NVIDIA CORP Shield TV Pro - Not Machine Specific

I own a large collection of movies (1800+) which are primarily hosted on the VUDU streaming service, including many 4K titles. I also stream 4K content from both Amazon Prime Video and YouTube. This makes my normal streaming habits a bit different than most of the Netflix-4K-only crowd out there. While trying to find a decent way to consistently stream my 4K movies, I have tried just about every 4K media streaming device out there. This includes XBox One S, high-end generic android boxes with up to 8 core CPUs, a flagship Roku, the Apple TV, a 4K capable TiVo, and even the built-in streaming apps on my Samsung Smart TV. Trust me when I say there is nothing else out there that can touch the Shield TV Pro Home Media Server for 4K streaming. The difference in performance versus other devices is almost shocking. In fact, several of the other supposedly "awesome" 4K streamers I tried actually had significant trouble streaming fast-moving 4K content. This box is SO much faster than everything else on the market that 4K video is always smooth and flawless. The user interface also responds instantly, which is quite different from some other laggy stream boxes. The flawless 4K streaming alone justifies the price of this box for me. The fact that it also lets me play a ton of games is really just a nice bonus in my view. But I have to say, even without the awesome gaming capabilities, I'd definitely buy this box again. In fact, if I had bought this box first, I would have saved a small fortune I wasted trying other devices. The streaming is that good! If I add up the cost of all the other disappointing devices I've tried, this box easily counts as an incredible bargain. I hope I can save many of you the time, aggravation, and expense of trying all those other "budget" boxes first. Just bite the bullet and get one of these from the start. By doing that, you'll sidestep all of that aggravation. Regarding games: It plays generic Android games easily. Plus it plays a few custom Android games which ONLY run on the Shield. Even better, it lets me play my PC games streamed from my high-end desktop machine to my giant 4K display in the living room. It also lets me run the games I have on Steam, thanks to a built-in Steam app. Being able to play the superior PC versions of games I love on the big flat panel while sitting on the couch has been incredibly addictive. I've started replaying games that I hadn't touched in years because this new game playing experience is so much more enjoyable. It's not just the 4K resolution because I already had a professional grade 34" 4K color-corrected computer monitor (plus two 30") attached to my high-end gaming computer. Which I mention to point out that I already had excellent picture quality on my desktop. The PC gaming experience just feels more relaxed and appealing when you're playing PC games on a larger screen while lounging in your comfortable reclining home theater seating. It's a combination of the best aspects of both the PC gaming and console gaming worlds. If I had to point out any flaws, I'd say that setting up the PC game streaming could be more intuitive than it is. I also wish setting up the controllers so they work well with PC games was less obtuse. Just finding the right menu to set it up was a challenge. I kept finding places which told me I needed to configure the controller, but none of those screens had a link to take me to the correct screen for configuring the controller. Once I did find the well-hidden configuration screen, the controllers sometimes didn't have an equivalent function which could be configured. Perhaps buying a keyboard and mouse for the machine would remedy that issue, but as far as I know, NVIDIA doesn't sell an official mouse or keyboard for it. So, you have to roll the dice buying a keyboard and mouse from a third party manufacturer, which may or may not work right. I've tried a few on my other devices that all ended up in a junk box because they generated multiple keypresses constantly or in other cases missed keystrokes entirely. They exhibit the same issues on this box. Maybe it's just a problem with the Bluetooth connection, but whatever it is, I don't like it. Other than those minor gripes, I really do love this machine. I give it a solid 5-star rating. It's powerful, highly functional, attractive, and compact. I'll probably end up selling the other devices I own just to clear out space in my AV rack so I can add significantly more external storage capacity to this Shield TV Pro. (Like a 10 port USB 3 hub + some 8TB external drives, perhaps?) At some point, I plan to put our entire photo and music collections (accumulated over 35+ years) on the Shield Pro, as well as those movies I still own on disc only. Honestly, I haven't touched any of my other devices since getting this box. This machine does everything so well the thought of going back to using something else is just too irritating to consider. Bottom line: This is the best 4K streaming box you can buy. Period. On top of that, you get the added bonus of being able to play a massive variety of games on it. It's really a double win. Highly recommended!

As an Android TV: Absolutely the best Android TV box on the market right now. Navigating around any app on the shield is a breeze, very snappy and responsive with hardly any load times. This box is the first box fully optimized to work with Plex and does so very well. This is ALSO the FIRST android tv box to have amazon prime video on it. If your purchasing this specifically as a "media center" you will be very satisfied with what you get. As an Emulating Power House: For me this was actually the main selling point of the box. You can pretty much download any emulator you want on this thing and play ANY and i mean ANY old game you want. This was specifically exciting for me, I envisioned myself grabbing the shield and taking it over to a friends house to play some Super Smash Bros or some Mario cart. OR reliving my childhood playing games that I loved as a kid but haven't played since the 90's. Not to mention these days you can emulate the PS3 and the xbox 360, and play some newer games. As a Game Stream Device: Game stream is another feature that adds quite a bit of usefulness to the Shield. If you have a gaming pc with an Nvidia card you can easily stream games from your PC to your TV. This has proven to be a really cool feature with games that I own on the PC but are better played with a console controller. Since i have owned the Shield i have used this feature almost exclusively to play Rocket League with my roommates, which it does a great job at. HOWEVER it is important to remember that when using game stream the shield is going to cut down whatever resolution your running on your computer to a maximum of 1080p on the TV its being streamed to. This isnt a huge deal, definitely noticeable quality difference but when you consider what your actually doing (streaming a game over your local network) 1080p sounds pretty good. *Game stream will be throttled back to 720p when using a wireless connection *For those of you who have a gaming pc that does not have an Nvidia GPU, don't fret there is an app called KinoConsole that will allow you to game stream as well. The Shield is also optimized for twitch streaming right out of the box. you can set up your twitch stream and then simply hit a button inside the menu on the shield to start streaming. Hardware: The interior hardware in this thing is essentially the exact same hardware as the Nintendo switch. The x1 processor in it is a monster. I have yet to find anything that has been too demanding for the shield. In fact i ran 3DMark and received close to a score of 5000 (for those of you who are unfamiliar with 3DMark this puts the shield in the top 1% of android devices) -As for the controllers; The dual shock Nvidia controller that came with the shield is actually a really nice controller. Very sturdy and good build quality, feels VERY comfortable with a slightly more ergonomic feel to it than an xbox controller. My only complaint is that its a dual shock, If you've been playing with an xbox control it will take you some time to get used to the dual shock layout. HOWEVER, if your dead set on using an xbox control your in luck. I have successfully used xbox 360 controls (requires dongle) and paired my xbox one controller via Bluetooth, and although I don't have one I am positive the play station controllers will also work. (sidenote: I am speaking specifically about using WIRELESS controls, ANY control with a usb cable attached will plug right into the back of the shield and work flawlessly) -For the remote this is where one of the VERY few differences between he basic and pro models lie. They are the same shape and layout, HOWEVER the pro edition remote is rechargeable whereas the basic edition is powered by coin batteries. Also the buttons on the pro remote are very firm and clicky whereas the basic remote the buttons feel a little squishy and less precise. Conclusion: It isn't should I get a Shield TV? Its should I get the basic edition or the pro? If your interested in android tv box, a device to emulate on, or a gamestream device any ONE of these reasons alone is enough to get the shield because its the best at all 3. I have been completely satisfied with this thing top to bottom, It looks cool, its functions great, and it out performs all the competition. The real question is what are YOU going to use it for. I bought the basic edition and within two days had the 16GB hard drive filled with emulators and roms. Due to this i returned it and picked up the pro edition instead. Now i have 3 emulators installed and over 100 games and still have 300GB's free to download more. Now its worth mentioning that if you have the basic edition and need more space you can simply plug an external into the usb slots on the back and there you are, But i was looking to be able to grab the shield and take it to friends houses, and didn't want to futz around with a bunch of things that have to come with it. Also if you are intending to use this a Plex/media sever its only gonna take 3 or 4 movies to fill the basic editions 16gb's. To wrap it all up, either the basic or pro editions are wonderful pieces of technology, and there really isnt much reason to get the pro edition unless ur dead set on not having extra hard drives laying around for the device and even then 500 GB's only goes so far on a media sever. PS: i forgot to mention that there is actually another minor difference between the pro and basic edition, and that is the IO. The back of the basic edtion has USB-A 3.0 (2), Gigabit ethernet, HDMI 2.0b w/ HDCP 2.2 and CEC. The Pro edition has all these plus a micro sd slot. The SD slot has proven to be very useful for easily transferring files to the shield and can be used to expand on the space available, However this is a very minor plus and probably shouldnt be part of the deciding factors.

I was an early adopter of the Amazon FIre and loved it. Sorry, Jeff - the Nvidia Shield Pro smokes it. Setup was quick and easy. It uses an Android OS and I have used android phones since they came out so this isn't a big deal. Ethernet cable, HDMI cable to the TV, and power. Done. If you have a google account, setup is a breeze - and it linked up the movies and media I have through the Google Play store. The onscreen apps setup was a snap and setting up several of them were easy - in fact, the Shield offered me the option of using my laptop to setup the app; I dislike typing using those onscreen keyboards and the directional ring. I am likely going to pick up a Bluetooth keyboard - pairing is a snap too. The remote and controller have an internal battery that is charged up via usb. They are sleek and solid. I really like the volume slider control - very slick, though it is pretty sensitive. You can download the android remote for your android phones; don't know if there is an app for you iphone users. Both controller and remote have a 3.5 audio jack; this is pretty sweet...especially when your Bride is blasting Bowie's Darkstar in the kitchen with Alexa and I just want to play some Tomb Raider on geserve. Oh, did I mention that they offer a subscription gaming service at a reasonable rate? The catalog is pretty significant and I had some fun checking out the controller. Half Life, Tomb Raider....oh boy! I believe the service runs something like $8 a month and they give you a free month. Lots of apps and pretty easy to navigate. Amazon video is one of the preloaded apps but as just one of the many available apps, the voice control features we grew used to with our Fire TV don't seem to work (or I haven't gotten it wrinkled out yet.) I ordered a 4 TB drive and plan on testing the Plex app that comes with the Shield. I would LOVE to be able to get those DVDs and Blurays we love to watch on a streaming media server. Plex has a free limited service but you can pick up a lifetime sub for $150 - and it seems to be a good option for me. Being an android os device, it does give preference to google play. That's OK, I don't think that Amazon is going to take a hit unless the Google folk decide to get into streaming video like Amazon prime...and I don't see that happening. I DO like the built-in Chromecast; I can get rid of the dongle and free up an HDMI port on my television. Did I mention it was fast? Like lightning fast. It can handle 4k HD streaming with the greatest of ease. The streaming game server also did good work - of course if you have crappy internet service, you are going to have some issues. I am running 60mipps and am doing great. It's a $300 media center, game center, and - using google assistant - a virtual helper. It looks slick and has great potential. I am very, very pleased I pre-ordered this device. UPDATE: I've been using this for a while now. One of the strongest features is Plex...I have become such a fan of Plex that I am transferring all my blue-rays and DVD's to a portable drive that I can connect to the Shield. The other day I was able to use a wifi connection to access my shield server and watch content that I have added to the Plex library. One ding is I miss the ability to save content in Amazon Prime to watch later. I don't know if this is an Nvidia thing, an Amazon thing, or a Google thing - but I DO miss being able to peruse titles to watch later. After a couple of months of watching content from a variety of streaming providers as well as playing games from a vast library of titles, I stand by the Five Star rating. This media server is worth every penny.

Set Up: Hardwired with CAT6 ethernet 60 mbps TV: Sony Bravia XBR-55X850B HDMI cable: Monster Cable Ultra HD Black Platinum 4K Audio: Sony STR-DN850 HiRes Reciever configured with 2 pairs of front satellite speakers. Center Channel, 1 pair rear satellite speakers. (Satellites and CC are Polk Audio)1 Klipsch R-12SW powered sub. Wifi Router: Asus RT-AC3200 Additional Accessories: Logitech K830 wireless keyboard with touchpad Pros Unparalleled performance. I tried to throw everything at this to see if itwill suffer a hiccup. Downloaded several apps in the background while opening apps one after the other.... solid no slow downs what so ever. I ran Netflix (4k subscription)and Amazon Prime Video (4k)and I did not notice any signal degredation, pixelation or any video noise. In fact the video was flawless.(TV has been profesionally color calibrated) Audio was superb and spot on as well. I did not even need to adjust it even though the Shield TV has Audio video sync capabilities. This holds true even when casting through my cellphone using the built in Chromecast function on the Shield TV. For Kodi users this is the ultimate box for that. NVIDIA is a Kodi partner so they get the latest version and updates.(the latest Shield TV ships with Kodi 17 out of the box). I replaced my Firestick TV with the Shield and relocated the Firestick to my bedroom because of the buffering issues I have with the Firestick (yes I know that hardwiring will always be superior than using WiFi even if I'm using one of the best AC routers in the market...and yes this might not have been an issue if I had the Fire TV instead of the Firestick) I also played some Android Games and some subscription games through GeForce Now and there was no noticeable lag but then I'm only a casual gamer. Game play was smooth and framerates were fluid no suprise here since this is NVIDIA's expertise. Cons Though the actual game play on the NVIDIA Shield TV was quite good it was not however perfect. The culprit is not in the app or the Shield TV itself but it's due to the game controller. It's not bad but is not that great either even if it ships with the new and improved updated controller. It is ergonomic and comfortable but the direction pads and and contollers are not precise compared to a PS4 or Xbox 1 controller. I found myself not able to duplicate the same moves consistently when playing fighting games regardless how many times I try to do the same exact combinations. I also found that though the Shield uses the Google Playstore it is impossible to get access to quite a few games and apps compared to what is available for my Android phone. Even Google Chrome is not available in the Playstore. The issue is not due to NVIDIA's end but it's a shortcoming of the the Playstore. Google makes certain titles for Phones/Tablets and Android TV separately available. (TIP: you can get around this by downloading ES File Explorer and TV Launcher or Sideload Launcher. You use ES File Explorer to access Google Chrome and use APTOIDE to search APKs to download and sideload. You can use TVLAUNCHER or Sideload Launcher to launch the app)this is where my Logitech wireless keyboard comes in handy and useful and essential since the contollers are useless to get to the area where you need to click to download the APK files. Additional Notes: the Shield TV is the best setup for me since I am cord cutting and the fact that NVIDIA has unparalleled support for their products gives me piece of mind for long term use. (They continue product support even when almost all their competitors stop product support after 2 years)

Had to give it 2 stars now instead of 3. The shared drives (Internal and external) that is shared from the NVIDIA SHIELD TV Pro cannot be access unless the unit is power cycled (turn off - turn on). Not sure why the unit is doing this but for those running their PLEX servers or using this as a source for media it can be very frustrating. I am 1 star away from packing this unit up and returning it. I will give it 2 to 3 more days and observe. For someone who has some netowrk knowledge and the love of researching for things that don't work, this device is for you, for folks who just want to plug stuff in and expect a device to show up on the network and be accessible, copy and paste data into it, this may not be for you. There were a few items right out of the box where users need to be made aware of. Right out of the box - if you plug in an external drive and want to share this device on your network, you turn on a feature within option BUT the option isnt there (dissappears) - PLEX needs to be updated as indicated in their knowledge base website. The ease of transfering data from a computer(Win 10 machine) to this device is not as easy as most people think, I had to do a lot of research upon receiving the device. It's not as fun of an experience, the whole weekend was spent on research instead of playing and enjoying the device. I am still debating on weather I will be returning the device. NETFLIX - There is no Dolby Atmos Support, Atmos Audio). Kodi - You frequently get the error of "wrong credentials" when adding a source from a windows 10 machine. Solution, change the way you log in to your Windows 10 computer/server, log in locally instead of your microsoft account. SOUND - I am a big fan of the major sound formats - Dolby Atmos, True-HD, DTS and so on, I have a dedicated theater with a 7.4.4 speaker configuration, 120inch screen and projector, when True-HD samples or movies are played, you will get a clip/click of the sound cutting in and out, then it plays after 3 to 5 seconds - files were played from a gigabit network, an external usb 3.0 drive and within the local 500GB drive, same results. IR control - YES the LOGITECH harmony remote will work on the pro unit, one of the major reasons I went with the PRO. Google Voice works well, the remote and the game controller are solid devices. I use a bluetooth keyboard with a touchpad for mouse control, it makes it really easy to navigate. I will be changing my review down the road as I decide weather to keep the NVIDIA SHIELD TV PRO or to return it. NOTE - Love the packaging and box the unit came in. Onething I did not really review is the gaming aspect since this is a gaming device. I am mainly a console gamer (PS4 and X-Box One). I bought this device mainly for TV, streaming purposes. If I am to game on this device it will be for emulators and retro gaming, I tested one or two retro games and they work flawlessly. Google Chrome and some other applications needs to be sideloaded - Research this on youtube.

First bad experience with amazon and nvidia My first order of this product was a pro version with 500 gb hd and was dead on arrival , i used a gift card i received because of my birthday, and used it to lower the price of it because it isn't cheap compared to a xiamomi mi box , and Surprise!! the product did not turned on at all . the shipment was delayed for some reason , so i had to wait almost a week just to return it , I don't know if it was amazons fault or nvidias , reading the reviews from the rest of the people and the forums , i could say the'res a lot of defective units , search through the forum and you could end up with a HD failure in a few months , or the ethernet port could fail too , or even the wi-fi , or a power failure, who knows !! , and they don't sell AC adapters alone in case it's a dumb thing , so i hope mine lasts at least a year or more before it stops working , Why doing and selling this product with very cheap materials? (you could get a third party brand to build them for you instead , like you do with your graphic cards, gygabit or asus). If it fails and you're lucky enough it will fail before the warranty ends so you can get a replacement , it wasn't a defective unit batch since i was buying this in November 2018 , so most likely you could end up wasting your money. So i really i needed this thing (or wanted ) and this is where amazon gave me a really bad experience , OK my first unit was faulty no worries it happens i can get a refund meanwhile i buy it again right? , then i tried to buy it again , meanwhile the return process was going through with the faulty one ,i realized you can buy 1 of these per user , so i call support so they can help me to buy (not getting a replacement immediately , nor getting another one for free , just buy it again ) , and they seem to have this stupid business rule ,where you can only have one an ongoing order related to that product . So literally if this things fail's you on arrival you can't buy another one , until the whole process is done , because amazon doesn't want you to have more that one. The only solution they gave me is to create another account and buy it again?? i used amazon gift cards on the first one , so now i will have to pay the full price , slow shipping since the new account wont be prime , and without any warranty that it wont fail or will be dead on arrival , shame on you amazon , the thing that pissed me of the most was the telephone agent's answer , please don't get mad , things like that happens all the time.... meanwhile this whole thing was going on i decided to order it on best buy , so i could pick it up , it was on the store 3 days later , and i came by the physical store to pick it up , and even got a free sling tv subscription for 30 days , they don't let you try if it works right on the store but you can return it within 2 months , and the hassle was minimum for me the consumer!! , this time my shield worked like a charm , i tried it , played with it for 2 weeks , and amazon took all those days to emit the refund so i could see it into my account , because it was black friday took way more time. Save your time and choose a physical store for this one , because this product has a 30% chance it will fail and some point of it's usage life , and amazon won't back you up with this. and Best Buy or any Small store could help you or refund you right away. and if you buy it with some extra warranty you will have a better experience. Now the product's review It works , its amazing , the Geforce Now free games are awesome , the emulation for anything from atari to gamecube or even psp , owns every retro console , yes even the unreleased ps1 mini. And the controller is sooo comfortable. Netflix was ok and hulu , vue , youtube the same greatness , yes it does have very few apps , but if your smart enough you will be able to sideload them into the device i mean it haves a usb port or a Sd card slot in my case , Very fast , however you can tell whenever the shield is accessing its hd , because sometimes it loads content or apps a bit slower compared to the ones , such as mi box , but there's a work around to upgrade to ssd , and this will prevent your unit from dying at some pint in the future . because there's looooots of reports from users and forums complaining about this. So now i am just hoping this cool gadget doesn't die on me. So for me it's like a relationship with a gorgeous unstable hot chick , who knows how long that will last , try to enjoy it meanwhile. If you like to put your foot on safe ground go for the mibox s , its not that powerfull or atractive , but certainly will last a bit longer , and who knows , maybe Xiaomi will sell a decent upgrade in the future that will be able to compete against this. And maybe you will be able to sideload geforce now on it. who knows...

It's possible this review will be updated or rewritten when I've used the Nvidia Shield Pro for longer but these are my impressions so far. I purchased this specifically to replace a Roku 3 that was getting a little long in the tooth. I primarily used my Roku with Plex to stream entertainment content from my computer to my television. The Nvidia Shield is twice the price of a decent Roku but it is also the recommended box to use by the folks at Plex. Is it worth the extra money and is it superior to the Roku 3? Yes...and no. It's apparent out of the box that the Nvidia Shield is a much more substantial and powerful streamer than the Roku. It is much larger and heavier than the Roku 3, which always threatened to be pulled completely off my entertainment center shelf by the weight of the cords attached to it and sometimes actually was. The reason Plex recommends the Nvidia Shield over the Roku is that the Nvidia natively supports more audio and video codecs than the Plex, resulting in much less need for Plex to transcode audio or video files. I could be wrong about this but I don't think Roku natively supports any high definition or uncompressed audio formats even for passthrough to a surround receiver. I believe Plex transcodes High-res Flac files, DTS-HD and the like when playing them through a Roku, which results in a drop off in quality and heavier CPU and memory use if your server is running on a computer. The Nvidia Shield will simply pass these through to your receiver if you have one that can handle the formats, resulting in much higher quality audio and video than you get from the Roku--at least in theory. The Roku also has a fraction of the onboard memory and CPU power of the Nvidia Shield and never shuts off so it would periodically freeze and need to be rebooted or spontaneously reboot when having problems playing something. I put the Nvidia Shield exactly where the Roku was, using the same cords and receiver and television inputs. The Nvidia is not nearly as user-friendly to set up as a Roku. It took me longer to get through the initial set-up options and to set up channels I already had accounts for on the Roku like Amazon Prime, Plex, Emby, Vudu, Spotify, etc. The Nvidia has a tiny fraction of the channels compared with what's available for the Roku. Granted, at least 90% of the channels Roku offers are crap, but I already miss a number of them that there is no Android equivalent for. Those would include two that played old time radio shows, Showtime Anywhere (which is available on Android--but the Android television version doesn't work if you are a Comcast/Xfinity customer--they seem to be the only cable provider in the United States that doesn't support the app), Shudder (which is available in a legit free version on the Roku but only as a paid add-on through Amazon Prime on Android TV), FilmOn (which wasn't an official channel), MHZ Choice (which is also available as a paid add-on through Amazon Prime on Android TV rather than as an independent app), Xfinity TV (they really don't seem to like Android TV), and some others. My Nvidia Shield seems positively naked channel-wise compared to my old Roku 3 although at least one app available on both (Spotify) is superior on the Nvidia Chield. On Roku, Spotify eliminated saved playlists (for technical reasons, supposedly) so you had to search for whatever music you wanted to play. The Nvidia Shield has all your saved playlists (aka albums) available like on the smartphone version, ready for you to select and play. I spent a hundred dollars extra for the Nvidia Shield Pro mostly for the convenience of using it with my Logitech Ultimate Universal Remote and hub. I had read that the more expensive model worked with universal remotes and still had the IR receiver that had been removed from the cheaper model so you could use it out of the box with older universal remotes. That was absolutely not the case. The Logitech remote computer software added the Nvidia Shield to my remote all right and let me create an activity for it but the remote couldn't communicate with the Nvidia in any way. I kept moving the IR blaster extension but it didn't matter where it was positioned--no communication whatsoever--which was a serious kick in the balls. I researched the problem on the internet and couldn't find anything that seemed useful. Someone mentioned setting it up on the phone app instead of the computer, but that didn't work either--neither the Android app for my Harmony remote or my actual remote could communicate with the Nvidia Shield Pro, meaning I basically wasted a hundred dollars for nothing. I didn't buy the pro for it's meager 500Gig internal hard drive because it would have been cheaper to buy external storage if I actually wanted to use the Nvidia Shield with my media files stored on it. Finally, I called Logitech technical support and after about an hour of putting me off and on hold they unexpectedly figured out how to get it to work--but since it's over Bluetooth I could have just gotten the cheaper model. For anyone who is interested, this is what you need to do--you do indeed need to set it up with the phone app rather than the computer program although it's not as simple as just using the phone app instead. When you set up the Nvidia Shield you need to use the search for devices on your wi-fi network option even if your Nvidia Shield is connected via ethernet cable like mine. This will allow the phone to pair up the hub with the Nvidia Shield via Bluetooth instead of IR. Set up your activity via the phone app and sync the actual universal remote so it has your changes and voila--the Nvidia Shield now works perfectly with my universal remote--except for one seriously annoying problem which I will get to in a minute. Keep in mind that you need a newer universal remote capable of Bluetooth connections in order to do any of this--even with the Pro model, apparently. If you can't use the included remote because it needs to be recharged there is also an Android version. The annoying problem I mentioned earlier? The Google app is installed on the Nvidia Shield and needs to be used when looking for apps in the Play Store. The version of the Google app included on the Nvidia Shield only works with voice commands from the included remote or Android app version of the remote--there is no keyboard option at all. So you still need the original remote even if you have a universal remote that would normally eliminate the need for it. The voice commands also don't work all that well when searching for apps--Xfinity became Infinity, for example--and the app store isn't good at searching for sounds like apps. I can confirm that music sounds fuller and has more presence when played through the Nvidia Shield Pro compared with the Roku 3. Even lossy MP3 music files sound noticeably better. The version of the Plex app on Nvidia Shield could also handle some video files that the Roku 3 version couldn't open at all--although those same files did play on the Roku 3 if I used Emby instead of Plex. So far I haven't noticed any improvement in picture quality with the Nvidia despite its much more powerful graphics processor but since they both output video at 1080p I suspect the extra graphics power in the Nvidia is more likely used for games--which isn't what I purchased the unit for. It does come with a game controller, however, so maybe I will take the plunge eventually and try a little gaming. But the Nvidia also hasn't crashed, frozen or rebooted once yet, which might have something to do with the extra graphics power. It's a very good thing that I didn't buy this unit for Kodi. I had an Amazon Fire streaming stick for a while and played around with Kodi but it never worked all that well because the Fire Stick was underpowered in terms of memory and processing power and only worked with wifi. I figured the Nvidia Shield would be the ultimate Kodi box with its powerful hardware and ethernet connection--but that's not the case at all. On the Fire Stick you had to sideload Kodi but with the Nvidia Shield, you can simply download Kodi from the Google Store. But apparently, Kodi has changed over the past couple of years. Not one of the major unofficial repositories works--you can add them but the Nvidia Shield never seems to properly connect and is not able to install any unofficial channels from them And it isn't a matter of internet speed. I ran a Kodi utility and it said I can play 1080p movies, 3D movies and pretty much anything else without problems. I was able to sideload Indigo which is a sort of app store for unofficial Kodi channels but when I try to install anything it takes 45 minutes to an hour to download and that's over a very fast wired internet connection and in the end I get an error message that the app I waited all that time to get couldn't be installed because there was some sort of error. Initially, I thought the problem was specific to the Nvidia Shield unit but that doesn't seem to be the case--it seems to actually be a Kodi issue. When I found some obscure repositories I was actually able to install channels from them. The Nvidia Shield is an undeniable improvement for the thing I mostly used my Roku 3 for--Plex streaming. I might also eventually use the gaming capabilities as well and it's nice that the game controller is actually included. But the much smaller selection of entertainment channels compared with what's available for Roku is a huge disappointment. On the whole, this does seem like a pretty nice unit, but unless you plan on using it for gaming or heavy duty memory straining streaming you are probably better off spending half the money on a Roku and putting up with the occasional freeze or reboot. One other thing that should be noted is that the Nvidia Shield TV Pro can be used as a standalone Plex server without a computer. A version of the server (which I don't use) comes preinstalled on the Nvidia Shield and can play local content from internal storage and external hard drives (there are two USB 3.0 jacks). I don't use the Nvidia Shield Pro like that but it's a nice feature for people who have media files they want to play and don't want to go through the hassle of setting up a separate server on a computer. Update to review: I upped my initial review from three stars to four because the Nvidia Shield has grown on me with use. Both Plex and Emby work better on the Nvidia Shield with one exception--on the Plex Roku app and the unofficial Blue Neon Light Emby app (but not the official one) if a video wasn't playing right you could go into settings for that specific video to force transcoding, which would sometimes take care of the issue. Changing the setting for that one video didn't change any settings app wide. On the Nvidia Shield that isn't possible--the only way to force transcode for a video is to change the universal settings for all video playback in the master settings of the app then go back in and change the settings back when the video you wanted to force transcoding for is finished. This is a little disappointing. I had problems twice where a video on Plex was playing with the sound slightly out of sync and I thought force transcoding might fix the problem. For some reason stopping playback, going completely out of the Plex app and then going back in and starting the video again fixed the out of sync problem. Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with the Nvidia Shield except for the small channel selection. There hasn't been a single freeze up or unexpected reboot so far and I've come across no video or song files it couldn't play. Songs sound better, video looks excellent (I have a cheap HD television so the overscan adjustment turned out to be an unexpected boost) and my computer hasn't had to transcode anything so far that I'm aware of--everything seems to be handled by the Nvidia Shield itself in very sharp contrast with the Roku 3 which required a fair amount of transcoding by my computer.

With so many fine reviews of this product out there, I don't want to waste anyone's time. So just a few favorite things about it: - plays all video files stored on my home network, including HEVC files, beautifully--gorgeous picture and sound, no lag/buffering (my Minix Neo X-8h would lose sound for 5 seconds or more at a time when playing a video over my network, and I thought my network was bad, but nope--it was the Minix); - performance is still snappy as Day 1 even after loading a bunch of apps; - it doesn't crash, lag, or otherwise behave badly--easily the most reliable and stable Android device (or streaming-box) I've ever owned (I threw out my Roku 3 and Minix X-8h after 4 days with the Shield); - Kodi is a dream on this box, smooth as silk (but I'm talking about Kodi's core functionality--add-ons are inherently hit-or-miss); - remote control works well and doesn't require line of sight, so navigating is a breeze (but, I do wish it had more buttons, and would even love it to have removable AA batteries instead of a tiny one sealed inside; I wish the volume controls were actual buttons rather than the slider); - my favorite streaming apps are available in Android TV versions but I have had to do without a few apps I had on my old Roku. Of those, some are really just YouTube content in app form ("Revision 3" and "This Week in Tech")--so I just use YouTube, which is more fun/convenient than ever because I use voice control to search for channels (works well, unless my A/C is on, then it can't hear me clearly). - it's a genuine Chromecast receiver, so casting to this thing works like a charm, and helps with situations where there isn't a native Android (or Android TV) version of an app. I cast effortlessly from both an Android phone and iPad. - Runs regular Android apps but they need to be side-loaded and may require something like an air-mouse to control them, and those apps don't show up in your main app list making it easy to forget you installed them (and requiring extra step to launch them). Pricey, yes, but worth it (and I'm not a gamer). There's astonishingly little room for improvement, in my view.