The Nvidia Shield is a device that combines the power of a console with the portability of a tablet. It allows you to enjoy the best of both worlds by giving you access to PC gaming while providing the freedom to move around your home or office.
The Nvidia Shield has many features that make it stand out from other handheld devices. For example, it comes with support for 4K Ultra HD video and Dolby Atmos audio, as well as HDR10+ high dynamic range imaging capabilities.
But what really sets this product apart from other handheld consoles? The answer lies in its ability to run Android apps on the device itself! With the ability to run apps on your Nvidia Shield, you’ll be able to enjoy your favorite games without having to lug around a heavy tablet all day long.
There are three different models available: The SHIELD Tablet K1, which retails at $199 USD; SHIELD Controller (sold separately) with support for up to four wireless controllers; and finally, SHIELD Pro ($299 USD), which comes equipped with HDMI 2.0a output support, microSD slot expandable storage capability up to 256GB and USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C port connectivity options.”
Best Apps For Nvidia Shield
The best apps for NVIDIA Shield
With the NVIDIA Shield TV, you can turn any television into a smart TV with gaming options. Since the Shield has an Android operating system, you can install thousands of apps. Down below, you can find 5 useful apps that allow you to make optimal use of the possibilities that the NVIDIA Shield has to offer.
- GeForce Now 2. Netflix 3. Amazon Prime 4. Kodi 5. Plex
- GeForce Now
GeForce Now
GeForce Now is the showpiece of the NVIDIA Shield. With this subscription service, you can play games on your NVIDIA Shield from the cloud. For example, you can play top games like Borderlands 2, Hitman Absolution, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution with a lot of details in Full HD. Some games are included in your subscriptions, others you still have to purchase.
Fun for: People who want to play top games but don’t want to spend money on hardware.
Not interesting for: People who want to game in 4K and gamers who don’t want a subscription.
- Netflix
Netflix
Netflix is an online service that lets you binge-watch unlimited movies and series for a fixed price each month. If you combine the NVIDIA Shield with a premium subscription, you can also watch more and more series and movies in 4K Ultra HD. For example, House of Cards, Narcos, Outlander, or Master of None. This way, your favorite movies and series will look even sharper.
Fun for: Real binge-watchers who love to watch unlimited movies and series.
Not interesting for: People who don’t have or don’t want a Netflix subscription.
- Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime is a service that’s similar to Netflix. Amazon Prime now has quite a lot of original series, most of which are available in 4K. For example, you can watch The Grand Tour, American Gods, or The Man in the High Castle. You can also watch older series like Seinfeld. One disadvantage of Amazon Prime is that most series and movies don’t have Dutch subtitles yet.
Fun for: Anyone who wants to watch even more series and movies because they’ve already seen everything on Netflix.
Not interesting for: People who don’t speak English or don’t want a subscription.
- Kodi
Kodi
With Kodi, you can turn your NVIDIA Shield into a complete media center. This app gives you access to all movies, series, and music on any network drive or external drive you connect to the Shield in a clear menu. It also has hundreds of plugins for extra content. This comes in handy, because the NVIDIA Shield doesn’t have a built-in player for your own material. This app is indispensable if you don’t want to rely on streaming services.
Fun for: Anyone who wants to play their own movies from their network on the NVIDIA Shield.
Not interesting for: People who only watch movies and series via Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Google Play.
- Plex
Plex
Plex is also a media center, but aimed at making all your movies and music available on multiple devices. You can easily add all of the movies and music from your NAS to your library. After, Plex adds all of the information to the content you’ve uploaded, such as movie posters, summaries, and more. You can open the Plex app on the Shield and stream all your movies on your home network.
nvidia shield streaming apps
After years of waiting, I’ve landed on the the ideal menu system for streaming, one that helps you find new things to watch without overcomplicating the basic task of launching apps. And it’s landed in the unlikeliest of places: the Nvidia Shield TV, a $150-and-up streaming player that runs on Google’s Android TV platform and mainly appeals to tech enthusiasts.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Nvidia Shield TV (2019)
Nvidia Shield TV (2019)
Read our review
Best Prices Today: $149.99 at Amazon
Earlier this month, the Shield TV received a new interface that makes all your streaming apps much easier to access, while also adding helpful recommendations on what to watch. It’s smarter than other streaming platforms like Roku and Fire TV, and it has some big advantages over the similar looking—but in many ways different—interface on the Chromecast with Google TV.
Now for the bad news: I’m not sure Google is even aware of its own accomplishment. While Google has made the new interface available on the Shield TV and some other existing Android TV devices, it’s pushing the separate Google TV interface on newer streaming players and smart TVs. That means the Shield’s menu system is unlikely to appear on any new products going forward.
[ Further reading: The best media streaming devices ]
Apps and content combined
The old Shield TV interface consisted of a single home screen, with a row of your favorite apps at the top and several rows of “channels” underneath. Each of those rows represented a different app, which could highlight recommendations or recently watched videos, and users could hide or reposition those rows as they pleased.
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Apple TV 4K (2021)
Apple TV 4K (2021)
Editors’ Choice
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Best Prices Today: $69.00 at Amazon | $179.00 at Apple | $179.99 at Best Buy
That basic concept hasn’t gone away, and it’s still a nice way to glance at some top picks from your favorite apps, but now Google has added a couple new tabs to the Home Screen as well. The “Apps” tab provides a big grid for all the apps you’ve installed, replacing the old system of having to scroll and click on a little red “apps” icon. (Under that system, your apps also appeared in a narrow overlay that was harder to navigate.)
shieldtvapps
Jared Newman / IDG
The Apps tab lets you see all installed apps without any hidden menus or clumsy remote control shortcuts.
Meanwhile, the “Discover” tab suggests even more movies and shows to watch, grouped by categories such as “Comedies,” “Oscar-winning movies,” and “Trending on Google.” These recommendations come from across different apps, including Disney+, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and HBO Max, so you don’t have to jump into each one to see what’s on.
shieldtvdiscover
Jared Newman / IDG
The Discover menu lets you browse streaming service catalogs in one place.
To me, this one-two punch represents the platonic ideal for how streaming menus should work: Make it easy to get recommendations, but not at the expense of a simple and easily accessible app launcher.
Other streaming platforms haven’t quite figured that out yet.
The Apple TV 4K comes close. Its “TV” guide app is a helpful way to see what’s streaming, and from there you can click the home button for your full app list. Still, I find that double-click mechanism to be too clumsy, and while you can always reassign the remote’s home button to go straight to your app list, that in turn makes the TV app harder to reach. Apple really ought to streamline this all into one menu, like Google is doing.
Amazon’s Fire TV devices, meanwhile, stray a bit further from the mark. The Fire TV’s newly updated interface only lets you pin six favorite apps to the Home Screen, with the rest hiding behind a secondary menu. Underneath, you’ll find row after row of recommendations with no real sense of organization. While Amazon still has some smart ideas—like the ability to filter shows from your subscriptions—the whole system still feels too chaotic on the whole.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Roku Express 4K+
Roku Express 4K+
Editors’ Choice
Read our review
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As for Roku, its home screen makes no attempt to serve up recommendations outside of its “Featured Free” section, which only covers ad-supported streaming services. Roku’s focus on the app grid is part of what makes it so simple to use, but it’s a little too simple for my liking. The Shield TV’s interface offers the best of both worlds.
Now, I should note that not everyone’s thrilled with the new Shield TV interface. As 9to5Google reports, some users are incensed by the new promotional carousel at the top of the screen, likening it to a form of intrusive advertising and even review-bombing the home screen’s Google Play Store listing in protest.
I’m not too bothered by it myself. The carousel doesn’t really impede navigation like the mid-menu ads on Fire TV, and it doesn’t reduce the available screen space for apps, like the banner ads on Roku players. If anything, the large teaser art gives the Shield TV’s Home Screen a more modern look, in line with other streaming platforms and apps.
Android TV vs. Google TV
Sadly, there’s a strong chance you’ll never get to use this new menu system, because it’s only available on the Shield TV and a small number of other devices, such as smart televisions running Google’s Android TV operating system.
For new Android TV devices, Google has indicated that it’s pushing a different interface that it calls “Google TV,” as seen on the Chromecast with Google TV streaming dongle. While the underlying operating system is the same, the menu system has some key differences.
gtvshowpage
Jared Newman / IDG
The separate Google TV interface, as seen on the new Chromecast, has some unique features like Watchlist support.
Accessing your master app list, for instance, is more of an ordeal on Google TV. To reach it, you must scroll all the way to the end of your favorite apps row, then select “See All” to bring up a separate menu. Google TV also puts it recommendations front-and-center on your home screen, omitting Android TV’s channel row concept entirely. That means you can’t get any original content recommendations from Netflix or any other app that isn’t fully integrated with the new Google TV system.
The Google TV interface does have its own advantages. It lets you save movies and shows to a watchlist from any device, for instance, and it has a “Live” menu that lets you browse the channel guides of either YouTube TV or Sling TV straight from the home screen.
And yet, I prefer the Shield TV interface for the way it executes on the basics. It still provides recommendations from across different apps, but it makes those individual apps easier to reach when you already know what you want. Other streaming platforms should take note of how well it works. And, perhaps, so should Google.
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Author: Jared Newman
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