4K is completely meaningless. So is this thread.
So stay out of it, then! I'll NEVER understand why people post in threads they claim are a waste of time. Stop wasting MY time with your pointless posts that say you're not interested in the thread.... WTF!?!?
I'm very surprised at all of the love for the Amazon devices in this thread. I had a ATV2 and first gen Fire TV along with a fire tv stick. Currently added ATV4 to the mix. All the fire hardware has going for it imo is price. The stick shouldn't even be sold, it's so slow. The fire tv box is much faster but the interface is odd and nothing meaningful has changed/improved since launch except more ads.
I think you're living in a parallel dimension or something. I just bought two FireTV Sticks a few weeks ago and they are WAY more powerful than the 3rd generation AppleTV! I have a 2nd Gen Apple TV here and a 3rd Generation one at a family member's house. There's nothing "slow" about the FireTV sticks. Kodi runs 1080p full steam even converting DTS to Dolby Digital on the fly without a hiccup here. The ONLY Apps I used that I had problems in are Netflix and Vevo. Netflix seems to drop a frame every so often randomly (like a slight unsmooth movement for a moment). This is apparently a problem with the last App update. Vevo isn't scaling to the screen properly here for some reason. These are App issues, not hardware issues. Kodi plays perfectly smooth as does the Amazon Prime player in 1080p. While Alexa is limited in scope (they at least opened the API up to 3rd party Apps to use), the voice recognition is surprisingly good. It had no trouble understand almost anything I said to it in terms of correct word recognition. Unlike AppleTV's version of Siri, it does talk back in a female voice and answers all the typical Android type questions like weather, web searches, movie reviews, etc.
Furthermore adbFire (available for Windows, Linux and OS X) makes it easy as can be to install Android Apps (including Kodi) in the APK format from remote without rooting and it will also backup or restore Kodi with a simple button push and it can push setup files and make duplicate copies on multiple devices really easily (set up for one device and use adbFire to set up Kodi for multple FireTVs devices in your house).
I use Plex every day on it and it's many versions behind and buggy. Not necessarily Amazons fault but reflective of the app situation there. Many apps are buggy and seem like afterthoughts (watch Disney Jr. Barely loads) and notable omissions for me, like NFL. Probably not a surprise given its a fork.
Well, there's your problem. Why are you even using Plex on a FireTV when it's not needed? Plex is apparently a joke on FireTV gauging by the reviews, but that's their fault, not the hardware. I don't support Plex either way given they charge money for a program forked off an open source one (XBMC, now called Kodi) and the developers weren't happy about them basically making money off their work. They should have started from scratch if they wanted to charge for it, IMO. I also have zero need for it. FireTV plays everything just fine. I don't need to have another computer convert formats in real time. That's for junk players and closed systems. Kodi runs side-loaded on FireTV without any rooting. It'd be a waste of of the server computer hardware to convert formats that Kodi can play natively with no issues.
Despite what some imply here, FireTV *IS* Android. It's a fork of Android and no surprise that many Android Apps also side load just fine onto FireTV. And while Nvidia Shield is nice hardware, there's still no Amazon player for it (or currently ATV4 despite rumors of one coming).
I think within 90 days the ATV4 App Store will make amazons look obsolete. I fully expect that going forward devs will put all resources towards android and iOS... Not unlike how mobile is playing out.
I think you're living in a different world than I live in. You can pick up a FireTV Stick for $39 ($49 with voice control) and it was $15 off that over Black Friday (meaning as low as $24.99!!!) and a 4K capable version for $99 ($75 on sale over Black Friday). ATV4 costs $150-200. I can put a FireTV Stick in THREE ROOMS of my house for the price of one base model ATV4 or FOUR for the price of one maxed out model or TWO 4K capable FireTVs for every one ATV4. Promises of awesome apps don't mean a thing right now. AppleTV has been an obscure format in recent years falling far behind everyone else and this model doesn't even do 4K so it's STILL behind. Obsolete? What are you going to do with AppleTV? Use it to navigate to the moon? FireTV is for media/entertainment. I can watch Amazon Prime shows on it (can't do that on ATV) plus Kodi (not on ATV either) that will let me run ALL my media (not just iTunes compatible files).
So like the usual fanatical arguments, I see bold proclamations how Apple is going to destroy everyone else and rule the Universe while the REALITY is that Apple is still only 7-8% of the desktop/notebook computer market world-wide and maybe 18-22% of the smart phone market. Microsoft has 90%+ of the desktop/notebook market and Google Android (including 3rd party players like Amazon) control 80% of the mobile market. Maybe Apple will make more money, but that isn't the same as being "obsolete". Please stop the fanboy fantasies and deal with
reality for once in your lives. Apple is all about MONEY now that Steve is dead (he at least wanted to enable people to do great things) and NOTHING else. Just look at all the stock manipulations, dividends, etc. that never existed under Steve and never would. Apple is becoming a mockery of itself once again just like the last time Steve "left" the company.
There is one thing to consider on FireTV, though and that's it's HDMI only (I had to get a breakout box for my older component based receiver in one room for $35 that handles up to 4K for 3 inputs with remote and sends Dolby Digital and DTS over Optical (toslink) (also has RCA outs on it). That does raise the price a bit, but then the new AppleTV 4 has the SAME ISSUE so you'd need it anyway with an older receiver or pre-amp.
