Original NVidia Shield TV Gets Android Nougat Update

By Sean Sinha

Owners of the original NVidia Shield TV device, released in 2015, will be pleased to know that the Shield Experience 5.0.2 was made available as an OTA update this morning and is now live for all users. Some of the improvements included in the update are listed below. Personally, I am excited that Amazon video is finally available, as it is the one service that we had that necessitated we keep a Roku in the home, as the Shield previously was not compatible with Amazon. It is refreshing to see Nvidia continue to support and update the Shield, as we’ve seen many manufacturers of Android TV-based devices simply give up on updates (Razer Forge TV, anybody?) after a short amount of time.

I woke up today and the Shield prompted me to do the update. The download time for the 1.02GB update went as fast as my ISP’s allowance, so Nvidia servers seem up to the task of rolling out the update to all users in a timely manner. I updated to to the NVidia Shield Experience 5.0.2 without issue and the process was very quick, taking just a few minutes from start to finish. The release notes say that it is update 5.0, but the actual release you download and install is 5.0.2. This is a version with some tweaks and fixes over the version that rolled out with the new Shield TV that was released in the past couple of weeks. I’ll report back with any issues, but so far, so good. This isn’t a revolutionary update by any means, but I’ll take HDR 4K streaming and Amazon support all day and thank NVidia for staying on top of things. If Nvidia keeps it up, they should be in a position to really do well in the set top box market and disrupt players like Roku and Apple TV, provided Nvidia do the correct marketing of the device.

Whats New SHIELD Experience Upgrade 5.0

Amazon Video

Stream thousands of popular movies and TV shows in up to 4K HDR. Watch exclusive Amazon originals like The Grand Tour with an Amazon Prime Membership.

NVIDIA Games App

NVIDIA Games is the new way to find and play a huge library of amazing games on SHIELD. Here, you can access GeForce NOW games, exclusive Android games, and NVIDIA GameStream games. Plus, all the games that you install or play will now show up in the games row on the SHIELD home screen.

NVIDIA Games replaces the former SHIELD Hub app and its associated home screen tiles (SHIELD games, GeForce NOW, and GameStream). This update will be a staged rollout and will happen over the next few weeks via app update on the Google Play Store.

GeForce NOW Performance Upgrade

Now, you can instantly play on-demand PC games with performance up to GeForce GTX 1080 gaming graphics in the cloud.

GameStream in 4K HDR

NVIDIA GameStream has been upgraded to provide 4K HDR, as well as smoother, lower-latency streaming. Play your library of PC games and enjoy direct access to Steam Big Picture from the Steam app.

Nest

View live video from your Nest Cams with the new Nest app on SHIELD. With Nest Aware, you can even watch each cameras video history.

More Apps

SHIELD welcomes the NFL app, the new Twitter for TV app, Comedy Central, Vimeo, and Viki.

Android 7.0 Nougat Upgrade

  • SHIELD just got upgraded to Googles latest Android 7.0 operating system. Enhanced features include:
  • Recent apps page: Double-press the home button to quickly access recent apps.
  • Picture-in-picture support: Try it out today in supported apps like Live Channels.
  • New settings menu: Enjoy quicker navigation with the new right-side vertical settings menus.

Other Enhancements

  • Added Pause/Play button functionality on the SHIELD remote by double-tapping on the volume slider.
  • Added ability to write to attached USB or SD card storage.
  • Added 4.1, 6.1, and 8.1 speaker configurations for Plex.
  • Enabled cast for HBO GO.

For the full changelog and additional information, visit the support page for the Nvidia Shield.