Nvidia Shield in 2024?

[BillOatman 596]

6 hours ago, Dibbes said:

RPi4 with Lineage ATV13 works quite well though you have to figure out the remote.

Otherwise a Nokia box 8000 if you want something cheaper and more ready out of the box... Forget about HD audio though

Thanks, I had not heard of either.  I will have a look!

[BillOatman 596]

22 hours ago, RanmaCanada said:

If you're in the USA you can buy an i3-8100T off lease micro PC off eBay for under $100 which will run circles around a Shield. Will easily run Linux or Windows or even Android if you want. The Shield is just a poor choice these days. If you want to do some retro gaming as well, you can get a Ryzen 5 2400GE for about $100-$125 which will also run circles around a Shield, and you can just use Batocera while installing the Kodi plugin for Emby on it.

Both these systems can software decode AV1. The Shield is pretty much dead.

From what I read, the i3-8100T would work nice. Even on Amazon it's barely over $100.  But I run more than Emby, Tivimate is one example.

[rbjtech 5284]

On 08/04/2024 at 04:36, RanmaCanada said:

If you're in the USA you can buy an i3-8100T off lease micro PC off eBay for under $100 which will run circles around a Shield. Will easily run Linux or Windows or even Android if you want. The Shield is just a poor choice these days. If you want to do some retro gaming as well, you can get a Ryzen 5 2400GE for about $100-$125 which will also run circles around a Shield, and you can just use Batocera while installing the Kodi plugin for Emby on it.

Both these systems can software decode AV1. The Shield is pretty much dead.

Sorry - disagree here. A PC will have HDR issues, No Dolby Vision, No HD Audio,3rd party remote control, constant OS updates,constant incompatibility issues... and despite what you may think, still uses more power than a Shield which is single digit Watts in standby, 10-15W Max when playing 4K.   There is a reason HTPC's as a mainstream platform have died ..     

I do however agree the shield is on it's last legs - if AV1 ever got going, then I think it would kill it - but as it stands today, it is still the best player with mainstream support for playing high end/high bitrate media - ie 4K remux, HD Audio and DV.     It plays them without issues and has done so for years.  It is also the reason they have stayed 'expensive' - they are simply in demand because they continue to 'just work'.

Edited April 9, 2024 by rbjtech

[Q-Droid 989]

How many hours and extra money would someone have to spend on a PC to match the out-of-the-box experience of a Shield?

[ebr 16169]

52 minutes ago, Q-Droid said:

How many hours and extra money would someone have to spend on a PC to match the out-of-the-box experience of a Shield?

Exactly.

[all4dom 101]

I'm not an expert but wouldn't a small modern PC output a better picture then the shield considering the hardware is older? Also no ads or clutter on a pc screen as fire tv & Google are making the home page almost one big ad even if the consumer hates it.... which most... not all but most do.

[ebr 16169]

3 minutes ago, all4dom said:

I'm not an expert but wouldn't a small modern PC output a better picture then the shield

I doubt it and you give up all the "just works" factor as well as streaming apps, etc.

4 minutes ago, all4dom said:

Google are making the home page almost one big ad even if the consumer hates it

Its pure economics.  Google cannot stay in business selling you one piece of hardware for $40...  The value you are getting is waaaay beyond that price.

[all4dom 101]

I was talking about the shield but I understand the comment about 40 dollars. But @ebrit's much more then just Google getting paid to show ads..... its everyone wanting some type of reoccurring revenue .... remember Mercedes want to charhe you a monthly fee for heated seats ...... everyone is getting in the business now of we want more ...... sorry it's more greed then anything else. 

[neik 873]

1 hour ago, all4dom said:

Google are making the home page almost one big ad even if the consumer hates it.... which most... not all but most do.

Including me and that's the reason my Shield has an auto-start to Emby which is basically the only app I use on it.
That way I avoid to see all the shit that Google places in the home screen.

[ebr 16169]

7 hours ago, all4dom said:

its everyone wanting some type of reoccurring revenue

Do you get paid every month?

Again, it is simple economics and ultimately boils down to people and other resources - all of which have to be "purchased" on an ongoing basis.

[CBers 7450]

18 hours ago, all4dom said:

Google are making the home page almost one big ad even if the consumer hates it.... which most... not all but most do.

Install a separate launcher, such as ProjectIvy.

I have had it running on my Shields for several weeks now and my home screen looks like this.



I have reduced it to only the 2 Emby apps, YT, TiviMate, TikTok and X-Plore now.
 

[all4dom 101]

@CBersthat looks pretty clean. @ebrlet me ask you this..... after all these years of people just selling a product..... Elon musk sells tesla, charges a monthly fee for the software & now other auto makers start thinking how can we make more money so gm wants to charge monthly for thier software & Mercedes was charging monthly for heated seats .... what's the value of that????? Now the economy tanks & everyone is looking for more money so they start exploring a monthly fee....used to be you would pay a monthly fee for tech support but now the new thing is ads. Don't sell a stick for 40 dollars maybe sell it for more but as we know our personal information is much more valuable. Call it what you want but it's greed. You know this article was about the shield butbits Luke everything else in today's time.... everything keeps coming back to $$$$$.

[ebr 16169]

1 hour ago, all4dom said:

what's the value of that???

Being able to pay all the employees the increasing wages they desire/need.  They get paid every single month - not just when you buy a car or whatever.

[Dibbes 514]

Hence my suggestion of a RPi4 (or a RPi5 now), install Lineage ATV on it. You don't have to get the Google stuff on it, so you can run it without all the ads. You'd have to sideload the apps though and you may run into issues with DRM for Prime and Netflix and more of these, but for Emby it's great...

Android 13
https://konstakang.com/devices/rpi4/LineageOS20-ATV/

Or for Android 14
https://konstakang.com/devices/rpi4/LineageOS21-ATV/
https://konstakang.com/devices/rpi5/LineageOS21-ATV/
 

Edited April 10, 2024 by Dibbes

[ShoutingMan 101]

On 4/9/2024 at 10:26 AM, neik said:

Including me and that's the reason my Shield has an auto-start to Emby which is basically the only app I use on it.
That way I avoid to see all the shit that Google places in the home screen.

How do you do that?

[FrostByte 5392]

On 6/9/2024 at 7:54 AM, ShoutingMan said:

How do you do that?

There are probably different ways to do this, but I've reprogrammed the Netflix button using Button Mapper to start Emby.  Button Mapper can program single click, hard press, and double click for that button so technically 3 different apps possible.  When I click the button, it powers up my Shield and auto starts Emby now.

I also have Xplore programmed in case I need to install a new version of Emby first, but 99% of the time it's straight to Emby.

[Teddyknuddel 136]

The Shield is good, very good in fact. But to be honest, I wouldn't buy it today. I don't know how quickly the new AV1 video codec will be integrated, but once it arrives, we'll look old with our box.

The fact that no updates have been delivered since 2022 alone says that Nvidia has withdrawn from this area of development. Basically, the Shield was only designed for one thing. To be able to play games from the PC on the TV via Geforce. And that was switched off in 2023, if I'm not mistaken. So the main reason is no longer there. The Shield could easily support newer Android versions than 11 in terms of hardware. A proper 4K Gui, and above all autoframerate from the operating system itself. Vague rumors of an update keep popping up online, but never without confirmation from Nvidia.

A completely new model could be interesting. The RTX technology integrated, perhaps also a little more RAM, could put everything else in the shade. But Nvidia would also have to be interested in that. The fact that apps like Netflix, Disney+, Kodi, Emby, Plex run on it is not a selling point for Nvidia. Their focus is on graphics cards.

Maybe, but only maybe, if people stop buying Nvidia shields, the manufacturer will rethink this when a source of revenue dries up.

 

[ebr 16169]

3 minutes ago, Teddyknuddel said:

the manufacturer will rethink this when a source of revenue dries up.

I doubt they'd even notice...

I think Nvidia's focus is elsewhere these days.  I'd like to see updates but, honestly, it just works for everything I throw at it right now.

4 minutes ago, Teddyknuddel said:

I don't know how quickly the new AV1 video codec

Actually not all that new and it hasn't exactly taken over.  I'm not sure there is anything really wrong with x265.

[Teddyknuddel 136]

Yes, the focus is not on the Shield. And as long as there is no prospect of a major update for the Shield in the form of Android 12 or higher, it would be a bad buy TODAY.

On the other hand, I haven't found anything comparable that can currently keep up with the Shield.