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

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

#31

Post by alt227 » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 4:39 PM UTC

tverbeure wrote: post #22

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. And it's ironic that they can do this ten years ago but can't be bothered to make a new one today. I guess the old one still works well enough and people buy it though which the article states. Feels like a reverse Bell Labs approach. They find their cash cow and only invest in their cash cow rather than research new product areas and fields.

> rather than research new product areas and field Google “Gsync Pulsar”.

This is just being released now, which probably means its been in the R&D pipeline for the last few years. I would wager this is last gamer feature tech that Nvidia develops for quiter a while.

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

#32

Post by dilfred » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 4:46 PM UTC

junon wrote: post #20

My shield bricked itself after just a few months, so YMMV on this. No rhyme or reason why.

Mine did as well after an update but thankfully i was within the return/replace window at bestbuy. Ive just never updated it (5 years) and it’s been awesome to use with jellyfin and streaming games from the pc.

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

#33

Post by g051051 » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 4:52 PM UTC

My Nvidia Shield Portable is sad to hear this. They updated it to Lollipop 5.1 and then killed it. Pretty much useless now.

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

#34

Post by Krutonium » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 4:54 PM UTC

alt227 wrote: post #28

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. And it's ironic that they can do this ten years ago but can't be bothered to make a new one today. I guess the old one still works well enough and people buy it though which the article states. Feels like a reverse Bell Labs approach. They find their cash cow and only invest in their cash cow rather than research new product areas and fields.

Its not ironic, its perfect business sense. 10 years ago they gave a shit about gamers and streamers as they were their main market. Now its all about AI server hardware, and they are fighting off international mega clients who all want to secure their chip output for years to come. Why would Nvidia give 2 hoots about a living room streaming box now?

Because having all your eggs in one basket (GPUs), especially when that basket is artificially huge and likely to crumble, (AI Bubble), is a TERRIBLE idea?

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

#35

Post by joshstrange » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 4:57 PM UTC

g051051 wrote: post #33

My Nvidia Shield Portable is sad to hear this. They updated it to Lollipop 5.1 and then killed it. Pretty much useless now.

That was such a cool device. Running emulators on it was a blast. When I got my Steam Deck it immediately reminded me of the Nvidia Shield Portable.

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

#36

Post by TuringNYC » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 4:58 PM UTC

I love the NVIDIA Shield as a technical product...but...I really wish they spent some effort on User Experience.

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

#37

Post by DecoPerson » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 5:03 PM UTC

The Steam Link, also from 2015, is also still receiving updates! My partner and I use ours regularly to play co-op games on our TV. I really appreciate the efforts of whomever is keeping it running.

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

#38

Post by muwtyhg » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 5:05 PM UTC

cf100clunk wrote: post #25

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.

Projectivy has turned out to be my favourite launcher for the Shield TV after trying a bunch. It displays only the things I want to see, and has a great deal of options.

A million times this. I was so frustrated with how slow and ad-laden the default Shield launcher was. When I got it, it had no ads and was really snappy. Changing over to Projectivy (or any custom launcher really) fixed so many issues and made the device snappy again.

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

#39

Post by raggi » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 5:06 PM UTC

I love my shield, it’s been a staple.

If they wanted to really knock it out the park, the next step would be a steamos port with DRM support.

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

#40

Post by j45 » Sat, Jan 31, 2026, 5:07 PM UTC

buu709 wrote: post #9

I've got the OG model, and it's still the main device hooked up to my TV. All my TV streaming goes through it (mostly Jellyfin these days), and it can stream games no problem via Moonlight. It's hooked up to a 4k LG TV, and I have no idea about how it does the upscaling, but 720p content looks perfectly fine on it. Best (worst?) of all... it still gets updates.

I thought the Shield's claim to fame was it was a certified 4K Android TV device because it could handle it early on?