All things Nvidia Shield for SD project

[IownFIVEechos]

I know a few people have this device now. The latest patch was released for the MPEG2. First question; did that help with the interlacing etc.. Second question can I play 'Steam' off this device? I know they have a GRID environment but can I access STEAM off my LAN PC's and will I need the GTX video card (or whatever they say is minimum). Also can I access my games from GOOGLE PLAY or do I need to buy in their eco system? And Lastly is it worth getting the higher storage unit or can I use memory cards and save to them? Thanks. I will need a bunch of these and want to make sure I don't invest in the wrong direction (although that will probably happen anyways).

[Ed]

Interlacing looks fine to me, but I'm not a stickler for these things unless they're obvious or offensively bad. People who are stickers say it looks good. The only issue they say is audio is stereo only and not 5.1 (for TV).

Yes, you can stream Steam to the device, I do it all the time.

Yes, you can buy Google Play games, not just the Nvidia Android games; but you can buy those as well. GRID is Nvidia cloud streaming games, and is another option. The Google Play games have to be Android TV compatible though. Meaning, they need to work with a remote or gamepad.

I went with 16GB. You can add USB devices and a Micro SD card as additional storage to either version. I would only get the 500GB version if you plan to download/play a lot of the Nvidia Android games. Which I'd rather have them on Steam anyway.

The only issue with the SHIELD is, even with the Harmony profile - numerical keys don't work. It's not supported even though they're listed in the Harmony profile in the Harmony app. Not a big deal to me, but for some it might be. Depending on how good your TVs HDMI-CEC compatibility is, you might get numerical keys with that (I do on 2 of my Nexus Players and TVs), or you can buy an OTG USB HUB, get a FLIRC - set the remote up that way (instead of via the Harmony software and using the SHIELD's IR port) to get numerical keys (which I do on my third Nexus Player).

[IownFIVEechos]

Great thanks for the info. Do you need the Nvidia video card to get STEAM? For some reason I remember reading you need a GTX card or something like that. Also how do you access STEAM does it come up as an APP on the main menu? Thanks again.

[Ed]

You need a Nvidia GTX 600 series or greater GPU. They're (600 series) the earliest ones with the video encoding chip onboard that is used in streaming; thus the earliest compatible ones.

Steam shows up as an app/game in the tile called 'GeForce PC games' - which only shows up if the SHIELD detects a PC on your network with the minimum required GPU. If you have PC games set up/optimized with the GeForce Experience app on your PC, those games show up as tiles/entries there too. I don't do that, so my only entry in it is Steam.

[IownFIVEechos]

The end goal is, DL NAS, (5) shields (yes 5, please no jokes!) and Prime. Tight and nice. But extra for the tv remote control on the shields that's weird stuff. I would have thought they would be included. And no one wants 5 gamepads; been there done that with the xbox's. Ends up a waste. I guess EBAY. But that's a lot of work!

[Ed]

The end goal is, DL NAS, (5) shields (yes 5, please no jokes!) and Prime. Tight and nice. But extra for the tv remote control on the shields that's weird stuff. I would have thought they would be included. And no one wants 5 gamepads; been there done that with the xbox's. Ends up a waste. I guess EBAY. But that's a lot of work!

You're still gonna need the gamepads to play Steam games - the 360 controller (and thus I'm assuming other Android TV compatible 3rd party controllers) isn't fully compatible wits Steam game streaming through the official Geforce game stream app. If you use Moonlight (which is a 3rd party game stream app - reversed engineered from the official one) then the 360 controller (and again, assuming all other 3rd party compatible ones) work perfectly. I've made them aware of the issue, but lord knows if they'll issue a fix for it (here's hoping).

If you're not gonna use Harmony remotes - and you're not gonna use the SHIELD controller - you have the option to go with Nexus Players - almost all functionalities of the SHIELD can be reproduced on the Nexus Player (IR support and ethernet - you get OTG ethernet+USB all-in-one hubs and a FLIRC for each Nexus Player; game streaming - you use the previoduly mentioned Moonlight app). All for cheaper too (even with the additional purchases/accessories you need to buy). The only thing that can't be reproduced is the speed of the SHIELD over the Nexus Player - but that really only comes into play when playing resource intensive Nvidia Android games locally on the SHIELD - when it comes to just apps or Steam streaming or run-of-the-mill Android games - the Nexus player isn't slow in any regard and the extra power of the SHIELD kinda goes to waste. You also can't play the NVIDIA Android games on the Nexus Player - but as I mentioned - it's better to have those on Steam as you'll get better graphics - and probably get them for cheaper during Steam sales. Plus, you can play them on the PC itself when you so desire. Then with the Nexus Players - updates come right from Google as soon as they're ready. Nvidia is actually pretty good with Android updates (one of the best so far), but they still need to wait till Google releases the update, and then modify it for the SHIELD. So, as good as it might be, you still we be waiting longer than with the Nexus Player. The SHIELD has MPEG2 support right now - and the Nexus Player doesn't - but the Nexus Player is already officially getting it with the next Android (Android M) update, confirmed by Google. You could install that now onto the Nexus Player (it's in preview for download) to get MPEG2 HW decoding now, but it's not final and a bit buggy. Just some things to consider.