News Nvidia unveils Shield TV console, new GeForce Now

Interesting one this – it’s nice to see a new shield device but strange that it is basically a rebrand of the old shield console and still has the X1 rather than a newer chip – I wonder if it’s because of the the Nintendo Switch so they are trying to avoid focusing too much on the gaming side/overshadowing their new partners game console before its even launched?

On the updated Geforce Now I think it’s a great move, I never liked the old model since you had to pay for a subscription to get access to a limited number of games then pay overly inflated prices to access new games when they were released by Nvidia – never an ideal situation when you have steam sales to content with. The new version of Geforce Now sounds very much like www.liquidsky.tv – basically you have a whole PC in the cloud and install games etc exactly as you would with a normal PC meaning you can buy games in the steam sale etc and just install them in your Cloud PC – Great idea tho it’s a little fiddly in practice (try controlling a PC, launching steam etc with just a controller) so hopefully Nvidia have some ideas on improving the UI for controllers – Plus the fact that liquidsky is currently significantly cheaper doesn’t help……

I wonder if Nvidia Now will come to the switch? I doubt Nintendo would want to support an alternative game platform but it would make the switch even more desirable if it could run PC games in that way from the cloud and would sort Nintendo’s usual dismissal by third party developers

 

So there's no difference between the existing Shield TV hardware, and it's just the fact is comes bundled the remote this time, and a new controller, and Nougat that make this "new"?

Both good things, and not necessarily a negative, since I couldn't think how the existing one could be improved anyway. I'm just glad I bought one when I did and didn't wait out for the "new" one. Hopefully it's not long until the new OS lands on the "old" version. I'd welcome what looks to be native Amazon support for certain.

EDIT: Now I look, there seems to be conflicting reports about what's actually new/changed. One says it's the same internals in a smaller (though identical looking) case, another says it's faster internals and yet another says the same bit of kit... hmm.

 

Yeah this one is supposedly OK for streaming 4k so you can pay $25 a month for twenty hours of streaming.

 

Don't see why not - the hardware should at any rate, so I expect the latest OS landing will bring it up to speed with the new one. I'm inclined to think it's making up Nvidia's headline because HDR is just the latest toy everyone has to have.

EDIT: Perhaps not, I thought the original one was HDMI 2.0a, but think it might just be HDMI 2.0 - again, some conflicting reports.

Comparing photos with remotes/controllers for context, it's definitely smaller than the old one.

EDIT (again): Nope, looks like the old one supports HDR already...

 

Yeah, but then OMGCONTROLLERWITHAMICROHPONEANDALITTLEBITSMALLERPLUSSOFTWAREUPDATETHATTHEOLDONEWILLGETANYWAY doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

 

I feel sorry for anyone who buys a 16GB Android device in 2017...

 

I too have the old one and it is used mainly as Plex Media Server secondly as smart TV. So personally, I'm happy to see no internal changes. Meaning my Plex server is still as fast as it'll ever get on always-on low-power budget.

The 16GB version is perfectly fine for Android TV. I still have 8GB free at the moment, I don't have too many app installed; because frankly, the TV UI are still shockingly bad in most apps. I use mine as Chromecast destination. For a console with multi-gigabyte games, I can see it fill up quickly.

I do really like the new controller though, the old controller is too chunky and unwieldy, hard to pick-up due to the large centre section. The silver triangle in the middle serves zero purpose.


The update that enabled Plex server also had blurb about HDR, so I am pretty sure the old one also has it.

With the same internals, there's no reason why the update can't come to "old" SHIELD. We'll have to see what sort of company NVidia is. Whether they are a Sony in terms of firmware updates, or Apple.

 

Do you have the occasional issue where yours just forgets about the controller, and it has to be re-added? I use mine with a harmony remote 99% of the time, and it seems every time I reach for the controller it's lost it.

Yep, it does. There are various threads I've come across in researching the matter on the Nvidia forums that confirm HDR 4K on the v1 shield, even before the new one was announced. Like "help I can't get HDR 4k to work on the shield" "ok thanks guys, all sorted now".

(unconfirmed) Forum chatter seems to suggest that the update will land at the same time as the new one starts shipping, which would be nice.

 

I too use Harmony remote/smartphone 99% of the time, never had problems with loosing connection with controller. I only really use controller when configuring stuff (lots of key presses) or when I want to do voice search. But most of the time I just chromecast when searching is involved.

Good to know on the firmware update, thanks! NVidia had been excellent in providing firmware updates and files, up to this point. But with V2's release, I was worried V1 will be left behind to push the new product.