NVIDIA today announced that its first living-room entertainment device — the NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV box, will be available to buy online and in-store on Thursday (1st October), from select retailers in the U.K., France, Germany, and Scandinavia, as well as from the NVIDIA SHIELD store.
SHIELD is up to 34 times faster and more features than other popular media streamers. This performance powers SHIELD’s responsive and silky smooth user interface. It’s the only smart TV console that can stream Ultra HD 4K content at fluid 60 frames per second (fps). And it provides a full range of gaming experiences — including the new GeForce NOW on-demand cloud gaming service to TVs.
“SHIELD is a fantastic, easy to use product – letting you use just one device for all your living room entertainment,” said Jaap Zuiderveld, vice president of EMEAI at NVIDIA. “Music, TV and film have already been transformed by streaming. With GeForce NOW, we are bringing that same disruption to games at simply incredible value.”
GeForce NOW: The New Way to Game
GeForce NOW is a game-streaming service like a Netflix for games. It includes unlimited streaming of more than 50 popular PC games, including titles from the Batman and Lego series. New AAA blockbuster games like The Witcher 3, Saints Row: Gat out of Hell and Resident Evil: Revelations 2 can also be purchased and played instantly from the online game store.
“GeForce NOW is part of the future of gaming to me. Being able to play The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt at a moment’s notice, all streamed seamlessly, is just mind blowing,” said Damien Monnier, Senior Gameplay Designer, CD PROJEKT RED.
Members connect to NVIDIA’s powerful cloud-gaming supercomputers located in Central and Northern Europe, select a game and play at up to 1080p at 60 fps quality within 30 seconds. No more waiting hours for digital downloads.
SHIELD’s many features include:
- Awesome Entertainment, One Device: Simplify the living room with a single device for all entertainment needs — TV shows, films, music, games and apps.
- 4K Everything: Watch your favourite Netflix series as well as content from YouTube, Kodi and elsewhere — in Ultra HD 4K as SHIELD Android TV delivers the best 4K media streaming experience with full 4K at 60 fps support.
- Amazing Games: Play amazing games — next-gen Android games, NVIDIA GeForce NOW cloud games and PC GameStream games— only on SHIELD.
- Experience Latest Apps and Content: Check out popular apps in Europe like Netflix, YouTube, BBC iPlayer, Sky News, Zattoo, my TF1, Magine, France TV, STV Play and Sport1.
- Built-in Chromecast and Google Voice: Quickly access content with Google voice search and commands — using the SHIELD remote and SHIELD controller — plus cast apps from Android or iOS phones to the big screen TV.
SHIELD is powered by the Tegra X1 mobile processor — with a 256-core NVIDIA GPU and a 64-bit CPU. It’s the first device of its kind to support the new generation of ultra-high-def 4K displays.
Pricing and Availability
In the U.K., SHIELD (16GB) costs £149.99 while SHIELD Pro (500GB) is £219.99. The SHIELD remote costs £39.99, the stand costs £24.99 and an additional SHIELD gamepad controller costs £49.99.
SHIELD is available at select partners, including Amazon in U.K., France and Germany as well as MediaMarkt, Saturn, Game and Elkjop.
GeForce NOW is free for the first three months on SHIELD devices, and then just €9.99/£7.49 per month. The service touches down in Europe tomorrow on Thursday, 1st October.
