The NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV Review: A Premium 4K Set Top Box
by Ganesh T S on May 28, 2015 3:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Media Streamer
- Home Theater
- TV
- 4K
- Shield
- NVIDIA
Netflix in 4K and HEVC Decode
The NVIDIA SHIELD is currently the only Netflix 4K-certified set-top box in the market. This certification involves two important requirements:
- Presence of a HDMI 2.0 port with HDCP 2.2 capability
- Presence of a hardware decoder for HEVC Main and Main10 profiles
NVIDIA was the first in the PC space to bring HDMI 2.0 together with HDCP 2.2 support as well as a hardware decoder for HEVC in the GTX 960. They are also extending this lead to the SoC space with the Tegra X1. Thus, the NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV has turned out to be the first set-top box to meet Netflix's criteria for 4K certification.
The UltraHD-capable Netflix streaming plan is the highest-end one, coming in at $11.99 per month before taxes. If the SHIELD is connected to a HDMI 2.0 4Kp60 sink supporting HDCP 2.2 and the Netflix account is on a supported plan, the Netflix app's UI presents a row of Ultra HD 4K streams in addition to the generic categories. We tested out Netflix 4K on a Samsung HU6950 without an AV receiver inbetween.
Netflix has a special test stream that shows the characteristics of the currently playing stream. As expected, the SHIELD had no trouble in getting to the 4K encode.
In the adaptive streaming process, we came across a host of different encodes. They are listed in the gallery below.
Regular readers of our HTPC reviews might remember that the Windows 8.1 Netflix app tops out with a 5.8 Mbps 1080p H.264 stream. On devices with HEVC support, it appears that this is replaced by a 5.16 Mbps HEVC Main10 stream at the same resolution. There is also a higher bit-rate version (6.96 Mbps) with similar characteristics. Beyond that, we have the 4K stream at 9.6 Mbps. Unfortunately, we don't know the exact characteristics of the encode, but, based on the immediately preceding lower bit-rate streams, it is probably a HEVC Main10 encode too.
The Netflix app gives us an indication that the SHIELD has no trouble with HEVC. In order to confirm this, we put our HEVC test suite through Android's native Video Player.
The video shows perfect playback of 4Kp24, 4Kp25 and 4Kp30 HEVC Main and Main10 profile streams. For 4Kp60, we only have Main profile videos, and the SHIELD has no trouble with that.
On one hand, it is nice to see the SHIELD Android TV's 4K Netflix capabilities as well as support for high frame-rate HEVC playback in a power-efficient system. Though the 4K TV adoption rate is still very low - it's the start of what will be a long process - of anything and everything NVIDIA needed to do to secure their spot as the set top box to have for 4K TVs, getting Netflix 4K support in place is it.
On the other hand, it also reminds us of the sorry state of HTPCs with respect to HDMI 2.0, HDCP 2.2 and HEVC playback. For enthusiasts, it is imperative that PCs catch up soon, given that local media streaming is not a focus point for the SHIELD.
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nandnandnand - Thursday, May 28, 2015 - link
What is 24p? 24-bit audio?piroroadkill - Thursday, May 28, 2015 - link
I'm pretty sure he's referring to native 24 Hz output, or more than likely, 23.976, as most content (such as the video on Blu-ray discs) is encoded at 23.976.hifiaudio2 - Thursday, May 28, 2015 - link
Really too bad about no lossless audio codec support. Maybe a codec licensing pack add on for $20 or something?SleepModezZ - Thursday, May 28, 2015 - link
They say it supports FLAC. It is lossless and should support different sampling rates and bit rates. It is free. Maybe Ganesh refers to some other proprietary format that SHIELD TV is lacking?ganeshts - Thursday, May 28, 2015 - link
I was referring to lossless HD audio - like the type of tracks in BD-Audio discs or even certain Blu-ray soundtracks. - DTS-HD MA and TrueHD - [ http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=91776 ]SleepModezZ - Thursday, May 28, 2015 - link
Thank you. Are those codecs widely used outside of Blu-ray discs? As the SHIELD is not a Blu-ray player, those codecs are only important if they are used in streaming services. Unfortunately I don't know what Netflix or other services uses.ganeshts - Thursday, May 28, 2015 - link
I believe using the SHIELD as a player for the Blu-ray rips on a NAS will be a common use-case.SleepModezZ - Thursday, May 28, 2015 - link
Ok. Then the question is, is it possible to transcode DTS-HD soundtracks to multichannel FLAC streams while ripping the Blu-ray disc, and if, what do you lose in the conversion? FLAC (and HDMI) can handle up till 8 channels high res audio. Is there some problem with the AV receiver understanding such streams? If not, it would be recommended to rip Blu-ray discs into a format that SHIELD TV can play back. Re-encoding old rips should not be too difficult - just takes some time and electricity.ganeshts - Thursday, May 28, 2015 - link
AFAIK, there is no open source DTS-HD MA decoder.In any case, the easiest ripping scheme is to extract tracks without any transcoding. If the end-player can't support the resulting rip, then it is not something ideal - After all, there are probably other players which do support it.
In the case of the SHIELD, the only thing unique about it from a video playback perspective is support for 4Kp60 HEVC decode and HDMI 2.0 / HDCP 2.2 for 4K Netflix. If either of those are important to you right away, then you will be very happy with the SHIELD Android TV. If they are not urgent requirements - the only aspect preventing me from whole-heartedly recommending the SHIELD Android TV is that it is a closed embedded platform unlike a PC. We need something open and extensible like a HTPC that will also have full HEVC decode and HDMI 2.0 / HDCP 2.2
SleepModezZ - Thursday, May 28, 2015 - link
Thank you for your patience. It seems you are right - there is only commercial software for decoding dts-hd, so a free program like Handbrake can only pass-through the soundtrack, and then SHIELD can't play it.