At the start of Google I/O on May 28, NVIDIA released the shield console. Available on Amazon.com and Nvidia.com for $199 and reviewed here:
http://anandtech.com/show/9289/the-nvidia-shield-android-tv-review
It supports 4K Netflix streaming out of the box, and is the only device to do so. Now subscribers to Netflix 4K can finally use it. It costs extra, the base Netflix subscription price ($7.99) doesn't include the 4K streaming package.
Is this the start of Google taking over the living room? Games, movies, music, infotainment, all streamed from the cloud.
Fastest Android SoC out there at the moment:
-Quadcore A57
-Maxwell 2 SMM GPU
-3 GB LP4 DRAM
-4K display (OK not included :-P )
It also includes a game controller. The games streaming service might be cheaper than buying a GTX, and could potentially be used as a home server for movie streaming or basic FTP /disk streaming tasks. Should be interesting to see what apps get released for it. It's faster than most embedded systems used such as routers, scanners, and HTPCs. With Kodi + portable HDD, I could keep my desktop PC turned off most of the time now.
Original Submission
(Score: 2, Disagree) by Tork on Sunday May 31 2015, @08:16PM
Is this the start of Google taking over the living room?
Who cares? Despite whatever popularity it achieves Google will get bored with it and give it the axe.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈 - Give us ribbiti or make us croak! 🐸
(Score: 1) by mattTheOne on Sunday May 31 2015, @08:51PM
I think NVIDIA must agree, and that's why they're trying to add additional support for the developer with AndroidWorks:
http://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2015/05/29/androidworks/ [nvidia.com]
Google has been talking about GoogleTV or Android TV for years but the product is so clunky and badly supported. Even Amazon has put more effort into their apps ecosystem than Google. You have the daily free Amazon app, and Amazon even has exclusive games for their products and will have hugely discounted games in their app store vs. Google's store which never has any Google sponsored sales. Google provides little motivation to cater to their platform, and when you use their OS, they leverage it to spam you with random ads.
Really hoping this has an open bootloader so folks can use this as an awesome HTPC/dev box for doing all sorts of home automation.
Considering the size of Google, it doesn't make sense why Android TV isn't more polished. They could easily buy some decent game studios like Sega and port a host of games to ATV.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2015, @09:01PM
So, I read the summary, and immediately started searching to see if Nvidia was releasing an updated Jetson too. Nothing. But, if you have more luck in your searches, please post what you find.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by kaszz on Sunday May 31 2015, @09:10PM
So locked down subscription service to DRM'd browser on a locked down piece of hardware in your home that might do mischief at off hours?
Can you even boot and run a free OS on this thing?
(Score: 2) by cockroach on Sunday May 31 2015, @09:31PM
Sound like one hell of a crappy "digital revolution". Also, can we move beyond adding computers and internets to everything and calling it innovation?
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday May 31 2015, @10:52PM
It's progress.. which is completely negated by the lock down and spy down behavior.
(Score: 2) by stormwyrm on Monday June 01 2015, @04:33AM
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday June 01 2015, @11:34AM
This is why the digital revolution isn't a revolution for the people. I was at a friends house the other day, pretty tech oriented guy (IT). He is happy with fire stick TV, that Amazon Echo thing, Windows HTPC, Windows RDP server, iPad air, etc. And everything works pretty well and most importantly, works for him. Talk to him about Linux and he simply doesn't care about it as he sees zero benefits in using it. He doesn't give a rats ass about free/open source software.
As long as things are easy to use, people will use them.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday June 01 2015, @04:26PM
Of course he sees zero benefits if those benefits aren't pointed out. A good Linux distro has everything Windows does except the ability to run Microsoft programs, and does them better. Just having no Patch Tuesday, no nagging, no forced reboots, and no registry should be enough, provided you don't need a good spreadsheet.
Mad at your neighbors? Join ICE, $50,000 signing bonus and a LICENSE TO MURDER!
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday June 01 2015, @04:52PM
Sad thing is I have explained the benefits to him and even demonstrated them. He once came to me with disks from his old Linksys NAS which failed to power up. I plugged them into my Linux laptop with an an ATA adapter, ran mdadm with the discovery option and then mounted it. He was very surprised at how easy it was to recover his data.
I have also shown him my old HTPC and a few other Linux goodies but he just didn't care for it. He is a Windows admin, so there might be bias. But I know him and it is because he wants the cheapest, most simple, and easiest answer to a problem. Setting up a Linux HTPC vs spending 40 bucks on a fire tv stick and installing Kodi is a no brainer to him. So fire TV it is.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday June 01 2015, @10:39PM
You can run MS-Windows software under Linux/BSD using Wine or a hypervisor software solution. Perfect, no. But it may do the job.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday June 01 2015, @10:31PM
He'll be sorry when his is hacked to show porn clips whenever it detects his girlfriend in the room. His voice command box corporation leaks his intimate moanings and secrets to the internets. The Windows HTPC refuses to boot unless he install service pack X which can only be installed when running. The RDP remote login is used to photograph and publish private moments and setup a warez server. iPad will log his movements and snail mail him a brochure on a restaurant that his girlfriend never heard about. Unless all machines just refuse too do anything due some license issue and then hackers brick all machines.
Ignorance is a bliss until reality slaps you in the face. ;-)
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday June 01 2015, @04:21PM
Don't you feel sorry for non-nerds who have to put up with that crap? I've been using a 42 inch TV as a monitor for well over a decade.
Mad at your neighbors? Join ICE, $50,000 signing bonus and a LICENSE TO MURDER!
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday June 01 2015, @10:36PM
The problem is that non-nerds now drive the market. It gives us the benefit of low prices on electronics due plain volume and omnipresence of equipment. Even equipment thrown away these days are immensely powerful. The downside is that non-nerds also drive the market to dumb down and lock down. They don't watch for quality and thus the market adapt. The huge e-waste causes new regulation to put in place that may result in things like tin whiskers etc.
But yeah, I do pity non-nerds for having put up with all bullshit and not knowing there's a way out and how to get there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 02 2015, @11:45AM
https://developer.nvidia.com/shield-open-source [nvidia.com]
Maxwell has a signed vbios, similiar to Haswell+'s OEM bios images (Nouveau was making a stink about this in regards to supporting Maxwell a few months back.)
Still looks like an awesome compromise between the high end consoles and the low end tv boxes, and unlike any of those, it allows enough customization to full benefit from the hardware available to you. Notably, if you go with the base model: Booting a full linux distro via a USB 3 hard disk, which should be comparable in performance to a SATA drive (barring issues with disk enclosure firmware that might require manual replugging or power cycling.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 31 2015, @11:46PM
Only if you like to upgrade your TV every few years. I tend to hold onto my TVs for at least 10 years. I am about 5 into my current TV. It is a 'smart tv'. Yet half the services no longer work and that was after 3 years. I now use a front end computer to do the smart tv heavy lifting.
Right now 4k is 'not there yet'. It is strictly a bragging point to show off to your friends.
For a PC the interconnects are not there yet. To get it to work you need a fairly high end pair of video cards. Even then the interconnects are not yet ready for it (most topping out at 60hz). For the home market there is NO media for it.
This is a 'not ready' tech. It looks promising. But I am going to wait a bit on it.
Is this the start of Google taking over the living room?
I wouldnt worry about it. Even Apple, MS, and Tivo could not crack that market. It is too diverse and the manufactures get 'bored' too quickly.