Streaming Equipment (Nvidia Shield, Apple TV, Roku, Fire Stick et al)

[puckhead]

@jf-08 , I found this recently updated article about Shield and Prime specifically and it seems pretty comprehensive:

Prime Video Not Working On Nvidia Shield: How To Fix [2023] - BlinqBlinq

Nvidia Shield is one of the best streaming devices out there. Whether you like playing video games or just enjoy watching popular TV shows, Shield TV has got

blinqblinq.com

Full disclosure, I have never used a Shield and know nothing about "blinqblinq" other than the steps they recommend look logical to me for troubleshooting.

One thing you may consider before giving up is the Shield's customer service. They're a pretty big name in the streaming game now, so I'm hoping they have a chat or some mechanism to help users out when things inevitably go south.

 

[jf-08]

@jf-08 , I found this recently updated article about Shield and Prime specifically and it seems pretty comprehensive:

Prime Video Not Working On Nvidia Shield: How To Fix [2023] - BlinqBlinq

Nvidia Shield is one of the best streaming devices out there. Whether you like playing video games or just enjoy watching popular TV shows, Shield TV has got

blinqblinq.com

Full disclosure, I have never used a Shield and know nothing about "blinqblinq" other than the steps they recommend look logical to me for troubleshooting.

One thing you may consider before giving up is the Shield's customer service. They're a pretty big name in the streaming game now, so I'm hoping they have a chat or some mechanism to help users out when things inevitably go south.

Thanks! I'll definitely check this out.

I really appreciate everyone's help and suggestions in here!!

 

[Yuma]

@jf-08 I know you may be in the market for a new TV!

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Notice it says there's an inkjet printer in it! Gotta love printing out stuff from your TV!

 

[jf-08]

Just got a software update in the queue for my Shield.

It's been working great and I don't want to screw with it. Has anybody else done the recent update for the Shield? And if so were there any consequences?

 

[Devilmaycare]

Just got a software update in the queue for my Shield.

It's been working great and I don't want to screw with it. Has anybody else done the recent update for the Shield? And if so were there any consequences?

I just updated mine to see what it is since I've pretty much retired my Shields. The update is fine to install. It doesn't mess with the UI or anything. Looking at the change list not much should really affect you.

This just reminded me though of why I dumped mine. The home screen is pretty much one big ad now. It pissed me off when they took up the top 1/3 of the screen with their promotional junk. Since then they've added 3 rows of junk trying to get you to get TV shows and movies that you can not get rid of. It's ridiculous that they force that garbage onto you and don't let you set it up as you want. I'll never buy another one as long as they keep this up. I'll stick with my other boxes that I have a lot more control over.

 

[Covert Rain]

I just updated mine to see what it is since I've pretty much retired my Shields. The update is fine to install. It doesn't mess with the UI or anything. Looking at the change list not much should really affect you.

This just reminded me though of why I dumped mine. The home screen is pretty much one big ad now. It pissed me off when they took up the top 1/3 of the screen with their promotional junk. Since then they've added 3 rows of junk trying to get you to get TV shows and movies that you can not get rid of. It's ridiculous that they force that garbage onto you and don't let you set it up as you want. I'll never buy another one as long as they keep this up. I'll stick with my other boxes that I have a lot more control over.

What are you running now?

 

[Devilmaycare]

What are you running now?

The main ones I use:
AppleTV 4K for any streaming service, youtube, etc. It's still the best for that since it gets the apps and updates first from everyone, it doesn't have ads in the UI, and the UI is easy to use from a distance.

Ugoos AM6b+ with CoreELEC for local streaming of my UHD rips. This one isn't for the tech challenged though. CoreELEC is a custom OS to install for it that's basically a wrapper around Kodi. So you hack the box to install CoreELEC and then it boots right into a Kodi environment. This is the gold standard right now among crazy guys like me because it will support all flavors of DolbyVision including profile 7 + FEL. Nothing else currently does that. It works really well but isn't a box for your mom and you have to get used to Kodi's quirks. It's also really only good for local streaming unless you want to try out some of Kodi's less reputable plugins.

I also have:
nvidia Shield: it was great 8 years ago but other boxes have caught up and surpassed it. Plus they made the UI into a big ad like I complained about above. I haven't turned on the theater one in ages but I use one in the kitchen still for watching YouTube while cooking and cleaning in there.

Zidoo Z9X: This was my local streamer before the Ugoos. It's also pretty much only for local streaming. Worked really well and was mainly missing the FEL support. It's a good option for someone that wants almost everything of a Ugoos but not the setup and maintenance. Zidoo did fall out of favor with me too because they acted like a typical Chinese company. We were getting regular updates to it. Then they gave a bad on that most people rolled back to the previous release. They then pretty much abandoned the hardware when they released the Z9X Pro. Updates (including a fix for the buggy released) and support disappeared. I think they eventually released a fixed firmware but that was going to be it for updates. And even that is still a beta. I generally dump a company if they stop providing support like that. Formovie did the same thing and it's why I have a NexiGo projector coming instead of their new model.

 

[Covert Rain]

The main ones I use:
AppleTV 4K for any streaming service, youtube, etc. It's still the best for that since it gets the apps and updates first from everyone, it doesn't have ads in the UI, and the UI is easy to use from a distance.

Ugoos AM6b+ with CoreELEC for local streaming of my UHD rips. This one isn't for the tech challenged though. CoreELEC is a custom OS to install for it that's basically a wrapper around Kodi. So you hack the box to install CoreELEC and then it boots right into a Kodi environment. This is the gold standard right now among crazy guys like me because it will support all flavors of DolbyVision including profile 7 + FEL. Nothing else currently does that. It works really well but isn't a box for your mom and you have to get used to Kodi's quirks. It's also really only good for local streaming unless you want to try out some of Kodi's less reputable plugins.

I also have:
nvidia Shield: it was great 8 years ago but other boxes have caught up and surpassed it. Plus they made the UI into a big ad like I complained about above. I haven't turned on the theater one in ages but I use one in the kitchen still for watching YouTube while cooking and cleaning in there.

Zidoo Z9X: This was my local streamer before the Ugoos. It's also pretty much only for local streaming. Worked really well and was mainly missing the FEL support. It's a good option for someone that wants almost everything of a Ugoos but not the setup and maintenance. Zidoo did fall out of favor with me too because they acted like a typical Chinese company. We were getting regular updates to it. Then they gave a bad on that most people rolled back to the previous release. They then pretty much abandoned the hardware when they released the Z9X Pro. Updates (including a fix for the buggy released) and support disappeared. I think they eventually released a fixed firmware but that was going to be it for updates. And even that is still a beta. I generally dump a company if they stop providing support like that. Formovie did the same thing and it's why I have a NexiGo projector coming instead of their new model.

I wish I had more time on my hands. Have HDHomeRun and Apple TV using PLEX and my QNAP server. My server isn't that powerful but I am not running multiple streams outside my house. Right now I can stream everything in 4K with Dolby and ATMOS no problem. Experimenting with 3D files as we speak but I am also wanting to play with Jellyfin but I have no time. I thought about playing with Kodi as well.

 

[Devilmaycare]

I wish I had more time on my hands. Have HDHomeRun and Apple TV using PLEX and my QNAP server. My server isn't that powerful but I am not running multiple streams outside my house. Right now I can stream everything in 4K with Dolby and ATMOS no problem. Experimenting with 3D files as we speak but I am also wanting to play with Jellyfin but I have no time. I thought about playing with Kodi as well.

I use a HDHomeRun too. That's mainly to get OTA for the Cards.

Jellyfin is good. I like it better than Plex. Plex got too bloated for my tastes. I'm using Emby right now for my media server but have been thinking about setting up a JellyFin too. They're really similar since Jellyfin is a fork of Emby from when Emby started charging for some stuff.

Kodi is a love/hate for me. It's great at media playback and has a million plugins for it (unfortunately most are for illegal content) but it has horrible UI and UX. Think of it like Linux. Powerful but has the looks only a nerd could love. Some of the skins for it help but there's only so much that can be done without an overhaul.