Nvidia Defend is the AV nerds’ greatest various to Apple TV

On the subject of streaming units, most individuals go for identified entities just like the Apple TV 4K, the Roku Ultra, or the Amazon Fire TV Stick. However for the audio-video nerds on the market trying to take their streaming expertise to the following degree, there’s one other nice gadget to think about: the Nvidia Shield TV Pro.

Nvidia, greatest identified for its high-end graphics processors, debuted the primary Defend TV again in Might 2015. It targeted on downloading and streaming video games from suitable PCs on the identical community, and a Professional mannequin was even launched in 2017. Then, the gadget bought an enormous refresh in 2019 with upgraded processors and a brand new cylindrical type issue for the non-Professional mannequin.

Since then, the Nvidia Shield TV Pro has been the go-to gadget for folks trying to stream content material in nearly any format conceivable, with a major quantity of consumer management over the system, nice options for streaming content material saved on native networks, and the power to play high-quality video games from a PC.

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Nvidia has pushed an replace to its Defend TV units that lastly ditches Gamestream in favour of GeForce Now.

Highly effective specs

A system to satisfy everybody’s wants

Regardless of debuting in 2019, the Nvidia Shield TV Pro is still a powerful device. It options the Nvidia Tegra X1+ processor, with a 256-core GPU and 3GB RAM. It has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, in addition to an HDMI 2.0 port that’s HDCP 2.2 compliant. It additionally has 16GB onboard storage, which is a little bit on the small finish, however customers can improve the storage utilizing a USB stick or exterior arduous drive utilizing one of many Defend’s two USB 3.0 ports.

Powered by Android 11.0 with Android TV and built-in Chromecast, the Nvidia Defend TV Professional helps all kinds of video and audio codecs. It’s 4K HDR prepared, with help for HDR10 and Dolby Imaginative and prescient HDR, and natively performs MKV, MP4, MOV, WEB-M, and quite a lot of different frequent video information. The audio facet is the place the Defend shines much more, supporting lossless Dolby Digital and Dolby Atmos, in addition to DTS-X pass-through, and a wide selection of lossless and compressed audio information.

Moreover, the Defend has Google Assistant built-in, and is suitable with Amazon’s Alexa, for customers on the lookout for hands-free management of the gadget. The gadget is bundled with a lot of streaming apps, together with Netflix, YouTube, Prime Video, and extra. Plus, customers can obtain extra apps from the Google Play Retailer.

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Gaming goodness

Stream all the most effective video games

Xbox

Together with streaming motion pictures and TV, the Nvidia Defend TV Professional is nice for avid gamers trying to convey the PC expertise to their televisions. Because of Nvidia GeForce NOW help, customers can stream video games they already personal proper from the cloud.

Join a wi-fi recreation controller utilizing Bluetooth, and the Defend will provide the video games in high-resolution, turning the Defend right into a surprisingly nice various to a costlier standalone console.

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The house server life

Streaming a private library

Because of its large, native help for quite a lot of video and audio codecs, the Nvidia Defend TV Professional can be the right gadget for individuals who have a big library of video and audio content material saved regionally. Blu-ray collectors who rip their discs to a hard-drive, for instance, can simply stream their information from a neighborhood server on the community on to the Defend, with no worries about codecs being unsupported.

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For these of you who nonetheless use Nvidia’s Defend, it’s possible you’ll be blissful to know the platform simply gained a preferred app: The Apple TV app.

It is an all-purpose streamer

Give it an opportunity — you will not remorse it

Nvidia

Although there are newer streaming units in the marketplace, and extra well-liked ones, the Nvidia Defend TV Professional is a robust contender for the most effective streaming field out there.

It helps nearly each format underneath the solar, is very customizable because of its Android-based working system, and is nice for gaming. It is particularly price contemplating for anyone with an enormous native server full of flicks and TV exhibits they’re trying to stream to their TV on the highest doable high quality.

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Nvidia has pushed a system software program replace for the Defend TV that provides next-gen controller help.