Nvidia Shield TV Canada Edition Review + Buying Guide

Today, we see an interesting android TV box – Nvidia Shield TV Canada Edition, giving you a complete review on the product.

The areas in Android TV Boxes Canada is changing rapidly, and one such streaming device that we see today is the Nvidia Shield Canada. The Shield is a very promising device, with excellent streaming and gaming features.

However, the cost is something that worries us. Let’s check our post on detail and see how the Shield Canada fares on our review.

What is the Shield TV Canada Edition?

Android TV boxes have always confused buyers, because of sub-standard hardware and software, manufactured by Chinese sellers.

Hence, the Nvidia Shield TV Canada is a warm welcome with superb brand value and market support.

The streaming TV box offers high-end hardware, superior video playing apps, 4k playback capabilities, plus a complete, fully functional gaming box through the Nvidia GeForce Now library.

The Shield TV Canada is a complete family entertainer with satisfies everyone in every family, and becomes an ultimate entertainment media centre.

Nvidia Shield has moved a notch ahead with the software. The UI is much fluid, and clear with the latest and stable Android Oreo, that you won’t find in any TV box in our list.

Check Price & Buy At Amazon.ca

The latest interface is very customisable and pleasant to see and use. The UI too is user-friendly and easy to operate.

Overall, the Nvidia has grown strong and has worked quite well on its flagship Shield TV, with superb improvements on the software and addition of the all new gaming hub, making a better streaming TV box on the market.

Let’s quickly go ahead with the exclusive review and check out what the Shield TV has in for Canada.

You can also read our detailed review on Best Android Tv Box Canada Edition – Buyer’s Guide 2020

Shield TV – Design & Hardware

Nvidia has not worked on the hardware specification, from the previous Shield TV. You still get the Nvidia flagship Tegra X1 processor and common configuration, like the HDMI 2.0, 2 x USB 3.0 and ethernet ports.

The Shield looks all sleek, with the brand new aerofoil look, and is very compact in size, with shinny piano-black finish. You do not get buttons or switches on any boxes.

The Tegra X1, we feel, is now showing its age, and Nvidia needs to work hard on the tech stacks to keep up with the competitors.

Nevertheless, the Tegra X1 is quite a powerful SOC chip, with superior CPU-cum-GPU combination, and is faster than any android TV boxes on the market, including the Amazon Fire TV.

In terms of hardware performance, the Tegra X1 ticks all the right checkboxes, and comes out strong on our review.

The Nvidia Shield TV is quite powerful to run your 4k HDR media at 60fps, with ease and support.

Coming to the design of the Shield TV, the company has done a great job with the design. The looks are amazing, while keeping the entire box compact and much smaller than the previous edition.

A pain point here is that you do not get a microSD card slot, but you can increase the disc space from the standard 16GB storage version, via USB drive.

Shield also includes the Chromecast feature that allows streaming directly from your Android smartphone or iPhone, upto 4K resolution, or Google Home.

You also get a micro-USB cable to charge your game controller.

Gaming Controller / Remote Device

Another interesting aspect on the Shield TV is the gaming controller and the remote, which is a complete redesign. You now get the original controller and remote, along with the Shield console.

The all new controller looks just like the Xbox One gaming pad, with all glossy finish. The angular controller design, just looks like the joystick, which is very convenient to hold and operate.

The more interesting part is the all improved hardware upgrade under the controller.

The haptic vibration feedback is one of the most pleasing point available on the controller, making gameplay very immersive and lively. You also get a IR transmitter, where you can control your TV through the gamepad.

Another interesting feature is the gamepad’s microphone that is wide and can pick up sound quite clearly, while transmitting. The voice control feature and feature to record voice, during gameplay is a great feature on the Nvidia Shield TV.

Another feature is the Google Assistant that makes your life very easy in communicating with your TV and your streaming needs.

The remote is just like the Amazon FireStick remote, that is tall and slim with an IR function on the front. You get a mic on top, and a 4-directional buttons, with buttons in the middle.

You also get a dedicated mic button, just below the back and home buttons.

The remote is easy to use, and was quite responsive.

More information on remotes, find here- Best Android Tv Box Remote For Kodi – Canadian Edition

Shield TV – Google AKA. Assistant

Google’s most loved and cared feature that is the Google Assistant, and the competitor to the Amazon Alexa, a smart way to control your device.

You can use your controller to open the “OK Google” and send in the commands to control to search the web or open apps on your television.

The feature on the Shield TV was quite responsive and was delight in using apps with ease and comfort.

We tried the voice recognition command for the Google Assistant, and here the performance was a mixed bags.

The mic could pick up easy and day-to-day syllable with ease, but a different ascent or words, the result were quite different.

However, for most of the folks, the performance could be a bliss, since the media control words, and most used apps on the Google PlayStore were recognized easily by “OK Google”.

You need to hold your mouth closer to the controller’s mic for the system to understand your voice correctly.

Coming to the another interesting feature of the Google Assistant is controlling your home, and making your home a complete smart controller.

You can use your Shield TV, through the Google Home app on your smart device, attach the required lights, thermostats and other supported device, and simply control them through Shield. The experience is quite amazing, when you toggle your lights on or off, activate the Nest thermostat, all through your Shield Controller.

Another interesting option here is that the Shield TV is a full-fledged chromecast, allowing it to stream video streams on your television.

You can then control your Nest cameras, and use Shield TV to directly showcase your close circuit footage, on your television.

You cannot make calls using the Shield, which is quite obvious, and you can use your smartphone to make routine calls to your loved ones.

With Google Home, and other new initiatives, Nvidia is planning many new releases that will make the Shield TV a powerful smart hub for entertainment and for to control your home.

Shield TV – Shinning New UI

The Android Oreo update has been stocked for the Shield TV, due to bug fixes. It should start rolling soon.

With Shield TV 2.0, Nvidia gives us the all new Android 8.0 Oreo flavor, which is the latest, and stable version from Android and Google stable.

This is a welcome change from Nvidia, since the older UI was quite outdated, and the new UI brings a lot of customization to look and feel of the device, and makes it quite an interesting buy.

The TV UI is fairly simple to use and has a very pleasing, and clean layout.

Coming to the UI, you can see your favorite apps now on the top row.

You also get the ‘Play Next’ section that houses all your recommendations, based on your media views, the games that you are currently playing and a dedicated video section that you can add as a playlist.

The overall interface is quite well-defined, giving you a section to have a place, where you can watch and view media across different services.

You can go to any service, be it, including YouTube, Google Play Movies and BBC iPlayer, and add your media to the section.

The pissing part is that Netflix is NOT supported.

You can also get a list of customization of channels, as recommendation, based on the media apps you installed or media that you played online.

For example, once you view a TV show on Netflix, the section will give you recommendation, based on your viewing habits.

Just like the Apple TV’s top section, giving you access to content, without having to launch the app again. You can configure the order of recommendation as you like it, or as you want them to appear.

Shield TV Gaming Performance

The Nvidia Shield TV Canada has solid gaming genes in its hood. The GeForce experience is now more refined and built superior cutting edge technology, all made in an an Android streaming TV box.

To name the biggest changes are the:

GeForce Now feature is much more powerful, allowing to stream your gaming titles at a superior quality, almost equal to a quality of a desktop PC, running the GTX GPU cards.

The UPlay provides a great function to stream games, like the Assassin’s Creed series, The Division, Far Cry, Watch Dogs, For Honor and The Crew, you can say almost all the games from the Ubisoft stable.

The games are quite a welcome, and made for the extreme gamers, that love you play games on their TV box.

Coming to Nvidia’s store, you will find quite a few games titles, but we still feel that the collection Steam is much more unique and you can enjoy a great collection through Steam.

You can find interesting retro games on the Nvidia store, which you will not find anywhere.

Let’s talk about the gaming performance. The Shield TV is a born gaming device. You won’t find such a performance on any android streaming TV box.

The gaming experience was quite a bliss, and streamed quite well on our broadband connection. The performance was quite stable, without any frame drop or network errors.

Downloading games may be a problem due to the limited 16GB storage. You can go ahead and install simple android games, which ran fine.

One thing to note here that Android games installed from the Google PlayStore were less graphically challenge. The games available on the store couldn’t fill up the entire screen of the TV, plus the graphics too looked a bit pixalated.

We are still expecting an update from Nvidia to fix these issues. However, games installed from the Nvidia store, ran quite well, with great graphics, and performance.

One of the highlight was the GameStream feature that allowed to stream games from the PC, only if you are running nVidia GPU series.

You simply need to connect your PC with the Shield TV, and the games quickly appeared on the television, allowing you to play your games away from your computer and right from your couch.

We quite efficiently streamed the Dishonored 2 at full HD resolution. we found a bit of lag in performance, but it was not of a deal-breaker, and the graphics was satisfying for a single player game.

If you face any trouble in streaming do the following for smooth performance:

Another feature is that you also get a game recording feature. You can hold the menu button and record your gameplay, or you can say make a video for game, takes screens, or share your experience on Twitch.

You can also use the recording feature to record your favorite tv show or movies, while playing online.

Shield TV – Streaming Performance

Nvidia Shield Canada is one of the the finest streaming TV box that allows 4K HDR viewing of media, including the 360 YouTube videos.

The Shield supports major audio and video protocols, including the HDR10, Dolby Atmos, DTS-X and DTS-HD Master Audio.

You can use the Shield TV to access a wide range of 4K HDR content, through popular streaming applications like Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube, and Google Play Movies.

You can also read our post on: Best Android Tv Box Apps – Canada Edition

The performance on streaming media was quite smooth, with excellent picture quality and sound quality. Ensure that you have fast internet connection, for better performance.

The remote also was quite responsive with easy playback and switching of channels, making it an excellent streaming player. You can also the you the Chromecast feature, through which you can directly stream media content from your smartphone, or use the Google Home as remote control.

Should you buy the Nvidia Shield TV Canada? – Our Verdict

We find the Shield TV an efficient all-rounder giving you a complete media entertainment box, made for everyone in the family. The media features, and the gaming experience, especially the controller and the remote was simply perfect.

The device and the brand from Nvidia, makes it a hot android TV box in today’s age. Millennial will surely enjoy this product, but you need look in to the cost, which may not suit everyone’s budget.

Do buy the controller, in case you do not pick the Shield TV.

Shield TV is really a gaming beast, but is way far away in terms of performance, gaming titles, and graphics, then the current generation consoles, like PS4 or the xbox One.

Many owners may agree in buying a gaming console, rather than the Shield TV.

But, the Shield is a great buy if used to stream games from your PC to your TV. The applications are great on the Shield, with better streaming services, and 4K HDR support.

You also get excellent support of games on the Nvidia store.

The cost of the Shield TV is quite enormous, and is one of the expensive android TV box, we have reviewed so far.

If you need a powerful and branded all-rounder that will last for years, then Shield TV is a must buy.

But, if you are only looking for a simple, budget box for streaming medias, than you need to consider different TV boxes that will suit Kodi or the IPTV app.

You can also read our post on Best Android Tv Box Kodi Canada Edition – Buyer’s Guide 2020 | Best IPTV Box Canada Edition – Get IPTV for CA $1.99