[Shield Android TV General] music_man185:
I'm getting ready to cancel my cable and are going to stream most of my content. I have a 1st generation chromecast that I have had for years. It performs pretty well, but since I will be streaming more of my content, I wanted a remote (other than my phone) and a UI. Nearly every review I read said that Shield is easily the most powerful and capable streaming box. I've had mine for about a week now and are having serious doubts. I hope that some of you can help.

First off, I knew going in that there are not as many Android TV apps as there are Roku channels. I also knew that apps could be sideloaded, so I didn't consider this that big of an issue. However, I'm noticing more and more that sideloading apps is pointless. I sideloaded the Cinemax app. After installing it, I can't do anything. I guess since it was made for a touchscreen, I can't use the arrows on the remote to select anything. I also tried sideloading the Charter Spectrum app. Same thing, I can't select anything. Even though this is not Nvidia's fault, I also can't use HBO GO, as Charter Spectrum allows me to sign in on an android mobile device, but not an Android TV, which makes absolutely no sense to me. I know that I can use my phone and cast to the Shield, which brings me to my next problem.

It seems that when I cast to the Shield using my phone, the stream is not smooth. It kind of stutters every few seconds. My internet speed is not great, but I don't have this problem when streaming to my old chromecast. I have tried them back to back with the same results. Also, on my last attempt to cast HBO Go on the Shield, along with stuttering, it paused itself. I went to my phone and hit play again. A few minutes later, the same thing. I thought it may be my internet connection, but I switched the cast over to the old chromecast and never experienced a single problem.

The remote seems to freeze up pretty often as well. If I watch something for a few minutes and then try to use the remote, it is unresponsive for several seconds, if not a minute.

I don't know if it is a problem with the apps or the Nvidia. Although it hasn't done it in the past day or 2, the Netflix app was freezing after only a few seconds of opening. In the middle of scrolling titles, the app would freeze and the entire Shield would seem to freeze with it. No buttons on the remote would work for several minutes. The FXNow app was also acting up. When browsing movie titles, some thumbnails would not show up and when clicking other titles, it brought up a different movie than the thumbnail. The Youtube app seems extremely slow to open. After clicking the app on the homescreen, I watch the spinning wheel for at least 10 to 15 seconds before the app opens.

Lastly, I was a little disappointed in the voice search. I used the microphone to search for a movie that I knew was streaming on one of my apps. However, it only showed me results to buy the movie on Google play. I had hoped that it would browse your apps to see if it was available free before showing results to buy.

I know this post is extremely long, but I am hoping some of you can help fix these issues. I have a hard time believing that a device as powerful as the Shield suffers from these simple problems. Most of which, the 5 year old chromecast still performs well.