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Tangentially: Is there a FireTV implementation that is anywhere near e.g. Apple TV in basic performance? Every FireTV device I have used has seemed practically

Tangentially: Is there a FireTV implementation that is anywhere near e.g. Apple TV in basic performance? Every FireTV device I have used has seemed practically unusable, but it could be there is just a low bar for what hardware they let go to market.

PlutoIsAPlanet 3y ago
Nah, most Android TV sticks and boxes (bar Nvidia) ship with underpowered chipsets that lack the raw performance to render smoothly at 4K, using HW acceleration to at least get acceptable video decode performance. Apple, being in control of the software and hardware, has better optimisation, as well as imho, a more fluid animation system on their OS.
- jwells89 3y ago
  The stick and dongle streaming device variants in particular are astonishingly weak. The current Chromecast 4K dongle for example is handily outgunned by a first gen Apple TV 4K, which this year will be a 7 year old device.
  - mh- 3y ago
    Wow, thanks for pointing that out - didn't realize I'd had these ATV 4Ks since 2017. They feel a bit sluggish.. probably just that everything else got faster. Time to upgrade.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - bogwog 3y ago
      > They feel a bit sluggish.. probably just that everything else got faster. Either the 4K videos of today are "heavier" than the ones from 2017 somehow, or Apple's system updates have slowed down your ATVs to convince you to buy new ones.
    - nemo8551 3y ago
      On this I will say they are far more snappy than they used to be, battery life is great if you ask me. But in real terms I moved my home streaming app of choice to infuse. Between that app and the Apple TV 4K I’ve had since just before they moved the remote to usb c it’s been great. I will say that it is tucked inside a cupboard and hooked up to Ethernet but aside from that it’s leaps and bounds ahead of the other solutions I looked at /tried over the last few years.
- giancarlostoro 3y ago
  I had both an Android TV device some years back, and am now exclusively on Apple TV. Man. The difference is night and day. I'm not going back.
- wkat4242 3y ago
  True but both the Nvidia and Apple offerings are kinda long in the tooth now and in need of an update. It's rumoured that a new apple TV will come out soon. I've been looking at the options because I'm getting sick of the many ads on my fire TV stick. I only have a 1080p TV so the rendering isn't really an issue for me.
  - jevinskie 3y ago
    The latest Apple TV SoC (released in late 2021) is the same one used in the iPhone 13 and 14 (non-Pro). 2x 3+ GHz P-cores and 4x E-cores and 4GB of memory. I haven’t noticed any issues. https://theapplewiki.com/wiki/T8110 https://theapplewiki.com/wiki/T8110
    - wkat4242 3y ago
      Yeah but if I spend that much money (not sure about the US but here in Europe it's really expensive, 170 or 190 euro) I really want something recent :) for longevity also. It will have to last a good few years after all. 3 years in for the same price is just not a great deal. It's still a 3 year old cpu (I don't use iOS so I don't really follow what's SoC generation is what) So I'll wait for the next version.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
roneythomas6 3y ago
FireTV 4k max is pretty descent and costs a fraction of Apple TV.
- gigglesupstairs 3y ago
  I’ve had Five stick 4k for almost five years now as well and its performance still holds pretty good.
  - wcfields 3y ago
    Same, but it’s been tanking the past year with the huge amount of bloat Amazon keeps shoveling onto it. As a side note, my Insignia TV (best buy store brand) with fire tv built in is basically unusable. Echoing a previous comment I made too, about “smart tvs” and the “streaming sticks”: Hey, have you ever thought of why even the $149 Black Friday loss-leader no-name-brand TVs all have Amazon Fire, Roku, or are now "Smart" in some way? Certainly isn't because they need to incentivise you to connect it to the internet so it acts as a Nielsen-esq measurement device of all media you view on the screen via digital fingerprints that exist in all commercial media and advertisements. [1][2] [1] https://www.ispot.tv/ https://www.ispot.tv/ [2] https://www.samba.tv/ https://www.samba.tv/
- 1letterunixname 3y ago
  I have a 2nd gen Fire TV 4K Max gathering dust you can have. It's slow as fuck and barely faster than the first one. All Fire TV devices I've seen are slow, laggy, and shitty.
  - lostmsu 3y ago
    Where can I get it?
    - 1letterunixname 3y ago
      Amazon has sales regularly. They basically give them away. $19 is the usual sale price.
kcb 3y ago
Fire and Android TV are terrible. If you want lower end but actually useful streaming device Roku is so much better. I either buy a Roku smart TV or get the $30 Express for all my TVs.
- newshackr 3y ago
  Google TV seems pretty great to me. I explicitly chose a TV with it over roku
  - bitwize 3y ago
    Google TV impressed me by having a "Basic TV" option for sets that come with it, that disables most smart features, which is useful in a pinch when you can't find a dumb TV (such as a Sceptre) or monitor usable as a TV. It's kinda weird to praise Google for implementing something that halfway respects privacy, but here we are.
    - gorbypark 3y ago
      Are you saying Google TV has a OTA channel option? This is exactly what I'm looking for, but I assumed since there wasn't an antenna input on the Google TV then there wasn't a way to watch OTA using it...am I misunderstanding what you meant? *edit* Aha, I didn't realize Google TV was also included on some TVs and wasn't the just the Google TV dongle with a remote.
  - myko 3y ago
    agreed
- kernal 3y ago
  No they're not. In fact I'd even say their vastly superior to the closed Apple TV ecosystem. The ability to use SmartTube with Sponsorblick blows away anything on the Apple Tv.
  - shermantanktop 3y ago
jmann99999 3y ago
Maybe it is not what you're looking for, but Fire TV, included within the Echo Show 15, is pretty snappy. All my TVs have Apple TVs connected, but my Echo Show 15 in the kitchen does a fine job of plating YouTube TV, so I can watch shows and sports while I cook.
- 1letterunixname 3y ago
  The Echo Show 15 is slower than either generation of Fire TV 4K Max and is around the speed of an older Fire TV 4K. Echo Show 15 has a fatal flaw: the BBC News skill doesn't work with IPv6. It's just broken. Also, it's a screen with terrible audio. It's no replacement for an HDMI output device.
1letterunixname 3y ago
I tried even the latest Fire TV 4K Max and the Echo Show 15 but they're laggy, unresponsive, and full of ads. Apple TV is smooth and reliable.
hatsix 3y ago
I've been happy with my FireTV cubes... they feel like the right amount of horsepower thrown at a TV... Obviously, performance scales with price... the $20 HDMI sticks are the bulk of the devices out there, but honestly, it's surprising what they can do for $20. (The "Lite" is currently 2 for $35)

PlutoIsAPlanet 3y ago

Nah, most Android TV sticks and boxes (bar Nvidia) ship with underpowered chipsets that lack the raw performance to render smoothly at 4K, using HW acceleration to at least get acceptable video decode performance. Apple, being in control of the software and hardware, has better optimisation, as well as imho, a more fluid animation system on their OS.

jwells89 3y ago
The stick and dongle streaming device variants in particular are astonishingly weak. The current Chromecast 4K dongle for example is handily outgunned by a first gen Apple TV 4K, which this year will be a 7 year old device.
- mh- 3y ago
  Wow, thanks for pointing that out - didn't realize I'd had these ATV 4Ks since 2017. They feel a bit sluggish.. probably just that everything else got faster. Time to upgrade.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - bogwog 3y ago
    > They feel a bit sluggish.. probably just that everything else got faster. Either the 4K videos of today are "heavier" than the ones from 2017 somehow, or Apple's system updates have slowed down your ATVs to convince you to buy new ones.
  - nemo8551 3y ago
    On this I will say they are far more snappy than they used to be, battery life is great if you ask me. But in real terms I moved my home streaming app of choice to infuse. Between that app and the Apple TV 4K I’ve had since just before they moved the remote to usb c it’s been great. I will say that it is tucked inside a cupboard and hooked up to Ethernet but aside from that it’s leaps and bounds ahead of the other solutions I looked at /tried over the last few years.
giancarlostoro 3y ago
I had both an Android TV device some years back, and am now exclusively on Apple TV. Man. The difference is night and day. I'm not going back.
wkat4242 3y ago
True but both the Nvidia and Apple offerings are kinda long in the tooth now and in need of an update. It's rumoured that a new apple TV will come out soon. I've been looking at the options because I'm getting sick of the many ads on my fire TV stick. I only have a 1080p TV so the rendering isn't really an issue for me.
- jevinskie 3y ago
  The latest Apple TV SoC (released in late 2021) is the same one used in the iPhone 13 and 14 (non-Pro). 2x 3+ GHz P-cores and 4x E-cores and 4GB of memory. I haven’t noticed any issues. https://theapplewiki.com/wiki/T8110 https://theapplewiki.com/wiki/T8110
  - wkat4242 3y ago
    Yeah but if I spend that much money (not sure about the US but here in Europe it's really expensive, 170 or 190 euro) I really want something recent :) for longevity also. It will have to last a good few years after all. 3 years in for the same price is just not a great deal. It's still a 3 year old cpu (I don't use iOS so I don't really follow what's SoC generation is what) So I'll wait for the next version.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

roneythomas6 3y ago

FireTV 4k max is pretty descent and costs a fraction of Apple TV.

gigglesupstairs 3y ago
I’ve had Five stick 4k for almost five years now as well and its performance still holds pretty good.
- wcfields 3y ago
  Same, but it’s been tanking the past year with the huge amount of bloat Amazon keeps shoveling onto it. As a side note, my Insignia TV (best buy store brand) with fire tv built in is basically unusable. Echoing a previous comment I made too, about “smart tvs” and the “streaming sticks”: Hey, have you ever thought of why even the $149 Black Friday loss-leader no-name-brand TVs all have Amazon Fire, Roku, or are now "Smart" in some way? Certainly isn't because they need to incentivise you to connect it to the internet so it acts as a Nielsen-esq measurement device of all media you view on the screen via digital fingerprints that exist in all commercial media and advertisements. [1][2] [1] https://www.ispot.tv/ https://www.ispot.tv/ [2] https://www.samba.tv/ https://www.samba.tv/
1letterunixname 3y ago
I have a 2nd gen Fire TV 4K Max gathering dust you can have. It's slow as fuck and barely faster than the first one. All Fire TV devices I've seen are slow, laggy, and shitty.
- lostmsu 3y ago
  Where can I get it?
  - 1letterunixname 3y ago
    Amazon has sales regularly. They basically give them away. $19 is the usual sale price.

kcb 3y ago

Fire and Android TV are terrible. If you want lower end but actually useful streaming device Roku is so much better. I either buy a Roku smart TV or get the $30 Express for all my TVs.

newshackr 3y ago
Google TV seems pretty great to me. I explicitly chose a TV with it over roku
- bitwize 3y ago
  Google TV impressed me by having a "Basic TV" option for sets that come with it, that disables most smart features, which is useful in a pinch when you can't find a dumb TV (such as a Sceptre) or monitor usable as a TV. It's kinda weird to praise Google for implementing something that halfway respects privacy, but here we are.
  - gorbypark 3y ago
    Are you saying Google TV has a OTA channel option? This is exactly what I'm looking for, but I assumed since there wasn't an antenna input on the Google TV then there wasn't a way to watch OTA using it...am I misunderstanding what you meant? *edit* Aha, I didn't realize Google TV was also included on some TVs and wasn't the just the Google TV dongle with a remote.
- myko 3y ago
  agreed
kernal 3y ago
No they're not. In fact I'd even say their vastly superior to the closed Apple TV ecosystem. The ability to use SmartTube with Sponsorblick blows away anything on the Apple Tv.
- shermantanktop 3y ago

jmann99999 3y ago

Maybe it is not what you're looking for, but Fire TV, included within the Echo Show 15, is pretty snappy. All my TVs have Apple TVs connected, but my Echo Show 15 in the kitchen does a fine job of plating YouTube TV, so I can watch shows and sports while I cook.

1letterunixname 3y ago
The Echo Show 15 is slower than either generation of Fire TV 4K Max and is around the speed of an older Fire TV 4K. Echo Show 15 has a fatal flaw: the BBC News skill doesn't work with IPv6. It's just broken. Also, it's a screen with terrible audio. It's no replacement for an HDMI output device.

1letterunixname 3y ago

I tried even the latest Fire TV 4K Max and the Echo Show 15 but they're laggy, unresponsive, and full of ads. Apple TV is smooth and reliable.

hatsix 3y ago

I've been happy with my FireTV cubes... they feel like the right amount of horsepower thrown at a TV... Obviously, performance scales with price... the $20 HDMI sticks are the bulk of the devices out there, but honestly, it's surprising what they can do for $20. (The "Lite" is currently 2 for $35)