Google announced Android TV back in 2014 and since then we’ve seen a number of companies integrate this platform into their products. It’s become a popular feature for smart TVs and we’ve even seen a number of dedicated set-top boxes released as well. NVIDIA has had the Shield TV on the market for close to three years now and the company is still putting in the work to push out updates. Today, it has been announced that NVIDIA is rolling out the Android Oreo (8.0) update to the Shield TV.
Google put a lot of work into the big Oreo update for Android TV in hopes of making the home screen as convenient and customizable as possible. This new update for the NVIDIA Shield TV comes with this new home screen that features a row of applications and games at the top. Underneath is a “Play Next” row for a quick and easy way to continue the movie or TV show you were previously watching. The update also comes with a new “Channels” feature that allows apps to show up as individual rows (such as Netflix or Plex) with quick access to suggested media.
Assuming your favorite media application developer supports the new Android TV Oreo update, all of your media applications will show up as channels on the home screen. Of course, this is all customizable so you can choose which channels you want to see and which ones you don’t. NVIDIA has also worked with 3rd-party companies with this update bringing in support for Arlo cameras, Emerson Sensi, Ikea Tadfri, LG smart appliances, and Scenes support for Phillips Hue.
There are some under the hood changes from NVIDIA that comes with this update as well including support for high polling rate gaming mice for NVIDIA GameStream, improved support for game controllers (such as Xbox 360 and DualShock 4), the ability to connect to WiFi without disconnecting the ethernet connection, and more.