NVIDIA are best known for their graphics cards – I admit to being a fan of theirs on that front – but have dabbled in some other tech areas, notably video and games streaming; and in particularly broadcasting a game or video from a PC to another device.
Their latest offering on that front is the Nvidia Shield TV Pro system (RRP: $349) – which is, at its heart, a streaming box which is part ChromeCast and part PC-To-TV streaming platform.
The Nvidia Shield TV Pro has a small box (featuring a funky black-and-green aesthetic, tying in with Nvidia’s general brand imaging), a triangular shaped remote control (which I thought was pretty cool) and a power supply.
Size-wise, it measures 9.8cm long by 15cm wide and 2cm high, and weighs 250 grammes – fitting in with the idea that it’s easy to keep out of the way behind your TV if you’re one of those people who likes a minimalist look in your entertainment space.
The technical specifications are impressive – The processor is a Tegra X1 with 3GB RAM, running Android 9.0.
The unit is 4K HDR capable (at 60fps) and also has AI upscaling to bring 720p and 1080p content up to 4K at 30fps. The unit also supports the major codecs including Xvid, DivX, AVI, MKV, MP4, WEB-M MOV, H.264, H.265 and HEVC.
There’s an onboard 16GB of storage too, which can be expanded by plugging in USB sticks/external HDD or SSDs.
It’s also Google Home and Amazon Alexa compatible too, which helps with integrating it into a smart home setup.
I was very surprised the box didn’t include an HDMI cable. Sure, I’ve got heaps of them, but I’m a tech and gaming journo. Your average punter shouldn’t be expected to potentially have to make a mad dash to Officeworks or JB Hi Fi because their $350+ streaming device didn’t have a required cable in the box.
From a gaming perspective, the Shield’s main function is to let you stream games from your computer (or phone) onto the TV, and in that respect it works very well. Working via the Nvidia GeForce Experience programme on your PC, setting up the streaming functionality was straightforward and once it connected, worked well with no major lag issues.
You can connect an Xbox or PlayStation controller to the Shield via Bluetooth to control your games and this worked well – I didn’t notice any input lag, but then I wasn’t playing twitchy first-person shooters either.
The challenge is I’m not entirely sure why most people might want a Shield TV Pro.
Flat-screen TVs have come with installed apps for watching Netflix/Stan/YouTube/ABC iView etc for years now, and if you’ve got a non-smart TV you can buy a Chromecast from JB Hi Fi for $59 that does a lot of the same stuff as the Shield units in that regard – including broadcasting from your phone or tablet to a TV, too.
Given you can buy an Xbox One S All Digital brand new for $349, I’d suggest most users would honestly be better off doing that and having a console as a result, too – and they wouldn’t need to stream games from the PC to their living room, either.
Most PC games are also on Xbox, you’d get all your streaming content apps (Netflix, Stan, YouTube, etc), it’s 4K capable, and you also get a controller as well.
In fact, if you’ve already got an Xbox One, then I simply can’t see much point in buying a Shield TV Pro.
The Nvidia Shield TV Pro is well made, does what it says it will and does it well – indeed, it’s the best streaming device I’ve used – but at the same time it just seems like an answer in search of a question which not that many of us are asking.
If you really want to stream your PC to a TV then this is an excellent solution, but for pretty much everyone else it’s hard to recommend – not due to any fault with the unit, but because it’s filling a need they probably don’t have or which can be filled by a different product with either a lower price point or additional functionality.
If the price on these comes down, however, they would be well positioned as a highly capable and versatile media streaming centre – so keep an eye out there.
