AndroidTV vs Fire Stick

by LastCallAgain
  1. My wife and I are looking to cut the cable and phone from our ISP.
  2. We already have Fire Sticks on the two main TVs in the house.

The question: Does an Android TV box do significantly more in the way of content delivery than the Fire Stick?
TIA!

simiwood

If the fire sticks work for you stay there Android TV has less apps than fire TV and the shield is the only one with official prime video

Greylights888

Do you have the new Firestick4k, or an older model?

If it's old, definitely worth upgrading to the 4k version, it's a vastly better experience and very fast.

Firestick vs Android TV content - generally firestick has a comprehensive selection, and android TV is missing a few apps (surprising, but there you go). I'm sure you can find exceptions, but I wouldn't get android TV for more content.

chapaj

If you need Hulu with profiles and live channels, don't count on AndroidTV. Hulu refuses to update their app.

LastCallAgain

Thanks for all the comments y'all. We'll be sticking with the Fire Sticks for now, but keeping the Android in mind as a possibility later.

pawdog

If you don't feel like you are missing anything Fire TV is still an excellent choice. The new 4K stick especially. Even if you don't have a 4K TV. If you are just streaming Fire TV is fine. Adding a Roku would probably a better addition for filling out any missing streaming services without a big financial output.

wikdclown

Do not get Android TV unless you are getting a shield. Android TV can side load apps just fine but a lot of times it shows no icon unless you hack out one for it, Hulu on fire tv is 1,000,000 x better than any hulu app on Android TV, if you are not getting a Shield be prepared for a chuggy experience. I have a fire tv and a horrible horrible MI box s, Fire TV out performs it in every capacity.

gotamd

The Fire TV supports more content. As others have said, the Android TV Hulu app hasn't seen any updates in a long time and does not support profiles or Live TV. I have also found the Amazon Prime Video app on Android TV (Shield) to be a bit slow compared to Fire TV devices.

The main day-to-day advantage I see in the Shield/Android TV is the absence of annoying homescreen ads. I could not stand all the ads on the Fire TV devices.

Max_Roc

Differeint UI, built in chromecast and the speed, particularly the Shield will be much faster. I prefer Anroid TV but if you are happy with the fire sticks, I'd keep them. There is nothing as far as content that you can get on android that you cannot on the fire sticks since you can sideload whatever apk's you need.

Pre-Code

Not on Android TV: DirecTV Now, Vudu, Hulu Live, Reuters, Turner Classic Movies, MSNBC. Amazon Prime is only on the Nvidia Shield.

yaash1th

Yes Android Tv can do a lot more than what a fire stick does and can and will.

BiggussDikkuss

The new FireTV Stick's 4K remote is about the best in the business. The NVIDIA Shields touch sensitive remote is about the worst.

Amazon hardware actually has a Dolby Audio Licence, so if you only have an older DD only audio receiver you will still get 5.1 Prime Video & Netflix audio from those Apps. With Android TV used on the same audio hardware expect 2.0 audio only unless the audio receiver also supports DD+

Then there is the fact the new Fire TV Stick 4K supports auto refresh and resolution switching for Apps like Prime Video. DolbyVision as well.

Android TV - well you have Chromecasting, but gaps in it's Ecosystem Apps support mainly due to it's slow start and small media player market share vs the competition.