Why I’m Still Waiting for an NVIDIA Shield 2
Ten years after its original release and several small revisions later, the NVIDIA Shield Android streaming box is still a force to be reckoned with. I’m starting to wonder if the reason we haven’t seen a proper follow-up is because NVIDIA has done such a good job creating and supporting these things.
And yet, I remain hopeful for a Shield 2. Here’s why.
I put off buying a shield for years
I thought about buying a Shield in 2020 when I finally took the plunge and upgraded to an LG CX OLED TV. I had waited for the first generation of 4K TVs and watched patiently as OLED prices fell from obscene to reasonable. At the time of the upgrade, there was plenty of ultra-high definition content in gorgeous high dynamic range to feast my eyes on.
That’s when I saw a lot of buzz around the NVIDIA Shield, a streaming device that originally launched in 2015 and saw a performance boost in 2019. Having spent way too much money on a TV upgrade, I didn’t want to spend another $200 on a streaming box when it looked like LG’s webOS platform would do the job just fine.
The Shield uses the Tegra X1 system-on-a-chip, the same basic hardware that powered the original Nintendo Switch console. But even though the Switch is a handheld in its own right, the Shield’s primary uses are media streaming and light gaming in the form of Android apps.
Over time, cracks began to appear in my Smart TV’s software. The CX can struggle with some larger files, historically had limited options for streaming from local media servers, and LG’s decision to cut audio codecs meant anything encoded with DTS didn’t work. So the NVIDIA Shield started to look quite tempting, especially given the rave reviews it received online.
I kept telling myself that I would upgrade when a successor was announced. Given the age of the device and its growing popularity, a true successor seemed inevitable within a few years. And so I waited. And the longer I waited, the less sense it made to buy the aging NVIDIA Shield. This isn’t the first time I’ve fallen victim to this mentality, and it probably won’t be the last.
At this point, the last NVIDIA Shield review was six years ago and I’m still waiting. In all honesty, I wish I had bought one five years ago, especially since the price has barely dropped in the years since.
The Shield Pro might still be the best streaming box
There are two versions of the Shield available, the standard Shield TV and the Shield TV Pro. The latter includes double the storage (16GB instead of 8GB), while also offering two USB 3.0 ports for expansion. Although both models have a Gigabit Ethernet port and the same Tegra X1+ processor, the Pro is the more capable machine with an extra gigabyte of RAM and more potential.
For this reason, the Pro has become the go-to recommendation for anyone who wants a do-it-all media device. This is especially true for anyone who is disappointed with their smart TV’s software or refuses to use these features because of the surprising privacy implications. Despite its age, the belief that the NVIDIA Shield Pro hasn’t been beaten yet persists online.
A lot of this comes down to raw performance, with the Tegra X1+ making it easy to work with even large video files encoded in HEVC or H.264, eating up MKV containers for breakfast. This includes HDR content, as the Shield advertises support for Dolby Vision. The Shield Pro will play just about anything you throw at it, and you can even mount the drive it’s playing from locally. You can’t do this with an Apple TV or Amazon Fire TV Stick.
Another reason why Shield devices are held in such high regard is that they are considered to offer some of the best media scaling in gaming. Back in 2015, when the line launched, scaling was a problem that needed a solution. The lack of native Ultra HD content meant that upscaling would typically be handled by the TVs themselves, and that was a problem these companies had yet to solve.
NVIDIA is the king of scaling when it comes to PC gaming, so its implementation for movies and TV would impress. The Shield has dedicated hardware dedicated to this task, which sets it apart at a time when so many people were settling for undercooked software solutions. Although TV manufacturers have made progress in this area, it’s amazing what NVIDIA was able to achieve a decade ago.
All this power and potential would have been wasted without NVIDIA’s decision to adopt an operating system in the form of Android TV. I’m no stranger to the Apple ecosystem and even used an Apple TV for years, but I began to feel resentful towards the locked-down nature of the device. Without the ability to connect an external drive, VLC frequently deleted files transferred over the network, while others flatly refused to play them. A limited app selection made these limitations impossible to work around.
The opening of the Android platform takes on its full meaning in the living room. You can install just about anything you want, from a Jellyfin client to the Kodi media center. Although Apple eventually relented and allowed emulators in the App Store, for years this was a pipe dream. The Shield has access to a much wider selection of apps, and sideloading apps from unofficial sources is still an option if you want.
You can even do cool things like remap the Netflix button on your Shield’s remote if you keep pressing it by mistake and not subscribing to Netflix. I wish I could do this on my LG TV, but we all know the real reason these buttons ended up on your remote.
Home theater enthusiasts will be pleased to know that the NVIDIA Shield can transmit audio such as DTS:X and Dolby TrueHD to your receiver or soundbar. My LG CX can’t do this for DTS audio, nor play it, which has left me completely unable to watch certain files unless I want to sit in silence.
Perhaps most notable is the fact that even the original NVIDIA Shield models are still receiving software updates, marking an unprecedented decade of support for an Android platform. These aren’t just simple bug fixes either, with NVIDIA rolling out major OS upgrades and new features like 4K streaming support for the GeForce NOW gaming service.
A revision should make things even better
Arguably the biggest feature missing from current NVIDIA Shield models, and something that should give you reason to pause before purchasing, is the lack of AV1 decoding support. Like HEVC before it, AV1 is a highly efficient video compression codec that promises approximately 30% improved efficiency over existing technology.
Many services, including YouTube, already use AV1, and it is not uncommon for content creators to adopt this format due to its efficiency and broad support on modern GPUs. While it’s unlikely that content will become unavailable in HEVC (or even the previous AVC format, commonly known as H.264) anytime soon, if you’re spending $200 on a streaming device in 2025, you’ll probably want to “future-proof” yourself as much as possible.
Decoding AV1 video requires dedicated hardware, so it’s not a feature that will arrive in one of NVIDIA’s software updates. The quality gains will benefit everyone who consumes media and make 8K streaming video much more viable (even if the appetite for 8K TVs still seems dismally low). It’s even possible that NVIDIA will surpass AV1 and even support an improved version of the codec known as AV2 in a new Shield model.
On top of that, I’d like to see the Shield 2 improve on what made the original so good in the first place. NVIDIA’s upscaling technology has gone from strength to strength, and while a lot of these improvements are coming in software form, there’s no denying that better hardware could make low-res video even better (and maybe even clean up the audio, too).
Newer chips are typically manufactured using increasingly smaller production processes, resulting not only in physical shrinkage but also improved efficiency. Better performance per watt is likely from future chips, but so are applications that need it. Although NVIDIA would prefer you upgrade your PC’s GPU or subscribe to its cloud streaming service, a more capable system-on-chip would also mean better local gaming performance.
For me, this means better performance in emulators for smoother gameplay, the ability to emulate more modern hardware, and the ability to upgrade older games to run at higher native resolutions with more features. The more overhead the better when it comes to clever tricks like simulating a CRT monitor to achieve that retro phosphor glow and smooth motion.
Some thought the elimination of the Switch 2 could pave the way for an updated Shield, but NVIDIA has remained tight-lipped until now. While buying a Shield in 2025 is unlikely to disappoint, the current review’s days are clearly numbered, given the ongoing AV1 rollout and advances in smart TV software and hardware.
For this reason, you may want to sit down and join me in the waiting room.
