Anyone rocking the Nvidia Shield (Android TV)?

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by schocker

Memx has it up for preorder at $279

Even better. Amazon is still $289.

[Gman.45]

Well, I'm sold on the Shield, researched it a bit more, but this thread has all the highlights anyway. I need a new unit, as we added another TV to our place in SK, I've been running a 55" Sony 4kHDR, and got the 65" x850 for xmas. I have 2 HTPCs, and they work fine, run a NAS for both of them, but seeing as the Shield can mount NAS, works with my Logi 810 HTPC BlueTooth KB/Mouse combos, and does everything else, plus the controller - easily the best unit for the $.

I get all my PC stuff from MeMex, so I'll take the savings for their preorder too.

I'll be using all of the Shields capabilities pretty much, 4k Netflix/YT/etc, Kodi, and so on. If it works well, I may replace the HTPC in our theater room with it, as sometimes games in there are fun times on a very large screen.

[colinderksen]

I'm not very tech savvy but I have a tronsmart with kodi LibreElec. I know nothing of how it works/is programmed other than it is awesome. Seems like these boxes get pretty high tech and out of my scope. I cancelled all cable and streaming services since I got this. All sports, movies, tv shows, pay per views, etc. in Hd for free.
The Exodus app is the best for movies and tv shows. It has everything. I have been able to find everything, even old obscure 60s shows my dad used to watch.
It came with a remote but I use the app to control it.
I didn't know you could play games on it? I don't think mine is setup for that.

[Mitsu3000gt]

^^ The Shield is actually primarily a gaming device. Nvidia wants you to pay them to stream games to it from their high powered gaming servers, but it *also* happens to be the most powerful media box out there, which is why I bought it and probably most others here. I like it because it's by far the fastest and most polished media box for Netflix/PLex, and it can send proper uncompressed surround audio formats to a home theater - everything else is gravy. All the game stuff should be right in your face pretty much - if you don't see that maybe you disabled it in the menus.

The Phoenix add-on for Kodi is really good too and has HD NHL games along with anything else you can imagine, similar to Exodus. There is also a south park channel with every single episode from all 20 seasons in HD.

[Mitsu3000gt]

An update to the Shield comes out today, adding android 7.0, Amazon Prime Video, new menu system, and some other things. Keep an eye out for it.

[schocker]

Looks like they are now on sale. Memx seems to have a bunch of stock so I will probably try to pick one up after work. Then I can give my chromecast to my parents.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by schocker
Looks like they are now on sale. Memx seems to have a bunch of stock so I will probably try to pick one up after work. Then I can give my chromecast to my parents.

Amazon said they weren't out until the 16th, a friend of mine placed a pre-order and it's already out for delivery today, so it's nice to see something get released precisely on time.

[jwslam]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt


Amazon said they weren't out until the 16th, a friend of mine placed a pre-order and it's already out for delivery today, so it's nice to see something get released precisely on time.

They're pretty good with that stuff. I got my pokemon go+ shipped overnight on release day.

[schocker]

Well looks like the amazon app isn't available in Canada at least and netflix 4k isn't showing up. So some issues currently.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Make sure you have all of the following satisified for 4K:

https://help.netflix.com/en/node/25889 (go to ultra HD tab)

Most likely it's your plan. If you are like most people and have had Netflix for a long time, you are still on the regular plan. It's another $2/mo to get 4K.

Amazon app should be coming in the update but I haven't read anything that it's USA only - that would be dumb.

[schocker]

I already have the plan because I have been using it on my tv since last year and on my xbox one s. Not sure what the issue is but nvidia support seems to be really fast to reply. From the reviews on amazon it looks like people have access to amazon and no issues with 4k netflix so I am slightly confused. Will try again once I am home though. I do have mine set to 4k30hz in the shield which I am assuming wouldn't be a problem.

[schocker]

So found out that the amazon app uninstalls when you set this up and it is not available in Canada.....
I will probably be returning this for now as amazon was one of the main reasons I wanted it.

[ipeefreely]

I picked one up on Tuesday and been playing around with it a little bit... I'm trying it out to replace my HTPC that's pretty old and power hungry for just playing videos.

I'm thinking of picking up a 4KHDR TV this year so I wanted something that wouldn't have a problem playing at full 4K.

What's everyone using to play their "personal" video files?

I tried out the NAS storage option first from my windows file server and it wasn't to happy with my folder structure or something. It had a hard time finding my videos and music files.

Then i setup a PLEX media server in a VM and pointed it to my video files and it wasn't happy with all my folders again. So I created a single folder and put a bunch of files in there which it was happy to grab and add metadata etc...

Mostly wondering if I'm going about it the wrong way or are most people using PLEX to stream their media to it.

PLEX is pretty cool but I'm not sure if I want to invest in it yet...

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by ipeefreely
I picked one up on Tuesday and been playing around with it a little bit... I'm trying it out to replace my HTPC that's pretty old and power hungry for just playing videos.

I'm thinking of picking up a 4KHDR TV this year so I wanted something that wouldn't have a problem playing at full 4K.

What's everyone using to play their "personal" video files?

I tried out the NAS storage option first from my windows file server and it wasn't to happy with my folder structure or something. It had a hard time finding my videos and music files.

Then i setup a PLEX media server in a VM and pointed it to my video files and it wasn't happy with all my folders again. So I created a single folder and put a bunch of files in there which it was happy to grab and add metadata etc...

Mostly wondering if I'm going about it the wrong way or are most people using PLEX to stream their media to it.

PLEX is pretty cool but I'm not sure if I want to invest in it yet...

Plex matching is only 90% correct.

And make sure there isn't any stray video files mixed in.

As long as structure is clear and clean (I put each movie in it's own folder under movies, and TV shows have their S**E** tag naming correctly), it's fairly simple.

You already run Plex under a VM, make sure it has access to enough cpu cores for trans coding if needed.

[colsankey]

Running all my personal media through kodi (and Exodus plug in for almosy everything else except netflix/yoube.)

Already had diffrent folders for tv, movies and music. So just added a path in music for that. And then 2 seperate ones for tv and movies under the video library. Its so so about pickong up art work, but i dont care about that, i list it alphabetically and on text anways.

[afrotl]

Originally posted by schocker
So found out that the amazon app uninstalls when you set this up and it is not available in Canada.....
I will probably be returning this for now as amazon was one of the main reasons I wanted it.

Try disabling the location and it should show up

[ipeefreely]

Originally posted by Xtrema
...
You already run Plex under a VM, make sure it has access to enough cpu cores for trans coding if needed.

Thanks! I do need to simplify my folder structure and it should work better after that.
I gave it all 4 cores so no issue with the cpu being maxed out!

What do you think of the PLEX licenses (premium)? Is it worth buying the unlimited if each (phone) app will cost you $7?

Originally posted by colsankey
Running all my personal media through kodi (and Exodus plug in for almosy everything else except netflix/yoube.) ...

Thanks! I was going to add kodi also!

[schocker]

Originally posted by afrotl

Try disabling the location and it should show up

Yup. Saw that on reddit and amazon showed up so I ended up keeping it. I didn't realize the 16gb version though has no IR port so I am sitting there endlessly trying to use my harmony to no avail. The 500gb does have an IR port.

Watch out on TV ports also. Netflix 4k wasn't working for me as some of my TV ports are only HDCP 1.4 when it needs 2.2.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Mine's working great with Amazon video and I didn't have to do anything special or change my location.

That's actually a huge plus of the shield, since Amazon is at war with Google and Apple so you can't use the Amazon Video app on some other popular platforms.

[sk8r3124]

My only issue is that not all apps on the play store are available to install on the Shield.

Mainly Sportsnet Now, and TSN GO.