Nvidia Shield - Owners Thread

[MattyW]

I have both the old Shield and a new one with 4k upscaling,  and a 1080p and 4k Apple TV.

 

With native 4k content I find the 4k Apple TV to look a little more natural where the Shield is darker, with 1080p content the upsampling of the Shield gives it the advantage. I prefer it set to low as there are noticeable artifacts set on the default medium or high.

 

Likewise,  I find that once set up the NVIDIA Shield "just works" where the Apple TV drives me nuts asking for my Apple ID password all the time. I'll be retiring the Apple TV's and donating them to mates. I don't like messing with the equipment when I want to watch TV. 

Edited October 7, 2020 by MattyW

[Silent Screamer]

On 27/09/2020 at 4:52 PM, davewantsmoore said:

It's important to find ones which are speciailly recommended (for their hardware/software support).

https://kodi.wiki/view/Android_hardware

 

... or you can find a box where you can just install "Kodi on Linux" on it (rather than Kodi on Android), but this requires even more specific hardware support.

 

I'm not sure off the top of my head which is the best android TV hardware to recommend these days .... as I'ven been running Kodi just on AppleTV and Raspeberry Pi (and PCs) for quite a while now.

There should be zero problem with this is you are using recomended hardware, eg. a GPU or CPU with hardware video decoding..... lthough windows/PCs can be a nightmre.... I'd usually recommend something like LibreELEC  (Kodi on Linux appliance package for PC)

Half of my problem is through a lack of knowledge I have been using a shot gun approach... It's expensive it must work, nope that doesn't work onto the next one. That link you posted to some degree answer a lot of my questions. I have been struggling to find something that plays all sorts of codecs, is reliable and doesn't freeze up, has a usable remote, and is user friendly. You would think that wouldn't be too hard to find but I have spent a fortune trying to find it.

 

I think the NVidia Shield Pro has a good chance of ticking most of those boxes. Hopefully my unit should be in stock in the next few days and my search will be over.

[jazzman1974]

On 20/10/2020 at 10:31 AM, Silent Screamer said:

 

 

I think the NVidia Shield Pro has a good chance of ticking most of those boxes. Hopefully my unit should be in stock in the next few days and my search will be over.

 

I would look around/ shop around for the best price. $399 seems a bit high atm. Various retailers have them cheaper. Look up Oz Bargains for specials - have seen the TV Pro for under $350.

The Shield also comes in 2 versions - the Shield TV, a round tube shaped device (and cheaper), and the Shield Pro TV which is the more powerful unit that can be used as a PLEX server.

 

[Silent Screamer]

Finally after what seems like an eternity the guy I get some stuff through finally managed to get some stock of the latest Nvidia Shield TV Pros. Apparently after a certain serial number they load faster. I'm not 100% convinced it wasn't the distributor just spinning a story but it is definitely the March 2020 model.

 

It plays big files great, my only problem is I normally watch YouTube on my Home Theatre PC which has Ublock Origin installed, but I can't find it for the Android Nvidia shield, what is everyone using to stop the numerous ads you get per video?

Edited November 23, 2020 by Silent Screamer

[ammanka]

I have found a way to use the Nvidia Shield to play bit perfect audio including DSD files, requires a bit of a walkaround. The guide is in the link below

 

https://techbyask.com/how-to-setup-the-nvidia-shield-pro-as-a-bit-perfect-audio-streamer-player/

[M튆àR 2]

Hoping Shield users can shed some light here...

 

Have used/using a WDTV for years and very happy with the simplicity of its use.

Just hook a external HD to it and files play seamlessly to TV / projector.

 

Thought I'd upgrade and bring myself into the modern age of UHD /4K  playback ability, but alas things have not gone smoothly as I would've liked.

I was hoping that the Shield would work in a similar way to the WDTV but with added benefits ( Plex & NAS ).

 

The 4TB WD HD is formatted as exfat.

It has been formatted on the shield as an external storage device, and can be seen in the shield settings as a external HD storage WD4TB.

I can access / transfer / playback files wirelessly on the WD HD while it is connected to the shield via my computer.  The shield network address is on my computer.

I can also connect the WD HD into my computer and access / transfer / delete or play whatever files are on it. 

 

What I can't do is access the WD HD files via the shield. 

When i press the button on the shield external hard drive icon...nothing happens.

On the shield the HD capacity shows 4TB.  It's as though no files at all, even the formatted shield files aren't appearing on the HD.

On my computer it shows 3.63 TB (shield files, 1 TV episode and 1 movie)

 

All I want to do is be able to play external files on the shield like I did on the WDTV.  

I thought that the shield would playback the same files as a 6 year old WDTV.

 

Any ideas anyone.

Hope I don't have to change every file to one that the shield recognizes. Use mkv files mainly.

 

Cheers Grant

 

[madfonzy]

What video playback app are you using on the shield.  Suggest loading Kodi and try with that if they can see you files.

[M튆àR 2]

Prefer to use Plex at this stage but will look at Kodi.

Plex couldn't see the files when I tried that.

Just wanted it to be simple. Connect HD and turn shield on to access. Hoped I wouldn't have to download a third party like Kodi or Plex just to play the files.

Thought the shield would do that.

Thanks for the reply madfonzy

[Andre28]

Hi, new owner here. I have it connected via ethernet to the same modem/router that my PC is connected to. Is there anyway to set it up so I can browse my PC video folder via the shield and play it on my TV? The back up (which is what I have been doing until now) is just transferring the files I need to a USB stick, but would be good if I could just access the whole hard drive direct from the shield). Any help much appreciated.

 

[two fold]

https://kodi.wiki/view/Adding_video_sources

 

This might be a place to start

 

[Andre28]

Cheers, am getting stuck on that step 4/5. It can't find/see my PC and its shared folder when I click browse

[exitguy]

On 28/03/2021 at 7:31 PM, Andre28 said:

It can't find/see my PC and its shared folder when I click browse

Does the PC have Network Discovery turned On ?? What SMB level is the PC set too ?? What SMB level is Kodi set to ??

Are you using NFS or SMB to access PC in Kodi ??

 

[Scratcher]

Try plex mate, it’s great!

 

[Andre28]

11 hours ago, Conch said:

Try plex mate, it’s great!

 

Have tried this now. For the little I will actually use it for this it seems like it will be fine. It's werid how it distinguishes between movies and shows, and I need to go in to those folders. Was hoping I could just access all the content on a single folder. Also if I put a new video file in that folder, I need to update the library or whatever for the shield to then see it. I was thinking it would just see whatever is currently in the folder on the PC automatically. I'm sure there are work arounds, but again for the little I actually use this feature im sure it will be more than fine!

Next stop is games, have a couple of bluetooth controllers arriving today hopefully!

[Andre28]

Well,  not going as planned.  Both games controllers are pairing but both coming up as player 1. Any way for the shield to recognise them as 2 separate controllers?

[Silent Screamer]

Well it has been a good 6 months since I bought the unit and thought I might just update and review....

Is it the be all and end all... No, it does a pretty decent job but it isn't everything I hoped it would be.

I was looking for a set and forget kind of device. It will randomly take a long time to find the files on the NAS. Sometimes quick, sometimes not so quick. I get the occasional lock up that requires a hard reset, or unplug the power, but not so bad that I want to throw it out the window. It has a few little niggles that I just preferred it didn't have, but I can't say I regret buying it, so in some ways that could be considered a success.

Is it the forever device? Good question... if something was to come on the market that offered a lot more then I would be tempted to buy it, but this has been so far the closest to what I have been looking for, so maybe I just need to experiment with other software packages outside of Kodi.

[exitguy]

16 hours ago, Silent Screamer said:

I was looking for a set and forget kind of device.

That is the "holy Grail" everyone is looking for, sadly it does not exist yet.

 

16 hours ago, Silent Screamer said:

It will randomly take a long time to find the files on the NAS. Sometimes quick, sometimes not so quick.

Never had that either via Xplore or Kodi (both 18.9 & 19.1)

 

16 hours ago, Silent Screamer said:

I get the occasional lock up that requires a hard reset, or unplug the power

Never had that at all since I got it

 

Nvidia Shield TV Pro 2019 + Synology DS218 + Onkyo TX-NR696 + Sony KD65x9000F

 

[Ed369]

Dear Nvidia users.

I have had the Nvidia for a year now,but rarely used.

Problem is I can not find enough movies to steam.

I have only streamed from Netflix,which is very limited in movies and new updates are pretty slow.

 

Would you suggest any other streaming app for HT movies sections.

 

Thanks for reading

 

 

[exitguy]

6 minutes ago, Ed369 said:

Would you suggest any other streaming app for HT movies sections.

List of Streaming Services in Australia

• Netflix.
• Stan.
• Disney+
• BINGE.
• Apple TV+
• Foxtel.
• Hayu.
• Amazon Prime Video

[Ed369]

15 minutes ago, exitguy said:

List of Streaming Services in Australia

• Netflix.
• Stan.
• Disney+
• BINGE.
• Apple TV+
• Foxtel.
• Hayu.
• Amazon Prime Video

Thanks mate, for multiple Chanel movies what would you suggest beside Netflix

[Silent Screamer]

On 06/07/2021 at 10:24 PM, exitguy said:

That is the "holy Grail" everyone is looking for, sadly it does not exist yet.

 

Never had that either via Xplore or Kodi (both 18.9 & 19.1)

 

Never had that at all since I got it

 

Nvidia Shield TV Pro 2019 + Synology DS218 + Onkyo TX-NR696 + Sony KD65x9000F

 

To me the holy grail is a device that works faultless. But regardless of how much money you pay that is often not the case. For example my B.I.L bought an Oppo 205D worth nearly $2000, but it occasionally needs to be hard reset to find the password to the network. You can go up and down the menus trying to get it to recognise it already has the network password, but until you turn it off and on, it wants you to re-enter the password.

 

I was up until recently running Xpenology on a well built PC for media streaming, but have just bought a Synology DS1821+ to replace it. (The PC is going to be a VM machine). So far I have notice a slight improvement in seek times, but it is not instantaneous as I would like, but to be fair that could be anything in the network path that is causing the delay. People who attach their media directly to the unit via USB drives, may not notice it.

 

[SLE355]

HDR to SDR conversion on these, anygood? For a 1080p projector...

[mtangh]

I am using the shield pro 2019.

Presently my setup is nvidia connected  by hdmi to my yamaha avr A6A.

I am thinking getting zen v2 dac which has mqa to connect to the usb port of nvidia. From dac rca connect to integrated amplifier music fidelity  ms2i.

Would i able to get tidal mqa using this way?

Thanks