Nvidia reveals the next generation of Shield device at Game Developer Conference 2015, and it's neither a handheld console nor a tablet-- not when it combines "revolutionary TV", "gaming console" and "supercomputer."

Marketing hype aside, the latest Shield device is actually a gaming-focused STB reminiscent of the Amazon Fire TV. It carries an Nvidia X1 chip (with a 256-core Maxwell architecture GPU and 64-bit CPU) and runs games both locally and from the cloud via the GRID streaming service.

Nvidia also describes the device as the "first 4K Android TV," since Android TV is the OS of choice and it handles 4K video streams from both local and online sources, with HDMI handling connectivity to TVs. Game resolution reaches 1080p if customers have a 30Mbps connection, while those stuck at 10Mbps get 720p streams.

A group of 17 streaming video providers, content companies and vendors form the Streaming Video Alliance, an organisation set to create architecture, standards and best practices for high-scale online video services.

Members includes Alcatel-Lucent, Charter Communications, Cisco Systems, Comcast, Epix, Fox Networks Group, Korea Telecom, Level 3 Communications, Liberty Global, Limelight Networks, Major League Baseball Advanced Media, Qwilt, Telecom Italia, Telstra, Ustream, Wowza Media Systems and Yahoo-- but the two biggest names in online video, Netflix and YouTube, are notably absent. This should not come as a surprise, as such giants would probably not want to change their technology to something created by an external consortium.

IHS predicts international customers will make 20% of overall Netflix subscribers as the video streaming service is set to be available in Belgium France, Luxembourg, Austria, Switzerland and Germany by end 2014.

According to the analyst the move will see the addition of 5-6 million new subscribers.

"Between the expansion of Netflix and its growing popularity in markets such as the UK, Ireland, Netherlands and Scandinavia, we anticipate that the company will add a total of 8m new subscribers to its European tally by the end of 2018,” IHS says.

Further on the analyst says the Netflix rollout should propel the W. European online subscription market to a 35% CAGR over the next 5 years.

The BBC reports Nvidia is set to challenge Valve's upcoming Steam Machines with a "a new gaming device" able to stream games from high-end Nvidia-powered PCs to TVs using GameStream technology.

Reportedly the unnamed device also runs Android games natively via Tegra K1 chipset. Recently shown off at the Google I/O 2014 with an Unreal Engine 4 demo, the Tegra K1 features an ARM-based CPU and a 192-core GPU.

Also mentioned is a "budget-priced separate controller," making one wonder if the device is either a regular STB-style console or a tablet.

The first Nvidia take on game consoles, the Project Shield, already features GameStream allowing gamers to stream games from PCs carrying compatible Nvidia GPUs. However the bulky handheld device failed to set the world on fire like its makers' hoped it would.