nVidia Shield

There’s a lot to like about nVidia’s media streamer

NVidia is the latest company to enter the media streamer market, with its Shield TV. It’s aimed at a different market to its competitors, though, and comes with a gaming controller alongside the standard remote. Indeed, it’s been designed to allow you to stream your gaming

collection from your PC to your TV, and even stream games via GeForce Now for instant gaming.

Design

Visually, the Shield is one of the best-looking media streamers you can buy, and it’s not hard to notice the hat-tilt to the gaming community with its design, which resembles a mini gaming PC. It’s in your face, with its green LED lights and protruding angles.

Much like Sony’s PlayStation 4, the Shield can be laid on its side or stood upright, though you’ll need to buy a stand (£24.99) to do the latter.

It measures 210x130x25mm and weighs only 654g, making it a relatively thin, portable device. In fact, we’d argue it’s the perfect companion for travellers – the Shield is small and sleek enough to fit in a rucksack, and will provide you with entertainment in the form of on-demand TV and gaming anywhere you go that has Wi-Fi and a TV.

Alongside the standard remote, nVidia provides a gaming controller. This is pretty bulky and takes some getting used to, especially for those unfamiliar with the layout of an Xbox-esque controller. Twoplayer games are available on the Shield, so if you

want to play with family or friends you’ll have to fork out £49.99 for an additional controller.

One plus point for the controller is that its connected via Wi-Fi Direct, which provides incredibly low latency response times both when navigating the Shield UI and playing games. It’s also compatible with the nVidia Shield tablet, giving you the freedom to game on the go with a controller rather than having to use a touch screen.

Software

In essence, the Shield is an Android Lollipoppowered TV. It includes Google Cast for mirroring content from Android and iOS devices (though iOS support is limited). The UI is one of the slickest, most responsive we’ve used. It’s nice and simple, with everything you need at the touch of a button. You also have access to Google’s Play Store, with a selection of apps and games designed to be enjoyed on a TV.

It comes with exclusive apps and features, including the Shield Games portal, which lists all the recommended Android games for purchase or free download from Google Play, all of which have been specifically optimised for use with nVidia’s streamer. They include Half-Life 2 and Borderlands 2, with Resident Evil 5 expected to make an appearance in the near future. It’s ideal for casual gamers that don’t want to fork out up to £50 for the latest blockbuster game.

Being an Android TV, the Shield has voice control via Google Now. Simply hold the nVidia logo on the controller, or the mic icon on the remote, to activate the voice-recognition software, allowing you to easily

open apps or search for content on the device. We were pleasantly surprised at how quickly it understood what we were saying and acted upon it. Google Now also provides you with personalised recommendations on your home screen based on your activity and interests. It’s a great way to explore new content.

The Shield also offers a service called nVidia GameStream, which enables gamers to stream their PC games to their TVs in full 1080p HD at 60fps over a local network. There is a catch though; gamers must have a compatible nVidia graphics card installed on their PC, and be logged into the GeForce Experience available for Windows. Once you’ve logged in, you’ll see your entire compatible game library, ready for big-screen gaming.

There is, however, one huge disappointment when it comes to the software of the Shield. There’s a handful of popular on-demand apps missing from its line-up, which could be a dealbreaker for some. While you’ll find the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and BBC iPlayer available for download, it’s missing other apps, such as All 4, Demand 5 and ITV Player/ITV Hub. Although it’s a superb device for gaming, those who want to catch up on the latest goings on in Coronation Street or Emmerdale will have to look elsewhere.

4K support

One of the Shield’s biggest selling points is that it supports native 4K output at 60Hz – the only other 4K media streamer available in the UK, the Amazon Fire TV, can only handle 30Hz at full 4K. This opens a new world of native 4K 60fps playback

from the likes of YouTube playback was limited to 30fps, but should be upgraded at some point in the future. In fact, we were a bit disappointed overall by the quality of Netflix’s UHD offerings, looking only marginally more impressive than the standard upscaled 1080p image we’re used to watching – but that’s not a fault with the Shield.

One noticeable element of the Shield that looks impressive in 4K is the UI itself. The text, the icons and the graphics used by the Shield look crisp, with the experience reminding us of the first time we saw a Retina display after using the iPhone 3GS for two years.

Using either the USB 3.0 port or microSD slot built into the Shield, you’re able to load up and play your own native 4K videos, which is where you’ll really experience the impressive quality of 4K.

Hardware

The Shield uses nVidia’s own Tegra X1 processor, a 256-core GPU, coupled with 3GB of RAM, making it the more powerful than any other media streamer on the market. This was borne out in our testing: apps loaded almost immediately, as did BBC and Netflix videos, and games were handled with ease.

The streamer also offers 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1 and an IR receiver for compatibility with universal remotes, as well as Logitech Harmony. Storage wise, two models are available; 16- and 500GB. Connectivity options include two USB 3.0 ports that can be used with an external hard drive, and a microSD card slot to expand the amount of available storage.

GeForce Now

The best feature of the Shield is the inclusion of the nVidia GeForce Now cloud gaming service, which has been designed to be the Netflix of gaming. You get a three-month free trial, after which you’ll need to pay £7.49 per month. At the time of writing, 50 games are available for instant streaming.

Popular titles include DIRT 3, a number of Lego games, Saints Row 3 and Red Faction: Armageddon. Granted, they’re not the latest releases, but they’ll suffice for a casual gamer bored on a Sunday afternoon. If you are interested in more recent titles, these are also available for instant streaming, though you’ll have to purchase them first. Games such as The Witcher 3 are available to buy separately for as much as £49.99, which you might think is a bit much for a game only available on the Shield, but it isn’t the case as you’re also issued a Steam/GOG code to download it on to your computer.

Yes, the games are streamed over the internet but this doesn’t mean a drop in quality – nVidia provides a maximum resolution of 1080p at 60fps. One of the biggest worries with game streaming is lag, one of the most frustrating things a gamer can experience when they’re in the midst of a

ferocious battle. We initially tried using Wi-Fi for game streaming, which was a huge mistake – the lag was terrible, with button presses taking seconds to register, making gameplay almost impossible. We should point out that the Shield wasn’t near our router, so those with better Wi-Fi connections than us may have a better experience.

Switching to an ethernet cable based connection cleared up these issues, and the experience quickly became an enjoyable one. In fact, we completely forgot that we were streaming the games as the

responses were instant, akin to what you’d expect when playing the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One. There was a drop in quality at times (full 1080p at 60fps requires 50MB/s download speeds), but not enough to become a regular issue.

GeForce Now is a fantastic option for anyone who doesn’t want to fork out for an Xbox One or PlayStation 4 and then £50 per game after that, but instead want a library of games available to play through casually at our own pace. It’s also a great option for those with young kids that want to play games. Sure, for dedicated gamers the library may seem a bit sparse, but the premise is good and we hope that the list of games improves over the coming months as the service becomes, without a doubt, more popular.

Verdict

We’re extremely impressed by the Nvidia Shield both as a media streamer and as a games console. The beautiful UI and game-streaming technology is powered by one of the most impressive mobile processors on the market at the moment, and provides an experience akin to playing a PS4 or Xbox One. The native 4K resolution that supports 60fps playback is better than any other offering in the UK at the moment, with the Fire TV only being able to support 4K at 30fps. GeForce Now has been coined as the ‘Netflix for gaming’ and although the library may be a bit sparse at the moment, the experience is great – being able to choose from a library and play it instantly is an intriguing experience and gives us a glimpse at the future of on-demand gaming.

The only disappointment comes with the selection of catch-up TV apps, as we could only install BBC iPlayer, leaving those who want to use the likes of All4, Demand5 or ITV Hub without any option. The Shield is so close to being the perfect media streamer but without access to popular apps like those mentioned, it’ll always fall short.. Lewis Painter

Specifications

Android 5.1 Lollipop GeForce Now game streaming nVidia Tegra X1 processor with a 256-core GPU 3GB RAM 4K playback at 60fps 16- and 500GB storage options 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1 HDMI 2.0, 2x USB 3.0, Micro-USB 2.0, microSD slot 210x130x25mm 654g