Any chance a new Nvidia Shield TV release in 2018?

by odinknight

I bought my Nvidia Shield TV in 2015 when it came out and while not manufactured by Google, it is certainly updated very frequently by Nvidia.

As anyone with the Nvidia Shield knows, it was made way more powerful than anything on the market in 2015, hence only now (2018) would I think the specifications of other streaming TV boxes come close...

Of late I have been having issues with my remotes/controllers and also (while watching turbo - that animated movie , on Vudu) the device made a weird noise and locked up hard (had to disconnect power), there are a few other things that tend to crash it, but not very often. That said, I am considering moving the existing box to my basement and getting another Nvidia Shield for my family room. Should I get a 2017 Shield or does anyone know if a new version of the Shield TV will be out in 2018 (hope launched made as future proofed as the 2015 version)?

kjb86

The shield spec wise is still ok for the most part. I think the issue is Android TV. There’s still such little support and performance wise it’s just not where it needs to be. Horribly optimized.

It would have been nice if they came out with a pixel TV

snapilica2003

The Shield is still pretty powerful as just a media player. I think of it as a very weak game console and very powerful media player.

Seeing that the refreshed Shield was relaunched in 2017, I think it's going to be a while until Nvidia will launch a new product.

The Shield is plenty powerful even for today's standards. The only downsides is lack of hardware decoding for VP9 Profile 2 (for YouTube HDR) and Dolby Vision. And the current question remains, if these can be offered as an update that will decode in software, or will we need a new chipset altogether for them.

BiggussDikkuss

The new Apple TV 4K now beats the Shield in quite a few benchmarks, particularly where RAW Multicore CPU power is concerned.

As already mentioned the Shield is only missing YouTube HDR and DolbyVision hardware support.

Better Shielding for Bluetooth operations would see better BT remote connection reliability as well. There is too much Radio Freq. interference on current models.

Picture hardware upscaling quality 1080p > 4K has never been a strong suit with the Shield vs modern 4K TV's or what the new Apple TV 4K can output.

The Shield was certainly ahead of it time when first released. Still holds up well today.

bennyhillthebest

I have the 2015 model too. Three things:

1 - the last nougat update refucked my wifi connection. I'm tentative to update to Oreo, basically just to see if it will be able to unfuck it.

2 - the wi-fi direct controller and remote are horrible and the main cause of wifi disconnects (and they also disconnect themself quite a lot). If you have the disposable money you could try to buy the 2017 controller (not the remote cause it has a lot of bad reviews) since it's bluetooth and should not interfere with wifi and/or lose connection to the device.

3 - 2017 and 2015 models are identical. 2015 has more usb ports (and maybe not a gigabit capable ethernet port, but don't quote me on that) but the thing inside it's completely identical. So unless they make a completely new device there's no reason to buy the refreshed 2017 version.

mbm

Practically speaking the 2015 and 2017 shields are the same product. The only difference is that the normal model is now smaller and has a few less ports, the pro model with the 500g drive remains unchanged.

The hardware specs haven't improved since the 2015 model and there's no particular reason to think that there will be a new model given that the shield is already noticeably faster than any other android tv device.

npaladin2000

Why, not powerful enough for you? I'd rather see them get the existing device's price down to the $100-$120 range so there can be wider adoption. The Tegra X1 is still a beast of a CPU compared to every other streamer box out there not running a Xeon.

Even if they do come up with a new redesign, they don't have anything better than the Tegra X1 to put in it, and it will probably be the same design, just further optimized like they did with the 2017 model. That simplifies their support and the number of builds they have to maintain as well, which is pretty smart on their part.

PalebloodSky

Been wondering this too. The 2017 refresh was great because it significantly reduced the size. Would be cool to see a 2018 refresh at a lower price or perhaps upgraded based on NVIDIA's Tegra X2.

supercharger5

What's missing in shield is far field microphones, with that

"Google home" like functionality
video conferences.

serpentxx

Shield is still the king of AndroidTV hardware peformance, nothing is yet to come close.

Google just needs to pull out their thumb and support and promote their own platform to entice new developers and have old ones update their apps more frequently

Ausernameneeded

nVidia's market is really just PC game streaming. Android gaming was and will always be a mass market failure (that nVidia smartly didn't enter, but has it for the niche casuals since already needed for game streaming). If that does not need new hardware than I doubt there will be a Shield as you know it now.

The only profitable options for nVidia right now is to either reduce the production costs (remove options) and sell a "refresh" again or to make a standard AndroidTV device to compete with the general streaming market and with a competitive price tag.

Without much AndroidTV support from Google, nVidia will probably just support their PC game streaming box until forced to update.

Edit: all mentions of updates refer to hardware. nVidia will support the current device. Just wanted to say that before the sale guys come in and the kids get too mad.