what's up everyone Eber here with Hardware Canucks and let's get things
awful with the Nvidia shield TV because I've been using this device for the past
three years ever since launch and it has played a vital role here in the
household on a regular basis because I pretty much use it every day to consume
content whether that's catching up on my favorite TV shows on Netflix or catching
up on my subscription box with YouTube there's just so many things I could do
with the shield TV because it's running and/or TV I can load it up with my
favorite apps whether that's ESPN of course the list just keeps going on it's
really interesting because envyus actually added constant updates to the
shield TV to enhance the user experience and they've added a lot of things over
the course of these three years and that includes you know support for an
expanded app library so a lot of apps are sort of hopping onto the Android
ecosystem for the TV and there's also the addition the latest edition of
Google assistant and the whole smart home integration which I'll get to later
in the video and last but not least we have game
stream and games g-force games now which is an awesome a
little perk that a lot of shield existing shield TV users can take
advantage of and I'll obviously get to that as well of the later on in the
video so I'm just going to talk about my experience using the shield TV for the
past three years and how it has enhanced my content viewing experience in the
household and I'll also go over a few issues I've had over the last few years
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down below alright so before I talk about my user experience using this
shield TV I do want to quickly mention that I've been using the first
generation shield TV ever since launch so the 2015 model but if you do recall
Nvidia did refresh the shield TV last year during CES but basically shrinking
down the size but it still features the same processor so the 2015 and the 2017
models feature the exact same Tegra x1 chip with
gigabytes of RAM and 16 gigabytes of on-board storage speaking of storage 16
gigabytes is not enough for me personally to house all of my apps it's
just too limited for the OS and the content so end video was kind enough to
include a microSD card slot on the shield TV the first generation model so
all I did was just throw in a sandesh 64 gigabyte microSD card that I picked up
from Amazon for a really good deal I just popped it in there and what's
interesting is that you do have the option to either use it as an external
drive to browse files or something or you can expand that storage with the
shield TV so you can have you can have as directed to that microSD card and
load you know games or a certain apps that you that are sort of a larger in
capacity I do want to mention that the 2017 model does not come with a micro SD
card slot which is a little bit of a disappointment but if you're still
planning on if you still want to expand that storage you can do that externally
by plugging in an external hard drive or USB 3.0 flash drives in this case I can
plug in something like the Toshiba XS 700 - 40 gigabytes external SSD to help
speed up low times now my shield TV is connected to an lg nano cell 4k TV so it
supports that 4k resolution at 60 Hertz without a problem and the whole
experience it's still faster and that's what really surprises me even after
three years of constant usage and after a constant updates the experience hasn't
really slowed down you I could barely notice a lag when it comes to navigating
through the UI and to me that's just great because Nvidia is focusing on
software and hardware optimizations because they are making the hardware
it's just that they're spending a little bit more time with the software to make
it much more a user enhanced experience I do want to talk about this cool
feature that was included with the shield TV and that is hdcp 2.2 and CEC
support through the HDMI port so this essentially allows the user to turn off
the shield TV as well as the TV that's connected to the HDMI port at the same
time using the shield remote controller so you don't have to mess around with or
you don't have to look after the actual TV remote to turn off the TV so kind of
taking two things at the same time it's just controlled everything through the
shield remote I think that's pretty awesome and if you want to turn on the
TV you can just simply use a shield remote controller
click tap on one of the buttons it'll
automatically turn on the shield TV and obviously you will see the TV turned on
as well it's pretty awesome in my opinion I think it's those little things
that sort of just really again enhances the user experience
now the CEC protocol over HDMI can cause issues with Logitech's harmie ecosystem
which has a turn on/off function for all the devices at the same time that means
if you turn off your shield TV with the shield controller and if you turn off
other components with the harmonies all off function it'll turn back on your TV
and that gets a little bit annoying especially if you have the shield to be
plugged into a receiver instead of directly to a TV alright so with the
specs and the only other course out of the way let's talk about the user
interface now I'm not really a fan of the recent 7.0 experience update because
that was recently launched or was recently rolled out to the shield TV
last week and was just it just breeds a new sort of UI to the home screen and
I'm still getting used to it but I'm not exactly a fan of this new layout when
compared to previous home screen layouts that were used to especially if you're
an existing shield TV owner and if you've recently upgraded to the
experience 7.0 update you can definitely relate to what I'm talking about so now
you have content organized by rows so in this case we have our apps right at the
top and we have to add our most frequently used apps manually directly
to the home screen so that we have instant access or you can click on the
app drawer that brings up the list of apps that you have installed on the
device this is an extra step in my opinion because with the previous
interface all of the apps were directed or it was directly on the home screen
and it was a lot faster to access them now I might be a little too critical
with this UI but personally I still do prefer the previous home screen setups
but hey you may end up liking it and over time I will eventually end up
liking it too coming back to this home screen setup as I mentioned earlier the
content is organized in rows we have the a pro the play next row that displays
movies shows or apps that you have downloaded from the Play Store and you
haven't really checked them out or if you want to resume watching a certain
episode or something below that we have different channels with their respective
content they primarily display popular ones but you can customize a selection
if you go all the way at the bottom there's the
Settings tab located at the top right-hand side and this is where you
have access to all sorts of settings for the shield TV including the ability to
put the device to sleep now another cool feature that I'm really excited to talk
about is the added support for 4k HDR playback with the shield TVs so
essentially you know I have it connected to the lg nano cell 4k TV that features
an HDR 10 profile so essentially if I have content especially you know with
Amazon Prime then does stream ultra UHD content with HDR it'll the TV will
automatically pick that profile up and the content would just look a lot more
richer in colors the dynamic range would be fantastic especially when you're
watching the shows like Grand Tour now you have the colors that sort of pop and
you get to see a lot more in the detail side the shadows and again it's just
breathtaking and I highly recommend if you get a chance definitely check it out
and if you are an existing shield TV user this is an excellent option I think
if you're looking to upgrade to a 4k TV I think now's the time to actually take
advantage of that feature especially with 4k HDR playback support on the
shield TV because if you have content access to content HDR content in
particular this is a great feature in my opinion now this next feature is one of
my favorite things added to the shield TV and that is the inclusion of Google
assistant so essentially this allows the user to control their smart home
connected devices in their household with the help of their voice so for
instance in this case you can use the shield remote TV remote controller tap
on the or click on the microphone button and you can start asking questions just
like you would on your smart phone when you activate Google assistant so I can
ask it to turn it off or turn on my studio lights set my thermostat to a
certain temperature if I want to turn on the heater I can literally do that on my
shield TV or if I want to play around with my nano leaf or roller lights in
this case I have them placed on my living room so I can basically turn them
on with you know just talking to the shield TV remote controller and it would
just turn them on because Google assistant is linked to the whole
ecosystem and I have them all connected to the same network to the same account
so they start talking to each other and that is an excellent feature
I think a lot of people it's especially if you're an existing shield TV user and
if you were thinking of investing in smart home devices I think this is an
excellent feature in my opinion because you wouldn't have to spend that extra
money on picking up a Google home or Google mini Google assistant is right
there for accessing I should also mention that the shield TV supports
chromecast so you can easily cast your content from your portable mobile device
without a problem regardless of it's an Android device or an iOS device you
wouldn't have a problem at all all you have to do is just make sure that you've
connected the shield TV to the same network and you'll just be up and
running in no time in fact if you want to screen share what's on your Android
device you can easily do that I was easily able to do that on my blackberry
smart phone so overall great experience I think thumbs up for that as well the
last thing that I want to discuss is some of the Nvidia perks included with
the shield TV like game stream and she forced now I think a lot of you guys are
familiar with game stream is if you have an Nvidia based or if you have a gaming
PC featuring an NVIDIA GPU and if that PC is connected to the same network you
can basically link your GeForce experience accounts on the TV and the PC
and run triple-a titles just without having to connect using a long HDMI
cable to the TV it works pretty well I did try playing battlefield one and a
few other titles using a game stream and it works just fine the whole thing is
that I have to get uses controller I'm not I'm not really used to playing games
on a controller because I'm so used to mechanical keyboard and a mouse so
that's definitely something I have to get used to but it is a really cool
feature to take advantage of then there's GeForce now which is an
incredible feature for shield TV owners who don't exactly have a gaming PC with
a g4 spacecrafts card so this essentially allows you to stream
triple-a titles to the shield TV at 1080p resolution and this doesn't
require a graphics card connected to the same network it just uses the Nvidia
servers but all you need to do is get a stable internet connection to the shield
TV and you'll just be good to go what's really interesting is that for now
existing she'll T the owners can use GeForce now for free because it used to
be a paid or it used to be able monthly subscription service but right now and
Vita is actually working on an updated version of GeForce now so--but
basically terminated or suspended the monthly subscription fee for existing
GeForce now users or people who are looking to try out new titles can
definitely hop on to GeForce now and you can start enjoying titles like Tomb
Raider or Sniper Elite - I'm pretty sure that that would kill productivity time
as well so I'm gonna I'm gonna control myself there okay quick update here
anybody actually send us out an email a few days ago regarding new update that
I've been rolling out to the GeForce now app on the shield TV that'll be rolling
out in the next few weeks and the main highlight is that users will be able to
link their Steam and you play accounts on the GeForce snail app so right now
the access to games with GeForce now is not that great it's pretty old titles
but with the new update you'll be able to access the recent titles like a
fortnight pop G and a few more obviously with the help of this new Steam and you
play support on the GeForce now I think it's a pretty cool feature especially
for users who don't necessarily have a gaming PC with a GTX based graphics card
and if you're an AV user this is something that you can take advantage of
then just to refresh your memory a few key updates that have been rolled out as
shield TV in the past two years is of course the support for its strong USB
devices that can be shared as internal storage so and with the ability to
directly house apps within that external solution I think that's fantastic and we
obviously saw the added support for plex media service so if you're an existing
Plex user the field TV would be an excellent companion to that and of
course we have the addition of Google assistant and the way how you can
control your smart home devices with the help of your voice using the shield
remote controller and overall it's a great feature it works really well for
me I think that's pretty cool and finally we have the Android 8.0 Oreo
update that was been rolled out to the shield TV just a few weeks ago and I'm
still you know I'm still getting used to it
so guys that has been my experience using the Nvidia shield TV for the past
three years and just to get this out of the way this video is not sponsored by
Nvidia I know a lot of you guys would probably start thinking that this whole
thing has been sponsored by media but that's not the case here I just happen
to love the device and it just seems to work for the stuff that I really need if
you're an existing shield to the owner let me know in the comments down below
what your experience is like have you experienced any issues
not to mention if you have set up the Harmony ecosystem and have you
experienced issues with the power on/off feature let me know in the comments down
below now these things could be fixed with a software or a former update but
that's something that we'll have to wait for and I'll make sure to leave links in
the description down below if you're interested in checking out the Nvidia
shield TV i'm Eber with Hardware Canucks thank you so much for watching and we'll
see you in the next one