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I wanna get my first tablet. I was thinking about Asus Prime but Asus realeased a product full of bugs and issues that even ICS cant solve. The Galaxy Tab seems like a good product for me. My main use is HD videos, web browsing and reading. Games will be nice too
My main concern about the G Tab is there is no SD card slot. It is realy important to me. There is any way to connect an external memory to it?
How about ICS? did the G Tab get the update?
Thank you
Google EPL-1PLRBEGSTA (I cant post links yet)
Should bring up a USB and SD Card reader adapter for the tablet.
ICS has yet to be released.
and the USB adapter is in the box (at least with mine)
tab 10.1 will get ICS someday (probably earlier with cyanogenmod )
I have the 10.1, and a good friend just got the Asus... all things said and done, i think the 10.1 wins out. The mod community (task650, cyanogen, b00sted, etc) are doing great things with ROM/theme development, so you won't be missing out on that front...
...but my biggest preference over the ASUS is the casing itself - it's surprisingly heavy in comparison, which was a big factor for me in selecting a tablet (if I wanted something bulky and heavy, I'd just carry my laptop around). The keyboard attachment available with the ASUS is better executed than the Samsung keyboard, admittedly - but with the plethora of virtual keyboards available, I find myself rarely missing a physical keyboard. As for the lack of SD slot, I have the USB adapter (3rd party one, but works great - and was far cheaper than the official Samsung one), and have a 4gb stick I use with no issues... the sticks need to be formatted in FAT-32 to work, although pershoot's kernel offers NTFS support.
My two cents - good luck!
I have the 32GB version of the 10.1 and I also have the USB adapter, (the Samsung version). I've had the device since launch day and have yet to run out of internal space. Nevertheless, I have a 64GB usb thumbdrive and have, on occasion plugged it into the tab via the USB adapter to copy a movie to it or transfer a file to the USB drive. I've never had a problem with this setup, so it seems viable. As for an answer to your second question, there are already ICS ROMs available here on XDA, (most if not all are in Alpha,) and Samsung is releasing an ICS update for the entire 2011 range of Galaxy Tabs, (10.1, 8.9, 7.0 Plus, and 7.7.) I hope this info helps. Good luck with your decision.
Thanks for your comments. It is really a hard decision. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 ןד a stable, fast and reliable device, but its Tegra 2 device while the Tegra 3 is coming. I think I will wait a little to see whats coming next.
The G TAB 10.1 seems to be a little expensive for me, compare to the Prime technology. They both 499 USD but at least on paper, the Prime is better.
same price? go with Prime obviously!
One thing I would advise if going with the prime though, is waiting until the newer version comes out. ASUS released the first prime with some rather serious design flaws in the back panel that cause poor wifi, bluetooth, and GPS reception, (the GPS being the most serious.) As a result, they have released an updated version with a new back panel that purports to fix these issues. The unfortunate thing is that the updated Tranfsormer Prime is going to be set at $600-$700 here in the US, so it will be a great deal more expensive than the 10.1, and with the lack of apps that are optimized for dual core, let alone quad core, I don't think the extra $100-$200 is justified. Just my two cents.
czesiu said:
same price? go with Prime obviously!
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Have you read the front page of their forum? It's falling apart. Five friends bought the Prime over the holidays and three are returning it.
I had a prime on order due to be delivered tomorrow, but the day after iCS was released I canceled the order. I knew it had gps issues, but it seems like the update is jacking up some tablets and I don't want to take the chance. I bought the SGT 10.1 today with the bluetooth logitech android keyboard. I will consider selling it on ebay is 6+ months if something better comes along that I just must have. I will give this a try though, its charging up now! I know I didn't want to pay $650 (tablet and dock) for something that is potentially broken out the box...
I have not decided yet if I go on the Galaxy or not. I have few more questions:
Can I connect a bluetooth keyboard/mouse to it?
Does it have HDMI output? From what I found, an adaptor is needed.
Well, games are not the reason that I want a tablet, but how the Galaxy run games? I mean, its smooth? laggy?
Thanks
BarryH_GEG said:
Have you read the front page of their forum? It's falling apart.
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So I hopped over to the first page of the Transformer Prime General forum and I was floored! I knew that it was having issues and that customers were up-in-arms about it, but I didn't realize the true extent of the problem until I looked at that thread. With as many problems as this device is having, the locked bootloader seems like the least of their problems, but unlocking it is definitely a priority so that a dev can go in and clean up the mess that ASUS seems to have made with this software. The hardware, on the other hand, is another story. No amount of XDA wizardry can fix poorly designed hardware. It seems that ASUS rushed the Prime to market, and in an attempt to be "belle of the ball," as it were, at CES, they rushed this ICS update which seems to have added to owner's woes.
Here's a list of the most prevalent issues with the Transformer Prime, pulled from their "General" section:
1. GPS Issues: GPStest showing no signal whatsoever. Device can't get GPS lock)
2. Wifi Issues: Poor Connectivity/unable to connect to wifi.
3. Bluetooth Issues: Poor Connectivity
4. "Unknown Serial" Error: Many devices are unable to get OTA updates due to the fact that the system can't recognize their serial number. (This one is horrendously bad)
5. MicroSD card slot: Some owners are loosing their cards due to improper design of the slot. Apparently the placeholder from the Prime is very similar to a standard MicroSD, but is not the same size in order to stay in the devices' slot and fit flush.
6. Dock problems with USB: Apparently some of the the docks are incapable of powering or mounting usb devices unless you put the tablet in the dock, connect the USB device, and then restart the tablet while everything is connected.
7. Lockup/Reboot: Since the ICS update, (for those who dodged the "unknown serial" bullett,) the tablet will randomly freeze, the screen will lock up and it will reboot itself.
8. Screen "Banding": After the update, some devices are experiencing "banding," a display of horizontal bars across the screen which interrupt the display and render the underlying display partially visible/unusable.
The issues above are just a few that I've picked out after reading through the first 2 pages of the "General" section in the Transformer Prime forums here at XDA. I pinpointed these issues for a few reasons. First, they have been confirmed by other members/owners and are widespread. Second, they are all recent. Third, these are all rather serious and are not merely the complaints of people upset with functionality or UI changes or issues that can be solved by a mere reboot/reset. It would seem that the Prime, Tegra 3 or not, is not a good bet. If you want a tablet now, go with the 10.1 If you're not sold on the 10.1, there are plenty of other Android tablets out there for you to choose from. For now though, I'd steer clear of the ASUS Transformer Prime
bar_rodoy said:
I have not decided yet if I go on the Galaxy or not. I have few more questions:
Can I connect a bluetooth keyboard/mouse to it?
Does it have HDMI output? From what I found, an adaptor is needed.
Well, games are not the reason that I want a tablet, but how the Galaxy run games? I mean, its smooth? laggy?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can connect a bluetooth keyboard and mouse to the tab. I have an Apple bluetooth wireless keyboard (the slim aluminum version), and a Kensington Slimblade Bluetooth mouse. I connect both of them to the tab at once and it is like having a very light, slim, sexy laptop.
You will need an adapter, but you can have HDMI out. You might also want to look into things like allshare and DNLA. These are apps and standards that allow you to stream contents from your tablet to other devices in your home.
Games are wonderful. Although I rarely ever play them, I've loaded mine up with the big games, and they all work wonderfully.
rkmj said:
You can connect a bluetooth keyboard and mouse to the tab. I have an Apple bluetooth wireless keyboard (the slim aluminum version), and a Kensington Slimblade Bluetooth mouse. I connect both of them to the tab at once and it is like having a very light, slim, sexy laptop.
You will need an adapter, but you can have HDMI out. You might also want to look into things like allshare and DNLA. These are apps and standards that allow you to stream contents from your tablet to other devices in your home.
Games are wonderful. Although I rarely ever play them, I've loaded mine up with the big games, and they all work wonderfully.
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OK, and thats only with one core because ICS isnt out yet, so its sounds great. I found a seller on Ebay that sells the G Tab 10.1 at about 420 USD. I will go for it. Thank you all!
this thread is gonna be about why i decided to buy nvidia shield.
but i'm not really a pro about this, so don't see this as a good info source
i'm actually not even sure if what i heard is correct, so if i'm wrong on anything, or know of a better choice, please do correct me
and thanks for reading
so i've been wanting a portable device since my last phone (droid incredible 2) sunk miserably into the washing machine
i don't really want a phone, because no one ever calls me (there are a lot of reasons i don't want a phone, this is just one of them)
so i turned onto tablets which brings me to the nexus 7 because it's in my budget of 300$
but there are a few minor things
i need a sd card slot, and a hdmi port, which both nexus 7 don't have
but since there aren't much portable (in which i mean less then 7 inches) devices that supports an hdmi port, i just decided to ignore that
which brings me to the nexus 4, which is a lot more portable which i like
and then i saw nvidia shield getting a price drop, which brings me to the topic, the nvidia shield
it's got a hdmi port, which i almost already gave up on, it also have a micro sd card slot which the nexus devices didn't have
it have a tegra 4 processor clocked at 1.9 ghz , which is better then the nexus 7, and even the nexus 4 which is at the same price point
it have 2gb of ram which nexus 7 only have one
and those are the reasons, which comes to the point that it's nothing about gaming
and that's why people are gonna think i'm dumb
so just to clear it up, i also have a gtx 660 oc which enables the pc streaming feature
and it also happens that i'm working on my own steam box, and got stuck at can't find a wireless controller for a pc
so those are all my reasons that i'm getting the nvidia shield, thanks for reading
again if i'm wrong about anything, please do correct me
also, this is my first time posting a thread, i tried my best to make sure everything is ok, but please do correct me too if i was wrong
your also welcome to discuss on the reply section
Actually sounds like you've done a bunch of homework on this already.
I can point out a few things about streaming...
1. It's possible to plug a wireless X-box 360 controller adapter into your PC and play from another nearby room via streaming, but the range isn't great. It also hits item #2.
2. Streaming quality - I've tried to find good streaming solutions in my home. I've got all the different "flavors" of Splashtop, I've tried different types of VNC and such. I'm going to be trying RemoteFX soon with RDP, but can't comment on that one yet. SHIELD has, so far, beat them all hands-down. The video quality is incredible compared to software like Splashtop. Latency is almost non-existent and I can play games like Monaco from my bed easily.
3. Wifi Bandwidth - You'll need a decent 5GHz wifi to really enjoy it. Unlike Splashtop, this takes up a lot of wifi bandwidth. But honestly, if you're going to stream over wifi, you might as well use some serious bandwidth for it. No point is having crappy quality just to have a bunch of unused wifi (at least in my opinion).
4. Comfort - Trying to play a game in bed or on the couch with a tablet and controller is uncomfortable to me. They're not really "built together" in a way that I find user friendly. I used to have an old Windows Tablet PC (before Apple even made a tablet and tried to claim first), and the problem with the keyboard for it was that you ended up with the screen on a "stand" and a keyboard. The keyboard was comfortable, but you couldn't use it in bed or anything because where were you going to put the screen stand?
Hope that give you more info about it, from my personal use cases on the devices.
agrabren said:
3. Wifi Bandwidth - You'll need a decent 5GHz wifi to really enjoy it. Unlike Splashtop, this takes up a lot of wifi bandwidth. But honestly, if you're going to stream over wifi, you might as well use some serious bandwidth for it. No point is having crappy quality just to have a bunch of unused wifi (at least in my opinion).
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Will it really be bad over 2.4GHz? I plan on upgrading soon but that's all I have right now. Does the quality suffer most or will it begin to lag first?
Would you like the option to buy a $149 Nexus Player with 64gb, 2gb ram, & Ethernet?
Hell throw in some full size USB 3.0 ports and an sd card slot and I would gladly pay $199 for the device.
I don't understand why Google didn't unveil two versions of the Nexus Player, one with more storage for $50 more. They have always released a more expensive bigger capacity version of all their Nexus devices, phones and tablets in the past.
I suspect that price and those specs would be a fantasy. I would suspect that for $149, you'd get 32GB internal and 2GB RAM, or 16GB internal, 2GB RAM, and ethernet.
If they were to release another device with better specs, I might get it, but only as something to run Ubuntu on.
My thinking is: this is designed as a streaming device. You don't need insane specs to stream a video or some music. It is also designed to handle games, but generally arcade-style games; light on the graphics and more targeted as a family/party gaming device. This also has plenty of power for emulators.
The point of high specs on a phone or tablet is so that you can play games when you're away from home. If you're going to plan on playing graphics-intensive console games in your living room, there are already devices for that. It's going to be quite a few more years before the big game franchises are running commercials that say "Coming this November to Xbox, PlayStation, and Android."
Again, with storage, if you've already got some big library of movies and music, it's going to be on your computer, and you can always stream it over your network.
The only major hardware failing, in my mind, is that they really missed the opportunity to upsell with a $15 Nexus-Player-branded OTG Ethernet dongle.
Plus when you start geting in the $150-$250 price range, you open up a lot better options in home streaming that leave android based systems behind. Non-android HTPC's start at that price point and nothing in the android line can compete because everything including speed, audio, and video out performs android. The android market is a $100 plug and play unit, something simple to set up and cheap.
I don't see the need for 64gb, unless you plan on installing 30 games.
Ethernet would be useful, but not necessary as long as you have a good WiFi router and you're not trying to use the router from your cable provider.
I don't see the need for USB 3.0 either. Most peripherals work fine on 2.0, even interface devices don't need more than USB 1.0. The only advantage I see 3.0 having is when connected to a storage device, and even then you wouldn't really have an advantage over 2.0. Then again, connecting storage defeats the purpose of a streaming device.
jaykresge said:
I suspect that price and those specs would be a fantasy. I would suspect that for $149, you'd get 32GB internal and 2GB RAM, or 16GB internal, 2GB RAM, and ethernet.
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Click to collapse
That should be awsome 1GB ram i think is a bit to low
OP pics u still rockin that TILT or i dnt believe u
The fire TV has more RAM and it's the same price.
I would.
Some may suggest I stream everything from my PC, but what if I want to bring my collection with me? 8gb HD, so really 7gb usable. A couple big games, a little bit of music, and 2 HD movies, and that's full. Doing TV, you could fit MAYBE a full season of a 1-hour show on there, and you'd need to uninstall your games.
Am I the only one who brings my blu-ray player and a binder of movies with me when I travel?
I want 64gb of storage because it would be an amazing gaming and emulator machine with that. It has an amazing cpu and gpu, way better than even the firetv. If only it had some more storage, it would be perfect.
I think storage is the main issue with the device. Yes, it is made for streaming video but it is also designed as a gaming device (hence the official gamepad accessory). 8GB of storage is just not enough. 16GB would be adequate but 32GB is really ideal. with 8GB of storage you'd only end up with about 5.5GB of usable space, and there are games that take up over 1GB on their own.
I don't think I would. $99 is kind of the sweet-spot for a standalone TV "puck", IMO. Any higher than that just feels like a half measure to me. If you're going $150, then you might as well just go to $200-$300 and run an atom or i3-based PC.
Also, the ethernet thing is way overblow. Get an AC router and sleep well at night.
I would certainly jump on some of that price tag. Would also like to have more information on the soc it use, I do not see much information on it around!
Jon Stewart said:
Hell throw in some full size USB 3.0 ports and an sd card slot and I would gladly pay $199 for the device.
I don't understand why Google didn't unveil two versions of the Nexus Player, one with more storage for $50 more. They have always released a more expensive bigger capacity version of all their Nexus devices, phones and tablets in the past.
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Click to collapse
No, but I'd like a $99 version with 4GB RAM and replaceable SSD.
TBH I cant ever see the player being the "right" value point, as it stands might as well go buy a lowend NUC(or like) device and have pretty much the freedom to load it up with whatever amt of ram/storage and then IF you REALLY REALLY REALLY want to install x86 android, but personally I'd just slap a lightweight linux distro, xbmc, plex, and steam on it... maybe dual boot a tiny android setup, but linux would be the default...
I did finally pick up a chromebook though, but the highend C720 i3/4GB that got SSD upgrade and croutonized for now. CrOS was less useless than I expected it to be, but running CrOS alone only the cheapest models are of any value purely as 2ndary or tertiary notebooks. I;m actually using Cros quite a bit for web browsing, probably never touch another tablet again unless I need an ereader in a pinch if I forget to charge the kindle(and it;s not a bright sunny day/location so lets hope batt only croaks at night).
So how does this add in? I found tablets only slightly useful for web browsing and occasional PDFs. Entry of anything relatively complex was a PITA -> overgrown phone -> Crbook (conceptually my tablet replacement , small, light, has keyboard and trackpad and as a bonus can be semi-useful linux notebook). TV, well I currently have a Roku 3 which is OK, but since AppleTV, GoogleTV, chromecast, amazon stuck in amazonland stick, generic Android/ARM sticks weren't enough to supplant the Roku3, HOWEVER I am(/have been) considering what I wrote above with a NUC or like as a tiny HTPC running linux and that sums up how I feel about most of these devices. So many looking for a problem to solve or partially solving a problem that superior devices already do so at similar(with better specs) or MUCH lower prices.
I'm not going to talk about the "smart" watches other than the above also applies in an even worse case to them(no problem to solve at all) and that they're not actually smart at all(mostly and the ones that are kinda smart are just idiot savants in a useless field).
Glass OTOH could potentially be very useful with a capability of recognizing and overlaying schematics/etc but not $1.5k useful.
So long and short player is already too expensively useless, why make it more so?
cutterjohn said:
No, but I'd like a $99 version with 4GB RAM and replaceable SSD.
TBH I cant ever see the player being the "right" value point, as it stands might as well go buy a lowend NUC(or like) device and have pretty much the freedom to load it up with whatever amt of ram/storage and then IF you REALLY REALLY REALLY want to install x86 android, but personally I'd just slap a lightweight linux distro, xbmc, plex, and steam on it... maybe dual boot a tiny android setup, but linux would be the default...
I did finally pick up a chromebook though, but the highend C720 i3/4GB that got SSD upgrade and croutonized for now. CrOS was less useless than I expected it to be, but running CrOS alone only the cheapest models are of any value purely as 2ndary or tertiary notebooks. I;m actually using Cros quite a bit for web browsing, probably never touch another tablet again unless I need an ereader in a pinch if I forget to charge the kindle(and it;s not a bright sunny day/location so lets hope batt only croaks at night).
So how does this add in? I found tablets only slightly useful for web browsing and occasional PDFs. Entry of anything relatively complex was a PITA -> overgrown phone -> Crbook (conceptually my tablet replacement , small, light, has keyboard and trackpad and as a bonus can be semi-useful linux notebook). TV, well I currently have a Roku 3 which is OK, but since AppleTV, GoogleTV, chromecast, amazon stuck in amazonland stick, generic Android/ARM sticks weren't enough to supplant the Roku3, HOWEVER I am(/have been) considering what I wrote above with a NUC or like as a tiny HTPC running linux and that sums up how I feel about most of these devices. So many looking for a problem to solve or partially solving a problem that superior devices already do so at similar(with better specs) or MUCH lower prices.
I'm not going to talk about the "smart" watches other than the above also applies in an even worse case to them(no problem to solve at all) and that they're not actually smart at all(mostly and the ones that are kinda smart are just idiot savants in a useless field).
Glass OTOH could potentially be very useful with a capability of recognizing and overlaying schematics/etc but not $1.5k useful.
So long and short player is already too expensively useless, why make it more so?
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Click to collapse
Well, I'm glad you stopped by a forum dedicated to a device you clearly have neither the desire nor need to use. And thank you also for providing us with you opinion on a bunch of things that have nothing to do with it.
razor is making a android tv box but they haven't released specs, im assuming it will have much of what people want since its centered around gaming
jhumps said:
razor is making a android tv box but they haven't released specs, im assuming it will have much of what people want since its centered around gaming
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Click to collapse
Generally though their products are a little... overpriced. However, if the specs are better and still able to be used as easily as a streaming player, I might get one.
jhumps said:
razor is making a android tv box but they haven't released specs, im assuming it will have much of what people want since its centered around gaming
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Click to collapse
Razer's product is vaporware, at the moment. Lollipop is out, the Nexus Player is out, and not a peep from Razer. They have a bad habit of hyping up products just to see them delayed, never released, released in limited quality, and/or cancelled altogether. Never did see their Razer Edge in stores (was supposed to hit MS stores upon release). They were delayed, quietly released in limited quantities, and are now VERY difficult to find. Razer also doesn't have a very good brick and mortar distribution channel for their higher end products outside of mice/keyboards.
I wouldn't get my hopes up on this product. If it actually gets released, I'm expecting it to have the best specs of any late 2014 ATV player, but to be released in limited quantities before Christmas 2015, and at a higher price point as well.
EDIT: Can everyone who visits this thread please take the time to do a official request for adding the SHIELD Console forums? Just visit the below thread and put in your request please. Thanks
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1660354
ORIGINAL POST:
Is this a new device coming out this Summer? I don't even see a section at XDA for it, or any mention of it here in these Shield threads, yet its based on Android TV and the Tegra X1, with the below specs. I'm in the market for a Android TV, so this interests me.
http://shield.nvidia.com/
http://shield.nvidia.com/console
Specifications:
Processor NVIDIA® Tegra® X1 processor
256-core Maxwell™ GPU with 3GB RAM
Video Features 4K Ultra-HD ready with 4K playback and capture up to 60 fps (VP9, H265, H264)
Audio 7.1 and 5.1 surround sound pass through over HDMI
High-resolution audio playback up to 24-bit/192 kHz over HDMI and USB
High-resolution audio up-sample to 24-bit/192 kHz over USB
Storage* 16 GB
Wireless 802.11ac 2x2 MIMO 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi
Bluetooth 4.1/BLE
Interfaces Gigabit Ethernet
HDMI 2.0
Two USB 3.0 (Type A)
Micro-USB 2.0
MicroSD slot
IR Receiver (compatible with Logitech Harmony)
Software Updates SHIELD software upgrades directly from NVIDIA
Gaming Features NVIDIA GRID™ game streaming service
NVIDIA Share
NVIDIA GameStream™
Power 40 W power adapter
Weight and Size Weight: 23 oz / 654 g
Height: 5.1 in / 130 mm
Width: 8.3 in / 210 mm
Depth: 1.0 in / 25 mm
Operating System Android TV™, Google Cast™ Ready
Included Apps = PLEX
It is a new android TV console made by Nvidia. The Cpu/GPU is the latest tegra X1 that is insanely fast! Much faster than Snapdragon 810 and Exynos 7.
Release date is in may and will cost 199$
Just saw some games that will be released like Metal Gear rising? will those be on the cloud or it will run natively on the shield it self? if its only on the cloud the this is not a console its just a streaming device that requires very fast internet which not all countries have specially here in the Philippines
RollWii said:
Just saw some games that will be released like Metal Gear rising? will those be on the cloud or it will run natively on the shield it self? if its only on the cloud the this is not a console its just a streaming device that requires very fast internet which not all countries have specially here in the Philippines
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Click to collapse
Games like Crysis 3 will run natively on it (not in the cloud).
(Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong)
Correct, there are a few big-name games being modded/re-written to run natively on the platform. Of them, "Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel" , "Doom 3: BFG Edition" , and "Crysis 3". They demoed all of these. Doom3 and Crysis looked like they ran pretty well. Borderlands ran like a slug and obviously needed a lot more optimization.
That being said, they were really pushing the GRID services heavily, and a number of the announced launch titles were actually GRID games (AKA, PC games virtualized in a server center and streamed to your natively like OnLive or Gaikai/PS-Now, but with the improvements that nVidia has learned from the virtualization and distributed/parallel computing sectors). Anybody who has a current SHIELD device (portable or Tablet) and is within the USA should try it on their current devices at least a few times before it goes subscription model. It is currently in beta and free for all Shield devices, but the servers are in the USA, and the lag times may be unacceptable for some games if you are overseas or just have a laggy connection in general. It will officially come out of beta at the time when the Shield Console goes on sale, which will end the year-plus free ride so far.
ryocoon said:
Correct, there are a few big-name games being modded/re-written to run natively on the platform. Of them, "Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel" , "Doom 3: BFG Edition" , and "Crysis 3". They demoed all of these. Doom3 and Crysis looked like they ran pretty well. Borderlands ran like a slug and obviously needed a lot more optimization.
That being said, they were really pushing the GRID services heavily, and a number of the announced launch titles were actually GRID games (AKA, PC games virtualized in a server center and streamed to your natively like OnLive or Gaikai/PS-Now, but with the improvements that nVidia has learned from the virtualization and distributed/parallel computing sectors). Anybody who has a current SHIELD device (portable or Tablet) and is within the USA should try it on their current devices at least a few times before it goes subscription model. It is currently in beta and free for all Shield devices, but the servers are in the USA, and the lag times may be unacceptable for some games if you are overseas or just have a laggy connection in general. It will officially come out of beta at the time when the Shield Console goes on sale, which will end the year-plus free ride so far.
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Click to collapse
I'm more interested what it will eventually do for media myself. And it MUST be rootable for me to even consider it as an option. The specs, at least for the Android world are nothing short of brilliant. However, again I want media apps mainly, such as Kodi, Plex, Netflix playback and casting to be flawless. For now the Nexus Player still turns me on more even with it being wifi only. However, If the NVIDIA Console becomes rootable with FULL custom Android ROM's I am going to change my mind in a heartbeat though, haha.
Considering that all of the nVidia devices to date have been extremely easy to unlock and root, I'm going to say that, yeah, it is mostly likely going to be root-able. Whether it can handle Kodi/Plex/Netflix/Etc at 4K is up to those developers. I know NetFlix has 4K content, but I'm not sure how they differentiate and enable it to be honest.
I have the Nexus Player, and I honestly feel a bit like a chump for getting it and so soon this device is announced. I can always use it in another room or something though.
The big rub with Android TV so far is that the default UI, the LeanBack Launcher, will not display some apps unless they declare themselves as leanback capable (which includes some XML, an art asset or two for different shape/size icons, navigation by controller/keys, and search-ability in some cases). This is a problem I've run into on my Nexus Player. Now, nVidia may snub the LeanBack launcher and may integrate some LeanBack function into their nVidia Hub (like on the Shield Tablet and Shield Portable) which recognizes dozens of media apps, games, and some other things and has a launcher in its own UI. However, if apps make themselves noted for LeanBack, they show up fine on the normal AndroidTV interface. What is better, if they include search, then you can voice search for titles in media apps, and if it includes some sort of rating or recommendation feature (like Hulu or YouTube) they can integrate that and you can get recommendations of what to watch directly in your launcher UI on the top row. Less important for games, maybe important for Game discovery, but definitely an interesting thing for the media watchers amongst us. I doubt recommendation would work on something like Plex, and KODI is its own UI entirely, skipping LeanBack or even nVidia hub (to be honest, I've never been a fan of XBMC's UI, and Kodi hasn't won me over yet either... too fidgety and I can't trust a 'normal' person to be able to understand and operate it). Like I stated above, the machine has the horsepower, but it will be up to app developers to show up with a "flawless" app that will work on it well.
Casting works pretty damn well on my Nexus Player, so I bet with MIMO capable AC spec WiFi, and also ethernet inclusion, you will get pretty damn good casting from Chromecast apps, as that is built into AndroidTV's OS.
Mind you a lot of this is based upon speculation on specs, existing hardware, and my knowledge of the AndroidTV OS and how it functions. Your mileage may vary, terms and conditions subject to actual reality upon device launch.
Yeah chances are my mileage will most likely vary, unless for some odd reason I am forced to run the stock Android TV experience. Since 2010 I have not ran anything stock, so not even sure what that is like, and pretty sure I don't want to know, lol. I was thinking about a full rom flashed on it immediately out of the box, installing Nova Launcher, my Planets live wallpaper, throwing up all the streaming apps onto the home screen, and hoping it just works like it did for the Nexus Player user on Youtube. I want to setup my own media streamer home page and experience. 4K would be future proof, but I have no plans to get rid of the 1080p TV that this device will be attached to, not before it naturally dies on me. I still like the Nexus Player as it will fit right in with all my other Nexus devices. I just need to see more development work taking place on it.
SkOrPn said:
Yeah chances are my mileage will most likely vary, unless for some odd reason I am forced to run the stock Android TV experience. Since 2010 I have not ran anything stock, so not even sure what that is like, and pretty sure I don't want to know, lol. I was thinking about a full rom flashed on it immediately out of the box, installing Nova Launcher, my Planets live wallpaper, throwing up all the streaming apps onto the home screen, and hoping it just works like it did for the Nexus Player user on Youtube. I want to setup my own media streamer home page and experience. 4K would be future proof, but I have no plans to get rid of the 1080p TV that this device will be attached to, not before it naturally dies on me. I still like the Nexus Player as it will fit right in with all my other Nexus devices. I just need to see more development work taking place on it.
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I'm still waiting for this device. Hopefully it's better than the garbage that the Razer Forge TV was. The mods and such at the nVidia forums still say it's coming out in may. The Forge didn't release with Netflix, and there might be a chance the same will happen with the Nvidia Shield Android TV, but I'd be ok with Nvidia as they're going to have 4k display support for netflix.
https://forums.geforce.com/default/...blet/nvidia-shield-tv-console-release-date/2/
I just got an email from NVIDIA saying its almost here. It starts out saying the wait is over, but then goes on to say its still not available and that they are giving away one Shield Console everyday until it is available to the public. I hate emails that start off telling you the wait is over but then asks you to wait some more, lol...
Its out!
Although only can see USA and Canada
$199.99 for 16GB
$299.99 for 500GB
http://shield.nvidia.com/android-tv
I'm not personally too interested in the gaming aspects but that amount of GPU power will prove very, very interesting. My main hope is that somebody can produce a minimal linux install for HTPC with Kodi and mpv builds, or perhaps just a release of Debian.
This device is the perfect low-cost HTPC. It should have more than sufficient CPU power for 10-bit h.264 and h.265 decode as well as sufficient compute power on the GPU side for EWA-type resamplers for chroma and image. I'm given to understand the X1 has full desktop opengl compatibility so it ought to be fully compatible with mpv (though I'm unsure of the state of the ARM builds).
The denver CPU should be more than enough to handle metadata crawling and the likes via Kodi in a non-sluggish fashion too. Christ, this device needs more videophile attention...
Just ordered mine on Amazon. It'll be here Sunday.
XDA needs a forum for it. This old shield handheld forum is for a completely different device.
Just ordered mine from Amazon US to be delivered to the UK next week by expedited delivery. What an absolute beast of a machine.
skrowl said:
Just ordered mine on Amazon. It'll be here Sunday.
XDA needs a forum for it. This old shield handheld forum is for a completely different device.
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me too!
returning my fire tv to them for a full refund, and getting this
this will be great to stream my pc to the tv so i can play games like witcher 3 in full 4k 50" vs 1080p 24"
and all the other stuff it does
Full review
http://www.anandtech.com/show/9289/the-nvidia-shield-android-tv-review
Shield Console Rooting Experience Thus Far...
Got mine this afternoon and after futzing a bit, tried to root it. It came with developer mode already enabled, one hassle for me is that rebooting to fastboot makes the screen blank so I had to fly blind to oem unlock. So, I've got an unlocked system at the moment, but Super SU is still not working because their is no su on the device. Anyone make it any further than me? I also went ahead and cracked it open to see if there were obvious serial port connection points. Looks like there's a nice spot for a laptop hard drive that is probably populated in the Pro model.
I'm going to look into building my own kernel + ramdisk to try and get the necessary tools in place so SuperSU can work, but I'm a bit worried that the screen isn't going to work and so I'll essentially be flying blind through the whole process.
ericvh said:
Looks like there's a nice spot for a laptop hard drive that is probably populated in the Pro model.
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Does that that mean there is an internal SATA connector or not?
A.N.Droid said:
Does that that mean there is an internal SATA connector or not?
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Yeah no SATA connector but there is an option in the settings to install all apps to an external hdd or micro sd card anyways
PS. Anyone know if this will be getting a dedicated XDA Forum? I'll probably be picking one up soon
A.N.Droid said:
Does that that mean there is an internal SATA connector or not?
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Hard to tell for sure, looks like there might be solder points for it, but no header. I've got the 500GB on order, will post the diffs when it arrives.
Subject TL;DR here. This thought came about from a discussion in another community I'm a part of. The thought process simply being what kind of feasibility, primarily with the V20 but also Android phones in general, would there be to developing a very barebones ROM that the main feature would be offering up the built in camera(s) as a basic UVC USB device to a connected host as if it was just another USB webcam.
I know there's PLENTY of webcam apps out there for Android to do the ultimate end goal here but they are often fraught with certain issues. Because many of them have to go through extra steps with the Android OS, it often causes increased resource usage and in the case of the V20 and its poor thermals, it tends to overheat really quick. Some apps also only do webcam streaming over Wifi which is less than ideal.
At least in the case of the V20 and its poor thermals, the idea would be to strip out as much of Android getting in the way and move the feed from the camera as close to the USB feed as possible. Ideally maybe a minimal linux ROM with no Android cruft. Android would still work but have it be EXTREMELY stripped down.
This is mostly a shower thought of mine and is WAY above my skillset to actually build but I am really curious how feasible something like this would be potentially? What kind of roadblocks may be seen as a result. Probably one of the biggest things would be able to configure the USB port on the phone to act as a UVC device. Not sure how this in particular would work with the V20.