[dismantler]

What do you think what would be better device:

FireTV or Amlogic S802 M8?

Specs are similar and the price identical...

I have experience with a single core amlogic andoid set top box and I will say that it had excellent video quality in every application. That said, an incredible amount of shit was broken when I first got the box and the company did not manage the fallout on the forums well, or provide real fixes. I'm not talking odd-ball things like poor touch support or things you'd expect couldn't be helped on an Android set top box, no, the ethernet was practically crippled at first, wifi would flake, force closes were common and it lacked a true 1080p kernel. However I did manage a decent Android experience after a LOT of tweaking, reading, trying different ROMs and so on. It did have a very good build of XBMC for linux. The dual-core they came out with next had similar issues as well. Mentioning this as a cautionary tale because right now, the fire is out. It has support, a real 1080 kernel and is already hand over fist better than my last experience.

Also the S802 may not support DTS/Dolby pass through:

http://www.freaktab.com/showthread.php?1...post150752
"and as what i have told before, for s802 chip, amlogic have three version.
S802
S802D (also called S802-H)
s802dd( also called S802-B)

and the s802 chip should not support Dolby and DTS. but amlogic hasn't released the S802h and s802b chip. so the first bulk (about 100pcs) should use the S802 chip."

On the flip side, the fire lacks an IR interface, access to mass storage via USB (currently), google play store access, and should amazon ever decide to lock it down there's probably not a damn thing we can do about it without constantly finding side-steps.