2016-08-18, 15:09
(2016-07-17, 05:48)wrxtasy Wrote: 4) quality of the video upscaling ?
I bought a Shield TV recently and I can confirm that the upscaling quality is really poor. 720p looks very blurry, you can immediately tell its not 1080p. Its just as bad as on RPi3 when 720p is beeing upscaled.
I think they are using the simple bilinear upscaling.
I had a Dune HD 303D as a direct comparison, and the Dune does a way better job at upscaling.
Honestly, because of the bad upscaling quality, Imho android players are disqualified as a good media player. The Shield is considered the best android player by what Ive read so far, and even the Shield fails to deliver halfways good upscaling quality. I didnt test the deinterlacing quality of SD or HD content, but I assume its also pretty bad, esp. for SD content.
So basically the stand alone media players with Sigma/Realtek chips still deliver a way better visual quality, but lack some apps like Netflix with 4k support, Youtube with support for 1080p 60fps/4k 60fps etc.
It seems like the x86/x64 devices at this point are the only devices Id recommend for a solid media player, devices like the Intel NUC or Chromebox. And ofcourse some media players with Sigma/Realtek chips like DuneHD etc. Yes you dont have many apps, that you have with android players, but the playback of videos and the image quality is way better than any android player. And you have some plugins for the most popular apps like Youtube, Twitch etc. (talking about DuneHD in particular).
I gotta say Im a bit disappointed with the android players, after testing the Shield. I have a Rpi3 too and a DuneHD player plus a smal x86 media box.
x86 devices offer some very good upscaling methods like lanczos, spline etc. and a pretty good deinterlacing with yadif x2. I dont know any android player that has even remotely close iq in regards of upscaling and deinterlacing.
Rpi3 has the same problem- abysmal upscaling quality and deinterlacing. If youre only watching native 1080p content, the rpi3 is enough, theres no need for a Shield.