Back in December 2016, an image leaked out which showed the alleged new NVIDIA SHIELD TV. Turns out the image of the device was spot on because at CES 2017, NVIDIA has officially announced their new SHIELD TV which they are boasting will support 4K HDR media streaming.
During the unveiling, it was also revealed that the new NVIDIA SHIELD TV will be the first Android TV device to support Google Assistant, a voice assistant platform that made its debut in the Google Home and subsequently found its way onto Google’s Pixel handsets. What this means is that if you don’t own the Home or Pixel phones, you’ll still be able to do the same things with the addition of being able to control your media playback using your voice.
Ubergizmo co-founder Hubert Nguyen had some hands-on time with the device and noted that the software has been largely updated around three key areas:
- key apps are much better. Amazon Video (including Prime) is now supported in a direct-deal with NVIDIA. This means that other Android TV appliances may not have Amazon Video unless a similar agreement has been reached. This plugs a major weakness of the NVIDIA Shield TV. 4K and HDR have also been added for the most popular channels/apps.
- The YouTube app has been much improved and is now more consistent with other versions you may already be familiar with. The original one wasn’t done by the YouTube team. It supports youtube 360
- Game streaming is much easier and consistent. With GeForce Experience on board, every game you see listed is guaranteed to work. Previously, it was a little bit more tedious to figure things out
Current NVIDIA SHIELD TV users will be able to get most of the software benefits after a firmware update which is coming “this month”, NVIDIA told us.
If you leave aside the size reduction of the chassis, the internal hardware is mostly, if not exactly the same as before. NVIDIA has confirmed this to Ubergizmo. The hardware changes can be found in the controller, which is smaller and arguably more comfortable to use – and in the remote, which is now battery-powered and features IR in addition to wireless protocols.
There will be a companion accessory launched for the new device in the form of the NVIDIA Spot, a microphone accessory which pretty much offers similar functionality as the Amazon Echo Dot, but seems cheaper. Users can place the device around their home and have access to Google Assistant wherever they go. If several microphone pick up your voice, the SHIELD TV will be smart enough to figure out which one is the closest to you and only process/reply using that particular one.
Pricing of the new SHIELD TV is set at $200 and is already available for pre-order and will be shipping to customers this month. Not that the box includes the controller and the remote, which were sold separately before. The NVIDIA Spot microphone accessory is sold separately for a price of $50.
Filed in . Read more about CES, CES 2017, NVIDIA and Shield Tv.