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zimmerfrei
altano
They added auto-playing, full screen video ads to the home screen. I threw mine in the garbage.
Pride and love, lol…
zinekeller
> They added auto-playing, full screen video ads to the home screen.
I'm pretty sure this is actually Google's fault (even Sony televisions suffer from this bullcrap). Unlike phone Android, Google TV (yes, that's the official name now) enforces certain "standards", one of them is this bullcrap.
embedding-shape
> I'm pretty sure this is actually Google's fault
Who cares who delivered the actual bytes or who initiated the change, the matter of fact is that people buy a device from one company, then the company is responsible for the experience they deliver while it's supported. Since they chose Android, they're responsible for the experience you get when using the stuff you buy from them.
I'd never complain to the maker of a compressor when it dies in a fridge, I'll complain to the one I bought the fridge from. Not sure why we're so adamant on thinking differently regarding computers. NVIDIA might blame Google internally, but feels like consumers are right to be pissed off about NVIDIA changing (or being OK with someone else changing) their experience in a product they bought from NVIDIA.
vee-kay
I use an old Amazon FireTV Stick on an old LG LED TV (semi-smart), and neither of them bug me with such fullscreen ads, unless I opt to watch MX content on Amazon Prime (MX is basically third-party ads-funded free OTT content; Amazon Prime requires subscription, and even its standard subscription has occasional ads for Prime content, though Amazon Prime also has a premium pricing tier for ads-free content).
I don't face such third-paety ads nonsense on Netflix and Disney+ (yet), at least on this old FireTV and old LG TV.
Unskippable irrelevant annoying ads and privacg concerns are the main reasons I still steer clear of "smart" TVs.
umanwizard
My Sony TV doesn't do this, thankfully
yonisto
You could just have download a different home screen... sad.
xattt
I did end up switching to Flauncher for a while before getting an Apple TV.
paulryanrogers
Does Apple TV have ads for Apple shows in its UI?
ycombinatrix
Yep. I had to switch to an alternative launcher to get rid of them.
guilamu
This is Google. Just change the default launcher and you're good.
paulryanrogers
Nova Launcher just added advertisements, unless you buy Pro. Ads come for everyone.
Fnoord
The only customers who care about DRM are the suppliers; not the users. Force the user to not be able to play DRM content, and they'll end up pirating.
Furthermore, I never demanded a new Android TV version. All I wanted was security fixes, not Google's new shitty launcher. I'd never have bought the product if it contained the current launcher.
inquirerGeneral
[dead]
Waterluvian
This is the story I’m really interested in. How have they prevented MBAs from ruining this product?
rvnx
Infinite money.
Like Apple, SpaceX or Tesla.
(though I suspect that Apple hired some MBAs to work on Liquid Ass)
int0x29
They did this with the switch 1 too they were just less well remembered because that subsequently got re-hacked. They lost the ARM trust zone keys and rebuilt the entire DRM stack on the HDCP keys which had been provisioned but they were not using.
functionmouse
Nvidia doesn't make money on hardware, they make money on ecosystems.
wronglebowski
Everyone is missing the why here, this only happens because the whole stack is vertically integrated. Even if say LG wanted to make a box like this and update it for 10 years they couldn’t, they don’t make the chips. Qualcomm straight up refuses to support chips through this many Android releases. Even if device manufacturers want to support devices forever it won’t matter if the actual SoC platform drops support.
jeroenhd
While the vertical integration is definitely the best way to get it done, it's not strictly required as long as there is good enough documentation for a platform. Linux originally supported Intel without any Intel engineers even knowing it existed.
Also consider Apple's chips, which have gotten Linux support without Apple ever submitting a single line of code.
While Qualcomm's behaviour is definitely a massive bummer (not to mention Qualcomm's competitors), it doesn't stop manufacturers from supporting their devices. It merely stops maintaining support from being cheap and easy.
AnthonyMouse
Not only that, "vertical integration" is a red herring. If you had a "vertically integrated" device made entirely by Qualcomm and they stopped supporting it after 3 years then the vertical integration buys you nothing. The actual problem is that Qualcomm sucks.
SkiFire13
> Linux originally supported Intel without any Intel engineers even knowing it existed.
It should be noted that Intel makes CPUs, while Qualcomm makes SoCs, which include much more than just a CPU. Usually supporting the CPU is the easiest part, the rest is the issue.
That said, when device OEMs release the kernel sources, modders are able to update custom roms for a long time, so I doubt this is just a Qualcomm issue.
AnthonyMouse
> It should be noted that Intel makes CPUs, while Qualcomm makes SoCs, which include much more than just a CPU. Usually supporting the CPU is the easiest part, the rest is the issue.
Here's a random 15 year old Intel PC (you can also do this on many current ones):
$ lspci | grep -v Intel
[no output]
So no, it's a Qualcomm problem.
akdev1l
They update the roms while keeping everything provided by Qualcomm the same
so basically the kernel is frozen even if the android version is updated
magicalist
> Even if device manufacturers want to support devices forever it won’t matter if the actual SoC platform drops support.
Yeah, so that's not a why, that's a how (and it's not necessary or sufficient anymore, see the Samsung and Pixel reference).
The why seems very much what the article covers.
raw_anon_1111
Yet Microsoft figured this out decades ago.
I (well my mom) had a supported with security updates version of Windows 7 on my 2007 Mac Mini (not a typo) until 2023.
aceazzameen
That was from when Macs ran Intel and could easily dual boot Windows. I still have an old Mac Book Pro with Windows 10 on it. Updates only stopped recently because Win10 is at end of life. I've been meaning to blow everything out and install Linux.
raw_anon_1111
I am giving props to Microsoft because it did wrangle an industry together to standardize where one company makes the operating system and other companies make the hardware yet you can still upgrade your operating system even without the support of the vendor.
Yet Google can’t seem to make that happen.
imiric
> Qualcomm straight up refuses to support chips through this many Android releases.
That's not entirely accurate. They do provide chips with extended support, such as the QCM6490 in the Fairphone 5. These are not popular because most of the market demands high performance, and companies profit from churning out products every year, but solutions exist for consumers who value stability and reliability over chasing trends and specs.
IshKebab
If you read the article the actual "why" is because the CEO personally requested it and gave an effectively unlimited budget.
miggol
No need to be rude. The person above is adding a new insight to the conversation.
Vertical integration makes it possible but motivation makes it happen. Where is Samsung's ultra LTS Exynos device?
ndiddy
I think it's more a combination of vertical integration and Nvidia upper management actually wanting to provide support for so long. Apple, Google, and Samsung all make smartphones with their own chips, and yet none of them support running the newest OS on 10+ year old devices.
6SixTy
I have to wonder if the Nintendo Switch picking up the Tegra X1 SOC has something to do with it. There's a good chance a lot of components of the (custom microkernel) operating system are derived from Android, and with the Switch receiving active support for so long, I wouldn't be surprised if the work between the Shield TV and Switch are related.
With the Switch being shipped for nearly 10 years, it pales in comparison to the shelf life of most any processor Apple, Google, Samsung, Qualcomm, MediaTek (?) push out.
Though Apple in particular is interesting, as their Apple TV lineup also has the same long legs, with the Apple TV HD/4th Gen releasing in 2015 and receiving the latest OS.
Fnoord
Qualcomm's industrial ARM SoC are supported for nearly 10 years: Qualcomm QCM6490 in Fairphone 5 gets 8 years security updates.
pjmlp
It is called a legal binding contract, business use it all the time to enforce support.
stevenhuang
Contracts can be broken and resolved with money. Happens all the time.
pjmlp
Yes, and lawsuits do exist as well.
Point being, blame lies not only on Qualcomm as Google advocates tend to point out.
buu709
I've got the OG model, and it's still the main device hooked up to my TV. All my TV streaming goes through it (mostly Jellyfin these days), and it can stream games no problem via Moonlight.
It's hooked up to a 4k LG TV, and I have no idea about how it does the upscaling, but 720p content looks perfectly fine on it.
Best (worst?) of all... it still gets updates.
pdntspa
Yeah I just loved the one where they forced ads on the homescreen. Now I use ProjectIvy
BLKNSLVR
+1 for Projectivy.
After the ADHD-inducing default Android TV interface, Projectivy is just beautifully clean and simple.
I have quite a few Android TV (or are they called Google TV these days?) devices, and they all get the Projectivy makeover. The TCL TV running Android needs some 'adb' commands run so that the users selection of launcher is maintained across reboots, bit other than that it's been smooth.
Loughla
The only two complaints about mine is the one set of updates about 5 years ago that killed every connection to my NAS, and that the auto skip function for credits doesn't know if there are scenes after the credits.
But overall, for running it for like 9 years with a cost of less than $200 and essentially zero maintenance, the shield is awesome.
j45
I thought the Shield's claim to fame was it was a certified 4K Android TV device because it could handle it early on?
DecoPerson
The Steam Link, also from 2015, is also still receiving updates! My partner and I use ours regularly to play co-op games on our TV. I really appreciate the efforts of whomever is keeping it running.
Blackthorn
Steam Link is one of the greatest hardware releases of all time.
boricj
That reminds me of my own Samsung Galaxy SII.
Shipped out of the box with Android 2.3, Samsung supported it up until Android 4.1, then I switched to CyanogenMod until my father rage-bought me a new phone in 2016 because it crashed so much he had trouble contacting me. I still kept it up to date with LineageOS and then unofficial versions for fun (it's at Android 13 last I checked).
Do I expect a Samsung Galaxy SII to do as well with 2026 software as it did in 2013? No, but I can run a 2013 computer with 2026 software without needing to track down dodgy homebrews on xdaforums.com and that reflects badly on the smartphone ecosystem.
joe_mamba
>That reminds me of my own Samsung Galaxy SII. Shipped out of the box with Android 2.3, Samsung supported it up until Android 4.1
Even that was amazing for Samsung's standards back then.
For example my former Samsung Note II shipped with Android 4.1.1 Jellybean and they only supported it till 4.4.2 KitKat. Just let that sink in. I basically bought a flagship e-waste device.
Custom ROMs didn't help much since you'd lose S-pen functionality if you went past 4.4.2 as modders couldn't port the needed firmware blobs past that kernel or something like that.
Oh, and also, using custom ROMs could brick your wifi from working as the FW of the wifi chip was tied to Knox tripping the e-fuse on custom ROMs, so then you'd need to use some voodoo to patch wifi back. That is, if you were lucky and your phone wouldn't brick itself due to the FW bug in Samsung's eMMC, that would lock itself to read-only mode out of nowhere.
Seriously, fuck Samsung for that PoS phone, fuck them in the a**. That phone should have been a lemon recall with full refund to consumers.
AstroNutt
I rooted my old S3 probably around 2016 I had laying around. There was an exploit called "let it rain" and that got me root access. Then on XDA Developers I found several custom ROM'S. Someone even created a Nougat ROM for that thing later on. That was the last version I was able to load on it. I sure did learn a lot back then.
magicalhippo
I have one of them, and been using it daily since I bought it in 2016. Bought a cheap Bluetooth remote control from AliExpress which was an upgrade over the Logitech Harmony crap I had earlier.
If it were to break, knock on wood it won't happen, what options are there? I have tried to look but haven't really found anything that is free of Chinese backdoors and has decent hardware. For just Plex or Jellyfin a N100 box or similar could do, but I want easy launch of HBO, YouTube etc. And I need that remote control option.
VerifiedReports
From what I've seen in forums where people asked this, the answer is: nothing.
I only have two devices providing material to my media system: a Shield Pro and a Blu-Ray player. The Shield is the critical element, used daily for streaming and playing local media from a USB-connected SSD.
I hope Nvidia revises the Shield with up-to-date hardware and maintains its flexible nature. It's a pretty cool product. The biggest shortcomings I've encountered are the fault of moronic media companies. Great example: Spectrum (the cable company). These dolts have an Android application with which subscribers can watch content. But it doesn't run on Android TVs. It's called "Spectrum TV." It's so gallingly stupid that I hate rewarding them with money every month.
Oh, and I love how they addressed the goddamned Netflix button. If you so much as LOOK at the remote, Netflix launches in the middle of whatever you're watching. I actually removed the button from the remote entirely.
scrollop
Netflix button fix-
Get the app "button mapper" (or similar name)
On the free version, you can configure the button for-
one click of the netflix button to open Plex, and 2 clicks to open something else (eg youtube).
This also works when the shield and TV are off-
One click of the netflix button turns on the shield, which turns on the tv.
mbushey
Neither Button Mapper nor Buttons Mapper work. You have to disassemble the remote and put a piece of paper or tape between the contacts.
VerifiedReports
Thanks. I should get around to just remapping it. I've had to replace my original remote, and the new one still has the Netflix button.
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QuiEgo
The next best is probably an Apple TV 4k, but it can't direct play as many audio and video formats as the Shield.
Gareth321
Apple TV is great except they prevent installing software which is not on their App Store. A big one for me is SmartTubeNext, which removes YouTube ads and sponsored segments. I can't even pay for that if I wanted to.
lotsofpulp
I use the Infuse app, and I haven't seen it fail with anything yet.
kristofferR
It doesn't support TrueHD Atmos (UHD Blu-ray Atmos in other words). It also doesn't support FEL.
That said, it supports JOC Atmos (the streaming service version) and you can convert all your TrueHD Atmos to JOC Atmos easily.
Agingcoder
It also can’t stream games
astafrig
It is trivially easy to know that this isn’t true.
altano
Moonlight on the Apple TV works great.
reddalo
I've been using the Thomson Google TV Streaming Stick. It's cheap (~40 euros) and it works surprisingly well for what it is. It's sold in Europe, but I think you can find the same product in the US at Walmart, rebranded as Onn+ Streaming Device.
It's not as powerful as an Nvidia Shield, of course, but at least is not a random product from Temu riddled with spyware.
dmos62
Not sure how it compares, but Xiaomi TV Box S is similarly priced. It's physically bigger (slightly), which somehow comforts me a bit.
littlecranky67
I would suspect it being a Google product, it also is riddled with spyware.
reddalo
It's not made by Google, it's just certified. So it must have the same amount of spyware that the Nvidia Shield has (which we all know it's not zero).
neumann
I have bought three for all my relatives since 2015, and finally bought one for myself. They are still in stock and sold by local brick and mortar retailers as well as online!
I use the n100 for jellyfin, and shield for streaming and controller with jellyfin client.
reppap
The built-in OS on my LG is honestly good enough for me. There's a jellyfin client in the LG app store that works well enough (it's just a wrapper for a browser client as I understand it). But I only use my TV to watch shows/movies, not sure about other usecases.
magicalhippo
Mine is a Samsung TV from same year as my Shield, and its Tizen-based offering is the reason I got the Shield to begin with.
mavamaarten
Google TV Streamer?
sgloutnikov
No thanks. Downgraded to 8.2.3 years ago and going strong with a custom launcher. Has absolutely everything I need and nothing that I don’t.
This was the guide back then, possibly still works. [0]
Novosell
I just removed updates from whichever app it is that handles the launcher, all ads gone, still get to be on latest OS version :)
flixing
this. anything above 9.x has been shit for me.
bergheim
I'm not even sure which one I have, it's old but it's great. Use it for streaming (smarttube, some apps) and moonlight/sunshine. It does 4k with a ps5 controller so well. Love it. I think it was like a 100 bucks 8 years ago? I use my desktop 5090 and basically stopped using ps5 for couch gaming because it looks so much better. Great value!
Also, not that this is better probably (it is Google and Nvidia after all), but it means my Samsung TV is not connected to the internet, so I don't have to wait 10 seconds for the menu to come up because it is busy loading and injecting ads.
beastman82
I have had two for 10 years and have no complaints whatsoever
akersten
The lack of hardware support for a few modern codecs is a pretty big complaint from me, but nothing else out there is decent :/
safeimp
It depends what you're looking for. In the AV enthusiast circles a lot of people flock towards the Ugoos AM6B Plus (with CoreELEC).
It is one of the only devices (alongside Oppo clones) that can play Dolby Vision Profile 7 FEL (Full Enhancement Layer) with 100% accuracy. The Shield can play P7, but it ignores the FEL data; the Ugoos actually processes it.
That said, people don’t generally use Android on it, instead you boot to CoreELEC from an SD card and use Kodi.
ziml77
> can play Dolby Vision Profile 7 FEL
This is the only reason I know about this Ugoos device. I find it so strange that Profile 7 is effectively unsupported outside of Blu-ray players and this one device. It doesn't even seem like it can be a processing power issue because the documentation says that the other profiles have higher maximum pixel rates.
I don't have the Ugoos box myself though. Instead I'm running a series of processing steps on my Blu-ray rips which converts the file to Profile 8. For every movie I've tried so far this has been fine, though I've read that some movies lean far too heavily on the FEL and have color problems without it.
compsciphd
I have an am6b+ but in reality the shield is a much nicer device to use if one wants to use anything outside of their local media.
I actually wish we could run android in a container on the CoreELEC side and switch back and forth between Kodi and the android UI/apps (without needing a reboot, and having a better managed android environment than the provided one).
aaravchen
The unfortunate part is that CoreELEC only works when you get all your content from a locally attached disk. You can't even really stream it from your beefy NAS/server, and you definitely can't use any streaming services.
I'm constantly surprised how many people are in that narrow category of just dipping thier toe in the water for "self-hosted" content that it's little enough it fits on disk storage you can have in your living room (mine is a half-height server rack in the basement), but also have progressed past thr point of using any streaming services. I guess there are a lot of people without families that also never travel out there.
protimewaster
CoreELEC is a godsend for FEL compatibility, IMO. With a little luck, you can get a device to do FEL for under $100, and you don't have to deal with some random, poorly maintained Android release that probably won't keep up with security updates, etc.
Hamuko
The Apple TV's pretty good. I imagine I'd have a hard time switching to a Shield TV unless it gets a CPU bump, whereas Apple still keeps making newer models with modern-ish phone SoCs.
aaravchen
I've looked at this a few times, and AppleTV actually has pretty poor support unless you're only using a select few streaming services and not streaming any of your own content. Shield performs exponentially better in every way except for the god awful stock interface (and Google data collection vs Apple data collection). The hardware and tvOS still have extremely limited support for most video codecs, no support at all for audio pass thru, and very limited non-stereo audio options. If you want the equivalent of watching on your laptop it's good, but if you have better than stereo speakers, or a 4K TV that supports HDR10+ or Dolby Vision, AppleTV can't compete except for the big name streaming services that have special tvOS privileges/integration.
iJohnDoe
What makes the Apple TV desirable? It’s $185. Why would I choose it over a Roku $30 or Ultra $80?
cf100clunk
The Shield TV's cylindrical form factor could use a rethink. It is hard to find a good spot for it on a shelf when cords are connected at both ends (HDMI and MMC slot at one end, power and LAN at the other) and the ports are too close for all cords to use right-angle-heads. Leaving it invisible by placing it on the floor or behind other gear sometimes impedes Bluetooth signal, so there it sits, well apart from the AVR, BD, other devices.
qmr
The Flying Spaghetti Monster blessed you with CAD and a 3D printer for such tasks.
Cpoll
The solution to it being clunky can't be to add mass to it. Unless you're proposing transferring the internals to a new case and facing all the ports to the back. Seriously, look at this thing. The best thing you can do is tie-wrap the cables together.
cf100clunk
Nothing on ifixit so far regarding the 2019 Shield TV 2nd Gen cylindrical device:
https://www.ifixit.com/Search?query=nvidia+shield
I've been hacking on computer and av hardware for ~40 years, but I know NOT to risk the only one I've got without getting some clear sense of the pitfalls ahead by using schematics, teardowns, photos, etc.
ianburrell
That is the new Shield TV design from 2019. The original Shield TV and the Pro were flat design. Strange that they changed it when old design worked well.
duxup
If I KNEW companies would do things like this, I'd be more likely to buy their product. But on the other hand I don't know who to trust because plenty say such things because it is easy to say then ... and then they just quit.
It's part of the reason I like Apple devices.
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> Nvidia released the first Shield Android TV in 2015
> it took about 18 months to [create] an entirely new security stack [...] Android updates aren’t actually that much work compared to DRM security, and some of its partners weren’t that keen on re-certifying older products.
> In February 2025, Nvidia released Shield Patch 9.2 [...] That was the Tegra X1 [security] bug finally being laid to rest on the 2015 and 2017 Shield boxes.
This is a real engineering marvel. Everybody else would have just given up entirely long time ago. DRM bugs are in most case practically unrecoverable for products that shipped already (and physically in the hands of the adversary). The incentive to tell to consumers "Ditch that product you bought from us 2 years ago, and buy the more recent hardware revision or successor" is extremely strong.
This really feels like a platform that is maintained with pride and love by the nvidia engineering teams (regardless of one's opinion about DRM per se).