Mainly for the 24p support. On the Firestick local streaming movies aren't all that smooth; they feel like they play a bit too fast. Will the Shield fix this?
Also, how's the Shield with Bluetooth headphones? I love that with the Firestick I can just turn off headphones and it'll auto output audio to my speakers. And should I get the gen1 cause I really want to use my universal remote.
http://www.aftvnews.com/fire-os-5-adds-partial-24p-25p-30p-video-support-to-the-amazon-fire-tv/
You can force 23.976p on the Fire Stick. Hold rewind and "down" on the directional button for approx 10secs and you'll get a menu that cycles through resolution/refresh rate options.
SPMC (Kodi) will also auto-switch refresh rates when playing a 23.976 source.
Is it smoother- well, if your display supports 24p properly (no 3:2 pulldown), then yes. YMMV will vary on which apps you'll use. HBO Go, forget it. The others, you'll just have to fool around with.
The Shield has its own set of problems when it comes to 24p support in Netflix, apps, etc. Since the 5.0 update, mine stutters in Netflix @ 24p, SPMC is fine. But if all you're looking for is 24p output in SPMC @ 1080p(no passthrough audio, etc) then the stick will work fine. Also, if you have the 2nd Gen stick, SPMC supports H265 decoding up to 1080/30p.
Just tested Bluetooth headphones on my shield and had the same behavior you described on Firestick, turns on and off the speaker output depending if the headphones are on or off.
I'd go for the gen 2 if I where you, as it also supports Universal remote just the same and would be smaller
Scratch that, just realized that the gen 2 doesn't have a IR receiver. Yeah, might be better with the Gen 1 then.
On a side note, I'd recommend going with the non pro version, as the Pro is actually much slower. (as it uses a hard drive instead of flash storage) Went with the Pro myself when it was released and regret it.
And should I get the gen1 cause I really want to use my universal remote.
The pro version of the second gen console retains the IR port.
I have the Shield 1st Gen and 24p support in both Plex and SPMC worked up until this latest update. Apparently it is due to an issue in my chain, but it worked perfectly in the last update and it's a known issue they are trying to fix.
Bluetooth headphones do work exactly like you described with the Fire TV. Unless you use DirecTVNow I foresee nothing but good times ahead if you decide to switch.
What universal remote do you use?
I have Gen2 non-pro, and use Bose Quiet Comfort 35's as my headphones. Absolutely seamless pairing and honestly work fantastically.
Have had the headphones paired to both my phone and my Shield TV for about a month and never have any problems.
I sometimes plug regular 3.5mm headphones into the Shield controller. I don't own separate BT headphones. For most apps it will disable audio to speakers (I have an AVR) but some apps like Amazon VOD are incompatible. The quality is noticeably poorer than plugging headphones directly to the AVR.