Well, if you prefer a Open Source Launcher I would recommend F-Launcher.

If you need to connect you PC and Shield without VPN/etc you can use Tailscale.

If you need to Sideload Apps you can use Downlaoder.

If you want to watch YouTube without Ads you can use SmartTube

If you want to remap your Remote you can use Button Mapper (It maybe ask you to pay “premium” but you can ignore it and everything will work fine)

If you want to change your default Launcher to something else (not Nvidia Launcher) you can use Launch Manager and a short tutorial

in my experience, upscaling tends to either just blur the image or make up details. i recommend keeping the 4K media.

if it can upscale 1080 to 4k, does that mean I don’t need my 4k collection anymore? It sounds too good to be true.

Anecdotal so obvious grain of salt but:

It really depends on the kind of media. I have found that it does an AMAZING job with 80s anime where you basically had humans drawing vector art in a lot of ways. It doesn’t work as well with the batshit insane “textured” 90s stuff and is hit or miss with the cg-enhanced >00s stuff. Same with live action. Something like The Fifth Element (but not actually The Fifth Element since I am pretty sure that was actively part of the training set) will look “a bit off” but a nice drama with “normal” costumes looks solid.

But also: “a bit off” mostly is for s tuff that I “know” what it should look like. And you might get lucky and see a weird artifact for a split second if you pause at just the right time. But it is really not that dissimilar from compression artifacts from a “poor” rip or the crushed bullshit that the streaming services call “4k”.

So I still rip my UHDs. But if you are grabbing them off the internet and they’ve already been compressed to hell or were ripped from a streaming service that is similarly compressed to hell? I wouldn’t bother and would probably stick with the 1080p versions.

if it can upscale 1080 ti 4k, does that mean I don’t need my 4k collection anymore? It sounds too good to be true.

Because it is. While it does do a decent job upscaling, it’s not some magical thing. Keep the 4k, and be pleasantly surprised when older content looks nice on the larger display.

Install Stremio with Premiumize. There’s two main add-ons you need,most guides will point to them. From the top of my head it’s Torrentio and Cyberflix.

Sound TV for twitch.

Smart Tube Next for awesome ad free, sponsor free YouTube.

TiviMate for IP TV (like once eoff $30 app)

I like Dreamy for a screensaver.

Mouse toggle if you need a mouse and want to use the remote.

Xmanager for file management. I can’t remember why but it’s the only one that can open zip or something like that.

Semi-related: with the Switch 2 coming out later this year are we likely to see Nvidia release a Shield 2? I guess it also depends on if the Switch uses a Tegra processor or not?

Install Kodi as well as the Jellyfin client.

Some older files just won’t play otherwise.

Shield doesn’t use AV1 so don’t download any of those.

Can’t help you with any of the other stuff, but to answer your 4k question: No, you still need your 4k collection for best quality. Upscaled 1080p is still 1080p, it just makes it not look wonky on a 4k display. Any details lost due to the source resolution will still be lost, you can’t create extra detail out of thin air.

Just make sure it uses wired Ethernet. The WiFi module on it is doodoo.