had some issues in the past with older version of the fire stick, built in android tv OS, even on an 8 cpu xbox one, lagging and crashing out trying to play 4k high bitrate stuff. I know the shield is number one but I've had my own issues with it and I know its an amazing device but looking for other really good // high end streaming devices that wont lag or crash playing really high bitrate movies. Is the 4k fire tv the best thing you can get next to the shield ? Or are there any other high end android tvs that can play and process high bitrate stuff without problems ? Thanks guys !!
What ecosystem are you invested in? The two big players in the high end streaming market are Nvidia Shield and Apple TV. Roku has their "Premiere" device, but even that is considered the low end for premium devices.
Apps built into your TV are good for maybe a year. They are there to be a selling point when you buy the TV. Roku TV's are better in that regard, but, Roku TVs don't have nearly the quality in picture or tech that some of the big brands such as Sony and Sumsung have.
I like Roku a lot. I have them on all my TVs except the living room. They do exactly as they advertise.
For my living room, I use an Nvidia Shield. I'm very happy with it, except for Hulu. Hulu is dragging their feet on updating their software; it's nearly two years out of date at this point. It does not support multiple profiles or Hulu Live. There is no actual communication from Hulu on this issue. YouTubeTV recently shit the bed with their app on Shield concerning VOD content, but it seems to be fixed in the last couple days.
Apple TV seems to have a pretty stable platform, but if you are a cable customer, make sure your cable providor will support it. I did a month long demo of Apple TV a few years ago, and Charter (Spectrum) did not allow it. I could not use any content apps such as HBO Go.
As far as reliability, I've found all three of them to be on par with each other. They all work great, but every now and then, you have to so a reboot.