41–50 of 218 posts
I love the NVIDIA Shield as a technical product...but...I really wish they spent some effort on User Experience.
The reality though, is that there's likely bigger fish being chased.
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…
replacing launcher is gonna take you 10-15mins. 30 max if you aren’t a complete fool.
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Oh, I'm familiar with the valuation. They were able to build this device and provide a Android TV certified 4K device that didn't need to have planned obsoleteness.
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.
I think they had done a minor hardware refresh, at the time it came out it was pretty powerful compared to the underpowered alternatives, plus the promise of pure Android TV on it.
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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?
They do seem to keep building devices for individual use, if not for home, like their new workstation at home for computers.
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.
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.
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…
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The lack of hardware support for a few modern codecs is a pretty big complaint from me, but nothing else out there is decent :/
It depends what you're looking for. In the AV enthusiast circles a lot of people flock towards the Ugoos AM6B Plus (with CoreELEC). It is one of the only devices (alongside Oppo clones) that can play Dolby Vision Profile 7 FEL (Full Enhancement Layer) with 100% accuracy. The Shield can play P7, but it ignores the FEL data; the Ugoos actually processes it. That said, people don’t generally use Android on it, instead y…
Now if only they would release an updated one.
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.
I suspect the last point would be true even if they launched new hardware, though.