harhana fabyanne volitta
Edilma Howard
Any experience here for hardware mods? Lps, regulators, clocks ? I guess the internals can be put on a custom case to allow such mods. The shield DC connector is special though and not of the usual barrel type.
Re the clocking question that's a good one too. But the audio reclocking has predominantly focused on USB and is now venturing into Ethernet. I'm not sure how or if the same principle applies to the HDMI output for an AV streamer.
To improve audio out of usb when listening to video content but in stereo. Surround disabled. CPU run compatibility mode not performance mode. For audio only streaming i will have another component, not nvidia.
Bumping this old thread as it's still a relevant topic today. It amazes me that nobody is making/marketing an Nvidia ShieldTV LPS in the USA (I found one UK vendor for big, big $$)... I reached out to Ghent and several other Chinese vendors and they all passed on making the ShieldTV's proprietary DC cable, so I decided to do it myself. Went on eBay and purchased an OEM SMPS for my 2019 ShieldTV Pro. Once I received it, I cut the DC cable to have a look. Sure enough it is shielded but it was not tied anywhere on the plug side (wall wart). The shielding/drain wire just ended inside the rubber grommet leading to the wall wart. Bought a GX16-2 plug and will get everything soldered up just as soon as I have time. Should be super easy. I also ordered a Small Green Computer 19V linear power supply which accepts the GX16 DC adapter. So, hopefully by this weekend I will have a fully functioning LPS for the ShieldTV Pro.
I was showing my son in law this weekend the difference between a few streaming devices. The ShieldTV Pro w/SMPS vs my FireTV Cube with a very inexpensive type 2 linear transformer "wall wart". We switched only once during the Chiefs/Bengals game because that's all that was needed. First the Shield... It looked good, no real complaints as it's what I'm accustomed to seeing. Then the Fire Cube. Wow, the red/orange was far more vivid, green of the grass much more vibrant, whites were popping off the screen and you could see way more detail of the fans in the stand. And I am not exaggerating at all. My son in law had no idea a PSU could make anywhere near that kind of difference. It literally looked like a 1080 vs 4k comparison. This on an inferior streamer with a $9 wall wart to boot. I had to make sure my LG OLED wasn't in forced HDR mode with the Fire Cube just because it was that much brighter/vibrant. These both run through my Anthem AVM60's video passthrough, so the settings are exactly the same being on the same TV input.
@mtavaresthanks for asking. To cut to the chase, I am very pleased with the results! I wholeheartedly recommend trying an LPS. Everything is improved. Better contrast, brightness, colors, sharpness and just less video 'noise' (thus giving the impression of improved resolution). The audio is probably an even greater improvement. Less distortion brings on a much more enjoyable viewing. Shattering glass, bullet casings hitting the ground just sound more alive now. The top end is definitely more open now. Then there's the opposite end. More powerful, deep, clean, articulate sub-bass. No more boomy, overly bloated bass (and it wasn't bad before, it's just even better now). And everything in between. Subtle things in the soundtrack really stand out due to much improved noise floor and phasing. My girlfriend was almost freaking out by an insect flying around in my media room (Netflix movie w/ Atmos track) ?
My MKV rips are the real reason I wanted an LPS though. And man, I am not disappointed. Far, far better than viewing the original 4k discs on my Oppo 205 w/OppoMod LPS.... Sorry, I'm just very happy with everything.
One word of caution if anyone reads this and then adds in an LPS. Let it warm up before freaking out like I did! I was getting so much lag on my Shield, tickers via YoutubeTV were hopping across the screen, no internet access errors, some apps wouldn't even load....several other issues as well. Rebooted several times and it didn't help. I think it took about an hour before everything started working properly. PSU warm up is real. Seeing is believing.
@audiom3
Very nice! Impressive results. The fact that it was far better than viewing in an Oppo 205 Modded is amazing.
As far I understood, you used the original cable and installed an Aviation GX16 DC connector compatible with your Small Green Computers 19V LPS. The only word of caution is to give time to PSU warm up.
It will be much easier if Genthaudio accepted the challenge to make this cable for you. With the benefit of use a better cable. Do you have any idea of the connector used on the Nvidia Shield SMPS?
Is it necessary to keep the LPS always ON, or you can switch off when the Nvidia Shield is not on use?
Fantastic job! Congrats and thanks for sharing.
Best Regards,
QJA
Marcos
@mtavares Yeah, I just used the stock Shield power cable. I wish Ghent would reconsider. But those who are far more skilled than I could buy some bulk OCC cable and solder Nvidia's proprietary connector on. It's basically a rectangular USB C connector.
My streaming setup has bettered the Oppo since I moved to a fiber optic LAN. And once I added linear power supplies for every switch, media converter and my router, the improvements over the Oppo just kept growing.
I'm sure you could shut down the LPS when not in use. I ended up moving my setup around yesterday and now it's plugged into my PS Audio P12 regenerator. So I could just turn that on and off if I wanted. Thanks for your kind words.
I am a long time Shield user, I've had both the 2015 and now the 2019 pro version. While the video performance has been truly excellent, the audio in two channel output mode has never been close to the equal of my other audio sources. I've added a number of power filtration solutions to my TV and the Shield which have improved the video considerably, but the audio has been pretty much the same.
Then I tried a number of HDMI to Toslink boxes to try to get good audio. But the surround sound out of those was always kind of wonky. This is due to the fact most of these boxes will output the Left and right channels of a surround mix to stereo, but they don't actually downmix the surround to two channel. Part of the problem is that the engineer that mixes surround decides whether to put all bass below 80hz through the LFE/Sub channel or allow it on the L+R channels. Frequently they put all the bass through the LFE, so if you use one of these splitters (and some of the configurations in Shield USB output) you get bass rolled off at 80hz in stereo for those files.
I finally settled on using the Toslink from my TV into a Behringer DEQX box to apply some EQ for my speakers and then into my May dac. This gave the best sound overall. But still the sound had rolled off treble, had a kind of cloudy thick sound in the midrange, and the bass could be deep but was also a bit soft sounding. I finally gave up and attributed this to the video sources themselves.
I use LPS's on a lot of my gear. In fact I just modded my Lumin U2 Mini to use a specialty LPS to great effect. Well I did a search on LPS's for the shield, and I found one on Ebay. It is the right spec and they provide the custom cable for the Shield. It costs almost as much as the Shield itself. I got it, it is surprisingly big and heavy. I measured power consumption and the LPS uses about 60% more power than the stock SPMS, which is about the same difference most LPS have. This means very little to the Shield though, as it uses about 5 watts to play or stream a 4K movie file. With the LPS it uses about 8 watts. On standby the difference is 2 watts vs 3 watts.
From the first moment I plugged in the LPS I heard a significant difference. And after a few days it improves even further. The treble is now extended and open on the top. The overall sound is much more transparent with more detail. The bass is much deeper and tighter. Overall it is a significant improvement in all areas without any negatives. I have a very high quality video output, and it is improved with the LPS, I see more perceived detail, deeper more saturated colors, and blacker blacks. Its not nearly as significant at the sound improvement though.
Foundation: Stillpoints Ultra, Shunyata Denali v1 and Typhon x1 power conditioners, Shunyata Delta v2 and QSA Lanedri Gamma Revelation and Infinity power cords, QSA Lanedri Gamma Revelation XLR interconnect, Shunyata Sigma Ethernet, MIT Matrix HD 60 speaker cables, GIK bass traps, ASC Isothermal tube traps, Stillpoints Aperture panels, Quadraspire SVT rack, PGGB 256
It is an understatement to say 2020 has been an unusual year. Thanks to Covid-19 a lot of people have spent entire months cooped up in their houses stuck with their spouses and children and unable to go to work. To preserve their sanity a lot of people turned to streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Showmax, iPlayer among many others.
Netflix is easily the chief beneficiary of the pandemic as it has added millions of subscribers more than any of the streaming services as a result. However, the pandemic brought with it another problem. A lot of people saw a massive reduction in their income due to lockdowns made in the wake of the pandemic. A lot of people were forced to prioritise their spending and that usually meant them not having money to pay for Netflix.
If you are new to all this let me explain like you are five. While the majority of Android apps are free, there are quite a number that require you to pay in order to either download or use them. There are also other ad-supported apps out there that tend to be so riddled with ads as to be unusable unless you pay to have ads removed. These are usually premium apps. A workaround is modifying the apps and there are plenty of sites that offer modded apps as they are known.
The app is so popular even among Zimbabweans. I have seen it being requested in various TV Show and Tech related WhatsApp and Telegram groups. People actually seem to believe this is indeed a Netflix Mod.
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