Sell ATV4k for GoogleTV on Sony A80J?

[azpekt]

Hi,

is there a difference in quality of video/audio coming from my TV GoogleTV as opposed to ATV4K? I got myself this great Sony OLED and was wondering if ATV makes any sense for me now (I don’t use Apple Music or iTunes to buy/rent).

Maybe Dolby Atmos/Vision or 60Hz HDR are the differentiating factor?

 

[x-evil-x]

Hi,

is there a difference in quality of video/audio coming from my TV GoogleTV as opposed to ATV4K? I got myself this great Sony OLED and was wondering if ATV makes any sense for me now (I don’t use Apple Music or iTunes to buy/rent).

Maybe Dolby Atmos/Vision or 60Hz HDR are the differentiating factor?

depends who you ask. My buddy has both a shield and an appletv and he doesn't notice any difference.
I notice a difference in the colors and upscaling compared to my shield. The interface alone is fuzzy in comparison to the appletv. The tv will have good upscaling but the majority of people won't notice a difference unless they compare the same content on same devices and switch back and forth.

 

[w5jck]

My ATV 4K 2017, Fire TV Cube 2nd gen, and the builtin Android TV on my Sony XBR-49-X800H are all pretty much the same at output quality with one exception. The one exception is in viewing Youtube 4K HDR video. HDR plays great in the Youtube apps on my Sony TV and Fire TV Cube, but the Youtube app on my ATV 4K does NOT support HDR. In my case, no big issue because one I don’t watch much on Youtube, and two I can watch Youtube 4K HDR on my other devices.

Other than the Youtube app not displaying HDR, the ATV 4K is just as good as the other devices. The ATV 4K displays 4K HDR in all other apps I have tried, so it is only a Youtube snafu. I use the ATV 4K for 90% of my entertainment because I like the interface much better than the Fire TV and Android TV interfaces, and because my iThingies work well with it.

 

[Ungibbed]

This is an interesting topic for me as I have a Sony X900h and still have an old Apple TV HD.

I’m thinking of pulling the trigger on a new Apple TV 4K, but I can’t really find anything that it can do that my TV cannot.

I’ve been using the various Android TV apps and not sure what am I missing out on outside of the ecosystem? 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

[x-evil-x]

This is an interesting topic for me as I have a Sony X900h and still have an old Apple TV HD.

I’m thinking of pulling the trigger on a new Apple TV 4K, but I can’t really find anything that it can do that my TV cannot.

I’ve been using the various Android TV apps and not sure what am I missing out on outside of the ecosystem? 🤷🏻‍♂️

The older appletv won’t do 4K so if you want a box that does it all then you should upgrade. Apple Music lossless and atmos is only available on 4K appletv’s if you care about that. The infuse app on the appletv for your own content with plex is only available on an appletv, if you care about that. Airplay and quick controls on your Lock Screen/volume control, remote control from your phone are only available on an appletv.
I don’t know your use case but I can’t only use tv apps as for those reasons plus a lot more reasons. I like on screen controls that you don’t get with arc on a tv with a receiver.
if you just have a tv with no sound system or a plex server then you more than likely will be ok with the tv’s apps if that’s all you use.

 

[Ungibbed]

The older appletv won’t do 4K so if you want a box that does it all then you should upgrade. Apple Music lossless and atmos is only available on 4K appletv’s if you care about that. The infuse app on the appletv for your own content with plex is only available on an appletv, if you care about that. Airplay and quick controls on your Lock Screen/volume control, remote control from your phone are only available on an appletv.
I don’t know your use case but I can’t only use tv apps as for those reasons plus a lot more reasons. I like on screen controls that you don’t get with arc on a tv with a receiver.
if you just have a tv with no sound system or a plex server then you more than likely will be ok with the tv’s apps if that’s all you use.

I can tell you that in both cases, I pretty much stream content (Disney+, Netflix etc.). I haven’t been much of a Apple TV power user and yes, HBR Apple Music is a thing I am missing out on.

With the new Apple TV 4K and Apple Music I’m confused 👴🏻 if Dolby Atmos/lossless is limited to Apple devices only (AirPods and HomePods), it is a little confusing to me. Reason being that despite having high bit-rate trial subscription for Amazon Music HD on the x900h, the Android TV app doesn’t support my setup. A little annoyin but that’s what free trials are for, finding issues.

I don’t use the infuse app (over my head… 🤯), I do use the Plex client though. The UI is a toss up between the TV and my current AppleTV.

‘Thanks for the advice so far… 👍🏼

 

[x-evil-x]

I can tell you that in both cases, I pretty much stream content (Disney+, Netflix etc.). I haven’t been much of a Apple TV power user and yes, HBR Apple Music is a thing I am missing out on.

With the new Apple TV 4K and Apple Music I’m confused 👴🏻 if Dolby Atmos/lossless is limited to Apple devices only (AirPods and HomePods), it is a little confusing to me. Reason being that despite having high bit-rate trial subscription for Amazon Music HD on the x900h, the Android TV app doesn’t support my setup. A little annoyin but that’s what free trials are for, finding issues.

I don’t use the infuse app (over my head… 🤯), I do use the Plex client though. The UI is a toss up between the TV and my current AppleTV.

‘Thanks for the advice so far… 👍🏼

Infuse is just a much better plex app is all. Try it out you’d like it.

 

[Roy Hobbs]

The AppleTV 4K is hands down better than the Sony built in Google/Android TV.

 

[JackTwist]

According to posters on AVSForums, the internal apps of the Sony A80J output at 60p instead of the original frame rate of the content. If correct, this can introduce judder and skipped frames when viewing content. The Apple TV 4K has the Match Frame Rate setting which allows for 24p (or 23.97) depending on the content, allowing for a more fluid viewing experience. I have the A80J and the only two apps I currently use with the Google TV interface are Bravia Core and YouTube (due to it switching into HDR mode correctly). For everything else, I prefer the Apple TV.

I can't speak to the image quality as directly since I haven't even tried Netflix or Hulu on Google TV. I can say that in comparison to a Roku Ultra we have in the house, the Apple TV 4K is significantly and noticeably better in terms of picture quality.

 

[The Phazer]

According to posters on AVSForums, the internal apps of the Sony A80J output at 60p instead of the original frame rate of the content. If correct, this can introduce judder and skipped frames when viewing content. The Apple TV 4K has the Match Frame Rate setting which allows for 24p (or 23.97) depending on the content, allowing for a more fluid viewing experience. I have the A80J and the only two apps I currently use with the Google TV interface are Bravia Core and YouTube (due to it switching into HDR mode correctly). For everything else, I prefer the Apple TV.

This is not correct, fwiw. The internal apps output rendered content (i.e. the UI) at 60 fps, but any video that gets passed to the native hardware decoder (which is everything in practice) isn't subject to that and framerate matches. Indeed, in theory this means there's slightly less processing than pushing the Apple TV's framerate matching through HDMI and then processing it again (though granted, the effects of this if you've got motionflow et al disabled are trivial).

It would be very obvious if it was trying to push all video through a 60FPS conversion, in a bad way.

 

[JackTwist]

This is not correct, fwiw. The internal apps output rendered content (i.e. the UI) at 60 fps, but any video that gets passed to the native hardware decoder (which is everything in practice) isn't subject to that and framerate matches. Indeed, in theory this means there's slightly less processing than pushing the Apple TV's framerate matching through HDMI and then processing it again (though granted, the effects of this if you've got motionflow et al disabled are trivial).

It would be very obvious if it was trying to push all video through a 60FPS conversion, in a bad way.

Thank you for the clarification and correction.

 

[Audit13]

This is not correct, fwiw. The internal apps output rendered content (i.e. the UI) at 60 fps, but any video that gets passed to the native hardware decoder (which is everything in practice) isn't subject to that and framerate matches. Indeed, in theory this means there's slightly less processing than pushing the Apple TV's framerate matching through HDMI and then processing it again (though granted, the effects of this if you've got motionflow et al disabled are trivial).

It would be very obvious if it was trying to push all video through a 60FPS conversion, in a bad way.

I thought Android TV didn't support frame rate matching at all so only TVs running Android support this?

I an LG TV and 1st Gen Apple 4k box so I'm curious about this. Thanks.

 

[The Phazer]

I thought Android TV didn't support frame rate matching at all so only TVs running Android support this?

I an LG TV and 1st Gen Apple 4k box so I'm curious about this. Thanks.

Android TV didn't provide OS level native frame rate matching, but that just means that it's left to the OEM to implement it themselves in their playback hardware. Which any competent TV manufacturer would.

Effectively the encrypted video encode is just passed by the OS to the hardware, and doesn't even look at it (indeed, depending on the level of DRM involved, sometimes the OS has literally no idea what is in the video bitstream whatsoever except any self declared metadata).

There is a large difference between "Android TV does not provide this functionality when you grab the code from the repo" and "Android TV cannot be made to support this while being in compliance with the CTS at all with work from the OEM and hardware integration."

It is a similar issue with 4K rendering support. Android TV requires apps to specifically request in their manifest that they want to be able to render in 4K, otherwise the OS does not support it. But that doesn't mean those apps which make no request can't playback 4K video using the native player. They absolutely can, because the native player isn't application logic and isn't bound by those rules.

 

[Audit13]

Android TV didn't provide OS level native frame rate matching, but that just means that it's left to the OEM to implement it themselves in their playback hardware. Which any competent TV manufacturer would.

Effectively the encrypted video encode is just passed by the OS to the hardware, and doesn't even look at it (indeed, depending on the level of DRM involved, sometimes the OS has literally no idea what is in the video bitstream whatsoever except any self declared metadata).

There is a large difference between "Android TV does not provide this functionality when you grab the code from the repo" and "Android TV cannot be made to support this while being in compliance with the CTS at all with work from the OEM and hardware integration."

It is a similar issue with 4K rendering support. Android TV requires apps to specifically request in their manifest that they want to be able to render in 4K, otherwise the OS does not support it. But that doesn't mean those apps which make no request can't playback 4K video using the native player. They absolutely can, because the native player isn't application logic and isn't bound by those rules.

Thank you. This is all very interesting to me.

I used to use Kodi on my HTPC when 4k didn't exist and it supported AFR. I checked some of the Kodi forums and it looks like Kodi on the nVidia Shield also supports AFR. I'm using a HTPC for HD and 4k playback at the moment and will definitely consider a simpler playback solution like an Android box when AFR comes to Android TV.