to customise the box. Personally I use it for Kodi, Spotify, Play Music, TuneIn Radio, Youtube, Movie Mate, all of which works fine... so for the moment, I am not rooting the box, and am adjusting my expectations and enjoying what works fantastically well, pretty much everything.

This is FAR and away the best box I have ever had, goodbye Tronsmart Drako, Minix Neo X8H+ etc, this is WAY beyond. At some point I may change to plain android, but so far I am fine with a couple of extra steps to be able to enjoy the voice input and superb power and playback capabilities.

Mark.

[Martijn]

95% of you MINUS are Android TV specific and in no way connected to the SHIELD device itself.

[Tinwarble]

Also, one of Nvidia Customer Care reps has stated that the next update will be a "big one".

Yeah unfortunately I can (should probably be can't) list the features or fixes coming in the next OTA update but it will be a big update. Stay tuned.
https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic...1/#4599401

They have already stated too that the SATV will be getting an Android "M" update, which will be final in Q3 of this year (probably Aug. or Sept.).

[wrxtasy]

Cheers for the review

Some questions: just a short yes or no if possible
23.976 video playback ?
Broadcast TV Deinterlacing Quality ?
HD Audio Output ?
HD Netflix / Hulu etc ?
4K HEVC ?
And finally why would a user buy this over say a Chromebox for Kodi Media player use ?

[Tinwarble]

Cheers for the review

Some questions: just a short yes or no if possible
23.976 video playback ?
Broadcast TV Deinterlacing Quality ?
HD Audio Output ?
HD Netflix / Hulu etc ?
4K HEVC ?
And finally why would a user buy this over say a Chromebox for Kodi Media player use ?

I can answer most of that.

23.976 video playback ? No, limited to 24fps, but it may be coming
Broadcast TV Deinterlacing Quality ? Don't know, but from others using HDHomerun seems to be fine.
HD Audio Output ? No, but they've stated that their going to add it and if they do get a license that also means hardware decoding.
HD Netflix / Hulu etc ? Yes to both and Netflix up to 4K
4K HEVC ? Yes
And finally why would a user buy this over say a Chromebox for Kodi Media player use ? Because they want both a good Kodi experience and Android apps on the same device.

Is it perfect? No not yet, but it is a very good device and if they add the requested features then it will be hard for anyone to dismiss it over getting something like a Chromebox. Also, yes, it's not good to get a device on what "future feature" might get added, but I feel that just from what has been stated by Nvidia and some of what has been said those on Team Kodi who have had discussions with Nvidia that they are vested in making this a good media player.

Get one or don't get one, personally though, have the SATV and a Chromebox. The Chromebox hasn't even been powered up in a month. And before the SATV I was switching between the CB for Kodi and a AFTV for everything else.

[fredphoesh]

95% of you MINUS are Android TV specific and in no way connected to the SHIELD device itself.

And your point is?

[fredphoesh]

MANY of the issues I had have been sorted by using HALauncher, which is very similar to leanback launcher except it shows ALL your apps, and it is fully customisable, you can create your own rows/categories, and it works very well, and is free... so anyone with SATV, or any Android TV box, this is the best alternative I have seen, way more powerful than Chainfire's solution.

[Martijn]

95% of you MINUS are Android TV specific and in no way connected to the SHIELD device itself.

And your point is?

My point is you can take any android TV box and have the same issues.

[Ned Scott]

Sure, but as long as the Shield TV only runs Android TV, then it might as well be listed as a minus for both :)

[digimancer]

100% disapointed in the Shield TV because of the rebranded AndroidTV "OS" (previously hated as Google TV)...
If the side of the box had stated "Google TV" I would not have dropped $200 on this POS, but instead I saw a bright shiny "Android" not knowing that it was a trap!!!

All of the main problems with this device stem from the OS. Android TV is TERRIBLE just like Google TV was! In fact this is even WORSE, as it does not even come with a web browser!!! Imagine my surprise when I finally got the thing booted and updated (an almost 800meg firmware) and find that the Google Android TV OS can't even go to Google.com!!! Any useful apps you may want to use need to be "side loaded" because of the app store (Google TV limited)

However... Since this is a Kodi forum, I will keep it relevant and state that this thing runs Kodi like a CHAMP! I'd say it runs Kodi at least twice as well as the $35 MXq (1gig ram 4core 1.7ghz) I got off Amazon, and at least 1/5th as well as my PC.

PS: The controller is laaaaame, and you gotta buy a remote for it wft Nvidia.

[Hannes The Hun]

go away. please.

[Tinwarble]

100% disapointed in the Shield TV because of the rebranded AndroidTV "OS" (previously hated as Google TV)...

Wrong! Apparently you don't know what Google TV was or what Android TV is. Unlike Google TV, Android TV is just "Android" with a different launcher and the fact that apps have to be compatible with the "10' experience" to be available to be installed from the Play Store.

[Ned Scott]

While Android TV is lacking in a few places, it's still head and shoulders above any other TV platform. Anyone who makes an Android bowser is free to add basic Android TV support. There's one in the Android TV Google Play store (the UI is lacking, but it works fine). I don't blame Google for not spending time on browsers, because I've never seen an enjoyable TV browser experience. Instead, Google focuses on what is more common; specific TV apps and sometimes "casting" stuff from phones, tablets, and laptops. It's far more common that you will browse from one of those and then just want to beam occasional video to the TV.

I'm still waiting for a remote friendly version of Skype for Android TV, but I'm not going to blame Google for that.

It's not perfect, but it's the best we've got so far.

[StandTro]

digimancer, I think you are a Apple fan boy or girl.

[Ned Scott]

digimancer, I think you are a Apple fan boy or girl.

Did you really register an account just to make that lame ass insult?