Android TV on Sony X900F vs Shield TV

by theDaveNinja

I just bought a 65" Sony X900f tv. It has Android TV as it's OS. It seems to work okay but looks to be a version behind whats on my Nvidia Shield TV that I have in a different room. I read that Android TV on the Sony TV is slow since they have a weaker processor compared to the Shield. If I'm used to the speed of Shield TV, should I just get another one so I won't be annoyed by the slowness (and not-up-to-date-ness) of the built in OS?

Zaggie

I have the same TV. I run Plex (over a NAS), Netflix, Sonos Beam, Chromecast, etc... all over wifi and I have never had a problem with processor speed.

segeme

I have the same setup. After fighting with Sony for weeks I gave up and plugged my Nvidia there. Few reasons:

  1. I use plex to stream my media to TV. Plex (and Emby for that matter and Kodi to some extend) have huge problem with DTS passtrough. Even though I have DTS soundbar (sony as well) DTS was not properly recognized in this version of Android TV (Oreo is coming, so we will see). This meant that all 4K content needed to be transcoded. On Shield everything works just fine, DTS is recognized and DTS and everything plays directly. It's not Plex/kodi/emby fault - in Nougat there is no standard way to tell to the player that hardware supports DTS or not plus Sony Android TV chipset is very cheap and poor.
  2. HDR content in plex is rendered with gray bars.
  3. WIFI card on my Sony is ridiculously poor. Even though my AP is like 3 meters away, it's crap slow.

This is why I use shield. It has some drawback though. This model has only two HDMI ports (one of which is ARC). So when You have more 4k/HDR devices You will have problems.

formidible

Disabling the YouView option, if you have it, is supposed to speed things up a bit.

theDaveNinja

I'd like to run Kodi (to play videos from a server on my network) on it, like I do on my Shield TV. Anyone have an issues with Kodi on the Sony OS?

BiggussDikkuss

Oreo OS updates are currently coming down the pipe for some Sony TV that are currently running Nougat.

And if the cheap chipset in the Mi Box is any indication, Oreo should provide a much needed speed boost for Sony TV's.

Disable all the extra Sony crap like SAMBA on these Sony TV's apparently speeds em up a bit too.

frenzyguy

Big advantage is that steam link app and gamestream will upscale to 4k better with the shield.

edit: bluetooth controller input lag on shield is way better than the tv too!