I'm looking at the Razer Forge TV due to the $50 discount for Ouya owners. A few questions:
How does it stack up to Nexus Player as a streaming box? I understand there's no remote? Will it recognize the Nexus Player's remote?
Does the ROM/interface look similar to Nexus Player's, or significantly different?
Does it have access to the stock android TV apps? The play store? Google Play movies?
Do you care about Netflix? If you do, don't buy the Forge (it doesn't run it..).
Shield TV.
I was excited to get a forge when they came out, but waited for reviews. I quickly ran and bought a Shield after reading up on the user experiences. The quality of the releases show how one company went cheap on testing and the other did a proper job to smooth out all the paper cuts.
There's a handful of users that whine about Nvidia not updating to M as quickly as they would like or that a few games haven't been ported quickly enough. The M being slightly behind schedule is likely due to the test team not giving the early builds a pass. The game ports were just over optimism. Overall, they are doing a wonderful and the product is solid. Most user including me are very satisfied with what we got for the premium we paid over the other products out there.
The forge is not as good of a TV streamer as the Nexus player. As stated in another comment the forge does not have Netflix. It will also soon be the only androidTV box not updated to marshmallow. I never tried the Nexus players remote with my Forge. My guess is it would work, i'll try and update comment later. I use a Fire TV nonvoice remote.
Is the standard lean back launcher. It looks like the Nexus player. But it has the cortex store which is the old Ouya store which it an app (similar concept as Amazon AppStore on and android mobile device)
Yes it has the stock Google apps, play and music, YouTube. You can cast vudu and many other services.
The forge is faster than the Nexus Player. Antutu benchmark around 51000. As an owner of a Forge, I recommend you don't buy one. There is barely any support. There is no developer interest (think rooting, custom recovery and roms). There is no Netflix native app or casting. You can only screen mirror Netflix. The Razer forge is an example of decent hardware that was fucked up with shitty management decisions I can't blame the software because it is androidTV. The USB port cannot be used for storage. The MPEG-2 decoder has tear lines on playback.
Edit: the nexus player remote will pair, but voice doesn't work. Weird. The Android TV remote app works, there is also a Bluetooth remote android app by Razer. There is an ios remote app without voice by Razer.
Edit 2: I thought I better try the iOS Razer Forge remote app with the Nexus Player. Unfortunately doesn't work.
Dude I know you don't want to hear it, but as far as Android TV goes its either the Shield or The nexus player. The forge is shit.
If all you want to do is Kodi, Plex, Youtube etc there's nothing overly wrong with the Forge. Ya Razer may have abandoned it and it still doesn't have netflix which sucks. But for like 90 bucks it faster then the Nexus player. We shall see what Razer is going to do. I'm sure they want to make money off of their Ouya purchase so I could see them smartening up on updating and support in the near future. Just don't make the mistake I did and buy the serval controller. It's a pile of garbage and has brutal latency issues if you are more then a few feet from the Forge. I don't regret the $100 I paid for my Forge I've gotten many hours of Youtube, Kodi and Plex out of it. Oh and the iOS Razer Remote app is garbage 3/4 of the time it doesn't connect (iPad Mini 4).
Don't do it. The Nexus Player is the entry option and the Shield TV is the premium option. They are your only 2 viable options for Android TV. The Forge has abyssmal support and is looking more and more like a dead product every day.
The Shield TV has gone on sale for $50 off a couple times, you should have to keep an eye out. I've been hearing a lot of bad things about the Razor Forge (as mentioned above), but I'm really hoping to see improvements. I'd say go with a Nexus Player if you're not really looking for something to game on. You can also find them significantly discounted.
Have a Forge. Works as advertised. Not a bad box at the price point so not sure why all the hate here.
I own the Shield tv. Love the crap out of that thing.
lmao the razer forge tv is dog shit just get a shield tv....like the rest of us..
That answers none of my questions.
I can answer all of those questions with one sentence.
Don't get a razer forge.