Say More, See More, Hear More: Control SHIELD TV with Amazon Echo Devices, Listen to Your Amazon Music

by Brian Choi

Editor’s Note: this blog original appeared on October 28, 2018 and has subsequently been edited with new information on Amazon Music.

A new Alexa Skill enables hands-free control of SHIELD TV with your Amazon Echo devices* and with our latest update, you’re able to listen to Amazon Music natively on SHIELD.

Comfortably holding the crown as the most open streaming platform, SHIELD gives you more of what you want than any streaming media device. It’s the streamer with access to more of your music, movies and TV shows from multiple ecosystems. Not to mention the widest range of 4K content.

That now extends to voice services as SHIELD is the only streamer you can control with both Amazon Echo and Google Home devices. Available through a new Amazon Skill, you can ask Alexa to help with navigating and enjoying your favorite movies, TV shows, music and more.

It also applies to music with the recent addition of a native Amazon Music app on SHIELD – the only streaming media player with Google Play Music, Amazon Music, Spotify and Pandora. Even iTunes Music users can listen to their favorites by importing up to 20,000 songs from their library to Google Play Music.

You can read more about Amazon Music on SHIELD in our latest blog.

Another cool feature for SHIELD users in the Amazon ecosystem: Dolby Atmos passthrough support for Prime Video. In addition to the jaw-dropping 4K HDR visuals, you now get breathtaking spatial audio to match in Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan.

Connecting All the Dots to SHIELD
A more advanced living room
I’m in! Let’s Get Started

Start the process by pairing an Echo to your SHIELD from within the Amazon Alexa app. This is the app you downloaded on your mobile device from Google Play or the App Store during Echo’s initial setup.

First, you’ll need to enable the skill. Open the Alexa app, click the menu button and select “Skills & Games,” then search for “NVIDIA SHIELD TV.” Select the skill and press “Enable.”

After accepting the terms, continue the linking process in the Alexa app by connecting your NVIDIA account. You’ll need to be logged into the same NVIDIA account on your SHIELD before completing this step.

The final steps in the app are to select the SHIELD and Echo devices you’d like to connect.

Once finished, you’re successfully linked and can now control SHIELD with your Echo.

Say and See

With SHIELD, there’s always more to come. That extends to the integration between SHIELD and Echo devices. Support is currently limited to the US, but we’re working to bring this functionality to other regions.

Here are some of the voice commands that currently work, with more on the way:

Getting Started
“Alexa, turn on SHIELD.”
“Alexa, turn off SHIELD.”

Controlling The Volume

“Alexa, set volume to 80 percent on SHIELD.”

Opening Entertainment Apps

“Alexa, open Prime Video (on SHIELD).”
“Alexa, open HBO NOW (on SHIELD).”

Using Media Controls

“Alexa, pause (on SHIELD).”
“Alexa, play (on SHIELD).”
“Alexa, next (on SHIELD).”
“Alexa, previous (on SHIELD).”
“Alexa, fast-forward ten minutes (on SHIELD).”

Navigating SHIELD

“Alexa, go to settings (on SHIELD).”
“Alexa, go home (on SHIELD).”
“Alexa, go to control settings (on SHIELD).”

(Note: Following the first command, Alexa will assume subsequent relevant commands are for SHIELD. Where “on SHIELD” is noted in parentheses, you can continue controlling SHIELD with just the command.)

SHIELD gets better, once again. How will you use Echo to control SHIELD?

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*Amazon Echo and Alexa support for SHIELD TV currently only available in the US. Requires Internet connection. Availability of services varies by country and language. Subscriptions for services may be required.