NVIDIA has just pushed the SHIELD Experience Upgrade version 9.2 to its NVIDIA SHIELD TV devices, and it brings in tons of new enhancements and features, as well as plenty of bug fixes. It’s been a long time since NVIDIA pushed an Experience Upgrade to the SHIELD TV, and that’s partially why this update is such a big deal. SHIELD Experience 9.1 was released all the way back in November of 2022. So it’s been a few years.
This latest update also adds what appears to be more enhancements and bug fixes than any other upgrade. The NVIDIA SHIELD is an older Android TV box but it’s still the best according to many users. It also looks quite nice. If you haven’t seen the notification for the update yet, you can still check to see if SHIELD Experience Upgrade 9.2 is available. If it is, you can download it right away and get the benefits from it.
To check for updates, simply open up the Settings and click on Device Preferences, then click on Check for Upgrade. You can also configure a Quick Settings toggle that lets you check for upgrades from the main settings menu. It saves you a couple of steps. It’s also worth noting that you might see a message on the homescreen that 9.2 is available.
NVIDIA SHIELD Experience Upgrade 9.2 adds full support for Auro-3D high-resolution audio
The first and perhaps the biggest enhancement of this update is the Auro 3D support. More specifically, the full support for high-resolution immersive sound in Auro-3D over HDMI. There is one caveat to this. If you want the Auro-3D benefits, you need to connect your NVIDIA SHIELD TV device to an Auro-3D compatible decoder. There are lots of options here, but none of them are really cheap. So if you don’t already have one, consider whether or not it’s worth buying one just for this.
In addition to the full Auro-3D support, NVIDIA SHIELD Experience Upgrade 9.2 also adds several other enhancements. There is now support for Match audio content resolution if you’re using a USB DAC. Additionally, NVIDIA says there’s now a beta feature to match the frame rate. There’s a security enhancement for 4K DRM playback as well, and French parental controls.
As for bug fixes, there are 23 total fixes listed. Not the least of which are fixes related to crashes. Some users had been reporting problems with crashing when attempting to change the volume. NVIDIA says this is now fixed. There was a similar issue where GeForce NOW was crashing when users tried to launch the app. This should also now be fixed. Speaking of GeForce NOW, support has now been added for several new games on NVIDIA SHIELD TV devices.
Even more bug fixes
In addition to the few bugs mentioned above, there are actually a lot more that appear to have been addressed. If you’ve experienced choppy video playback after trying to fast forward or rewind something, that’s been fixed. Another big issue users were having was with the remote. After waking your SHIELD TV from sleep, the remote would stop working for about a minute for some users. While the remote wasn’t broken, it was still an inconvenience that lessened the user experience.
The good news is that this update fixes that problem. Additional bug fixes include the SHIELD waking from the lockscreen without a button press, the not permitted error when trying to do a large file transfer to a NAS drive, the Google sign-in flow getting stuck in a loop, and a stutter issue that was happening on Bose and Sony headsets when connected to 2.4GHz Wi-Fi. These are just a handful more of the bug fixes. You can check the full list in NVIDIA’s patch notes.
The update adds support for more GeForce NOW games
If you use your NVIDIA SHIELD TV device to play games, you have more options now. The update to 9.2 adds support for Fortnite, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Black Myth: Wukong, Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl. NVIDIA says these are featured GeForce NOW games, so it’s unclear if there’s more that have been added. It’s also worth noting that most of these games were already available in GeForce NOW via PC, and have been for quite some time.
