Is this a paid PR piece? Because many other devices by Nvidia like the Jetson boards never get any long term updates.
Nvidia's 10-year effort to make the Shield TV the most updated Android device
141–150 of 218 posts
Re: Nvidia's 10-year effort to make the Shield TV the most updated Android device
#142Everyone is missing the why here, this only happens because the whole stack is vertically integrated. Even if say LG wanted to make a box like this and update it for 10 years they couldn’t, they don’t make the chips. Qualcomm straight up refuses to support chips through this many Android releases. Even if device manufacturers want to support devices forever it won’t matter if the actual SoC platform drops support.
While the vertical integration is definitely the best way to get it done, it's not strictly required as long as there is good enough documentation for a platform. Linux originally supported Intel without any Intel engineers even knowing it existed. Also consider Apple's chips, which have gotten Linux support without Apple ever submitting a single line of code. While Qualcomm's behaviour is definitely a massive bummer…
Not only that, "vertical integration" is a red herring. If you had a "vertically integrated" device made entirely by Qualcomm and they stopped supporting it after 3 years then the vertical integration buys you nothing. The actual problem is that Qualcomm sucks.
Re: Nvidia's 10-year effort to make the Shield TV the most updated Android device
#143Everyone is missing the why here, this only happens because the whole stack is vertically integrated. Even if say LG wanted to make a box like this and update it for 10 years they couldn’t, they don’t make the chips. Qualcomm straight up refuses to support chips through this many Android releases. Even if device manufacturers want to support devices forever it won’t matter if the actual SoC platform drops support.
> Qualcomm straight up refuses to support chips through this many Android releases.
That's not entirely accurate. They do provide chips with extended support, such as the QCM6490 in the Fairphone 5. These are not popular because most of the market demands high performance, and companies profit from churning out products every year, but solutions exist for consumers who value stability and reliability over chasing trends and specs.
Re: Nvidia's 10-year effort to make the Shield TV the most updated Android device
#144> Nvidia released the first Shield Android TV in 2015 > it took about 18 months to [create] an entirely new security stack [...] Android updates aren’t actually that much work compared to DRM security, and some of its partners weren’t that keen on re-certifying older products. > In February 2025, Nvidia released Shield Patch 9.2 [...] That was the Tegra X1 [security] bug finally being laid to rest on the 2015 and 201…
They added auto-playing, full screen video ads to the home screen. I threw mine in the garbage. Pride and love, lol…
I did end up switching to Flauncher for a while before getting an Apple TV.
Re: Nvidia's 10-year effort to make the Shield TV the most updated Android device
#145> Nvidia released the first Shield Android TV in 2015 > it took about 18 months to [create] an entirely new security stack [...] Android updates aren’t actually that much work compared to DRM security, and some of its partners weren’t that keen on re-certifying older products. > In February 2025, Nvidia released Shield Patch 9.2 [...] That was the Tegra X1 [security] bug finally being laid to rest on the 2015 and 201…
They added auto-playing, full screen video ads to the home screen. I threw mine in the garbage. Pride and love, lol…
Full screen video ads on the home screen ? I don’t see this on mine.
Re: Nvidia's 10-year effort to make the Shield TV the most updated Android device
#146No thanks. Downgraded to 8.2.3 years ago and going strong with a custom launcher. Has absolutely everything I need and nothing that I don’t. This was the guide back then, possibly still works. [0] [0] https://florisse.nl/shield-downgrade/
I just removed updates from whichever app it is that handles the launcher, all ads gone, still get to be on latest OS version :)
Re: Nvidia's 10-year effort to make the Shield TV the most updated Android device
#147Re: Nvidia's 10-year effort to make the Shield TV the most updated Android device
#148Everyone is missing the why here, this only happens because the whole stack is vertically integrated. Even if say LG wanted to make a box like this and update it for 10 years they couldn’t, they don’t make the chips. Qualcomm straight up refuses to support chips through this many Android releases. Even if device manufacturers want to support devices forever it won’t matter if the actual SoC platform drops support.
While the vertical integration is definitely the best way to get it done, it's not strictly required as long as there is good enough documentation for a platform. Linux originally supported Intel without any Intel engineers even knowing it existed. Also consider Apple's chips, which have gotten Linux support without Apple ever submitting a single line of code. While Qualcomm's behaviour is definitely a massive bummer…
> Linux originally supported Intel without any Intel engineers even knowing it existed.
It should be noted that Intel makes CPUs, while Qualcomm makes SoCs, which include much more than just a CPU. Usually supporting the CPU is the easiest part, the rest is the issue.
That said, when device OEMs release the kernel sources, modders are able to update custom roms for a long time, so I doubt this is just a Qualcomm issue.
Re: Nvidia's 10-year effort to make the Shield TV the most updated Android device
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
They added auto-playing, full screen video ads to the home screen. I threw mine in the garbage. Pride and love, lol…
> They added auto-playing, full screen video ads to the home screen. I'm pretty sure this is actually Google's fault (even Sony televisions suffer from this bullcrap). Unlike phone Android, Google TV (yes, that's the official name now) enforces certain "standards", one of them is this bullcrap.
My Sony TV doesn't do this, thankfully
Re: Nvidia's 10-year effort to make the Shield TV the most updated Android device
#150Earlier 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?
The Rokus are garbage for two main reasons IMO.
1) They close or lock down hidden features that people find to make it better, it's not user friendly.
2) ADs, they should give them away with how much advertising they bundle with it.