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Shield - underwhelmed

thebesh

thebesh

Member
TK Supporter
Hi folks

Just wanted to give some initial feedback after I received my Shield yesterday evening. Didn't take me long to set it up and configure it. I don't have an IPTV sub, but managed to test tivimate using a free public playlist to confirm it was working.

Positives
  • Remote Control and general speed of box is pretty responsive navigating apps and OS
  • Was easy to enable CNC for my LG TV for both power and volume
Negatives
  • Expensive for what you actually get
  • I think the OS is probably outputting at 4k, but some of the apps (Netflix) look grainy as they look to be 1080. Compare this to the LG TV Netflix app, which looks SO sharp.
  • The remote is responsive, but I'm not a fan of it, especially the triangle shape. Who designed that thing? I'm maybe being too picky, but I just didn't like the button layout. Too easy to press other buttons by mistake with my fat fingers.
  • As others have said, the adverts and bloat are a bit disappointing considering the premium price of product.
I feel I was maybe a bit overhyped on what I was going to be getting. Expectation > Reality. The fact my LG TV apps look better means that I doubt I would use it for anything other than IPTV. I suspect I'm going to return it (thank you Amazon) and I think I'll probably wait for the next Amazon sale and buy a cube instead.
 
Various retailers have the cube on sale at the moment. Unlike the 2nd gen, it appears the 3rd gen cube isn't going to drop below £119.99 anytime soon.

Also, there are 2 types of sheild - pro and the tube version, your views related to the pro?

1692871663279.png
 
i have the older sheild, which i got before 4k firesticks existed. i got it about £100 on ebay. it's been great, but i only use kodi and streaming apps and just had a play with the gaming stuff, as i got the gamepad thing with it, got a cheap offial remote but was used to using kodi with a mini keyboard i got a BT keyboard and use that. i have a 4k firestick, and bar the odd app that works on one device and not the other, for just watching tv there's not much difference. i think some audio HD codecs don't output on the firestick but i just watch it on the tv and never noticed when i tried on my atmos amp setup. unless there's something specific the sheild offers that the firestick doesn't do, you may be better off with the firestick

if you go to the settings top right cogwheel on the sheild you can check you've got it on the right settings. sometimes i have to switch down to 4k 24fps instead of the 59.99fps 4k setting to get disney+ to work in 4k. if you don't have the right setting it may explain netflix. i think the sheild doesn't do atmos on the sheild but does on the firestick, but it hasn't bothered me as its still 5.1

also the pro sheild has the AI upscaling but the cheaper non pro does not, nor do some older models
 
I bought my 2019 pro about 3 years ago and I am overwhelmed with it.
It does take a bit of tinkering with settings but it's well worth the effort and the price.
Updates are regular unlike some boxes beginning with F! Where you have to change the box every couple of years, I have the Cube in bedroom and Firestick as back up to Shield ,
The remote takes a bit of getting used to but when set up is spot on and lights up
 
Toddy2 said:
I bought my 2019 pro about 3 years ago and I am overwhelmed with it.
It does take a bit of tinkering with settings but it's well worth the effort and the price.
Updates are regular unlike some boxes beginning with F! Where you have to change the box every couple of years, I have the Cube in bedroom and Firestick as back up to Shield ,
The remote takes a bit of getting used to but when set up is spot on and lights up
Click to expand...
There was an update
(hotfix) this morning..
 
Prim@l said:
Various retailers have the cube on sale at the moment. Unlike the 2nd gen, it appears the 3rd gen cube isn't going to drop below £119.99 anytime soon.

Also, there are 2 types of sheild - pro and the tube version, your views related to the pro?

View attachment 93531
Click to expand...
It’s the Pro I have.

I was hoping to make this a one stop shop for apps and IPTV, but the apps on LG CX just look a bit better. I’m going to stick with them and get something cheaper to run IPTV. I do having a gaming PC with nVidia gfx card (RTX 3080Ti) and not even slightly interested in streaming games either.
 
With this 4k stuff even Netflix I think it's been compressed.

E.g
Ready player one movie. Streaming through say plex the size of movie is 64 gig.

Netflix say you need 20 meg for 4k obviously you are not going to be able to stream a 64 gig file on 20 meg.
 
mike123 said:
With this 4k stuff even Netflix I think it's been compressed.

E.g
Ready player one movie. Streaming through say plex the size of movie is 64 gig.

Netflix say you need 20 meg for 4k obviously you are not going to be able to stream a 64 gig file on 20 meg.
Click to expand...
Netflix are referring to a broadband speed of 20 meg to keep up with a 4k stream, the size of the 4k file is not relevant.
 
thebesh said:
Hi folks

Just wanted to give some initial feedback after I received my Shield yesterday evening. Didn't take me long to set it up and configure it. I don't have an IPTV sub, but managed to test tivimate using a free public playlist to confirm it was working.

Positives
  • Remote Control and general speed of box is pretty responsive navigating apps and OS
  • Was easy to enable CNC for my LG TV for both power and volume
Negatives
  • Expensive for what you actually get
  • I think the OS is probably outputting at 4k, but some of the apps (Netflix) look grainy as they look to be 1080. Compare this to the LG TV Netflix app, which looks SO sharp.
  • The remote is responsive, but I'm not a fan of it, especially the triangle shape. Who designed that thing? I'm maybe being too picky, but I just didn't like the button layout. Too easy to press other buttons by mistake with my fat fingers.
  • As others have said, the adverts and bloat are a bit disappointing considering the premium price of product.
I feel I was maybe a bit overhyped on what I was going to be getting. Expectation > Reality. The fact my LG TV apps look better means that I doubt I would use it for anything other than IPTV. I suspect I'm going to return it (thank you Amazon) and I think I'll probably wait for the next Amazon sale and buy a cube instead.
Click to expand...

You can hide a lot of the bloat/ads from displaying on the home screen. A lot of the things people say are bad about the shield are the same on the cube - lots of bloat/ads, remote is not to their liking. I think with the price you pay for a shield if you don't see that price reflected in it's use to you then you might as well send it back. Personally I've got a shield, cube and 3 firesticks in the house and previously owned a formuler device, prefer the shield over all of those but it's each to their own.
 
Ferret. said:
Netflix are referring to a broadband speed of 20 meg to keep up with a 4k stream, the size of the 4k file is not relevant.
Click to expand...
Well it is. Because when you stream you are theoretically downloading the same amount of data

E.g you watch a football match for 1.5 hours in FHD that is about 5 gig of data used. You need the speeds to download the data quick enough. I admit it's not the same as downloading a movie from the bay because you ate connecting directly to the Netflix server. But 20 meg may be pushing it for 4k
 
Last edited:
Pretty early days to call it a day but that's how it is sometimes, the triangular remote takes more than a day to get your head round and it's always going to be a different set up the the amazon devices, each to his own i suppose but but you can't possibly have given it a proper go in a day!
 
This^^
There’s more bloatware on a firestick/cube if you include all the icons. As for the shield remote . I agree it is underwhelming, that Netflix button is a pain and it not gaving a mute button is crap ( having to press two buttons at once to mute the volume is annoying ). It’s st
 
soltia said:
This^^
There’s more bloatware on a firestick/cube if you include all the icons. As for the shield remote . I agree it is underwhelming, that Netflix button is a pain and it not gaving a mute button is crap ( having to press two buttons at once to mute the volume is annoying ). It’s st
Click to expand...
You can install a button mapper app...I have set mine so pressing netflix activates mute 🤣

Ps love my shield wouldn't swap it with any other device except the new shield when it's released
 
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