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Nvidia Shield - Owners Thread


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On 04/01/2018 at 1:26 PM, Cideburns said:

Sorry, I've only tried Kodi. I think it's great. It does just what I need

Switched to kodi a few weeks ago, no crashes since, so it appears something was up with spmc 

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On 29/01/2018 at 7:56 AM, paulrp said:

Does any one know with the nvidia sheild if it can convert audio output signal to pcm ? As my processor can not do the modern codecs

I'm pretty sure within kodi, you can get it to transcode in the audio setup. And select how many speakers you have.

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On 30/05/2018 at 8:53 AM, brabs said:

Has anybody been able to update to  Oreo yet? I’ve bwen trying but still says 6.3 is the latest software.

it may be rolling out slowly.

I have read it's pewp

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11 hours ago, brabs said:

Shield experience 7.0 (Oreo) update now available, I haven’t done it yet, anybody else wanna be a guinea pig?

I downloaded and installed last night. 

Pretty major change to the home screen, not sure I love the new layout. 

Had a bit of a play late last night, without issues.

I mainly use Kodi (which still works as it should after upgrade).

 

So far So Good  ?

 

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  • 2 months later...

Its very difficult to get info on this so hoping some audiophiles may have an answer here.

 

I use an NVIDIA Shield into cheapo USB to SPDIF converter (USB is the best audio output here as apposed to HDMI on this unit) and then into a Empirical Audio Sybchromesh reclocker and then a Metrum Dac. The SQ is exceptional but have been wanting to upgrade the USB/SPDIF converter to something more befitting such as a Mutec USB 3, Weiss 204 or Empirical Audio Offramp 5. 

 

Its been impossible to get an answer from Nvidia or the converter suppliers as to whether the USB is compatible. The Nvidia is USB3 UAC1. Android. The old copnverter off ebay I have works but dubious quality. Putting the question out there to anyone who has used the Nvidia Shield as a source for high end audio (youtube A/V streaming) and what converters work. Apparently most do not.

 

Welcome thoughts!

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I thought USB was USB and that was all there was to it, so I'd have assumed any device would work - or are you alluding to possible back-compatibility issues if your streamer is still operating on USB1.0?

 

Edit: Ahh just realised what you were saying, that your device is USB3.x and Audio Class 1 the latter of which is an ancient protocol limited to 96kHz. So far as the Audio Class goes, everything should be backwards-compatible. USB 3.x compatibility might well be hit and miss, I suppose, even though in theory devices are supposed to be backwards-compatible.

 

FWIW I would also suspect Android is doing awful things to ur signal by way of crude resampling to 48kHz

Edited by tripitaka
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I've had an nVidia Shield for a few years (imported from the US). One thing to note is that when outputting audio over USB to a DAC the Android OS will re-sample the audio to one of 2 sample frequencies, as set in the system settings:.

 

Stereo - all audio is re-sampled to 44.1khz or 48khz (it's one or the other - I cannot remember and am not at home to check)

High quality stereo - all audio is re-sampled to 192khz

 

Unless the Android audio system is overhauled all audio will always be mixed through the system wide mixer, even if the native sample rate of the file matches the output sample rate of the system - this means it will always meddle with the output in some way, making it impossible to get bit-perfect output regardless of the app or DAC used.

 

Maybe the audible differences could be minimal - but if you plan to connect it to a high-end DAC and you care about this it's not a good match.

 

Apps like Plex and Kodi allow passthrough of surround sound streams over HDMI, so for movie viewing to an AV receiver the Dolby or DTS audio will stream will not be touched. These apps also support 24p so it's a good solution for video media (however I'm unsure if the Netflix app supports 24p).

 

EDIT: I realise this doesn't answer your specific question, but nevertheless I hope it is useful for someone

 

Edited by Bikkitz
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On 07/09/2018 at 9:53 AM, Bikkitz said:

 

EDIT: I realise this doesn't answer your specific question, but nevertheless I hope it is useful for someone

 

I reckon you kind of did address the question by suggesting that would be wasting money to spend much (I'd say any more than a hundred bucks or so) on a new dac if its going to being fed by Android OS which will always be ur weaklink.

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Thanks for the responses. It is very difficult to get AV streaming hardware that suits us audiophiles. I do get an excellent result through reclocking the NVIDIA signal through an Empirical Audio Syncromesh. (via an older USB/SPDIF) converter. I have also played with Telstra TV box with SBooster PS, high quality HDMI cabling into a Cambridge bluray as the converter to SPDIF. It is surprising on what can be coaxed out here. 

 

The objective has been to get a hifi experience for home theatre  - merging hifi and HT rigs. Quite tricky but a great experience when you watch and listen to live concerts. Youtube is a great platform as it is like Tidal and Spotify with Video.

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6 hours ago, andresz said:

It is very difficult to get AV streaming hardware that suits us audiophiles....

The objective has been to get a hifi experience for home theatre  - merging hifi and HT rigs. Quite tricky but a great experience when you watch and listen to live concerts. Youtube is a great platform as it is like Tidal and Spotify with Video.

I hear ya, there might be better options now, but when i looked into it a couple years ago the best option I found was a HT Bypass preamp.

Good luck with your search.

 

 

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  • 4 months later...
On 07/09/2018 at 12:53 AM, Bikkitz said:

I've had an nVidia Shield for a few years (imported from the US). One thing to note is that when outputting audio over USB to a DAC the Android OS will re-sample the audio to one of 2 sample frequencies, as set in the system settings:.

 

Stereo - all audio is re-sampled to 44.1khz or 48khz (it's one or the other - I cannot remember and am not at home to check)

High quality stereo - all audio is re-sampled to 192khz

 

Unless the Android audio system is overhauled all audio will always be mixed through the system wide mixer, even if the native sample rate of the file matches the output sample rate of the system - this means it will always meddle with the output in some way, making it impossible to get bit-perfect output regardless of the app or DAC used.

 

Maybe the audible differences could be minimal - but if you plan to connect it to a high-end DAC and you care about this it's not a good match.

 

Apps like Plex and Kodi allow passthrough of surround sound streams over HDMI, so for movie viewing to an AV receiver the Dolby or DTS audio will stream will not be touched. These apps also support 24p so it's a good solution for video media (however I'm unsure if the Netflix app supports 24p).

 

EDIT: I realise this doesn't answer your specific question, but nevertheless I hope it is useful for someone

Hi

 

I just joined to post this, since I've been trying to figure out how to get the best possible audio quality out of an nVidia Shield and have been googling around when I found this.

 

There's hardly any mention on the web of "High Quality Stereo" on the Shield and what it does, but I can confirm you are spot on - what it does is resample everything up to 192 KHz.

 

But here's the thing, although it still goes through the system wide mixer (volume control on the Shield still works), providing volume is set to maximum, then I have found that files played on the Shield do pass bit-perfect tests provided the source sampling frequency is 192 KHz.  So if you have a library of 24/192 content and play it on the Shield with "High Quality Stereo" enabled, it will play perfectly.  I've tested this with Kodi and Google Play Music and both players pass the bit-perfect test just fine.

 

If you set it to "Stereo", then all output is at 44.1 KHz.  This came as a surprise, because I had been led to believe it's all 48 KHz.  And when playing your regular red book CD 16/44.1 rips, then they also play bit-perfect.

 

Unfortunately, you have to reboot the Shield to switch between Stereo and High Quality Stereo - which is a bit of a pain to say the least.  So at the moment I am using HQ Stereo and leaving it at that.  The question I guess is how well is the upsampling to 192 being done?  But upsampling is a lot easier than downsampling (aliasing issues, ringing etc) and subjectively the sound with HQ Stereo, for my CD rips, is pretty darned good.  I've compared it to using a Macbook pro running Audirvana Plus through the same DAC and honestly, I am not sure I could tell the difference.  It's impossible to be sure because A-B comparisons are not possible, but anyway, it seems close enough.

 

By the way, all of the above relates to the USB output from the Shield not HDMI. Just to be clear.

 

Hope someone may find this useful.

Edited by Chippy99
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And incidentally, I found out today (by accident) that the Tidal app on the Shield now supports Master Quality playback as well ?

 

I don't have an MQA-compatible DAC, so I assume the Shield is doing the first unfold to 24/96 only but irrespective, I have to say, it sounds pretty damned fantastic! 

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  • 3 months later...

I tried this recently with my Shield TV setting the USB to output "Hi Quality Stereo". Was playing Tidal Master of known final bit rate of 192. I fed an iFi Nano iDSD le from the USB port of the Shield. The LED on the DAC never turned "Magenta"/ 192kHz as would when playing the same songs from a PC USB to the DAC. It only states green, meaning 44/48 kHz stream. This indicates that Shield TV did something to the stream (probably re-sampling it thereby destroying the decoded but yet to be rendered MQA data) so the DAC can no longer render the song at Tidal's highest bit rate as intended but only 44/48 kHz.  I wish there is a way to make the Shield TV do bit perfect playback. The Tidal Android TV app works much better with remote than the Tidal desktop app would. It is so easy to use the Shield remote to operate the Android TV Tidal app vs using a mouse and keyboard on desktop. I don't want to pay for or mess with another desktop app to add on top of the desktop Tidal app just to get a remote to work on Tidal.

Edited by catbb
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  • 2 months later...

I have a shield tv, and just acquired a Cambridge Audio CXA80 integrated stereo, I got it to work only as a USB Class 1, when switching the CXA80 to USB Class 2, no audio from the Shield; it could that the Shield TV does not do Class 2.

 

The Shield is set up to High Res Stereo. 

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