Is there any 4K60p content? Movies are filmed at 24P and TV at 30P, The Hobbit was rare 48. To me 2160p up to 30fps is just fine for a $99 box. I really don't think 60P will be coming that soon.
There will be content, but will there be bandwidth. You need ~50Mbps to stream 4Kp60, perhaps 25Mbps if HEVC is 100% efficient at decoding (it varies since darker scenes require less bandwidth, and faster/brighter scenes require more bandwidth.)
Either way, this thing not supporting 4Kp60 isn't a deal breaker. There isn't any content yet, and for the most part, 80-90% of the population doesn't have the bandwidth to stream it.
Sport is already captured at 60p and looks amazing. NHL gamecenter had some unofficial tests on their streaming platform for 60p content and it looked amazing.
I'd guess 2160p60 using H.265 should be fine with about 20mbit, and probably look decent even a bit lower.
More FPS -> less delta between frames -> less data needed per B-frame.
I have the Fire TV stick that was $19 on release. Hands down the best value for money TV box out there. Being a prime member helps by leaps and bounds. Don't think I'll need to get the new ones for at least another couple of years when I decide to buckle for a 4K TV.
1) I'm glad to see they went with 2160p, HEVC, and HDMI 2.0, as well as stating their 1080p content is being converted to HEVC. I only wish I could find the max bitrate or video profile for the various codecs supported.
2) Notice that it also drops TOS-Link and only supports 100Mibps Ethernet. I wonder if people will be up in arms about this as much as they were the G4 Apple TV last week. I'm guessing they won't.
3) Solid update, at a great price, that bests the new Apple TV in many HW features and in the shipping date. If the voice control works as well as with the Echo in my kitchen this could be a great living room Alexa.
I am disappointed with the drop of TOS-Link as my Insignia TV drops all HD Dolby and DTS 5.1 streams to stereo when forwarding the audio to the TOS-Link digital output to my Vizio soundbar. Is there any solution to this problem besides setting up a HTPC? Unfortunately, I can't seem to tell which tv manufacturers do unaltered digital audio output from the HDMI input. Thanks.
The TV you are looking for does not exist. HD/lossless audio bitstreams don't work over TOSLINK, so it's a moot point. You should probably be looking into ditching your soundbar and expand into buying an AVR (audio/video receiver) and connecting conventional speakers to it. You will be able to do just about everything you could ever want or need.
Most soundbars are only 2-channel amps with two physical drivers or several wired in parallel, especially the budget models, so again, it's a moot point. Everything you send to it is mixed to stereo. If you have a separate woofer, then it sends lower frequencies to that, but most are still not true x.1 implementations.
Thanks, that's what I thought. I have the Vizio 5.1 soundbar setup which sounds great when a dedicated TOS-Link cable is driving the input like from my Xbox One. I guess I was just hoping for TOS-Link passthrough when it comes to the tv, that way I could use a device like this Fire TV.
Can you guys do a comparison of the Amazon Fire TV Gaming Edition vs the Nvidia Shield? I was looking at the Amazon table but it didn't compare to non-Amazon products and didn't have any benchmarks. With the Google credit, they're pretty closely priced to each other.
Should be interesting if Amazon gives a free year of prime in the future like they did with their phones which are essentially free right now...
You're likely only right for another 2 months as NV releases their new soc from samsung fabs probably for a new nexus device first, then new shield unit for xmas. It looks like at least a shield handheld update coming but I hope they update everything to the samsung fabbed soc.
NV's core should go back to custom also, as they said they only went off the shelf for time to market with X1 and will go back to a custom core again. With another year to tweak Denver or come up with A72 based custom version (like everyone else), it should be able to finally compete in a phone too. Considering how lacking S810 is, they may get a few high end units for a while until Qcom can get back to custom cpu cores (non samsung devices most likely until GPU IP suit ends). Surely the shrink+custom+Finfet can make up for putting in someone's modem if needed (if they don't have certain network support). Though 150mbps of Icera should be fine for quite some time considering networks just hit that. You are really only speeding to your cap these days with most at 2GB (1/2 a 720P movie?...LOL). Qcom is saying H1 2016 for S820, so it sounds like LATE in that time period or you'd say Q1.
I can't wait for a samsung fabbed NV tablet 13in+ and the larger the better for watching training vids. I hope toshiba or HP puts out a 20in+ too (AIO or whatever, I could use one of both). NV's stuff will definitely be great for the upcoming unreal4/unity5 etc games. Android has some great stuff already that can complement my PC gaming, but output to tv, as I really have no intention of gaming on a tablet. I'm after training ON the tablet, then gaming out to tv when not on a PC.
The older I get the less time I can spend on a PC without getting fat feet after an 8hr day at work on a PC already. So TV time without a console would be great as I have no intention of buying a console again from MS or Sony (screw $60 console games, I'll take android).
do 5 minute walks every 1.5 hour for those fat feet.. and get you a good cushion. Got rid of Fat feet completely for me. all it is is water getting trapped in your legs because of circulation issues on the back of your thighs. A better chair, or decent cushion will help but the walking every 1.5 hour is instrumental in keeping your body healthy.
What's the point of bothering with an ethernet port if it's only 100Mbps, especially when it also has ac Wi-Fi? Either dump it and save on costs or spend a few pennies more for a proper gigabit controller.
GigE makes sense on a Switch, but on an end node designed for streaming media you're not likely to get any benefit over the faster port. So long as the bandwidth exceeds your per second bandwidth needs for a stream you're fine.
FastE is extremely short sighted and brands the device as a yearly commodity. Wireless is extremely spotty. Sometimes it works great, other times it doesn't. Fast E is slower than USB 2.0 and we all know how slow usb 2 is.
The difference in cost is under 10 cents for a gigabit port vs FastE.
they can knock 10cents out of some other component like the packaging for gods sake. You never compromise on the network i/o
Plus with wireless, your device has to be close to your router for good speeds. 5ghz does not reach far at all. maybe 50 feet. and even then, needs line of sight. drywall, wood, brick, reduce 5ghz heavily.
we need the bandwidth for high quality plex streams that will do 4k 30fps and 1080p 60fps. FastE cant do this
Between Nvidia Shield TV and this Fire TV, I think I am more likely to go with the former despite the difference of around 60 bucks for the controller version. Despite the fact that the FireTV is running a newer A72, Nivida's quad core and Tegra graphics are significantly faster and more suited to games. Also, Nvidia has been pretty quick to issue new Android updates, as oppose to the Amazon centric Fire OS.
I've used a FireTV since release. I don't like it. - Amazon makes it intentionally difficult to install and even to run Kodi, whereas it's on nVidia's app store, though It's still slightly tricky to install on Shield.
- The remote control's buttons wear out quickly. I need to press down the right-arrow part of the circle very hard in order to get it to register.
- In the FireTV's UI, it is difficult to tell prima facie whether you can watch something as part of your Amazon subscription or whether you have to pay additional money for it.
- The storage is quite limited, though this is hopefully resolved with the MicroSD card. I had to set up a MySQL database server for Kodi because the FireTV kept running out of space storing media info.
I don't plan to buy the new version because of most of the above and because it lacks the opticla audio cable. I frequently start music using HDMI and switch to optical for music. If I were to stay on HDMI, I'd have to keep the projector on. If I turn it off, my preamp thinks the HDMI port is no longer in use and stops audio, not just video. This is not Amazon's fault, of course, but it still affects me.
The FireTV is a nice device for its price with some reasonable trade-offs, but it has too many limitations, some intentional, for my vote.
No issues with my FireTV Stick remote, and from what I've seen all Prime content has a clearly visible banner on the corner... Half the time I just navigate Amazon content from my TiVo tho, but the Fire Stick is snappier if I'll be watching a few shows off Amazon.
The Fire TV was disappointing when I learned it could not find media on DLNA network. You have to add a stupid app, with a terrible interface, in order for it to work supposedly. I tried several apps to do this and none of them worked. I hope in OS 5 that was all fixed. Otherwise, I love the media player. Super fast menu and everything happens very fast.
Now we're talking! Good to finally see a HDMI 2.0 equipped media player/console thingydoodler. Personally I was seriously waiting for the 4th gen. Apple TV to have HDMI 2.0, sadly it didn't. Now I'll sit back and look forward to Google's announcement, hopefully we'll see the 2nd gen Chromecast. Hoping it to have 802.11ac aswell as HDMI 2.0.
We’ve updated our terms. By continuing to use the site and/or by logging into your account, you agree to the Site’s updated Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
40 Comments
Back to Article
frankiepoon - Thursday, September 17, 2015 - link
No 4K60p, it fails!hans_ober - Thursday, September 17, 2015 - link
Wanna see the single-core performance on this thing!Valkyrierie - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
Also, no ability to run Crysis? Disgusting! I can't believe they're selling something like this for 100 bucks.Stan11003 - Thursday, September 17, 2015 - link
Is there any 4K60p content? Movies are filmed at 24P and TV at 30P, The Hobbit was rare 48. To me 2160p up to 30fps is just fine for a $99 box. I really don't think 60P will be coming that soon.Samus - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
There will be content, but will there be bandwidth. You need ~50Mbps to stream 4Kp60, perhaps 25Mbps if HEVC is 100% efficient at decoding (it varies since darker scenes require less bandwidth, and faster/brighter scenes require more bandwidth.)Either way, this thing not supporting 4Kp60 isn't a deal breaker. There isn't any content yet, and for the most part, 80-90% of the population doesn't have the bandwidth to stream it.
zepi - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
Sport is already captured at 60p and looks amazing. NHL gamecenter had some unofficial tests on their streaming platform for 60p content and it looked amazing.I'd guess 2160p60 using H.265 should be fine with about 20mbit, and probably look decent even a bit lower.
More FPS -> less delta between frames -> less data needed per B-frame.
quiksilvr - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
You know you can just watch that at "only" 1080p and get the 60fps if you care about framerate that much.frankiepoon - Tuesday, September 29, 2015 - link
I got 2TB of Japan and Korea 4K TS which are in 4K60p 10bit! It plays fine with Nvidia Shield Android TV! 4K 60p will become main stream.faizoff - Thursday, September 17, 2015 - link
I have the Fire TV stick that was $19 on release. Hands down the best value for money TV box out there. Being a prime member helps by leaps and bounds. Don't think I'll need to get the new ones for at least another couple of years when I decide to buckle for a 4K TV.anactoraaron - Thursday, September 17, 2015 - link
The entire fire lineup has been refreshed, not just the fire tv.solipsism - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
1) I'm glad to see they went with 2160p, HEVC, and HDMI 2.0, as well as stating their 1080p content is being converted to HEVC. I only wish I could find the max bitrate or video profile for the various codecs supported.2) Notice that it also drops TOS-Link and only supports 100Mibps Ethernet. I wonder if people will be up in arms about this as much as they were the G4 Apple TV last week. I'm guessing they won't.
3) Solid update, at a great price, that bests the new Apple TV in many HW features and in the shipping date. If the voice control works as well as with the Echo in my kitchen this could be a great living room Alexa.
r3loaded - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
I'd have loved VP9 hardware decoding as well, but it seems only the Tegra X1 in the Nvidia Shield and a couple of other SoCs support it.chiVelle - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
I am disappointed with the drop of TOS-Link as my Insignia TV drops all HD Dolby and DTS 5.1 streams to stereo when forwarding the audio to the TOS-Link digital output to my Vizio soundbar. Is there any solution to this problem besides setting up a HTPC? Unfortunately, I can't seem to tell which tv manufacturers do unaltered digital audio output from the HDMI input. Thanks.nathanddrews - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
The TV you are looking for does not exist. HD/lossless audio bitstreams don't work over TOSLINK, so it's a moot point. You should probably be looking into ditching your soundbar and expand into buying an AVR (audio/video receiver) and connecting conventional speakers to it. You will be able to do just about everything you could ever want or need.Most soundbars are only 2-channel amps with two physical drivers or several wired in parallel, especially the budget models, so again, it's a moot point. Everything you send to it is mixed to stereo. If you have a separate woofer, then it sends lower frequencies to that, but most are still not true x.1 implementations.
chiVelle - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
Thanks, that's what I thought. I have the Vizio 5.1 soundbar setup which sounds great when a dedicated TOS-Link cable is driving the input like from my Xbox One. I guess I was just hoping for TOS-Link passthrough when it comes to the tv, that way I could use a device like this Fire TV.Demi9OD - Saturday, September 19, 2015 - link
I use an HDMI splitter that splits the signal from HDMI(A/V) to TOSLINK(A) and HDMI(V) with my Vizio 5.1 bar.webdoctors - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
Can you guys do a comparison of the Amazon Fire TV Gaming Edition vs the Nvidia Shield? I was looking at the Amazon table but it didn't compare to non-Amazon products and didn't have any benchmarks. With the Google credit, they're pretty closely priced to each other.Should be interesting if Amazon gives a free year of prime in the future like they did with their phones which are essentially free right now...
Schecter1989 - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
The nvidia shield will blow that away on all fronts. Cpu gpu and gaming too. By far.syxbit - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
Not CPU in single threaded perf.Shield has X-1 with four A57. This has the new Arm A72
TheJian - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
You're likely only right for another 2 months as NV releases their new soc from samsung fabs probably for a new nexus device first, then new shield unit for xmas. It looks like at least a shield handheld update coming but I hope they update everything to the samsung fabbed soc.NV's core should go back to custom also, as they said they only went off the shelf for time to market with X1 and will go back to a custom core again. With another year to tweak Denver or come up with A72 based custom version (like everyone else), it should be able to finally compete in a phone too. Considering how lacking S810 is, they may get a few high end units for a while until Qcom can get back to custom cpu cores (non samsung devices most likely until GPU IP suit ends). Surely the shrink+custom+Finfet can make up for putting in someone's modem if needed (if they don't have certain network support). Though 150mbps of Icera should be fine for quite some time considering networks just hit that. You are really only speeding to your cap these days with most at 2GB (1/2 a 720P movie?...LOL). Qcom is saying H1 2016 for S820, so it sounds like LATE in that time period or you'd say Q1.
I can't wait for a samsung fabbed NV tablet 13in+ and the larger the better for watching training vids. I hope toshiba or HP puts out a 20in+ too (AIO or whatever, I could use one of both). NV's stuff will definitely be great for the upcoming unreal4/unity5 etc games. Android has some great stuff already that can complement my PC gaming, but output to tv, as I really have no intention of gaming on a tablet. I'm after training ON the tablet, then gaming out to tv when not on a PC.
The older I get the less time I can spend on a PC without getting fat feet after an 8hr day at work on a PC already. So TV time without a console would be great as I have no intention of buying a console again from MS or Sony (screw $60 console games, I'll take android).
Morawka - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
do 5 minute walks every 1.5 hour for those fat feet.. and get you a good cushion. Got rid of Fat feet completely for me. all it is is water getting trapped in your legs because of circulation issues on the back of your thighs. A better chair, or decent cushion will help but the walking every 1.5 hour is instrumental in keeping your body healthy.http://smile.amazon.com/Aylio-Coccyx-Orthopedic-Co...
prisonerX - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
The specification tables are great for getting a quick overview, but you always seem to leave out the price, which is a key figure for any product.r3loaded - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
What's the point of bothering with an ethernet port if it's only 100Mbps, especially when it also has ac Wi-Fi? Either dump it and save on costs or spend a few pennies more for a proper gigabit controller.solipsism - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
GigE makes sense on a Switch, but on an end node designed for streaming media you're not likely to get any benefit over the faster port. So long as the bandwidth exceeds your per second bandwidth needs for a stream you're fine.Morawka - Saturday, September 19, 2015 - link
FastE is extremely short sighted and brands the device as a yearly commodity. Wireless is extremely spotty. Sometimes it works great, other times it doesn't. Fast E is slower than USB 2.0 and we all know how slow usb 2 is.The difference in cost is under 10 cents for a gigabit port vs FastE.
they can knock 10cents out of some other component like the packaging for gods sake. You never compromise on the network i/o
Plus with wireless, your device has to be close to your router for good speeds. 5ghz does not reach far at all. maybe 50 feet. and even then, needs line of sight. drywall, wood, brick, reduce 5ghz heavily.
we need the bandwidth for high quality plex streams that will do 4k 30fps and 1080p 60fps. FastE cant do this
solipsism - Saturday, September 19, 2015 - link
"we need the bandwidth for high quality plex streams that will do 4k 30fps and 1080p 60fps. FastE cant do this"Check your math. It absolutely "can do this."
watzupken - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
Between Nvidia Shield TV and this Fire TV, I think I am more likely to go with the former despite the difference of around 60 bucks for the controller version. Despite the fact that the FireTV is running a newer A72, Nivida's quad core and Tegra graphics are significantly faster and more suited to games. Also, Nvidia has been pretty quick to issue new Android updates, as oppose to the Amazon centric Fire OS.StormyParis - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
Wait, isn't that the first shipping device with A72 ?Benches, we want benches !
ruthan - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
USB2 and 100 Mb/s ethernet - ancient piece of HW.Morawka - Saturday, September 19, 2015 - link
100 Mbps = 10 MB per sec.that's 2 iphone photos a second of bandwidth.. horrible
Nehemoth - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
Hate the missing Optical Audio (TOSLINK), but overall I hate the lack of DTS support.Flunk - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
You can't expect high end features on low end devices.Sivar - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
I've used a FireTV since release. I don't like it.- Amazon makes it intentionally difficult to install and even to run Kodi, whereas it's on nVidia's app store, though It's still slightly tricky to install on Shield.
- The remote control's buttons wear out quickly. I need to press down the right-arrow part of the circle very hard in order to get it to register.
- In the FireTV's UI, it is difficult to tell prima facie whether you can watch something as part of your Amazon subscription or whether you have to pay additional money for it.
- The storage is quite limited, though this is hopefully resolved with the MicroSD card. I had to set up a MySQL database server for Kodi because the FireTV kept running out of space storing media info.
I don't plan to buy the new version because of most of the above and because it lacks the opticla audio cable. I frequently start music using HDMI and switch to optical for music. If I were to stay on HDMI, I'd have to keep the projector on. If I turn it off, my preamp thinks the HDMI port is no longer in use and stops audio, not just video. This is not Amazon's fault, of course, but it still affects me.
The FireTV is a nice device for its price with some reasonable trade-offs, but it has too many limitations, some intentional, for my vote.
Impulses - Monday, September 21, 2015 - link
No issues with my FireTV Stick remote, and from what I've seen all Prime content has a clearly visible banner on the corner... Half the time I just navigate Amazon content from my TiVo tho, but the Fire Stick is snappier if I'll be watching a few shows off Amazon.roadapathy - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
The Fire TV was disappointing when I learned it could not find media on DLNA network. You have to add a stupid app, with a terrible interface, in order for it to work supposedly. I tried several apps to do this and none of them worked. I hope in OS 5 that was all fixed. Otherwise, I love the media player. Super fast menu and everything happens very fast.lagittaja - Saturday, September 19, 2015 - link
Now we're talking! Good to finally see a HDMI 2.0 equipped media player/console thingydoodler. Personally I was seriously waiting for the 4th gen. Apple TV to have HDMI 2.0, sadly it didn't.Now I'll sit back and look forward to Google's announcement, hopefully we'll see the 2nd gen Chromecast. Hoping it to have 802.11ac aswell as HDMI 2.0.
archer75 - Thursday, September 24, 2015 - link
All I care about is passthrough of DTS-MA HD and Dolby True HD. Decoding H.265 is also nice.Sankar789 - Monday, December 28, 2015 - link
Amazon India offering this gaming device at the best price.