So for anyone that doesn't know this is Moonlight https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.limelight&hl=en (which used to be called Limelight).
Anyways Moonlight works off the Nvidia streaming service but is available to download off any Android device. I'm wondering if anyone has sideloaded it to their Nexus Player and if they have how does it run?
The Intel CPU and 1GB of RAM seem a bit on the low side compared to the Razer Forge and the NVidia Shield specs but if it runs smoothly I'm thinking of getting the Nexus Player instead of waiting.
Cheers
I can't speak for the Nexus Player as I didn't know about this app while I had it, but I do have the Razer Forge and it works pretty well. Though I'd assume you'll have a better experience than I will if your internet upload and download speed is pretty good.
Sgt.JimmyRustles said:
I can't speak for the Nexus Player as I didn't know about this app while I had it, but I do have the Razer Forge and it works pretty well. Though I'd assume you'll have a better experience than I will if your internet upload and download speed is pretty good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah well I'm from Australia and the only way to get the Razer Forge atm is to ship it from the US while i can get the NP from a local store. Im assuming you're using Moonlight because Razer Cortex isn't out yet? Hmmm maybe I'll just try it...
For me it works beautifully. It used to be laggy, but the latest versions of either Moonligth or Nvidia experience have fixed the issue. It works smoothly at 1080p 60fps. I have my computer conected to my router via ethernet, and the Nexus player with 802.11ac
FreemanAMG said:
For me it works beautifully. It used to be laggy, but the latest versions of either Moonligth or Nvidia experience have fixed the issue. It works smoothly at 1080p 60fps. I have my computer conected to my router via ethernet, and the Nexus player with 802.11ac
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I ended up getting the Nexus player and trying it out. Maybe my wifi connection isn't strong enough but in general it was too laggy to play Razer Forge is having a TON of issues aswell so I might have to wait for the Nvidia Shield or something
i tested it out last weekend and was playing in 1080p 60fps over 802.11ac wifi without any lag
was getting occasional frame skips which i assume was related to the streaming setup, but i was testing using a new game i got that played well with a controller so i don't know how this game runs normally and can't be certain.
I do have a nexus player with the moonlight plus i have the Nvidia shield tablet and trust me my Nexus player stream better than my Shield, my Shield does fine with stream from the Grid stream almost with no LAG at all but when I stream from my PC the LAG is too much I don't know why, but if I used the Nexus Player with the Moonlight stream almost the same as the Shield playing the Grid stream ...
I have totally high hopes for this. Best Buy has the Nexus Player on sale for $69 and the controller for $40. I had $15 in rewards points and a 10% coupon that I used on the Nexus Player, so I ordered both. Got them for $93 shipped to my door. Half the price of the Shield TV and $60 less than the Razer, so I figure at worst I'll have to return it for one of the others if it doesn't work well. It'll work well, though. I have a Time Capsule 802.11ac, my PC is connected via Ethernet, and my 5GHz 802.11ac network is supported in a 2x2 MIMO config on the Nexus Player. It'll be about 10 feet from the router. Supposed to be here Thursday so I'll come back and let you know how it does.
DeerSteak said:
I have totally high hopes for this. Best Buy has the Nexus Player on sale for $69 and the controller for $40. I had $15 in rewards points and a 10% coupon that I used on the Nexus Player, so I ordered both. Got them for $93 shipped to my door. Half the price of the Shield TV and $60 less than the Razer, so I figure at worst I'll have to return it for one of the others if it doesn't work well. It'll work well, though. I have a Time Capsule 802.11ac, my PC is connected via Ethernet, and my 5GHz 802.11ac network is supported in a 2x2 MIMO config on the Nexus Player. It'll be about 10 feet from the router. Supposed to be here Thursday so I'll come back and let you know how it does.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How does it run?
The Nexus Player is about 20 feet from the router, and the signal is going through three walls. With my setup it runs really well at 720p60. I don't really feel like it's dropping any frames. I also turned up the bitrate to 15mbps, and it made a big difference in the image quality and it was still very smooth. On 1080p60, it dropped enough frames that I could feel it but it was still quite playable. I was not really able to turn the bitrate up.
I also tried Kinoconsole, and it was not nearly as good. Zero configuration options, 1080p all the way, stuck at 30fps. Also requires extra software on the PC, which I didn't really want anyway. Wasn't going to pay for the app with the promise of better video quality unless I could see it, so I quit at that.
The Nexus Player's controller does not have a start button, so if your game needs to use the start button you're out of luck. I ended up plugging a wireless 360 controller into the PC directly and controlled the game that way. I didn't have an OTG cable laying around to try it on the Player itself.
The Nexus Player ended up going back to Best Buy, though. Using the Asus controller in emulators and whatnot, Bluetooth would freeze after about 15 minutes. Happened repeatedly probably 8 or 10 times over a 2 day span. I factory reset the device and it continued. Also, the Asus controller's d-pad is terrible, but that is neither here nor there. Since I wasn't sure if it was the device's fault or the controller's I just returned the whole setup. I do know that not even the Player's bundled remote would work once Bluetooth quit, and the controller lights would flash like it was trying to connect again. I have a feeling it was the player.
I ordered a Shield. It should be here tomorrow. The controller should be much better, and I'm hoping nVidia has a workaround for the Start button. If not I'll stick with my 360 controller for PC games. Now I'm getting off topic.
Bottom line: if you're not having other issues with the Nexus Player, you might as well grab Moonlight.
I had a shield tablet shipped in from the US and also have NBN (100Mbps DL / 40Mbps UL). I play with gamestream as I can push the detail to "Max 25Mbps" and have it set to [email protected] via my 5Ghz Wifi on ASUS RT-AC68U Router. No problems (Apart from the creeping in input lag)
Moonlight hates either my router, internet or PC as even if I choose [email protected] and detail to 4Mbps within 1-2 seconds of starting a stream, the screen gets pixelated and Moonight spits out a "Your network is not good enough to stream this, lower your resolution and detail and try again.
Does my tablet need to be hooked up to ethernet for Moonlight to work? Or do I need to move to america where the download and upload speeds are more like 1,000Mbps
Related
Hey Guys
I made a video and it exploded on the internet. It shows how to play wii games on your tablet.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/19/play-wii-games-on-your-android-tablet-via-network-streaming-vid/
enjoy
Good job
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
Hey! Obiwan22, I saw your post on engadget and started my own thread to get it to run smoothly, its got some good info as to why this won't work that well, lol. But I'm still trying different programs, haven't given up entirely on it just yet.
Check out my post http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=17724101
thanks for the update
How responsive is it? I know windows remote desktop and standard VNC aren't fast enough for gaming. However splashtop does not support Linux. I don't much feel like installing their streaming software to get remote support, unless you can connect over the internet and not just locally.
91ludesit said:
How responsive is it? I know windows remote desktop and standard VNC aren't fast enough for gaming. However splashtop does not support Linux. I don't much feel like installing their streaming software to get remote support, unless you can connect over the internet and not just locally.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can connect over the internet, and it even tries to make it easy.... never tested it. Personally I see little reason to do it, no right click, no happy. How am I supposed to place those blocks I mined in Minecraft without right clicking? :-\
P.S. disregard the whole lag thing from the other thread. Wifi isn't exactly a gigabit ethernet, true. I wire everything I can, true. Wifi is enough fast to do what you want, at least locally! Ask Sony how they made Remote Play (use a PSP connected remotely to a PS3 to play a few games that support it): the lower the bitrate you set, the more compression artefacts you'll see, so it works EXACTLY like OnLive (try it, there are demos. Not perfect but very well playable) and Splashtop. Be worried only by the cpu power, as it's going to handle both your game and the video encoding.... also don't hope too much to play over the internet. Maybe it's doable but at least I don't see it happening for me. And btw the PSP boasts a wifi "b" that is a speedy 11mbps (very performing too, hardly goes above 5) as opposed to some weird wifi n of the TF, that apparently goes up to 72mbps.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
AlexTheStampede said:
You can connect over the internet, and it even tries to make it easy.... never tested it. Personally I see little reason to do it, no right click, no happy. How am I supposed to place those blocks I mined in Minecraft without right clicking? :-\
P.S. disregard the whole lag thing from the other thread. Wifi isn't exactly a gigabit ethernet, true. I wire everything I can, true. Wifi is enough fast to do what you want, at least locally! Ask Sony how they made Remote Play (use a PSP connected remotely to a PS3 to play a few games that support it): the lower the bitrate you set, the more compression artefacts you'll see, so it works EXACTLY like OnLive (try it, there are demos. Not perfect but very well playable) and Splashtop. Be worried only by the cpu power, as it's going to handle both your game and the video encoding.... also don't hope too much to play over the internet. Maybe it's doable but at least I don't see it happening for me. And btw the PSP boasts a wifi "b" that is a speedy 11mbps (very performing too, hardly goes above 5) as opposed to some weird wifi n of the TF, that apparently goes up to 72mbps.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
CPU power isn't an issue, my desktop has 6 cores so it should be able to handle a game and splashtop. I wonder remote desktop has never gotten any better about being responsive. I guess microsoft has written it to keep bandwidth usage to a minimum.
Personally I wasn't impressed at all. I use Splashtop all the time.
I just find it funny that some Android blogs title it "hacker mods his transformer to play wii". sigh.
This is similar to a story a while back about some kid using his android phone with wifi tethering and he used his PS3 to use that wifi hotspot and plays call of duty black open on psn and the title of the article was something like "Modder plays call of duty black ops on his htc desire"
OUYA Console by Ouya
Permalink: http://amzn.com/B0050SZD18
VS
G-Box Midnight MX2 Android 4.2 Jelly Bean Dual Core XBMC Streaming Mini HTPC TV Box Player by Matricom
Permalink: http://amzn.com/B00CH643A8
Which one should I go for guys, especially in terms of hardware. Tegra 3 vs A9+Mali400, apparently both have no issues with XBMC or 1080P playback. I do not plan to use either for games, mostly media and music and dowload box. If it doesn't matter, I might go for the MX2 as there are more connectivity options there.
I think that, in terms of brute force, Tegra 3 overhelms A9+Mali400. OUYA bears the last Tegra3 revision and, theoretically, NVIDIA works with OUYA Team to boost it up.
If you buy OUYA, you gain a Bluetooth controller for the same prize which can be used as remote.
At, the end, nobody knows if OUYA nor G-Box thing will have support from the scene, which, for me, is a key value.
I'd say if you're not interested in gaming, I'd go with the G-box. The ouya is marketed as a game console, and while they may add support for some media features in the future, for right now we're busting our tails trying to get better compatibility with the play store apps. the G-box is designed as a media player, and it already supports XBMC with some great reviews. It also includes the play store, so you can easily download the latest versions of netflix, hulu, etc.
Cool, I think that settles it for me, I wasn't aware that the regular playstore apps wouldn't work on the ouya. I will get an MX2 and post a review soon. Also it helps that I can connect a few spare portable hard drives and use this as a streaming box to other TVs in the house.
Didn't mean to mislead, because some play store apps will work. However, a lot don't, or are glitchy or crash occasionally, and they all have to be sideloaded because there is no play store access at all yet...
The gbox is pretty good. I have had it for a few days now and use my Logitech keyboard that also has a touch pad. It works great. Honestly, I would probably hate it if I didn't have the keyboard. The play store works perfectly. I haven't had a problem installing any apps. It is fully rooted. There has been a few times when it has restarted but it is android, it isn't perfect. Especially for 100 bucks. External hard drive works great but sometimes loses power. I don't think the gbox puts off enough juice. A powered hub would fix this issue. I wish there was development for the gbox but metronix or however you spell it won't release source.
Sent from my SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2
ouya vs mx2
plasmafire said:
OUYA Console by Ouya
Permalink: http://amzn.com/B0050SZD18
VS
G-Box Midnight MX2 Android 4.2 Jelly Bean Dual Core XBMC Streaming Mini HTPC TV Box Player by Matricom
Permalink: http://amzn.com/B00CH643A8
Which one should I go for guys, especially in terms of hardware. Tegra 3 vs A9+Mali400, apparently both have no issues with XBMC or 1080P playback. I do not plan to use either for games, mostly media and music and dowload box. If it doesn't matter, I might go for the MX2 as there are more connectivity options there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well i have the G-Box MX2 i love it but it died on me. Wont boot up, stuck on the Matricom Screen. I love all the usb it has, was even able to use my Logitech Revue K700 Kb and add a 2TB WD Passport to it with an SDcard. But i think it needs a Quadcore to be a lil more fluid for video. I will return it to get the ouya. Dont like the fact that the Ouya has only one USB port but you cant have everything i guess. i hope the Ouya gets the same XBMC support as the G-box. Only had it for 17 days died on day 14 . Tried the reset option but that didnt work. Maybe it was my box. But when it worked it was awsome.
I'm actually going to be doing a review on the MX2 today and uploading it tonight, I'll be comparing it's gaming features to the Ouya and stuff.
Spoiler alert, the Ouya is way ****ing better.
EDIT: Vid's up, see the Ouya destroy the MX2 for yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miTst6QE-34
Interesting topic. I was also looking at the Gbox before I pre-ordered the Ouya. I think the Tegra 3 on the Ouya would do a better job on graphics than the dual core Gbox Midnight. It's not just processor speed and number of cores, but also graphics processor. Plus, the bluetooth on the Ouya means one less USB dongle to plug in.
I went with the Ouya, hoping the hard working people on XDA will get a pure Android ROM for the Ouya soon. If I'm stuck with the Ouya's Android skin, it'd probably be an even split which way I'd go.
I saw the "XIOS DS Media Play" and considered it against the Ouya. I think these box with out of the box rooted + Play Store compatibility is better for the majority, especially non-geeks who don't want to fiddle flashing/etc. Not having PlayStore is still a big flaw for the Ouya in term of satisfying a wider audience imo.
For me the Ouya is the clear choice, it have a dedicated XDA forum section for a reason, it will get more community development and for sure the Ouya will likely get CyanogenMod and other roms, while its less likely with these other Android boxes.
For hardware performance the Tegra3 will be faster than these dual core 1.5GHz A9 with Mali-400 gpu.
If you are looking for a lot of gaming then the Ouya is the way to go, otherwise get one of these Cortex A9 boxes if you only need video playback. There will be some of these boxes that will exceed the Ouya in term of performance in no time, but the Ouya have XDA community that's the key for me. This is the case for all Android devices that I buy.
Went for the gbox for now as a no hassle xbmc box. What you mentioned is absolutely right that the ouya will overtake all these boxes as soon as a rom gets out. I will just wait for that to happen and maybe a tegra 4 device will happen too by then.
Thanks for all the insight guys.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Axelben said:
Well i have the G-Box MX2 i love it but it died on me. Wont boot up, stuck on the Matricom Screen. I love all the usb it has, was even able to use my Logitech Revue K700 Kb and add a 2TB WD Passport to it with an SDcard. But i think it needs a Quadcore to be a lil more fluid for video. I will return it to get the ouya. Dont like the fact that the Ouya has only one USB port but you cant have everything i guess. i hope the Ouya gets the same XBMC support as the G-box. Only had it for 17 days died on day 14 . Tried the reset option but that didnt work. Maybe it was my box. But when it worked it was awsome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just ordered the Gbox MX 2 and have a Logitech Revue KB - how do I get the two to talk?
plasmafire said:
Went for the gbox for now as a no hassle xbmc box. What you mentioned is absolutely right that the ouya will overtake all these boxes as soon as a rom gets out. I will just wait for that to happen and maybe a tegra 4 device will happen too by then.
Thanks for all the insight guys.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is an interesting direct comparison between Ouya and the G-box Midnight MX2.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R35SEI3ONB5SCK/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R35SEI3ONB5SCK
It didn't make the Midnight look very good. The Ouya emulator games seem to work really well in the video. The Midnight had issues with games and 1080P videos, and the emulator games on the Midnight ran slow. The reviewer also couldn't get bluetooth adapters to work, so could use a PS2 wireless controller. Granted, this is just one person's attempt to use the Midnight box, maybe other people have overcome these issues with some setting changes.
Yep the guy is playing games and using plex..both of which the mx2 doesn't do well. I am just going to have it boot into xbmc launcher. Run utorrent with rss feeds from showrss in the background. And maybe run droidnas on it. I have seen logitech mini keyboards work so that is what I'll get.
coachclass said:
This is an interesting direct comparison between Ouya and the G-box Midnight MX2.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R35SEI3ONB5SCK/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R35SEI3ONB5SCK
It didn't make the Midnight look very good. The Ouya emulator games seem to work really well in the video. The Midnight had issues with games and 1080P videos, and the emulator games on the Midnight ran slow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, I keep getting torn one way or the other every day when I see a review that is posted.
My primary use for either device will not be for games at all. 100% streaming media playback from either my local nas or sites like youtube, amazon vod, etc...
I also won't be using Plex and instead be going with XBMC.
As for Plex... the above video review showed some really bad stuttering while playing 1080p video. On Android, is Plex using its own decoder for playback or does it offload it to MX Player? I ask because when streaming any of my local 1080i content (wirelessly) to my Xoom tablet, it plays back in MX Player flawlessly.
So is the MX2 video stuttering in the video review a fault of the hardware or Plex software?
SamsungBlue said:
Just ordered the Gbox MX 2 and have a Logitech Revue KB - how do I get the two to talk?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes you can use the Revue KB. Just buy the Unity USB. You will be able to use it anywhere.
mkhopper said:
Yea, I keep getting torn one way or the other every day when I see a review that is posted.
My primary use for either device will not be for games at all. 100% streaming media playback from either my local nas or sites like youtube, amazon vod, etc...
I also won't be using Plex and instead be going with XBMC.
As for Plex... the above video review showed some really bad stuttering while playing 1080p video. On Android, is Plex using its own decoder for playback or does it offload it to MX Player? I ask because when streaming any of my local 1080i content (wirelessly) to my Xoom tablet, it plays back in MX Player flawlessly.
So is the MX2 video stuttering in the video review a fault of the hardware or Plex software?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This was my video. The settings I was using in Plex on both devices was to use the hardware to decode and playback the videos. The MX2's hardware just simply isnt nearly good enough to rely on for high resolution video playback, and on top of that there's some really annoying kinks with it like no bluetooth support at all and a very fussy keyboard input system that really sucks compared to stock android and what the Ouya uses.There's also a higher res version of the review on youtube, I linked to it on the first page of this thread towards the bottom.
Just got my MX2 today. I was quite apprehensive after reading some of the comments, but I must say that after using it for a while.. it is exactly what I needed. I am not saying it is better than ouya, but I have XBMC setup with all my local media and video plugins. It works like a charm. I will not play any games on it so I don't really care about the gaming performance.
All programs installed from Play store work
Full 1080p videos play no issues on xbmc.
Torrents are download via showrss to my xbmc monitored directory.
USB hard drive 1TB western digital is powered via the usb ports and shared via droid nas
Quick video 1080p: http://youtu.be/vQ6FvGtKbEw
mkhopper said:
Yea, I keep getting torn one way or the other every day when I see a review that is posted.
My primary use for either device will not be for games at all. 100% streaming media playback from either my local nas or sites like youtube, amazon vod, etc...
I also won't be using Plex and instead be going with XBMC.
As for Plex... the above video review showed some really bad stuttering while playing 1080p video. On Android, is Plex using its own decoder for playback or does it offload it to MX Player? I ask because when streaming any of my local 1080i content (wirelessly) to my Xoom tablet, it plays back in MX Player flawlessly.
So is the MX2 video stuttering in the video review a fault of the hardware or Plex software?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not sure if plex has the issue xbmc for ouya has at the moment but after the new firmware update last week most of my videos have stuttering seems like a framerate issue I reported it to ouya and they got back to me saying they are aware of the issue and are working on it. Before that update my videos were playing smooth.
plasmafire said:
Yes you can use the Revue KB. Just buy the Unity USB. You will be able to use it anywhere.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. There seems to be quite a few "Unity" USB recovers from Logitech. I couldn't find one that listed the Revue KB as a compatible device. Would any of those Unity receivers that work with other Logitech KBs or mice work? Seems like there are several in the $10-15 range. I appreciate your help.
EDIT: Can everyone who visits this thread please take the time to do a official request for adding the SHIELD Console forums? Just visit the below thread and put in your request please. Thanks
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1660354
ORIGINAL POST:
Is this a new device coming out this Summer? I don't even see a section at XDA for it, or any mention of it here in these Shield threads, yet its based on Android TV and the Tegra X1, with the below specs. I'm in the market for a Android TV, so this interests me.
http://shield.nvidia.com/
http://shield.nvidia.com/console
Specifications:
Processor NVIDIA® Tegra® X1 processor
256-core Maxwell™ GPU with 3GB RAM
Video Features 4K Ultra-HD ready with 4K playback and capture up to 60 fps (VP9, H265, H264)
Audio 7.1 and 5.1 surround sound pass through over HDMI
High-resolution audio playback up to 24-bit/192 kHz over HDMI and USB
High-resolution audio up-sample to 24-bit/192 kHz over USB
Storage* 16 GB
Wireless 802.11ac 2x2 MIMO 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi
Bluetooth 4.1/BLE
Interfaces Gigabit Ethernet
HDMI 2.0
Two USB 3.0 (Type A)
Micro-USB 2.0
MicroSD slot
IR Receiver (compatible with Logitech Harmony)
Software Updates SHIELD software upgrades directly from NVIDIA
Gaming Features NVIDIA GRID™ game streaming service
NVIDIA Share
NVIDIA GameStream™
Power 40 W power adapter
Weight and Size Weight: 23 oz / 654 g
Height: 5.1 in / 130 mm
Width: 8.3 in / 210 mm
Depth: 1.0 in / 25 mm
Operating System Android TV™, Google Cast™ Ready
Included Apps = PLEX
It is a new android TV console made by Nvidia. The Cpu/GPU is the latest tegra X1 that is insanely fast! Much faster than Snapdragon 810 and Exynos 7.
Release date is in may and will cost 199$
Just saw some games that will be released like Metal Gear rising? will those be on the cloud or it will run natively on the shield it self? if its only on the cloud the this is not a console its just a streaming device that requires very fast internet which not all countries have specially here in the Philippines
RollWii said:
Just saw some games that will be released like Metal Gear rising? will those be on the cloud or it will run natively on the shield it self? if its only on the cloud the this is not a console its just a streaming device that requires very fast internet which not all countries have specially here in the Philippines
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Games like Crysis 3 will run natively on it (not in the cloud).
(Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong)
Correct, there are a few big-name games being modded/re-written to run natively on the platform. Of them, "Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel" , "Doom 3: BFG Edition" , and "Crysis 3". They demoed all of these. Doom3 and Crysis looked like they ran pretty well. Borderlands ran like a slug and obviously needed a lot more optimization.
That being said, they were really pushing the GRID services heavily, and a number of the announced launch titles were actually GRID games (AKA, PC games virtualized in a server center and streamed to your natively like OnLive or Gaikai/PS-Now, but with the improvements that nVidia has learned from the virtualization and distributed/parallel computing sectors). Anybody who has a current SHIELD device (portable or Tablet) and is within the USA should try it on their current devices at least a few times before it goes subscription model. It is currently in beta and free for all Shield devices, but the servers are in the USA, and the lag times may be unacceptable for some games if you are overseas or just have a laggy connection in general. It will officially come out of beta at the time when the Shield Console goes on sale, which will end the year-plus free ride so far.
ryocoon said:
Correct, there are a few big-name games being modded/re-written to run natively on the platform. Of them, "Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel" , "Doom 3: BFG Edition" , and "Crysis 3". They demoed all of these. Doom3 and Crysis looked like they ran pretty well. Borderlands ran like a slug and obviously needed a lot more optimization.
That being said, they were really pushing the GRID services heavily, and a number of the announced launch titles were actually GRID games (AKA, PC games virtualized in a server center and streamed to your natively like OnLive or Gaikai/PS-Now, but with the improvements that nVidia has learned from the virtualization and distributed/parallel computing sectors). Anybody who has a current SHIELD device (portable or Tablet) and is within the USA should try it on their current devices at least a few times before it goes subscription model. It is currently in beta and free for all Shield devices, but the servers are in the USA, and the lag times may be unacceptable for some games if you are overseas or just have a laggy connection in general. It will officially come out of beta at the time when the Shield Console goes on sale, which will end the year-plus free ride so far.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm more interested what it will eventually do for media myself. And it MUST be rootable for me to even consider it as an option. The specs, at least for the Android world are nothing short of brilliant. However, again I want media apps mainly, such as Kodi, Plex, Netflix playback and casting to be flawless. For now the Nexus Player still turns me on more even with it being wifi only. However, If the NVIDIA Console becomes rootable with FULL custom Android ROM's I am going to change my mind in a heartbeat though, haha.
Considering that all of the nVidia devices to date have been extremely easy to unlock and root, I'm going to say that, yeah, it is mostly likely going to be root-able. Whether it can handle Kodi/Plex/Netflix/Etc at 4K is up to those developers. I know NetFlix has 4K content, but I'm not sure how they differentiate and enable it to be honest.
I have the Nexus Player, and I honestly feel a bit like a chump for getting it and so soon this device is announced. I can always use it in another room or something though.
The big rub with Android TV so far is that the default UI, the LeanBack Launcher, will not display some apps unless they declare themselves as leanback capable (which includes some XML, an art asset or two for different shape/size icons, navigation by controller/keys, and search-ability in some cases). This is a problem I've run into on my Nexus Player. Now, nVidia may snub the LeanBack launcher and may integrate some LeanBack function into their nVidia Hub (like on the Shield Tablet and Shield Portable) which recognizes dozens of media apps, games, and some other things and has a launcher in its own UI. However, if apps make themselves noted for LeanBack, they show up fine on the normal AndroidTV interface. What is better, if they include search, then you can voice search for titles in media apps, and if it includes some sort of rating or recommendation feature (like Hulu or YouTube) they can integrate that and you can get recommendations of what to watch directly in your launcher UI on the top row. Less important for games, maybe important for Game discovery, but definitely an interesting thing for the media watchers amongst us. I doubt recommendation would work on something like Plex, and KODI is its own UI entirely, skipping LeanBack or even nVidia hub (to be honest, I've never been a fan of XBMC's UI, and Kodi hasn't won me over yet either... too fidgety and I can't trust a 'normal' person to be able to understand and operate it). Like I stated above, the machine has the horsepower, but it will be up to app developers to show up with a "flawless" app that will work on it well.
Casting works pretty damn well on my Nexus Player, so I bet with MIMO capable AC spec WiFi, and also ethernet inclusion, you will get pretty damn good casting from Chromecast apps, as that is built into AndroidTV's OS.
Mind you a lot of this is based upon speculation on specs, existing hardware, and my knowledge of the AndroidTV OS and how it functions. Your mileage may vary, terms and conditions subject to actual reality upon device launch.
Yeah chances are my mileage will most likely vary, unless for some odd reason I am forced to run the stock Android TV experience. Since 2010 I have not ran anything stock, so not even sure what that is like, and pretty sure I don't want to know, lol. I was thinking about a full rom flashed on it immediately out of the box, installing Nova Launcher, my Planets live wallpaper, throwing up all the streaming apps onto the home screen, and hoping it just works like it did for the Nexus Player user on Youtube. I want to setup my own media streamer home page and experience. 4K would be future proof, but I have no plans to get rid of the 1080p TV that this device will be attached to, not before it naturally dies on me. I still like the Nexus Player as it will fit right in with all my other Nexus devices. I just need to see more development work taking place on it.
SkOrPn said:
Yeah chances are my mileage will most likely vary, unless for some odd reason I am forced to run the stock Android TV experience. Since 2010 I have not ran anything stock, so not even sure what that is like, and pretty sure I don't want to know, lol. I was thinking about a full rom flashed on it immediately out of the box, installing Nova Launcher, my Planets live wallpaper, throwing up all the streaming apps onto the home screen, and hoping it just works like it did for the Nexus Player user on Youtube. I want to setup my own media streamer home page and experience. 4K would be future proof, but I have no plans to get rid of the 1080p TV that this device will be attached to, not before it naturally dies on me. I still like the Nexus Player as it will fit right in with all my other Nexus devices. I just need to see more development work taking place on it.
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I'm still waiting for this device. Hopefully it's better than the garbage that the Razer Forge TV was. The mods and such at the nVidia forums still say it's coming out in may. The Forge didn't release with Netflix, and there might be a chance the same will happen with the Nvidia Shield Android TV, but I'd be ok with Nvidia as they're going to have 4k display support for netflix.
https://forums.geforce.com/default/...blet/nvidia-shield-tv-console-release-date/2/
I just got an email from NVIDIA saying its almost here. It starts out saying the wait is over, but then goes on to say its still not available and that they are giving away one Shield Console everyday until it is available to the public. I hate emails that start off telling you the wait is over but then asks you to wait some more, lol...
Its out!
Although only can see USA and Canada
$199.99 for 16GB
$299.99 for 500GB
http://shield.nvidia.com/android-tv
I'm not personally too interested in the gaming aspects but that amount of GPU power will prove very, very interesting. My main hope is that somebody can produce a minimal linux install for HTPC with Kodi and mpv builds, or perhaps just a release of Debian.
This device is the perfect low-cost HTPC. It should have more than sufficient CPU power for 10-bit h.264 and h.265 decode as well as sufficient compute power on the GPU side for EWA-type resamplers for chroma and image. I'm given to understand the X1 has full desktop opengl compatibility so it ought to be fully compatible with mpv (though I'm unsure of the state of the ARM builds).
The denver CPU should be more than enough to handle metadata crawling and the likes via Kodi in a non-sluggish fashion too. Christ, this device needs more videophile attention...
Just ordered mine on Amazon. It'll be here Sunday.
XDA needs a forum for it. This old shield handheld forum is for a completely different device.
Just ordered mine from Amazon US to be delivered to the UK next week by expedited delivery. What an absolute beast of a machine.
skrowl said:
Just ordered mine on Amazon. It'll be here Sunday.
XDA needs a forum for it. This old shield handheld forum is for a completely different device.
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me too!
returning my fire tv to them for a full refund, and getting this
this will be great to stream my pc to the tv so i can play games like witcher 3 in full 4k 50" vs 1080p 24"
and all the other stuff it does
Full review
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9289/the-nvidia-shield-android-tv-review
Shield Console Rooting Experience Thus Far...
Got mine this afternoon and after futzing a bit, tried to root it. It came with developer mode already enabled, one hassle for me is that rebooting to fastboot makes the screen blank so I had to fly blind to oem unlock. So, I've got an unlocked system at the moment, but Super SU is still not working because their is no su on the device. Anyone make it any further than me? I also went ahead and cracked it open to see if there were obvious serial port connection points. Looks like there's a nice spot for a laptop hard drive that is probably populated in the Pro model.
I'm going to look into building my own kernel + ramdisk to try and get the necessary tools in place so SuperSU can work, but I'm a bit worried that the screen isn't going to work and so I'll essentially be flying blind through the whole process.
ericvh said:
Looks like there's a nice spot for a laptop hard drive that is probably populated in the Pro model.
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Does that that mean there is an internal SATA connector or not?
A.N.Droid said:
Does that that mean there is an internal SATA connector or not?
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Yeah no SATA connector but there is an option in the settings to install all apps to an external hdd or micro sd card anyways
PS. Anyone know if this will be getting a dedicated XDA Forum? I'll probably be picking one up soon
A.N.Droid said:
Does that that mean there is an internal SATA connector or not?
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Hard to tell for sure, looks like there might be solder points for it, but no header. I've got the 500GB on order, will post the diffs when it arrives.
so its time for me to upgrade, i owned a g box and it was cool at the time year or 2 later it starts to give me problems its slow most things dont work ect so iv been using my pc to watch movies via xbmc, now i want to stop and look for a new xbmc media player and seen the nexus player and looks promising, and been looking around a bit about xbmc for it, is this recommended buy? id like a box that is fast able to use xbmc and more less problems lol
DayDaysTech said:
so its time for me to upgrade, i owned a g box and it was cool at the time year or 2 later it starts to give me problems its slow most things dont work ect so iv been using my pc to watch movies via xbmc, now i want to stop and look for a new xbmc media player and seen the nexus player and looks promising, and been looking around a bit about xbmc for it, is this recommended buy? id like a box that is fast able to use xbmc and more less problems lol
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At this time I would wait just a few weeks as both Razer Forge and Nvidia are releasing new boxes which have better specs.The Nvidia is a little more pricey at $199 the forge will be $99 according to the options you choose. Both will be better boxes if I had to choose. Roku is also due with the Roku 4 anytime now. There will be allot of choices by June.
Im currently using my nexus player solely for xbmc, ive unlocked and rooted it. And ive installed xbmc launcher. Actually im technically using the alpha nightly of kodi. Its amazing. Ive installed genesis, and aeon nox skin. I use the nexus player remote to control kodi. Unles you plan on using the nexus player for kodi, it's useless. But running kodi its damn near perfect.
i love my nexus player. it is not great for everyone though.
first of all you need a mouse and keyboard. and a gamepad.
second and most important you must have a thirst for tinkering to appreciate what you have.
if you just want to consume media stick with chromecast or a cheaper roku.
Kodi runs great on the Nexus Player...the only 2 things for me is the frame rate is locked to 60fps and the inability to play VC-1 (it plays but its pretty unwatchable as I believe it uses software instead of hardware).
What about if you want to play emulators?
if a tablet will run it you can most likely get it to run on the nexus player with some hackery.(lollirock rom will run most tablet apps without much fighting).
my bluetooth controllers work great with the emulators ive tried.
I still think for gamers there are better options coming up. I have the adt1 its a great box guess I am just waiting for the Android Tv box with strong specs. Nvidia Shield?
Don't buy it, I've had mine since 1/22/2015 and I have been having issues with it.
Netflix crashes when I try to choose a show/movie.
Slow at times, including having to fully reset it due to extreme slowdowns.
Remote feels very fragile, buttons feel bad.
Unresponsive when using the remote sometimes.
Voice search is terrible, it's laggy and unreliable. Not to mention it doesn't work with many of the apps.
Wifi connection only, unless you get Micro USB to Ethernet adapter.
No normal sized USB connector, meaning you absolutely need a Micro to Normal USB adapter.
Rooted apps require a mouse and keyboard, the remote most of the time does not work on them. (and remember to hook up a mouse and keyboard you need micro to normal usb adapter)
I feel bad for this Asus/Google product, and wish I could take back my purchase of this item.
Edit:
Most of these issues weren't noticeable when I first got it, but after a while all these things become a big issue.
Here is my take on the Nexus Player:
I've rooted, and installed Droidmote. This allows for controlling sideloaded apps. I have entered custom DNS values to allow for region restricted apps. I transfer apps using the SendAnywhere app. There is much more flexibility with this box than with ones that are locked down. It is more what it can do, than what it does out of the box. There are weaknesses with all streaming media players, but this does everything I need in one box. I haven't had any problems with the Netflix app. For those that like to tinker with android, the Nexus Player is ideal. For those that want an out of the box solution, time will tell.
I regret buying the Nexus Player. It freezes,Bluetooth controller/remote disconnect all the time,lack of apps even with side loading, various app crashes (Netflix mostly),voice search sucks and it just feels like a beta product at best.
DayDaysTech said:
so its time for me to upgrade, i owned a g box and it was cool at the time year or 2 later it starts to give me problems its slow most things dont work ect so iv been using my pc to watch movies via xbmc, now i want to stop and look for a new xbmc media player and seen the nexus player and looks promising, and been looking around a bit about xbmc for it, is this recommended buy? id like a box that is fast able to use xbmc and more less problems lol
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I think the Android TV platform is great. But the nexus player doesn't seems as good as what is coming soon hardware wise. I'd wait for the Razer forge tv or nvidia shield console.
cheeto said:
I think the Android TV platform is great. But the nexus player doesn't seems as good as what is coming soon hardware wise. I'd wait for the Razer forge tv or nvidia shield console.
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Yeah the nvidia looks pretty sweet.
I love it!!
I have had many devices including ATV1,2,3 and the WD TV. The Applee 3 is still used for mirroring from Idevices. The WD was second device as it had and external HDD port but it was constantly rebooting. With my Nexus player I enabled devleoper mode and enabled the USB support. I bought an USB to go cable and installed file explorer. Now it's my favourite device. It can do HDD movies, netflix and Kodi.
Well worth it in my mind. Also had custom roms available if you don't like android TV and want to go to lollipop.
If you can find an Android ADT-1 (the developer's Android TV box), then you'd be better off with that. Much better specs - I've been using mine for nearly 2 months now and since the 5.0.1 update about 7 weeks ago it's been running flawlessly.
Lokke9191 said:
Im currently using my nexus player solely for xbmc, ive unlocked and rooted it. And ive installed xbmc launcher. Actually im technically using the alpha nightly of kodi. Its amazing. Ive installed genesis, and aeon nox skin. I use the nexus player remote to control kodi. Unles you plan on using the nexus player for kodi, it's useless. But running kodi its damn near perfect.
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Hi there,
Were you able to get Navi-X up and running?
This is my main reason for wanting to buy the nexus player. This way, I'd not need to hook my laptop up to the TV and could just access Navi-X from the Nexus Player.
Please advise if you (or anyone else) has been able to get Navi-X running on the nexus player.
Thanks!!
I think the biggest plus for the nexus player would be regular android updates directly from google for a long time.
A little background. I am looking at the black Friday deals and asking myself is this a irrational purchase worth making. I have a shield tablet with no controller, or to be honest my son does. I have used grid on free trial over the last year but to be honest it was fun but not worth a monthly subscription to me, the game choices I felt were somewhat limited. I realize I would get 3 months if I get a Shield TV for free.
I am a big user of Kodi, my main box is a HP Chromebox hooked up in my living room. I also have a recently purchased Nexus Player in my bedroom that I picked up for $49.99. In the grand scope of things I have no need for the shield tv other than a want for the shiniest new toy. I have owned an Ouya before with thoughts that emulation would lead to hours of fun but to be honest never played much. If purchased this would likely replace my chromebox which would move to my bedroom and I would likely give my nexus player to a family member or friend. I am not sure this would out perform the chromebox running Kodi as a standalone using openelec as android although fully functional is not as good in my experience as a linux based distro.
$149 is not allot of money but I struggle with am I buying something that will perform on par with my current setup and add some gaming which in theory I already have with my shield tablet, or am I underselling the capabilities of this box.
so I reach out to the community for opinions
I am interested in this as well. I too have a Nexus Player. I debated on getting the Shield but I decided against it at the time, especially being I picked up the Nexus Player for only $49.00. I like the Nexus Player, I just don't game on it at all. I only use it for Netflix, HBO GO, and to play MP4 movies via Kodi mainly.
The Black Friday deal on the Shield is awesome in my opinion. $150 and you get the $50 remote for free! I really like the looks of the shield remote as well. The headphone jack is a nice touch. The shield would be replacing my Nexus Player, which is hooked up to my 32" 1080P T.V wall mounted in my bedroom. The 4K capabilities kind of make it feel like overkill, but I think it would be perfect for my situation. Provide all my streaming needs and some moderate gaming as well. Also, my cable modem and router are in my bedroom right by my TV. So it would be nothing to snake an ethernet cable up inside the wall with the existing power cord and hdmi. ( I have heard that wired net connection is hands down better for the Shield vs WiFi) I am sure my 60mbps net, wired would be fine for the game streaming.
I personally think it is worth it, and I am strongly considering it as well. There are only two issues for me if I do it. One, I know I will end up buying a 4K TV and selling my existing. lol. Two, the sale price is a pretty steep discount, making me kind of wonder if a Shield Console 2 is going to pop up in a month or two. What do you think?
A few weeks ago, I began my search for a streaming device that I could use to run Kodi on my main TV. During that time, I've gone from a Fire Stick (received as a gift last year) to a Nexus Player and finally to a Nvidia Shield TV. I was generally pleased with the Nexus Player, but the frequent buffering issues when playing HD movies started to annoy me. My internet ISP is not the issue, as my TWC plan has great speeds (300MB/20MB). Really wish the Nexus player had a ethernet port.
While I was looking for a USB/ethernet hub for the Nexus Player, I saw that a few retailers were selling the Shield TV for $174.99 w/ the free remote. I decided to pull the trigger and have been 100% happy with my purchase. The Nexus Player isn't slow, but the Shield TV absolutely flies. No lag anywhere and no more buffering issues.
For $150, the Shield TV is a great buy.
Well I bit the bullet. Should pick up my shield tomorrow. Little early Christmas present I guess.
mcord11758 said:
Well I bit the bullet. Should pick up my shield tomorrow. Little early Christmas present I guess.
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I want to get it, I think it is an awesome device, and the sale is on point. However, I decided to stick with my Nexus Player. At the end of the day, the Shield is overkill for my needs. The more I thought about it the more I realized how I would rarely use it, especially for gaming. Which is another thing, after 3 months the $8 a month would be a complete waste for me.
So I decided to just stick with my Nexus Player. It more than does what I need. I literally use 4 apps on it. Netflix, HBOGO, YouTube, Kodi.
Still though, congrats to you and good choice! If I had more use for one I would so be buying one as well.
Site ate my post, but I'm sticking with my Nexus too.
I wish NVIDIA promoted its native talents over streaming. And also by blocking exclusive titles like Half-Life (and possibly Borderlands, TBD) from other Android devices - it hurts high performance Android from getting traction. I have an XPS 12 running the ancient Console OS KitKat builds - and it out benchmarks Shield. Probably would play Borderlands 2 great too... but I can't sync my purchase? No, thanks... really.
Original post was much more eloquent, not worth the carpal tunnel to rewrite.
I just made the upgrade from the Nexus Player to the Shield TV this weekend with the $150 deal. I am very happy with it so far. Main highlights:
- 8GB of storage was very tight. 16GB gives you a good amount of breathing room and the MicroSD + full-sized USB ports for expandable storage is great.
- There are a number of Android games that work on the Shield TV but not the Nexus Player. Not just due to specs, but simply compatibility.
- The controller is much better. Much more responsive, better overall feel to it.
- In addition to the gaming-focused improvements, I've had a much better streaming experience as well. I'm still using Wireless-AC for my connection like I was with the Nexus Player but I'm no longer running into streaming issues. With my Nexus Player I had problems with Youtube become pixelated, Hulu freezing while moving from an ad to the show or vice versa, video "stuttering." I'm not running into any of these with the Shield TV.