Bought a ATV4 and Nvidia shield.

[mellofello]

Getting deeper into kodi. Wow piracy has never been merchandised so well.

 

[Uofmtiger]

Good points. The one thing to take into account is that these are still early days. Having access to the full android ecosystem is bound to give you more choices in the long run. You don't even need to be geeky to get apps side loaded it is a very simple process, and provide you myriad options legal or not.

While I agree that it has the best specs that could, in theory, give it a longer shelf life, I typically buy tech for what it can do for me today rather than some unknown potential. In the case of the Shield it was the only 4k machine on the market when I purchased it, so it filled a void until the Roku came out. I haven't sold my Shield, so I still have hope that its potential eventually becomes something more tangible.

I don't think it is debatable. Sideloading is geeky. I have done it, and it is great to have, especially for apps not in the AndroidTV store that are in the Tablet store (of course, sideloading doesn't always mean the app will work properly). However, I would much prefer just hitting one button to download them. Of course, the Roku has some backdoors, as well, which opens it up to even more apps than Roku's huge library, so the Shield isn't alone in having backdoors into the system.

Personally, I don't think any of them "slay" the other. It is a matter of preference and what you are trying to accomplish. I can make an argument for any of them being the best right now for certain people.

 

[Silver78]

I also own both ATV4 and Shield. I use them only because I dont want to feel cheated. I could happily live without both. None of them seems really ready.

I got the shield to play 4k material and yes it plays 4k and have hdmi 2.0 but the apps are horrible and app slection even worse.... Do not get me started on the atv.

Spend money on a n3700 itx motherboard instead