The NVIDIA Shield TV has been established on the market since 2015. But there has been no hardware update since 2019, and now an NVIDIA manager is providing insights into possible future plans.
• NVIDIA Shield TV has received continuous software updates for over ten years since 2015
• The last hardware revision of the Shield TV was from 2019 with the Tegra X1+ chip
• Sales figures for Shield TVs have remained almost unchanged for around ten years, according to NVIDIA
Over ten years of Shield TV and still no end in sight
The NVIDIA Shield TV has built up a loyal fan base over the years. As Andrew Bell, NVIDIA’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, explained in an in-depth interview with Ars Technica on January 30, 2026, engineers wanted to create a high-quality streaming and gaming box outside of the Apple ecosystem from the start. What started as an ambitious project is now one of the longest supported Android devices ever. The last hardware update to the Shield TV series came in 2019, when NVIDIA equipped the models with the improved Tegra X1+ processor, Dolby Vision support, AI-powered upscaling and a revised remote control.
Despite the fact that the hardware is now over six years old, NVIDIA continues to provide software updates for all generations of Shield TVs, including the original models from 2015. Bell emphasized in the interview that sales of the Shield TV have been almost unchanged for around ten years and that the company will not be stopping production or software support in the foreseeable future.
Internal experiments with new hardware
What will be particularly interesting for Shield TV fans is that Bell does not rule out possible new hardware in the interview. As can be seen from the Ars Technica article, NVIDIA is internally playing with concepts for a new generation of Shield TVs. Bell revealed what improvements such a device would have to bring: First and foremost would be support for modern video codecs and HDR formats. These include the more efficient AV1 video codec, which is already used in NVIDIA’s own cloud gaming service GeForce Now, as well as expanded compatibility with HDR10+ and newer Dolby Vision profiles for local media playback. Bell also cited hardware decoding of VP9 Profile 2 for HDR content on YouTube as a priority.
However, there is no specific schedule or official announcement. Bell emphasized to Ars Technica that the team is always working on new ideas and that a new product can be created if there is enough enthusiasm internally. He deliberately left a fixed release date open.
Why the wait could continue
There are several reasons why NVIDIA is taking its time with a new generation of Shield TVs. As the Ars Technica interview shows, NVIDIA has evolved in recent years from a startup-like company into a multi-trillion-dollar corporation that generates most of its revenue from AI accelerators and PC graphics cards. A comparatively niche streaming media player is therefore naturally not at the top of the company’s priority list. In addition, according to Bell, the Tegra X1 chip is still more powerful than the processors of many current smart TVs, despite its age.
Nevertheless, a look at the software side shows that the Shield TV is increasingly showing its age. The devices continue to run Android TV 11, while Google has now reached Android TV 14 and is expected to release Android TV 16 this year. As the specialist portal FlatpanelsHD notes in an article from February 2, 2026, the latest software updates are also significantly smaller than in previous years. The work on a new security stack for the older Shield TV models from 2015 and 2017, which were affected by a vulnerability in the original Tegra X1 chip, was particularly complex. This project, according to Bell, was the main reason there were no public updates in 2023 and 2024. The development alone took around 18 months.
It remains to be seen whether and when a new NVIDIA Shield TV will actually appear. The signals from the company indicate that the brand is by no means being abandoned, but a specific product does not seem to be ready to be announced at this point.
D. Maier / editorial team finanzen.net
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