Nvidia Shield TV 2019 Edition Review – New and Improved!

I’ve been a long time fan and pretty vocal supporter of the Nvidia Shield range over the years. Actually, that’s true of a few of us here at eTeknix! I loved the Shield Portable from six years ago and maybe loved it a little too much. It got used as a PC, it got used as an on-the-go emulator. Then we got the amazing Nvidia Shield Tablet, which I still use to this day to stream PC games, and on our long business trips around the world… So I can play PS1 games on the way. Plus, we at eTeknix have had a few of the original Shield TV units and the more modern 2017 Edition Shield TV deployed around the office for daily use. So, when I say that I’ve been looking forward to the new 2019 editions of the Nvidia Shield TV, you know I really mean it.

Nvidia Shield TV 2019 Edition

There aren’t a lot of big changes between the old ones and the new ones. There’s the “standard” version that we have today, and there’s the Pro version; which I’m sure we’ll get to soon enough. The big hitters this time though as Dolby Vision HDR support, something sorely lacking on the previous models. Keep in mind Dolby Vision needs a chipset, and can’t be done purely with a software update, so it’s nice to see this addressed. The new Tegra X1+ SOC gives it a performance bump, using the same chip as the newer Nintendo Switch models and Switch Lite, so we know it has some decent chops. All they’ve done is go from 20nm to 16nm but it’s basically still the same Maxwell GPU as before. That being said, it still makes it the most powerful device in its class.

Features

• 4K HDR Ready
• Dolby Vision HDR & HDR10 Support
• AI-enhanced upscaling for 720p/1080p to 4K up to 30 FPS
• Audio Support
  • Dolby Audio (Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Atmos)
    DTS-X surround sound (pass-through) over HDMI
  • High-resolution audio playback up to 24-bit/192 kHz over HDMI and USB
  • High-resolution audio up-sample to 24-bit/192 kHz over USB
  • Audio support: AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MP3, WAVE, AMR, OGG Vorbis, FLAC, PCM, WMA, WMA-Pro, WMA-Lossless, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Atmos, Dolby TrueHD (pass-through), DTS-X (pass-through), and DTS-HD (pass-through)
• 8GB Built-in Storage
• MicroSD Support
• 802.11ac 2×2 MIMO 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi
• Gigabit Ethernet
• Bluetooth 5.0 + LE
• HDMI 2.0b with HDCP 2.2 and CEC

Specifications

For in-depth specifications, please visit the official Nvidia Shield TV product page here.

Pre-installed/Included Apps

• NVIDIA Games
• Netflix
• YouTube
• Amazon Prime Video
• Google Play Movies & TV
• Vudu
• Amazon Music
• Google Play Store
• Google Play Music
• PLEX
• Google Play Games

What’s in the Box?

The box is pretty compact, about the size you would expect for a large mobile phone. Inside, you’ll find the remote and the Shield TV mounted with protective foam. Behind that, a power cable and quick start guide, and that’s about it. There’s no HDMI cable, which seems a bit odd, as it’s absolutely essential for use. Thankfully I’ve got about 20 of them in a box somewhere, but others may not.