NVIDIA SHIELD TV Reviews

by Billy Shakespeare 2369

NVIDIASHIELDTV used to be a 5-star app. It worked flawlessly. For the last few months (I believe ever since the most recent update), every time I open NVIDIASHIELDTV , it says “connection lost.” Then I either have to do one of two things: 1) I can minimize NVIDIASHIELDTV , wait two seconds, then re-open it (and it magically reconnects just fine), OR 2) I have to click “got it,” then click my computer’s IP at the top (which is still there from before), and then click “Remote” to get back in. Either way, something extremely annoying & irritating is happening ever since the last update. It should be staying connected just like it used to. And no, the issue is not my network or anything else. I’m sitting right next to my router and the Shield is close by as well.

by Z3e3ke

In order to connect I need to manually type in the IP address whenever I pull up NVIDIASHIELDTV . I thought it was just because my phone was connected to WiFi and the shield was a direct Ethernet connection, but even after switching the shield to the same WiFi as my phone it still requires me to type in the shields IP address into my phone. An IP address is pretty cumbersome to remember and type in anytime you want to use the remote. To be clear it doesn’t even remember the IP address after closing NVIDIASHIELDTV . I literally have to type in my Shields IP address each time I want to use NVIDIASHIELDTV . App has a couple other smaller issues too: The “mouse click” automatically opens what you click on. Sometimes I’d just like to select something and there’s no option to do that unless you use the buttons. The mouse doesn’t scroll on the home screen to anything beyond the first screen. A double finger slide should allow you to scroll around the page.

by Emanbroc

This used to be an excellent app! After a recent update it has really gone downhill (as can be seen by recent reviews).
- Ability to start directly in the remote has been lost. You are always greeted with shortcuts to apps first (this might be preferred by some, but there should an option for where you start)
- MOST IMPORTANT: Connection issues. If you lock your phone with NVIDIASHIELDTV open or return to the home screen and then back to NVIDIASHIELDTV , you receive a connection lost message. To recover you must either return to your list of shield devices and connect again or return to the homescreen again and switch back to NVIDIASHIELDTV , where 90% of the time it will recover and reconnect. This is frustrating and unnecessary. It causes a long time delay in scenarios where quick volume or playback (pause/play) changes need to be made, etc..

I used to consider NVIDIASHIELDTV 4-5 stars. It now gets 2 and that's pushing it.

by Gonif

It would be perfect if it actually connected more than 50% of the time. Much like the Shield unit itself (see Nvidia Shield’s recent loss of access to much of Steam), NVIDIASHIELDTV continues to let me down. Also, the touch pad is extremely difficult to use with precision, and the sensitivity of it can’t be changed.

Oh, and the those 5-star reviews that are suspiciously featured so highly on NVIDIASHIELDTV main page are either delusional or outright lies. When the remote app loses connection, it CANNOT be fixed by simply downloading updates (because they don’t exist) or rebooting NVIDIASHIELDTV . Only rebooting the actual Shield unit works and this usually entails a hard reboot (pulling the power cable).

First and last Nvidia product I’ll ever own.

by Social Dropout

NVIDIASHIELDTV is the perfect companion for the Nvidia Shield, except for the fact that it often isn’t able to connect the shield. NVIDIASHIELDTV became completely useless after I updated my shield to 8.0. Now when I open NVIDIASHIELDTV it says there’s a new version and I need to download it. I’m redirected to NVIDIASHIELDTV Store which has the same version that hasn’t been updated in 7 months. I gave it 2 stars because as I stated at the beginning, it works well when it actually connects.

by Jamon Arnett

The review I left yesterday about an update issue seems to be fixed and NVIDIASHIELDTV has updated correctly. However, now NVIDIASHIELDTV is acting very laggy and when I click the buttons for the virtual remote, my tv doesn’t respond. When I used a different app that I prefer not to use, it worked fine. Please fix

by Gringhaole Crackerwhite

I lose my remote all the time. The find remote function saves a lot of frustration. NVIDIASHIELDTV can be wonky when used as a remote, but again, it’s worth having or at least temporarily downloading for the “find my remote” feature.

by Thisisduanec

I’ve been waiting for NVIDIASHIELDTV for a couple of years now!! I love it and it works great but how the heck do you forget to put a Volume Control on. Lol. This is the equivalent of Microsoft removing the start button or Mac removing the Apple icon menu! Can we please get an update with a Volume Control. In regards to everything else I love NVIDIASHIELDTV!!

Thx

by Patattack760

I really wanted this to work. I updated my shield as NVIDIASHIELDTV recommended and tried to pair. Nothing. I tried connecting to the IP address. Nothing. Save yourself the trouble. Don’t waste your time like I did. NVIDIASHIELDTV is dead.

Edit: it started working… 4 stars
I enabled debugger and turned on usb debugger

by Ghatty

So NVIDIASHIELDTV isn’t perfect, but I’m kinda surprised by the amount of 1-star reviews. In my experience, NVIDIASHIELDTV works like 90% of the time (and most of the times it doesn’t work it can be fixed by either checking for an update or rebooting my phone). Being able to use my phone as a keyboard/mouse is a HUGE plus as it lets me operate a ton of side-loaded apps, which greatly extends the functionality of the shield tv. Overall I really like NVIDIASHIELDTV, and best of all it’s free haha. I appreciate the work that the devs keep putting into this. Cheers guys.

by JessicaClark

Besides the things already mentioned, after I connected NVIDIASHIELDTV to my TV, now I can no longer use the onscreen keyboard on my Samsung TV. When I click on an option (for example, search); it tells me to use my app keyboard. Well that is great for me, but not for the others living in my house who are either technology challenged or don’t have smart phones. Can it be updated to pull up the onscreen keyboard still OR let you use the keyboard in NVIDIASHIELDTV ? Other than that and volume, I think it’s a great app

by MrMcBane

Version 2.1 of NVIDIASHIELDTV is an excellent upgrade - it connects to my Shield TV much faster/more reliably, and NVIDIASHIELDTV launcher is nice. Only two complaints:

- Entering passwords is difficult. Please give me a text box so I can copy from LastPass on my phone and then paste onto the TV.
- When launching an app, it says "App launched succeeded", which isn't great English. It should be something like "App launched successfully" or "App launch succeeded".

by VoDkAvi

Love that you can launch apps directly from the tiles in NVIDIASHIELDTV and has volume control. The Bluetooth pop-up on every launch though gets annoying, as well as the play/pause button being too low and getting hit everytime I swipe from the bottom to do the home gesture.

by Damichi84

The NVIDIA shield tv is an awesome device keeping on giving even years after the release (only the included WiFi chip is subpar the rest of the devices performance). This remote is a nice addition especially since the original remote is sooooo easy to loose in the couch ;-) But please add volume control and a mute button to make this perfect.

by Meathead574

My remote got caught in the couch somewhere... It just slid into a blackhole in the middle of the couch never to be seen again. But the good folks at Nvidia made this life saving app to get you in back in control of your box using your phone. Simple as that! Thank you Nvidia for your awesome support to your customers!

by Redjackie38

NVIDIASHIELDTV was very unreliable about a year ago, frustrating the user as a result. But since update 2.0, the reliability of connection has gone up. Hoping to see NVIDIASHIELDTV experience getting better with future updates!

by XavierMarley

I really like NVIDIASHIELDTV but recently been having issues with connectivity. It keep disconnecting and reconnecting. Overall really like NVIDIASHIELDTV better than using the remote because I can type when searching and if you’re like me you’ll lose that little remote easily lol

by Dannytico92

By far a really good design! I love NVIDIASHIELDTV . It gives me a chance to charge my remote and use my phone! Or if in all honestly if the remote is too far to rich I can just open this awesome remote app to control the shield!

One suggestion is the developer gets to read this, it would be a complete remote app if the feature of controlling the volume by simply sliding your finger the same as the remote and controller would wrap up NVIDIASHIELDTV! But other then that really recommended to check it out!

by Royl4

I had my shield form they released the first version years ago. I was disappointed that there was no official app at the time. I’m so happy my phone can finally work with my device after all these years. It’s flawless even without the volume control at this time. Well worth the wait, it can only get better with some time and updates. Thank you NVIDIA for a product that is as relevant and reliable as it was when I first purchased it years ago. This thing is seriously still out performing devices just coming out to compete with it. LOL

by Merman_93

This is far & away superior to the generic AndroidTV remote.

Some posters here mention that NVIDIASHIELDTV doesn’t control volume. My new 2017 Nvidia Shield uses IR on the remote to control my Sony TV volume, and since I’m not aware that my iPhone has an IR transmitter I doubt that is possible.

Two suggestion though, first, ability to paste copied text into the screen. Also when I was loading a game from Nvidia Game Store, there was a prompt that this game required a keyboard & mouse, and alternately I could download this Nvidia TV app. I’m not much of a gamer, I was basically exploring everything included with Shield, but it was not intuitive of how the keyboard and mouse within NVIDIASHIELDTV could control the specific keys, and mouse movements on the game I tried.

However, it seems like it would be easy to include another screen with only the keys necessary for that game, and/or buttons for multi key presses, and a trackpad. Maybe I overlooked something, but It was just too difficult to use NVIDIASHIELDTV for gameplay, although I will primarily use NVIDIASHIELDTV for entering long strings of texts.

by Boscoe Baloneybrains

NVIDIA's SHIELD Remote app is very useful. I appreciate how minimal it is. SHIELD Remote has everything you need where you need it. I was suprised to see how quickly the typing keyboard opens and responds to input on the screen, other TV streaming devices brand's official remote apps are laggy buggy apps, that don't even open to type on many channels, not even compatible. And the other brands are not even close to being as responsive as Nvidia's SHIELD Remote. NVIDIASHIELDTV is one of many reason why I'm glad I purchased a 2017 SHIELD in 2019. (fyi Shield still has the best specs to date ) Only question is the blutetooth request, why does the SHIELD remote all request the phone's bluetooth connection? And would it be possible to add some SHIELD main menu functions (force quit, power off, restart, etc.) and "remote" remote login to shut down?