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Nvidia's 10-year effort to make the Shield TV the most updated Android device

arstechnica.com

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Re: Nvidia's 10-year effort to make the Shield TV the most updated Android device

#71

Post by aaravchen »

add-sub-mul-div wrote: post #59
zdw wrote: post #15

Shield TV + extra storage + HDHomeRun tuner is still a great device for getting OTA TV. The only downside is that more recent versions use the Google Android TV launcher which is filled with a garbage truck full of ads, often for things I would never want to watch (horror movies? Nope!). Yes you can replace the launcher, but that's a pain. Would love to pay more for a device that has updated codec support, no ads or…

I wanted to do this and got a Shield last year but returned it because of a live TV bug with the Android Plex client. The programming guide stopped working and could only be fixed by restarting the app, but on Android quitting to the home screen keeps the app running and you can't force quit without going into menus. Sadly that's the OS and changing a launcher didn't fix it.

Actually you can double tap the home button on your remote to see all apps currently running, and can then click the close button on any one of them.

Google TV apps leak memory like a sieve, so it's pretty common to need to manually close all other apps to make the one you're trying to use work. Even !y wife just dies of now as soon as any one of the apps starts acting up.

Re: Nvidia's 10-year effort to make the Shield TV the most updated Android device

#72

Post by iJohnDoe »

Hamuko wrote: post #52
akersten wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lack of hardware support for a few modern codecs is a pretty big complaint from me, but nothing else out there is decent :/

The Apple TV's pretty good. I imagine I'd have a hard time switching to a Shield TV unless it gets a CPU bump, whereas Apple still keeps making newer models with modern-ish phone SoCs.

What makes the Apple TV desirable? It’s $185. Why would I choose it over a Roku $30 or Ultra $80?

Re: Nvidia's 10-year effort to make the Shield TV the most updated Android device

#73

Post by aaravchen »

zdw wrote: post #24
nickthegreek wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

replacing launcher is gonna take you 10-15mins. 30 max if you aren’t a complete fool.

Oh, I've seen instructions, most of them start with "enable dev mode, then use adb to run ton of inscrutable commands that may or may not break the system over time". Overall, it seems like a recipe to end up in an unknown state where you can no longer easily get updates and the only recovery is to wipe the system. I've seen similar methods to "Clean up Windows 11", and it always seems like you're just putting the de…

It does seem sketchy, but you can kind of guess what it's cleaning based on the name in the uninstall command. I just skim down to the section that says it's for removing the launcher and reqd those, then run only a few. The upside of the launcher thing is that you can setup a new default launcher and use it for a while without doing any adb. That let's you verify it's working for you first. And when you do finally remove the Google one, a lit if the ad and nloatware stuff no longer runs in the background even if you haven't removed it, so it's abh8ge perf0rmance benefit.

Re: Nvidia's 10-year effort to make the Shield TV the most updated Android device

#74

Post by zimpenfish »

aaravchen wrote: post #68
Hamuko wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Apple TV's pretty good. I imagine I'd have a hard time switching to a Shield TV unless it gets a CPU bump, whereas Apple still keeps making newer models with modern-ish phone SoCs.

I've looked at this a few times, and AppleTV actually has pretty poor support unless you're only using a select few streaming services and not streaming any of your own content. Shield performs exponentially better in every way except for the god awful stock interface (and Google data collection vs Apple data collection). The hardware and tvOS still have extremely limited support for most video codecs, no support at…

> a 4K TV that supports HDR10+ or Dolby Vision, AppleTV

You can play HDR10+ 4K on Apple TV using Infuse[0] (and whatever DLNA server you want to stand up with your content.)

[0] Since 2017, apparently.

Re: Nvidia's 10-year effort to make the Shield TV the most updated Android device

#75

Post by aaravchen »

protimewaster wrote: post #50
sergiotapia wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought about this but what would it have that is missing? Hardware decoding for newer codec like AV1 is one thing, but what else? I have two of these one in my living room and one in my bedroom. They are the best devices for playing pirate Emby servers 4k Remuxes with dolby vision and dolby audio support direct play. A refresh comes out I'm not sure I would buy one.

They're missing support for newer codecs and current WiFi standards, can't decode Dolby Vision FEL, and, unless something had changed recently, they don't keep up on security updates (even if they are pushing out other updates). I suspect the last point would be true even if they launched new hardware, though.

Also the current hardware has lots of overheating problems that hugely affect performance (you have to re-paste the heat sink to the CPU after only 2 years), and thier Bluetooth antenna is so awful it makes Bluetooth controllers for gaming completely unusable due to lag from lost/dropped packets (and the remote constantly disconnect and reconnect randomly).

Re: Nvidia's 10-year effort to make the Shield TV the most updated Android device

#76

Post by drnick1 »

aaravchen wrote: post #64
drnick1 wrote: post #62

It's nice that you can unlock the bootloader on these and flash Lineage if you want to limit snooping by Google. That being said, I think that you get more flexibility and performance with a mini PC and and air mouse. For one, stock (Googled) Android does not give you an easy way to use a browser with an ad-blocker, which is still the best way to stream from many sources without ads. Also all these anemic Android box…

You unfortunately lose Widevine support when you do this though (either switching to LineageOS or a mini-PC). That means you can't stream any of the mainstream services in anything like a half-decent quality. It's very unfortunate that every streaming service has given up on supporting anything except Google-fied Android and Apple iOS/tvOS. I dont like the services to begin with, but a fully Jellyfin stack can only g…

> That means you can't stream any of the mainstream services in anything like a half-decent quality.

Maybe, but I don't think it's a big loss, and the *arr suite works just fine as a substitute.

Re: Nvidia's 10-year effort to make the Shield TV the most updated Android device

#77

Post by Hamuko »

aaravchen wrote: post #68
Hamuko wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Apple TV's pretty good. I imagine I'd have a hard time switching to a Shield TV unless it gets a CPU bump, whereas Apple still keeps making newer models with modern-ish phone SoCs.

I've looked at this a few times, and AppleTV actually has pretty poor support unless you're only using a select few streaming services and not streaming any of your own content. Shield performs exponentially better in every way except for the god awful stock interface (and Google data collection vs Apple data collection). The hardware and tvOS still have extremely limited support for most video codecs, no support at…

I stream all of my own content with an Apple TV and Plex just fine. I don't know what problems you've had there. It even handles exotic stuff like Hi10P h.264.

Re: Nvidia's 10-year effort to make the Shield TV the most updated Android device

#78

Post by Hamuko »

iJohnDoe wrote: post #72
Hamuko wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Apple TV's pretty good. I imagine I'd have a hard time switching to a Shield TV unless it gets a CPU bump, whereas Apple still keeps making newer models with modern-ish phone SoCs.

What makes the Apple TV desirable? It’s $185. Why would I choose it over a Roku $30 or Ultra $80?

It's a lot faster.

Re: Nvidia's 10-year effort to make the Shield TV the most updated Android device

#79

Post by ianburrell »

cf100clunk wrote: post #29

The Shield TV's cylindrical form factor could use a rethink. It is hard to find a good spot for it on a shelf when cords are connected at both ends (HDMI and MMC slot at one end, power and LAN at the other) and the ports are too close for all cords to use right-angle-heads. Leaving it invisible by placing it on the floor or behind other gear sometimes impedes Bluetooth signal, so there it sits, well apart from the AV…

That is the new Shield TV design from 2019. The original Shield TV and the Pro were flat design. Strange that they changed it when old design worked well.

Re: Nvidia's 10-year effort to make the Shield TV the most updated Android device

#80

Post by joney_baloney »

aaravchen wrote: post #68
Hamuko wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Apple TV's pretty good. I imagine I'd have a hard time switching to a Shield TV unless it gets a CPU bump, whereas Apple still keeps making newer models with modern-ish phone SoCs.

I've looked at this a few times, and AppleTV actually has pretty poor support unless you're only using a select few streaming services and not streaming any of your own content. Shield performs exponentially better in every way except for the god awful stock interface (and Google data collection vs Apple data collection). The hardware and tvOS still have extremely limited support for most video codecs, no support at…

FWIW, I have no trouble playing any of my alternatively sourced media, 4K Dolby Vision included, using an app called Infuse. Pass-through audio may indeed be an issue for some lossless surround formats, or at least that's what it sounded like the last I looked into it some years ago. I don't have the right room to set up surrounds so it's stereo only over here anyway. But that said I love the app, lovely interface, etc.
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