(or Shield TV, if you prefer) is getting another software update today. For those of you keeping track (and NVIDIA does), it's the 25th update for the original NVIDIA Shield TV, which is very much still a device worth owning. And for those who have the 2019 NVIDIA Shield — you can read our full review of that one here — you've got even more improvements and features on the way.
A big selling point of the 2019 NVIDIA Shield is the AI-enhanced 4K upscaling, meaning that it takes content that's not natively streamed in 4K resolution and upscales it using artificial intelligence to make things look even better. New this time around is the ability to upscale 360p content (which, unfortunately, is still a thing) to 1440p. And the 2019 Shield TV Pro — which is even more powerful — you'll be able to use the AI upscaling at 60 frames per second, which means live sports will look even better.
Another improvement involves the new Shield remote control, which sports a customizable button. You'll now be able to add actions for double presses and long presses, as well as the ability to select the input source, launch the Daydream screensaver, or send a long-press menu button.
Other improvements you'll care about include:
- Adds IR volume control when using Google Home paired with Shield
- Adds IR volume control when using the Shield TV app
- Allows the Shield Controller and remotes (both old and new) to control volume via IR even when the Shield itself isn't awake
- Fixed volume support for USB DAC
- Adds the option to disable volume lowering when using the "OK, Google" hotrod
- Adds the ability for Kodi to adjust the display resolution for 480p content
- Adds HDR-to-SDR color tone remapping
- Adds SMBv3 service compatibility
- Adds DFS Wifi channel support to the 2015 Shield
- Lets the user grant write access to NAS from installed apps
- Adds developer options to aggressively free system resources
- Removes the forced Shield Experience upgrade after a factory reset
And there are a host of bug fixes as well, which you can read about here.
