The little engine that could is still chugging along as NVIDIA continues to support its nearly ten-year-old streaming media device. First released in 2015, the NVIDIA SHIELD TV entered the streaming media market when Netflix was king and many other services were still in their infancy, if they existed at all. HTPCs and consoles had their pros and cons, along with a plethora of different streaming devices, while the SHIELD TV offered up a simple but effective alternative with its Tegra X1 processor. By 2019 an upgraded Tegra X1+ processor was introduced featuring a 256-core GPU with 3 GB of memory (Pro Model).
Built on a TSMC 16 node, this Maxwell GPU upgrade, while powerful, was already on the verge of becoming outdated but has much to offer for streaming or gaming. With support for 4K, Dolby Vision/Atmos, AI-enhanced upscaling up to 4K 60 FPS, Hi-Res Audio playback, and the ability to decode/playback most codecs and containers, the SHIELD TV still has managed to hold its own despite an aged processor that essentially is the same as that found in the Nintendo Switch which uses a custom version of the X1. All this being said NVIDIA continues to support its SHIELD TV ($149) and SHIELD TV Pro ($199.99) with the rollout of a new update.
Per SHIELD HotFix Page:
“The second 9.1.1+ Hotfix deployed on 10/8/2024 as 33.2.0.201 with the following changes:“
Second HotFix (33.2.0.252) deployed10/8/2024:
- Match Frame Rate (beta) enhancement
- Resolves issue with SHIELD drive filling up
- Fixes the issue of No audio heard when headset is connected to controller and DAP is on
- Resolves issue of Geforce now crash after launch
- Ability to clear HDMI 1.4 flag via factory reset
- Fixed video distortion on “RGB 8-bit Rec.709” display mode
- Resolved USB HDD/Flash drive showing corrupted after hotplug
- NAS folder info shows 0 B and not the actual capacity
- Mounted storages aren’t listed after upgrade
- Fixes occasional crashes in DRM apps
A SHIELD TV successor?
According to VideoCardz, there’s a possibility a new SHIELD TV might be on the horizon featuring a version of the processor to be used in Nintendo’s next gaming console, something whose delay has frustrated NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and is rumored to be researching the opportunity to re-enter the mobile gaming sector. It’s said this processor could be called the Tegra T239 and be based on an Ampere GPU featuring 1,536 CUDA cores. If true that it would use an Ampere-based GPU, its processor would include Tensor and ray tracing cores, giving it support for NVIDIA’s popular upscaling DLSS solution as well as the means to support games with ray tracing. A new SHIELD TV would likely also include other upgraded hardware support such as HDMI 2.1b, Wi-Fi 6, and USB Type-C.