Shield TV vs Fire TV 4K?

by 335is

Hey all, cord cutter here; I stream 100% of the content I watch. That includes YouTube, NetFlix, Prime Video, and other...sources all from a PC. I want to replace that PC with something smaller. I know both can run Kodi (sideloading on the Fire), and both can support Prime Video, Pandora, NetFlix, etc. But the Play Store isn't available on Amazon devices. I don't care about apps, and will likely not be gaming on it, but having access to the Play Store's movies and series would be helpful.

Has anyone here used both devices? With the BF pricing the Shield TV is twice the cost of the Fire TV ($75 vs $150). Knowing full well that I'm in an Android TV sub, is the Shield worth the cost difference?

skeletonbutt

If Prime access is a must, get the Fire TV. If you can go without, definitely the Shield.

mr_yuk

The FireTV 4K uses the HDMI 1.4 spec, so no HDR (10-bit color vs 8-bit) and no 4K at 60Hz. You are limited to 30Hz if you want 4K.

The ShieldTV uses the newer HDMI2.0 spec so you can get 4K with HDR and at 60Hz.

I switched from the older FireTV to the Shield and I don't really miss Prime Video that much. Anything exclusive I will just torrent and feel OK about since I am still paying for Prime.

venderhain

I have a Shield and am able to access Amazon video through PlayOn. If you have a normal PC that you keep running, PlayOn works a treat.

Bigsam411

prime is not available for the shield though.

Andrroid

Shield is a better performer, no doubt. But if you use Prime a lot, a shield TV will be a burden. There are work arounds, but it might get tiresome. We have a fire stick on tv and a roku stick on the other for the very rare occasion (man in the high castle has been the first in probably over a year) that we use Prime.

cnastyu

Go firetv. No watchespn, lots of other missing apps in android tv right now and is pretty disappointing. Hardware wise the shield is a beast but atv4 and firetv are much better in terms of apps.