Anyone rocking the Nvidia Shield (Android TV)?

[schocker]

If I didn't have my firetvs, I would have shields instead, all I hear about them is great things. I have found that if you use the app moonlight though, you can make your computer think that they are a shield device and stream your games to them. Works way better than say a steam link and works on ios and android.

[Mar]

Originally posted by Hero_X
IP.S. How are you going to get past the region locking for Netflix? I'd love to know as well

Do you mean in general or since they've started cracking down on it? I've had US Netflix for years, I just use a VPN service which costs me $5 per month, though I'm guessing I might be able to use Hola on the Shield for free. Haven't tried it yet. The VPN service lets me pretend I'm in the USA so I can use Pandora, Hulu, US Netflix, any US based service I want.

They started cracking down on it recently and I can't get around it on my old Boxee Box but I was able to still bypass it on my laptop with the same service, I just had to contact them and have them change some settings on my account.

[Mar]

I just bought a Shield, it seems great except the controller worked for a few minutes and now doesn't seem to work at all. Nothing is lit up on it, I've pressed every button and I've rebooted the system by pulling the plug out because I couldn't find the power button. How do I get the controller to connect?

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by Mar
I just bought a Shield, it seems great except the controller worked for a few minutes and now doesn't seem to work at all. Nothing is lit up on it, I've pressed every button and I've rebooted the system by pulling the plug out because I couldn't find the power button. How do I get the controller to connect?

Obviously I can't see exactly what is happening, but go into settings - controllers and add/pair it. The system walks you through it. The controller can't be plugged in via USB to charge at the time of the pair either.

More help:

https://shield.nvidia.com/connect#controller-help-1


Also the power button is just a touch botton on the device itself (the nvidia logo). There is no traditional power switch. It just goes to sleep, you don't ever need to power it off, but you can if you want through the menu system. You can sleep it from the remote too, just hold down the back button and it brings up the sleep/power menu.

Did it not come with a set up guide or manual? None of this is hard to figure out haha. Also to wake up the controller you tap the nvidia logo - its just a touch button, nothing physical. You wake the shield itself up right from the controllers too, you don't need to hit the button on the device.

[Mar]

Weird, so you just touch that specific part of the controller which isn't even a button? I don't know how someone is supposed to figure that out, why not just have it come on when you press any of the buttons? Like any remote since 1975.......

Well it's working now, thanks for letting me know that, I didn't know that area was touch sensitive. I don't see where I can find a web browser though.

Also it's not allowing me access to US Netflix, it's doing the same thing my Boxee Box was. I can only access it from my laptop even though I have the DNS settings on the switch.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by Mar
Weird, so you just touch that specific part of the controller which isn't even a button? I don't know how someone is supposed to figure that out, why not just have it come on when you press any of the buttons? Like any remote since 1975.......

Well it's working now, thanks for letting me know that, I didn't know that area was touch sensitive. I don't see where I can find a web browser though.

Also it's not allowing me access to US Netflix, it's doing the same thing my Boxee Box was. I can only access it from my laptop even though I have the DNS settings on the switch.

Yup, super weird, just like you touch that specific part of your smartphone that isn't a physical button and stuff happens They are all marked - the nvidia symbols are power buttons, and back (arrow) and home (circle), play, and volume buttons are all clearly marked. They are all capacitive, and same for the volume slider on the remote and controller (which only works if you aren't using a HT receiver for sound).

The actual remote (not controller) is all physical buttons except the volume slider, you will probably like that better for general use. I only use the controller for games, the remote is better for everything else IMO. The system also tells you the battery level of all remotes and controllers paired with it in the menu. Two presses of any buttons on the remote will also turn on the shield itself from a sleeping state. Everything is bluetooth so you don't need line of sight or even to be in the same room.

No idea about your US Netflix issue, but I doubt that one is a Shield problem. Either way I would suggest hitting the Shield TV forums on the Nvidia boards, you can probably get the Netflix help you need there.

Oh for the web browser, hit the Play Store and get the app "Web Browser for Android TV", but this is not a device designed for surfing the web outside of apps. I don't think you will like it too much but it's usable. You can use mice with this too, which I imagine makes the web browsing experience 100X better but I've never tried. YouTube and that sort of thing have it's own apps optimized for the Shield.

If you don't like all the recommendations it makes for you, you can turn all that off too.

[Mitsu3000gt]

The Shield TV is now $20 off ($269) but the remote bundle is over.

[Mar]

This thing is amazing. I downloaded the Side Loader and used that to install Pandora and Hulu but I can't seem to find anything I can watch on Hulu without a Hulu Plus account and I can't sign up for that with a Canadian credit card it appears.

I also like that I can click an icon on my phone or computer and cast the video onto my television, as simple as that. And since it runs Android, I can download NES / SNES emulators and play all the vintage games on there too. I recommend it.

[spike98]

Originally posted by Mar
This thing is amazing. I downloaded the Side Loader and used that to install Pandora and Hulu but I can't seem to find anything I can watch on Hulu without a Hulu Plus account and I can't sign up for that with a Canadian credit card it appears.

I also like that I can click an icon on my phone or computer and cast the video onto my television, as simple as that. And since it runs Android, I can download NES / SNES emulators and play all the vintage games on there too. I recommend it.

You can buy hulu plus gift cards off of ebay that work.

[schocker]

Originally posted by Mar
This thing is amazing. I downloaded the Side Loader and used that to install Pandora and Hulu but I can't seem to find anything I can watch on Hulu without a Hulu Plus account and I can't sign up for that with a Canadian credit card it appears.

I also like that I can click an icon on my phone or computer and cast the video onto my television, as simple as that. And since it runs Android, I can download NES / SNES emulators and play all the vintage games on there too. I recommend it.

Hulu would work with an amex.

[tenth]

Originally posted by schocker

Hulu would work with an amex.

I have a subscription to Hulu Plus, paying with a Canadian Mastercard. I don't even think I had to punch in an address, just a zip code. It worked with the Canadian Postal Code to Zip Code conversion trick:

http://www.mastercard.ca/education/t...-gas-code.html

If adding 00 to the 3 numbers in your postal code doesn't work, keep going up until you find a valid US zip code with the same first three numbers (i.e. 24100 isn't a valid US zip code, but 24102 is).

[Mitsu3000gt]

Update coming soon to the Shield TV so it can itself be a Plex server, so there will be no need to rely on an external server or media PC for Plex - you can use built in storage, micro SD, or other expandable storage like an external hard drive or USB drive.

[Mar]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
Update coming soon to the Shield TV so it can itself be a Plex server, so there will be no need to rely on an external server or media PC for Plex - you can use built in storage, micro SD, or other expandable storage like an external hard drive or USB drive.

What's Plex? Kodi does that right?

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by Mar

What's Plex? Kodi does that right?

https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/art...-What-is-Plex-

Not really. How I usually describe it to people is it turns your entire media library on your computer (or whatever you use as the server) into an extremely polished Netflix-like interface. Currently, you just use the Plex app on the shield to stream content through the interface from your media server or PC. The update will simply allow the shield to also act as that server if that is somehow preferable with your setup. It's dead simple to set up and works so well it's quite popular. It passes through all audio properly and the primary reason I got the Shield was to use it with Plex.

[Hero_X]

question about plex,

I have a lot of movies and shit on my nas. The nas itself is said to be able to use plex however it isn't that powerful so it won't be much use for transcoding.

BUT! The Nvidia shield itself is pretty powerful, so will plex let the shield do the transcoding or will it rely on the nas's cpu?

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by Hero_X
question about plex,

I have a lot of movies and shit on my nas. The nas itself is said to be able to use plex however it isn't that powerful so it won't be much use for transcoding.

BUT! The Nvidia shield itself is pretty powerful, so will plex let the shield do the transcoding or will it rely on the nas's cpu?

I am pretty sure if you set all the qualities to "original" and all options to "passthrough", "direct play", etc. I don't think it does much, if any trasnscoding. Mine is set like that so that it sends the correct audio to my HT receiver, however I think it also limits or eliminates the transcoding done on the host PC/NAS, etc.

The other thing that would solve your problem is when the Shield gets it's next update and you can just make the shield itself the server with a huge HDD attached to it or whatever you like.

Or just use Plex on the PC that is connected to the NAS, and tell it to get it's library from the NAS. The PC will have to be on, but I'm assuming that isn't a big deal.

[Mar]

I tried buying Hulu gift cards from Ebay and Amazon, both have nothing available. I'm pretty sure selling gift cards is against Ebay's policies, probably Amazon too.

I tried buying a gift subscription from Hulu and they don't offer gift subscriptions any more. I guess they caught on how people were abusing it in Canada.

I bought a Vanilla Mastercard from Husky for $25 and tried going to vanillamastercard.com to register it as a US gift card but every zip code I tried shows as invalid, I don't know why. I tried my old address from when I lived in New York and it doesn't accept it, no zip code will work.

I tried buying a Hulu Plus account with the Vanilla Mastercard without registering it to a US address and it complains it's not from a US financial institution. I don't get how it can know that if it's just a generic card with no address. Did Husky somehow register it when I bought it?

[schocker]

I think for the prepaid cards, they actually have to be from the US.

[Gman.45]

I'll contact the person I use - she used to have an ebay store, but got kicked off after legal action by Hulu. She usually still gets cards, good deals too, the last one cost me 50$ CDN and was a 100$ credit for Hulu.

"Hulu Plus + 12 Months Subscription - $100 value voucher 30% off" " 0ritaus0 was her account there.

Anyhow, until then, I think this site still works, but it is more expensive and "no real deal" like Rita's cards were (I have an idea as to how she was getting them and am working that myself from my address in Palm Springs from a Condo we inherited last year). Anyhow, this site should work as a last resort - https://www.mygiftcardsupply.com/shop/hulu-gift-cards/

Again, it's full price, and not much of a deal, but if you NEED Hulu, it's the only surefire way for Canadians without US family, friends/etc that can intervene. Rita's cards gave me Hulu+ and the Showtime extra from Feb to July for 50$ CDN, which is an excellent deal, so I'll see if she can get anymore, as I"ll buy a few as usual, and can pass a couple along if anyone wants them.

I think I may drop Hulu anyhow, Crave has most of what I want and will be less of a PITA. That's really all I want in fact, services like those available in the USA only, same LEVEL of service and quality, for a fair price, yet in Canada. Until that happens completely, I"ll keep "pirating" Netflix, Hulu, HBOGo, and so on. Crave is an interim step in the right direction at least.

[Mar]

I added the Exodus plugin to Kodi, wow, what an amazing tool. I didn't know this existed but I no longer need any sort of subscription service, this is better than all of them.