NVIDIA SHIELD TV Enhanced With Amazon Alexa Voice Control

NVIDIA has announced a new control feature for the Shield TV media player that brings another way to control Shield with your voice. A new Alexa Skill has launched that allows hands-free control of Shield TV using an Amazon Alexa device. The Alexa Skill for Shield TV owners makes the NVIDIA device the only video streamer that can be controlled with both Amazon Echo and Google Home devices. Alexa can be used to navigate and enjoy movies, TV, music, and more.

NVIDIA also notes that the Shield TV features Dolby Atmos passthrough support for Prime Video. To enable Alexa voice control, users will need to open the Alexa app, click the menu button, select "Skills & Games" and search for NVIDIA Shield TV. Once the skill is enabled, there are a bunch of terms and conditions to accept; then users can complete the linking of the Alexa app and Shield TV. NVIDIA notes that Shield users do need to be logged into the same NVIDIA account on the Shield that you linked to the Alexa app.

Voice commands that are available for Shield TV via Alexa devices include:

• "Alexa, turn on SHIELD."
• "Alexa, turn off SHIELD."
• "Alexa, set volume to 80 percent on SHIELD."
• "Alexa, open Prime Video (on SHIELD)."
• "Alexa, open HBO NOW (on SHIELD)."
• "Alexa, pause (on SHIELD)."
• "Alexa, play (on SHIELD)."
• "Alexa, next (on SHIELD)."
• "Alexa, previous (on SHIELD)."
• "Alexa, fast-forward ten minutes (on SHIELD)."
• "Alexa, go to settings (on SHIELD)."
• "Alexa, go home (on SHIELD)."
• "Alexa, go to control settings (on SHIELD)."

Since Amazon has made Alexa contextually aware, once you ask Alexa to do something on the Shield, follow-up commands are assumed to be on the Shield device and users don't have to add the "on Shield" portion of the command. NVIDIA also notes that through November 10, 2018, if you buy a Shield TV from Amazon or Best Buy, you will get a free 3rd gen Echo Dot with your purchase. NVIDIA and Google announced additional Google Home voice controls for the Shield TV not long ago.