I have a Dolby Vision capable TV but that alone wouldn't be worth the upgrade for me.
However, is the 4K upscaling of the 2019 model dramatically better than the 2017 model? That might be worth the upgrade for me.
I have a Dolby Vision capable TV but that alone wouldn't be worth the upgrade for me.
However, is the 4K upscaling of the 2019 model dramatically better than the 2017 model? That might be worth the upgrade for me.
Virtually all the added features on the 2019 Shield are not Hardware but Firmware additions and a Dolby licence.
You get:
a proper Dolby Audio licence this time that allows all audio to be downmixed to highly compatible 5.1 DD to support older DD only audio receivers.
with that Dolby Audio licence Netflix will now output Atmos Audio
DolbyVision for single layer profile 5 DV streaming added into device Firmware via additional code.
AI picture upscaling, likely via additional Firmware code as well, but this is limited to video content with 30fps or less and will not work for Live TV
and much needed new remote. That can be purchased separately and added to existing Shields.
a minor die shrink for the Tegra X1+ SoC making it slightly more power efficient, which also means less generated heat.
a minor increase ( approx 25%) in the Maxwell GPU clock rate in the tweaked Tegra X1+ aka the T210B01:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tegra#Tegra_X1
Bluetooth 5.0
likely slightly faster DDR4 RAM
What is missing, due to the old 2015 era Maxwell GPU used is:
comprehensive GPU driven picture upscaling with no limitations.
No 4K HDR YouTube or Play Movies due to no GPU - VP9 profile 2 support.
No HDR10+ or HLG but that might get added via Firmware updates.
No widespread auto Frame Rate Matching due to very few Android TV Apps developers interested. This is really important for territories that stream combos of 25fps/50Hz and 24p video.
The same CPU package used in the 2015 Nvidia Shield. It it NOT more powerful (tested with very CPU demanding YADIF2X Software deinterlacing - which the new 2019 Shield still cannot handle)
Broken AGAIN, auto color space switching for SDR <<-->> HDR usage. An ongoing Shield problem it seems.
Some months ago I read someone saying that the upscaling on the 2017 was actually worse than on the Mi Box! If that's true or not I don't know but this one will surely be much better.
It's a different type of upscaling, I didn't know the 2017 model even had any. This takes the content and processes it to create a new image based on an image processing AI. Any old methods just multiplied values.
I'd say the AI upscaling is usually on par with a good TV or with the apple tv 4k. It's not magic but it's better than the old shields.
However, often I can see no difference between AI and Basic.
I've also seen examples of AI oversharpening things, even with detail enhancement on low.
I predict there's going to be some refinements of AI over the coming months after my experience with it the last few days.
For me the new remote and dolby vision were worth it. AI is just a perk.