Best Streaming TV box, Nvidia shield?
Discussion
What's best?
Currently using a mi; works if a little clunky.
As I've canned sky and we'll be using streaming for a lot of important stuff I don't want any funnyness with motoGP, superbikes, F1 and so on I want it working as close to perfect as it can be. Broadband is zen unlimited that gets 65 wired, which the mi isn't.
My experience with things that use 3rd party apps is you're better off with something common and well supported than something with better specs on paper but not sold in great enough numbers to be considered essential to debug by the app makers
Looking at the nvidia shield, any views?
Or WHY?
Currently using a mi; works if a little clunky.
As I've canned sky and we'll be using streaming for a lot of important stuff I don't want any funnyness with motoGP, superbikes, F1 and so on I want it working as close to perfect as it can be. Broadband is zen unlimited that gets 65 wired, which the mi isn't.
My experience with things that use 3rd party apps is you're better off with something common and well supported than something with better specs on paper but not sold in great enough numbers to be considered essential to debug by the app makers
Looking at the nvidia shield, any views?
Or WHY?
We're still using a 2015 Shield TV as our primary TV box. All streaming content or our own local media libraries, no other TV service in the house.
Also have;
A MiBox S as a backup in case the Shield fails some day. It's ok, tad slower than the Shield but a lot of people wouldn't notice.
Apple TV 4K - try not to use it much, half the time you'll find it won't recognize the NAS resulting in the Apple TV requiring a cold boot (power off, leave 30 secs, power on). Then it'll work again for a while. Really can't be ar$3d losing time with it so it's relegated as an also ran.
Firestick (2018 or 2019 / 1080P) - Meh. Handy for All4 once in a blue moon. That's about it. They're cheap, so don't expect much.
Also have;
A MiBox S as a backup in case the Shield fails some day. It's ok, tad slower than the Shield but a lot of people wouldn't notice.
Apple TV 4K - try not to use it much, half the time you'll find it won't recognize the NAS resulting in the Apple TV requiring a cold boot (power off, leave 30 secs, power on). Then it'll work again for a while. Really can't be ar$3d losing time with it so it's relegated as an also ran.
Firestick (2018 or 2019 / 1080P) - Meh. Handy for All4 once in a blue moon. That's about it. They're cheap, so don't expect much.
Douglas Quaid said:
Other than that though can’t think of any negatives.
The downside is the cost, they're well ahead on spec and performance, but cost a lot more. The reason not to get one would be if there's nothing you want to do with it that you can't do with something like the Google Chromecast at half the price. I have the Google's, they're very good, my only complaint is that I've not managed to get a decent browser on to it to play streams from a specific website.
I want to be able to save a webpage as a shortcut on the home page, and have it log me in without having to enter the password every time, which I simply can't get it to do. It's always easier to find the content on my phone and Cast it, ironically this often fails initially despite Cast being Google's thing, because it looks like the Cast thing is a separate app hidden in the Chromecast and it has to load the App, then load the stream and it seems to not load the app quick enough so the phone stops trying to get the stream to load too quickly. It always loads second time, but it's a massive faff generally.
I use the last gen sheild for streaming downloaded moves and TV. It will of course do Amazon etc but I have no need as my tv does that .
I tried fire sticks, kido boxes etc, but the sheild is the only one I found that will reliably rub Plex and play ALL the different movie formats I have without issues AND play DD or DTS (Inc master) without issues... So long as you put your Plex server on another box, and not the shield. DO that and it's unreliable.
I tried fire sticks, kido boxes etc, but the sheild is the only one I found that will reliably rub Plex and play ALL the different movie formats I have without issues AND play DD or DTS (Inc master) without issues... So long as you put your Plex server on another box, and not the shield. DO that and it's unreliable.
paulrockliffe said:
I want to be able to save a webpage as a shortcut on the home page, and have it log me in without having to enter the password every time, which I simply can't get it to do.
There is a remote friendly browser which will do that. I used it briefly.If I can remember or resurface the name I'll share it with you.
paulrockliffe said:
I want to be able to save a webpage as a shortcut on the home page, and have it log me in without having to enter the password every time, which I simply can't get it to do.
I remembered what I used before - Open Browser for Android TV.And I had a shortcut added to the top row on the home screen. I can't remember if I could add the shortcut using just Open Browser, or if I used something like TV App Repo. Either way, it worked at the time. So worth checking out, if you haven't already.
I've a shield Pro. It's OK, but hooked up to a Phillips TV (and soundbar via ARC) it's quite flaky. Sometimes sound is out of sync. sometimes the TV plays audio as well as the soundbar, (out of sync with each other) HDMI CEC is quite unreliable as well.
Had none of these issues when using the onboard SmartTV apps. I've been tempted to bin it off a few times but the PLEX server is a nice feature and it's a fair bit quicker than the on board stuff.
Had none of these issues when using the onboard SmartTV apps. I've been tempted to bin it off a few times but the PLEX server is a nice feature and it's a fair bit quicker than the on board stuff.
That will most likely be the soundbar and arc having "fun".
My shield is set up once and never touched, and I'm obsessed with lip sync if it wanders. SHeild goes into my AVR amp via HDMI.
I've no experience of the cut down shield mind you.
When I bought my last gen shield it was an expensive pill to swallow bearing in mind that you can get Amazon sticks and the likes for £20 but it was the only thing I could find that played nice with all codecs, both video and audio.
Previosuly I had a WD TV, but it was discontinued and didn't support UHD. Was great to to that point (tho didnt have the grunt for h265)
My shield is set up once and never touched, and I'm obsessed with lip sync if it wanders. SHeild goes into my AVR amp via HDMI.
I've no experience of the cut down shield mind you.
When I bought my last gen shield it was an expensive pill to swallow bearing in mind that you can get Amazon sticks and the likes for £20 but it was the only thing I could find that played nice with all codecs, both video and audio.
Previosuly I had a WD TV, but it was discontinued and didn't support UHD. Was great to to that point (tho didnt have the grunt for h265)
Richyvrlimited said:
Whist I'd agree, it doesn't ever do it with the shield out of the loop
Ahh - thats a shame. I just find ARC a bit - well, unreliable. I have it disabled mostly - that's a lie - I let my TV send audio back to the amp - but we rarely use it as all "TV" viewing is done via a PVR with it's own optical linkGriffith4ever said:
Ahh - thats a shame. I just find ARC a bit - well, unreliable. I have it disabled mostly - that's a lie - I let my TV send audio back to the amp - but we rarely use it as all "TV" viewing is done via a PVR with it's own optical link
it's eARC actually if that makes any difference. doubly annoying is that both the soundbar and TV are phillips so you'd think it'd play a bit nicerWorking well, whether it's the processing or hardwired internet to thank I dunno but much smoother playback than previous attempts.
Anyone got all4 working without all the swearwords known to man? Seems a headache. There's a couple of episodes of something we were in the middle of when I binned sky and I thought between Freesat and streambox there'd be a way to snag them, but I wasnt aware of c4s belligerence... Also film4 SD only on Freesat? And they wonder how they might dissuade people going "okay balls to ya I'll use *other* source then"
Anyone got all4 working without all the swearwords known to man? Seems a headache. There's a couple of episodes of something we were in the middle of when I binned sky and I thought between Freesat and streambox there'd be a way to snag them, but I wasnt aware of c4s belligerence... Also film4 SD only on Freesat? And they wonder how they might dissuade people going "okay balls to ya I'll use *other* source then"
Two options;
1.) Use a browser such as Open Browser and sign in on the All4 web player. Save it as a favourite or shortcut etc
(Still not seamless, but tolerable if it's very occasional use).
2.) As below...
1.) Use a browser such as Open Browser and sign in on the All4 web player. Save it as a favourite or shortcut etc
(Still not seamless, but tolerable if it's very occasional use).
2.) As below...
Corso Marche said:
Firestick (2018 or 2019 / 1080P) - Meh. Handy for All4 once in a blue moon. That's about it. They're cheap, so don't expect much.
Griffith4ever said:
I've no experience of the cut down shield mind you.
I've got the current cheap Shield hooked up to the OLED panel, 'hard wired' into a Tenda Nova node - which is actually connected via WiFi to the main node. Runs GeForce Now very nicely, with no issues of lag. I use it with an Xbox controller, and keyboard/mouse depending on what game I fancy playing. For all the 'Smart TV' stuff I use the built in app on the TV or just cast it from the phone, but GeForce now needs the Shield to run lag free.
gangzoom said:
I've got the current cheap Shield hooked up to the OLED panel, 'hard wired' into a Tenda Nova node - which is actually connected via WiFi to the main node. Runs GeForce Now very nicely, with no issues of lag. I use it with an Xbox controller, and keyboard/mouse depending on what game I fancy playing.
For all the 'Smart TV' stuff I use the built in app on the TV or just cast it from the phone, but GeForce now needs the Shield to run lag free.
I considered the pro but so far as I can tell it doesn't offer anything for pure viewing use over the cheaper unit?For all the 'Smart TV' stuff I use the built in app on the TV or just cast it from the phone, but GeForce now needs the Shield to run lag free.
What will stuffing an SD card in it offer me?
Thanks above^ we have an old firestick lying around so that's been stuffed into HDMI 5. Annoying as apart from that I could lose the dedicated rack WAP
After the Nvidia, the thing grinds along like a raspberry ripple doesn't it?Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff