Nvidia Shield TVs Are Getting a Long-Awaited Update

The Nvidia Shield is arguably some of the common streaming units for the Android-using crowd, and it’s getting a large replace to start out the brand new 12 months.

The Shield Software Experience Upgrade 9.0 brings the newest model of Android TV 11 to all Nvidia Shield TVs, together with the unique, which launched in 2015. (Android TV 12 is just accessible for select devices.)

This replace for the Shield TV has been lengthy awaited, primarily as a result of Nvidia never rolled out Android TV 10 resulting from a scarcity of helpful options. The new Shield Software Experience Upgrade 9.0 comes with a number of of Android 11’s useful options. It contains one-time app permissions, which helps you to minimize off entry to issues like your location info after preliminary use. If you’d wish to pair your personal equipment, the Nvidia Shield now helps pairing an Xbox One controller or Apple TV distant. You can use both peripheral with their respective streaming apps. And for those who use a Playstation, Xbox, or Nvidia controller with pressable emblem buttons, now you can set them as much as launch Stadia on press.

Nvidia is touting Shield’s help for its cloud-based streaming software program, GeForce Now. The replace provides 4K+HDR help for the GeForce Now RTX 3080 membership (say that in a single breath), which will get you entry to Nvidia’s library of streaming video games. The concept is that the video games stream as for those who had been enjoying them natively on a machine operating an precise GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card.

Audio fanatics will discover updates to the Nvidia Shield’s supported codecs, together with lowered latency. There can be added help for aptX-compatible Bluetooth headsets, so units just like the Sony WH-1000MX3 headphones can lastly hyperlink up for wire-free listening. You can see the total particulars of the audio updates, plus the bugs that had been squashed within the Shield Experience 9.0 release notes.

The new options ought to please Nvidia Shield customers, although players must watch for Android TV 12, which can ship variable refresh charges and a local 4k interface. Meanwhile, Google’s Chromecast with Google TV has but to see its Android TV 11 replace.