Nvidia Shield TV review – Gaming’s the aim, even if Android TV still isn’t ready for prime time

Android TV gaming, GeForce Now & GameStream

Beyond taking advantage of that eminently powerful Tegra X1 processor for 4K decoding, gaming is the Shield TV’s other major selling point. You have various avenues to access gaming content; the simplest is, of course, the Google Play Store, but there’s also the Shield Games hub. This showcases games that can take advantage of the Shield TV’s gaming prowess. There are some surprising inclusions, with Valve’s Half Life 2: Episode 2 and Portal having been ported to the Shield TV exclusively, Doom 3 to show off the Shield’s processing power, and ‘coming soon’ placeholders for Resident Evil 5, Metal Gear Rising and Borderlands. The one thing that all of these titles have in common is their age. While it’s impressive they’re running at all on such diminutive hardware, they were all released several years ago now making them not the most enticing.

Aside from a few big name releases, however, the catalogue isn’t going to rival anything available from a dedicated games console. There are the usual casual, family-friendly titles you’re probably familiar with on Android, such as Crossy Road and Pac-Man 256, but then there are also more substantial games, too.

^ Nvidia’s own apps feature prominently on the home screen

Probably a more useful prospect is Nvidia’s GeForce Now. I first saw this with the Nvidia Shield Tablet, back when it was originally called Nvidia Grid. This is Nvidia’s take on cloud-based gaming, where its own servers handle the actual processing and a video feed of the game is streamed to you. While it was free while in Beta, there’s now a subscription model in place costing £7.50 a month. The first three months are free to Shield TV owners, however.

Provided you have sufficiently fast internet, I found GeForce Now worked surprisingly well, with latency not causing any issues with platform games or adventure titles. Nvidia recommends a 20Mbps internet connection and a sub-40ms ping for best results. Titles such as Ultra Street Fighter IV, which require fast reflexes and inputs, can feel almost seamless at times. Unless you’re a competitive player used to counting frames, you might not even realise you were streaming a game from the cloud. GeForce Now supports up to 1080p resolution, 60fps streaming, so provided you have a fast enough internet connection it can make for a very enjoyable gaming experience – and one that vastly outmatches anything on offer from Amazon’s Fire TV box.

Again, however, there are issues with the calibre of titles available. All of the games are at least a few years old, so those looking to play the latest titles will be left disappointed. The catalogue is ever-expanding, and hopefully the rate of additions will increase now that it’s out of beta and has a paid-for subscription model.

Aside from the titles included in the GeForce Now membership, there are also Buy & Play Instantly titles, which are newer and include the likes of Witcher 3. However, these are expensive, with Witcher 3 costing £49.99 for a title that you’re still streaming. Thankfully, many of the titles available through Buy & Play Instantly will also give you a PC copy that you own, so you’re essentially getting two versions, which makes the price slightly more palatable.

^ supported GameStream titles appear in a list and can be launched from the Shield TV as long as your PC is connected

The final gaming option is using Nvidia’s GameStream to play games from a PC or laptop equipped with an Nvidia graphics card. You’ll need a semi-recent GeForce GTX graphics card, typically a GTX 650 or newer, and a decent router to take advantage of it. I used a gaming laptop fitted with a GTX 970M and a dual-band, 802.11ac router with decent results, provided there were favourable network conditions. This meant locating either the Shield TV or laptop close to the router. Attempting to use GameStream with the Shield TV located a floor away from the router resulted in network errors almost immediately after launching a title. Nvidia recommends a wired network for the best results. 

^Games will initially take about 30 seconds to launch, after which it’s a slick experience

Again, performance will be dependent on your network conditions but with both the gaming laptop and Nvidia Shield connected to the 5GHz wireless network and both located relatively close to the router it was a seamless, latency-free experience on the big screen. If you can get everything working, it’s a great way to get your PC games to your big screen while taking advantage of your existing gaming system. You can even connect a keyboard and mouse to the Shield TV for games that require them, such as RTS titles or MOBAs.

Conclusion

The Shield TV is undeniably the best-equipped media streamer out there, but Android TV is still a limiting factor. There are far cheaper alternatives out there that will happily get Netflix and more to your television, if that’s all you’re after. Even Chromecast support can’t get around the lack of services, as not all of the big name TV channels support casting. If you’re only after something to stream video and catch-up services, save your money and go for a Roku 3.

Instead, the Shield TV’s strengths lie in gaming. There might be a lack of enticing Android content to make the Shield TV a viable gaming system, but Nvidia’s three-pronged attack ensures there’s multiple ways to play. GameStream in particular works well if you want to play PC games on the big screen, even if it’s dependent on you having the necessary hardware and a capable router. GeForce Now is still in the early stages, so hopefully Nvidia can get more games developers on board and expand the number of available titles in the future. And this is all before you get started with emulation, which might be legally ambiguous but there’s no question the Shield TV is powerful enough to mimic even recent consoles and handhelds.

4K support ensures the Shield TV is future-proof, albeit at the mercy of streaming services and their Android TV plans. That’s still a bit of a gamble right now, so it may only appeal to those happy enough with its gaming capabilities today.