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Nvidia Shield AI Upscale


adamstewiegreen

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adamstewiegreen

I bought a Nvidia shield because Amazon has replaced the entire FireTV main page with Prime content and nothing else. 

I'm super impressed so far.  First, that front page is all mine, and I'm happy to decide what apps get to go there!  But most impressive is the AI upscaling.  I didn't think I'd use it because I don't have a 4k tv but I thought I'd try it on some SD tv shows.  It's really great!  I first tried it out on Fraser and wasn't initially enthusiastic about it as it made the SD "fuzzy-ness" look blocky, it was a slight improvement, but nothing to get excited about.  Then I tried Seinfeld, and it was noticeably clearer (it is a better quality rip than Fraser), with only a few artifacts.  But then I tried it on some cartoons, old 90's Dilbert and 80's Transformers and it knocked them both out of the park!  Oh my, Dilbert could have easily passed as a HD program if not for the aspect ratio.  What a treat!

Just thought I'd share that if anyone is on the fence about getting the shield ...

Edited by adamstewiegreen
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Gilgamesh_48
2 hours ago, Luke said:

It is a great device. Thanks for sharing.

I like my Shield but I find it to be more suitable, for me, as a server for Emby rather than a client. I find it, and most other Android devices, to have a clumsy basic interface that, while it claims to be made for watching TV, feels much more like it is a mobile device running on a phone that has been shoehorned onto a big screen. The Fire devices are better but still over influenced by touch screen type design.

If you like Android interfaces the Shield is most probably a reasonable client device but, for me, its power is best used to serve the files and not display them.

As a qualifier I have to state that:

1: I do not have any use for resolutions above 1080p
2: I do not need fancy audio. Anything better than Dolby 2.1 is lost on me.
3: I do not need sub titles for most of my media as I speak the languages for 99% of what I have and where I do not I just burn them in when ripping media.

I can see, maybe, the need for the Shield's power and versatility for those few people that can actually see or hear the slight differences the those powers produce during playback but most people only think they can see or hear the difference.

Each person must make their own choices for clients and servers but I see little reason for needing the power of the Shield for small, if any, improvements in video or audio playback.

I do not wish to offend anyone. I just want to express that, for me, the cost of a Shield for Playback is wasted.

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WilhelmStroker

I have a previous gen Shield and it's a great device. Plays everything I thriw at it without issues. Plus I really like the Emby app on it, especially the press down twice to see the summary. No, I don't need a new Shield to see the up scaling... No I don't... 

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BAlGaInTl
On 10/6/2020 at 2:30 PM, Gilgamesh_48 said:

I like my Shield but I find it to be more suitable, for me, as a server for Emby rather than a client. I find it, and most other Android devices, to have a clumsy basic interface that, while it claims to be made for watching TV, feels much more like it is a mobile device running on a phone that has been shoehorned onto a big screen. The Fire devices are better but still over influenced by touch screen type design.

If you like Android interfaces the Shield is most probably a reasonable client device but, for me, its power is best used to serve the files and not display them.

As a qualifier I have to state that:

1: I do not have any use for resolutions above 1080p
2: I do not need fancy audio. Anything better than Dolby 2.1 is lost on me.
3: I do not need sub titles for most of my media as I speak the languages for 99% of what I have and where I do not I just burn them in when ripping media.

I can see, maybe, the need for the Shield's power and versatility for those few people that can actually see or hear the slight differences the those powers produce during playback but most people only think they can see or hear the difference.

Each person must make their own choices for clients and servers but I see little reason for needing the power of the Shield for small, if any, improvements in video or audio playback.

I do not wish to offend anyone. I just want to express that, for me, the cost of a Shield for Playback is wasted.

It can make a good server.

What device/interface do you prefer for Emby?  I have first hand experience with Chromecast, Android TV, Roku, and Amazon Fire.  Of those, I think Android TV has the best interface.  The only other option I can think of in a streaming device is the Apple TV, and I'm not willing to sell my soul to that ecosystem.

Of course the other option is to build an HTPC with any number of interfaces, but that isn't for your average user. I've done that in the past, and found it was ultimately more trouble than it was worth.

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Gilgamesh_48
8 minutes ago, BAlGaInTl said:

It can make a good server.

What device/interface do you prefer for Emby?  I have first hand experience with Chromecast, Android TV, Roku, and Amazon Fire.  Of those, I think Android TV has the best interface.  The only other option I can think of in a streaming device is the Apple TV, and I'm not willing to sell my soul to that ecosystem.

Of course the other option is to build an HTPC with any number of interfaces, but that isn't for your average user. I've done that in the past, and found it was ultimately more trouble than it was worth.

For me Roku is the best by a good margin. Of course, as with all preferences of this sort, a lot of the preference could well have to do with familiarity. I have owned and used Rokus since the N1000 when they were known as "The Netflix Player." At that time they only played Netflix. Other apps came quite a bit later.

I believe that kind of thing is the real reason for most people preferring one device over another. Being comfortable whit a device's general interface goes a long way toward preferring that device. I have used the Shield and Fire TV devices for various periods of time and I made myself stick with them for a period of time so I became "comfortable" with the interface but I always come back to the Roku.

I should point out that a lot of the advantages of other devices are not wanted by me as I have no need or desire for fancy video or audio and resolutions above 1080p and audio "better" than Dolby 2.1 is simply lost on me.

For me Roku is the easiest interface to use and provides everything I need with little or no problems.

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BAlGaInTl
1 hour ago, Gilgamesh_48 said:

I believe that kind of thing is the real reason for most people preferring one device over another. Being comfortable whit a device's general interface goes a long way toward preferring that device. I have used the Shield and Fire TV devices for various periods of time and I made myself stick with them for a period of time so I became "comfortable" with the interface but I always come back to the Roku.

This is certainly true.  I've been using Android TV since the beginning.  Actually... I even had the Logitech Revue Google TV.

I still have a working Nexus Player hooked up to a TV.  It's not really fast, but everything still works.  I also have a first gen Nvidia Shield that's running great.  It may be the most updated device in Android history.  

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I've always wanted to try a Shield, was just too lazy. But now after trying the latest Chromecast, I'm going to buy one just because of Google TV. I'm just not sure on whether to get Shield TV or the Pro version. I don't plan on using it as a server, so I'm kind of stuck at the moment. Any suggestions?

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16 hours ago, BAlGaInTl said:

I'm not willing to sell my soul to that ecosystem.

I'm with you on that one...lol

The other option is to run Emby server from a NAS Drive as I have & stream from the NAS to the Sheild. Might be overkill yo some but it works flawlessly with multiple users streaming up to 4k on various devices simultaneously round the house.

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6 hours ago, arche said:

I've always wanted to try a Shield, was just too lazy. But now after trying the latest Chromecast, I'm going to buy one just because of Google TV. I'm just not sure on whether to get Shield TV or the Pro version. I don't plan on using it as a server, so I'm kind of stuck at the moment. Any suggestions?

Get the pro, it's much better than the standard device. For a start the pro has 3gb of ram instead of only 2gb on the standard Nvidia Shield TV. The pro is 64bit instead of only 32bit on the shield TV. Therefore cannot run some apps or be used as a server if you in some cases like with Plex Server which requires a 64bit system. The pro has 16 gb Storage expandable via USB available as opposed to 8 gb expandable ONLY via micro SD on the shield TV. The pro also has two usb ports which can be used for multiple uses such as attaching a tuner card, an external SSD drive or even a USB stick for extra storage, vital if your going to use it as a server. Where as the standard shield TV has no USB ports at all. Even though you stated your not planning to use it as a server, it's still nice to have the freedom to change your mind later down the road by future proofing your purchase.

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vdatanet
8 hours ago, arche said:

I've always wanted to try a Shield, was just too lazy. But now after trying the latest Chromecast, I'm going to buy one just because of Google TV. I'm just not sure on whether to get Shield TV or the Pro version. I don't plan on using it as a server, so I'm kind of stuck at the moment. Any suggestions?

It seems that Nvidia Shield 2019 (Tube) has a memory leak that makes it practically impossible to play high-bitrate 4K content (UHD Blu-ray remux), so if you need to play that content, get the Pro version.

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