Written by Peter Karleskint
After moving into our new house, I found myself wanting to play my PC games on my TV while keeping my PC upstairs. Before, my TV and my PC were much closer together, so this set up allowed for a longer HDMI cord to connect. So, when I moved I was lacking a proper set up in my new place to allow for the same ability. Because of this, I started looking into options. The best option, as it appeared, seemed to be the Nvidia Shield. A pricier option that I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend the money on, but it was on sale at Best Buy and I decided to bite the bullet. Now that we have had the Nvidia Shield for a month now, I felt it was a good time to finally write up a review.
Let’s start with the design of the Nvidia Shield. From the outside, the Shield is small but looks modern with its sleek looking design. It is light and easy to move around when needed making it a nice streaming box for your entertainment set up. The only downside on the outside that I would say would be that it can sometimes feel a little cheap to the touch, but that isn’t something that really bothers me all that much. It looks nice and it has a cool green light that turns on when it is active.
While the outward appearance is nice, the software design of the Shield limits any customization. I do get annoyed having to scroll down all the way to access an app I have been using rather than being able to put the front page in any layout that I would want. There are ways to combat this by double tapping the button on the remote to pull up all apps in a more concise center, but customization would be an upside if that was ever implemented in the future. On the Brightside, the top of the list is an app list that you can customize to display the specific apps you have in whatever order. I am more referencing the below stuff that has recommendations, etc.
The Shield also has a play next section which I have found to be great. If you are watching something on HBO or Netflix, it will put the next episode in your play next section so that you can quickly get back into binging whatever show you are on next. It is convenient and a smart addition.
Most of the apps run great on the Nvidia Shield. In fact, I can’t think of a streaming device that I have ever used that has had such high quality and connection. I can finally watch 4k video streamed without having the pause and go every few minutes, though it does have its occasional slip ups to be expected. Granted, I have been using my Shield hardwired, but the fact still remains that it is a quality streaming device. It is worlds ahead of most other streaming devices, especially those included with your smart TVs.
My main qualms come from what I bought the Shield to do: play PC games on my TV without and HDMI. This is where I have had the absolute most frustrations and problems. Nvidia’s service, Game Stream, comes with the device and can stream games playing in up to 4K. At first, I thought it was fascinating and great until about 10 minutes in when the program constantly crashed. I have updated drivers, software, anything you can think of on both my Shield and PC. Nothing works. Occasionally, I can get a lucky streak of being able to play a game for longer than a half hour without the software crashing. I’ve even tried downgrading graphics, framerates, and streaming quality. Nothing works. This is a huge issue for anybody wanting to buy Nvidia Shield for the game streaming capabilities.
With that said, there are other apps that allow you to stream games as well. Moonlight is a third party app that uses Game Stream from the GeForce Experience on your PC to stream games the same way that Game Stream would. The plus is that it works much better than Game Stream in not crashing. It also has a few more options. However, it doesn’t feel as sleek or good as Game Stream does when Game Stream is working. There is also the Steam Link app. This is my current go to app. It doesn’t look as good as Game Stream, but it certainly is more stable and constantly keeps my streaming frame rate high when I’m playing games. I don’t have to worry that if I press the start button or if I cause an explosion in-game, the whole thing will come crashing down. Steam Link is easily the best option as long as you create a custom resolution for 4K in your games. The only thing that comes with Steam Link is that there were some audio issues at first and every time I enter a game, I have to change the resolution manually if I had played it recently on my PC screen. For the audio issues, I simply had to disable every audio device that wasn’t the one that my PC uses regularly. Then I had to turn off my speakers so I wouldn’t have sound coming from two places. However, once this was done, I have yet to have any issues at all with the Steam Link app and it has been the most consistently stable software to stream my games to my TV.
Considering I bought the Nivida Sheild to stream games, it is a HUGE problem that their built-in and supported software does not work properly enough to allow me to play a game for more than a few minutes, but luckily 3rd party apps save it from essentially becoming useless for streaming games. On the bright side, streaming video and movies has never been better than when I’m using this device which is a massive plus. As long as it’s hardwired that is. The Nvidia Shield still provides excellent quality with a good internet Wi-Fi connection, but nothing beats hardwired for quality and speed. Quick work can be made for hardwiring by placing the Shield next to a router to hardwire or by using powerline adapters if you don’t have your house lined with a network like I do.
When it comes to ease of use, the Nvidia Shield is very easy to use for your video streaming needs. Again, the problems come with streaming games from the PC. I have run into a multitude of issues trying to get my games set up correctly to stream and there were no directions to help. Streaming video games should be plug and play, which is what I feel like Nvidia was going for with its Game Stream app, but because of its massive issues, it takes loads of troubleshooting and managing on your own to get the set up and quality you want. If you are only getting the Nvidia Shield for video media, you won’t notice these things, but you might be better of simply getting a 4k Firecube or 4k AppleTV.
Now that everything is set up the way that I want it, the Nvidia Shield is great and very satisfying to use. The problem is the extent of the problems I had to go through to get to this point. Knowing this, it would be hard for me to recommend to anybody who isn’t technically savvy who is trying to get it for streaming games. And if you are only trying to stream video, why go for such an expensive option? There are better, more cost-effective options for the same video quality.
If you are looking into getting a Nvidia Shield and don’t want to go through all of the troubleshooting or if you are simply just looking for a video streaming device, I might suggest looking elsewhere. Especially considering the Steam Link app and Moonlight are both available on other platforms. I’d give those a shot first. At least until Nvidia can fix their current issues with the Game Stream software. As I mentioned, Game Stream looked the best, but its consistency and connection constantly crashed making it useless until further support is enacted.
| Design | Out of 15 | 13 |
| Software/Functionality | Out of 40 | 25 |
| Ease of Use | Out of 25 | 17 |
| Overall Satisfaction | Out of 20 | 12 |
Final Verdict
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