2018-11-13, 18:35
2018-11-13, 19:13
2018-11-13, 20:30
(2018-11-13, 19:13)mike76 Wrote:Yes - for most audio tracks all you are doing is moving the HD Audio->PCM decode process from your AVR to your Fire TV Stick. There may be some minor differences due to the lack of metadata getting to your AVR (mainly if you use Dynamic Range Compression or similar processing?)(2018-11-13, 18:31)DaMacFunkin Wrote: what you will miss is Full True HD Dolby Atmos and DTS HD:X as decoding to PCM discards the meta data.Got it. So if I don't have height speakers, my listening experience will be the same?
What I don't know is whether the Fire TV stick supports 96kHz and 192kHz PCM (rather than just 48k) There are a small number of Blu-rays with 96 or 192kHz audio tracks which may be downsampled to 48kHz if the Fire TV Stick doesn't support >48k
2018-11-13, 20:34
Its not for audiophiles but it sounds like it checks quite a gew of the boxes. Most people dont have sophisticated sound systems so it looks like a good buy if you want to invest in a usb ethernet and/or hub for usb storage to store metadata files and whatnot.
2018-11-13, 20:37
It may not be a big deal for most, but you also lose metadata in TrueHD/ATMOS and DTS MA/X like dynamic range compression and dialog normalization.
2018-11-13, 21:37
Got mine in the mail this morning, been playing with it, Kodi mostly. v18b5 works flawlessly. Passthrough, 4k, framerate matching, i haven't seen this good image in a while (and I'm one of those that get bothered by microstutters). If not for the cluttered home page and the geofencing (only prime videos, altho, sideloaded APK from philips works great) it would have been the perfect device.
Gamestreaming also works great. 7ms per frame on Moonlight vs 11ms for the 2nd gen Fire Stick and 53ms for Xiaomi Box 3 (go figure)
Bluetooth is much much better than the previous gen fire stick.
Wifi is really fast and stable.
All in all an awesome awesome device. Would buy it again.
Gamestreaming also works great. 7ms per frame on Moonlight vs 11ms for the 2nd gen Fire Stick and 53ms for Xiaomi Box 3 (go figure)
Bluetooth is much much better than the previous gen fire stick.
Wifi is really fast and stable.
All in all an awesome awesome device. Would buy it again.
2018-11-13, 21:38
Oh, and the CEC is unbelievably good. It detected the TV by brand, turning on/off, volume all work. It even switches to the right HDMI if you hit the home button.
2018-11-13, 22:37
I am really debating to return my shield TV and get 2 of these. What would you do?
2018-11-13, 23:01
Why would you return the Shield TV? Something wrong with it? It's the king!
2018-11-13, 23:07
If you don’t need HD audio, you could potentially ditch Shield. I’m waiting for this Sunday when FTV Stick 4K will have $35 Black Friday pricing. However, I’ll be keeping my Shield as it’s fast and powerful, and supports HD audio.
One thing that’s better on FTV is Amazon’s own Prime content. On Shield, 24p content plays at 60, but FTV plays them at 24.
One thing that’s better on FTV is Amazon’s own Prime content. On Shield, 24p content plays at 60, but FTV plays them at 24.
2018-11-14, 04:21
(2018-11-13, 20:30)noggin Wrote: What I don't know is whether the Fire TV stick supports 96kHz and 192kHz PCM (rather than just 48k) There are a small number of Blu-rays with 96 or 192kHz audio tracks which may be downsampled to 48kHz if the Fire TV Stick doesn't support >48k
I have my own 1:1 rip of the bluray Akira with a 96kHz soundtrack. I played it with amazon x-ray enabled. I can hear audio but the Audio portion of the debugging display shows 'null' for codec, hw accellerated, bitrate and secure. However it also shows null for all the audio tracks of the movie, including the 'normal' AC3 tracks. I don't have an AVR. Is there any way to tell if the Fire TV stick is downsampling?
2018-11-14, 05:18
Look into the alternate launchers for it. I have one of those on my first gen firetv box and its working great.
I dont think anybody likes the default ftv interface.. its horrible!
I dont think anybody likes the default ftv interface.. its horrible!
2018-11-14, 05:25
How is the PQ compared to the shield? 4k and HD? In Kodi and other apps?
I am guessing it doesnt suffer from the color space problems the Shield does.
I am guessing it doesnt suffer from the color space problems the Shield does.
2018-11-14, 08:28
Could someone test deinterlacing of 1080i h264 streams? It would be THE missing feature me. Bought the FTV 3 as I thought deinterlacing will be there with the amlogic chip, but it wasn‘t. So really curious if the new Stick is able to do it?
