When you think of a streaming device, the first thing that probably comes to mind is something like a Fire TV Stick, Roku, Apple TV, or maybe even a Google TV streamer. But for Android TV fans and power users in particular, one device that likely springs to mind is the Nvidia Shield TV.
Nvidia launched the first Shield TV in 2015, and thanks to its Tegra X1 chipset and 3GB of RAM, it quickly earned a reputation as a streaming and gaming powerhouse. In 2017, Nvidia refreshed the Shield TV for the first time. Then, in 2019, it released two new models that are still the latest to this day: the Shield TV and Shield TV Pro, both packing the upgraded Tegra X1+ chipset.
In the six years since then, there’s been extensive speculation about when, or if, Nvidia will release another Shield TV. And it seems, Nvidia isn’t sure either.
In a recent interview with Ars Technica, Nvidia’s senior VP of hardware engineering, Andrew Bell, neither confirmed nor ruled out a new Nvidia Shield, saying, “We talk about it all the time — I’d love to.”
- Brand
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Nvidia
- Operating System
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Android 11.1 powered by Android TV
- Resolution
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4K
- Ports
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Gigabit ethernet, HDMI 2.0b, two USB 3.0 Type A
4K streaming media player with Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, GeForce NOW cloud gaming, Google Assistant built-in, and more.
Nvidia will keep supporting Shield TV with updates
What could a future Shield TV look like?
While a new Nvidia Shield TV is still very much up in the air, Bell did confirm that Nvidia has no plans to stop producing or updating the current Shield models “any time soon.” He also explained that one of the main reasons Nvidia is still making the 2019 Shield is simple: people keep buying it, even six years after its release.
“No matter how much we drop the price or how much we market or don’t market it, the same number of people come out of the woodwork every week to buy Shield,” Bell told Ars Technica.
And while he stopped short of confirming that a new Shield TV is in development, Bell said they’ve explored new ideas and concepts about what a future Shield could be like, and that if the team finds something they’re excited about, they’ll “probably make a go of it.” So at least there is still a reason to be hopeful about the future of Shield TV.
Speaking of what that future could look like, though, Bell did tease some of the potential focuses, such as support for newer media codecs, like VP9 Profile 2 hardware decoding, which lets you watch YouTube videos in HDR, and improved support for formats like AV1 and HDR10+.
Another feature Bell teased for a future Nvidia Shield TV is reducing the size of the Netflix button on the remote, which is currently rather large and the only streaming service with a shortcut on the remote.
Overall, while a new Nvidia Shield isn’t entirely off the table, Nvidia still appears content to continue producing and updating the 2019 models for now. Which, amid the AI boom and RAM shortage, isn’t entirely surprising for Nvidia to do.
