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shacky

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 27, 2008
140
35
I'm a huge Apple device guy. But, on a whim, I got an Amazon Echo and let me tell you it's amazing! Now, I see Amazon is coming out with a new Fire TV with Alexa built in. Gotta tell you, it's got me thinking.
 
I'm a huge Apple device guy. But, on a whim, I got an Amazon Echo and let me tell you it's amazing! Now, I see Amazon is coming out with a new Fire TV with Alexa built in. Gotta tell you, it's got me thinking.

With neither being available, a comparison is rather premature, no?

The only things you can compare are specs and announced features. But until we are able to use them in the real world we'll just have to guess.
 
Fair enough, but using both Siri and Alexa is enlightening. I can tell Alexa to play the Tom Petty station on Pandora and she does it. I'll probably end up sticking with Apple but I have been thinking, it comes down to 2 apps for me. Which will support Slingplayer and Xfinity TV Go. It looks like Fire supports Slingplayer currently. Guess I'll keep watching.
 
Always-on microphones in devices that are constantly listening and processing everything they hear creep me out.
 
The new Amazon Fire box looks like a winner. Here is the catch, it too like ATV is somewhat biased towards favour of the maker on its menu screens. ATV is heavy towards Apple purchase and rentals while Amazon towards its own store. However, I could live with this considering its a more capable player (meaning power and options compared to ATV).

Of late, I have been playing with the Nvidia Shield TV and if I had to rate strictly upon potential it would be
Nvidia SHield TV
Amazon's new Fire box
ATV (any incarnation)

My take is rather simple - what do you want out of a set top box? If you are fully invested in Apple's offerings of movies and rentals then most would be very happy with the latest ATV. If you are into side loaded services and games, then both the Amazon and Nvidia offerings are the way to go. In my world, I am staying with the Nvidia as it makes an excellent media player for my own media (not requiring conversion to another format like what is needed for ATV) while I will in October be setting up Amazon's Fire for a family member who is interesting in Amazon Prime, Netflix, and home media files to be played through Plex or later Kodi. (I prefer Kodi for my purposes).

In the end, there is something for everyone. I'll skip over the usual 4k debates as I don't have 4k and would much rather invest in a top notch device such as a yet to come to market Oppo Disc player that also does streaming services and my own media files.
 
I'm a huge Apple device guy. But, on a whim, I got an Amazon Echo and let me tell you it's amazing! Now, I see Amazon is coming out with a new Fire TV with Alexa built in. Gotta tell you, it's got me thinking.

I love the echo, but I do not really care for the fireTV. I gave it to my parents.
 
The one thing about the Echo I don't like is that it has its small speakers and ok sound. I have always thought I would like to run it through my home audio system. The new Fire TV with Alexa will do that.
 
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