Nvidia revealed the latest features being rolled out in its Shield Experience Upgrade 3.0. The game-centric streaming console received several improvements, including an update to Android Marshmallow, expanded external storage options, menu customization options and additional streaming content, including 4K movie rentals and the Shield TV debut of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
The Shield TV console has been updated to Android’s Marshmallow operating system In addition, the update offers increased flexibility with external storage devices, allowing SD cards and USB flash drives to be used as internal storage. This will commit the storage device as a Shield TV-specific device, so users should only use this feature on USB flash drives or SD cards they intend to leave attached to their Shield TV.
Several new features offer increased personalization and ease of use. The home screen can now be customized by rearranging app tiles and menus. Searching has become easier with a new speak or click-to-type functionality, and setup can now be achieved without typing at all by connecting to your Android-based smartphone and acquiring your Google account information automatically using vocal commands from your smartphone.
Nvidia’s Shield TV Update 3.0 also brings a 4K content rental service called UltraFlix to the platform, and it appeared to have no lag while scrubbing around the video. This depends entirely on your network’s capabilities, but it seemed that with a powerful enough Internet connection, you could click on any part of a 4K movie and see playback instantly, without any buffering. How this is achieved is not quite yet known, but it is a welcome feature for 4K-display wielding Shield TV users.
In addition, the Google Play store received a facelift and should be easier to navigate.
Also making its Shield TV debut is Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, which Nvidia claimed is a full-blown console-grade game title. The gameplay was actually quite smooth, even on the 4K display it was demoed on.
Nvidia’s Shield TV Update 3.0 will be available sometime soon.
Derek Forrest is an Associate Contributing Writer for Tom’s Hardware and Tom’s IT Pro. Follow Derek Forrest on Twitter. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.