Amazon Fire Tablet Nvidia Shield TV Review

Heh... asking direct competitors what they think of one another... bold move. It’s like asking a die-hard Republican what they think about the Democrats... 😁

Nicholas Johnson8, I'm with you on that. And by the way, props to you for the effort—this was a killer review... 👍

I mean, I was pretty much expecting a response along those lines myself... But I was genuinely curious about what kind of logic they're using to justify charging nearly double the price.

Found a solid video on the Fire Stick:
http://youtu.be/nX7fQNbgiBw

I just stumbled upon this $10 coupon over at Newegg: JNESSKVG
If anyone's planning on picking something up, it might come in handy... 🙂

Gaming on the Fire Stick

The coupon is decent enough, but the device itself is currently just a pre-order on Newegg. They won't actually have it in stock until March 25th (and honestly, those dates tend to slip anyway). You're better off looking elsewhere—other retailers have it available right now for just a little bit more money.

MI 3W

@Charles Peterson5/">@@Charles Peterson5: Just watch out with those stock levels—I've heard plenty of horror stories from sites like Amazon advertising stuff they don't actually have in the warehouse. Word from the forums... 🙂

Anyway, I got Netflix set up yesterday and gave it a spin... Everything runs smooth, no stuttering at all. Watching Dumb and Dumberer in 1080p was pretty solid, though it hitched for a second once or twice—probably just my 4 Mbps connection acting up and dropping speed... 😁
Tried uploading a quick clip to YouTube, but it won't let me—something about copyright issues and whatnot.

Amazon Fire TV Stick - Netflix on Windows 8.1: http://youtu.be/pd7I7AZKOW4
Just without the sequel... 🙂

Huge congrats and a round of applause for this review!! It was super detailed, just the right amount of info.
I have one quick favor to ask, if you don't mind. Since these devices come with 2GB of RAM and there's no way to upgrade it, I was wondering how much of that memory is actually available for use.

If it's not too much trouble, could you boot into the desktop (or just use the search via Metro), look up "Resource Monitor," and then open the "Memory" tab to show the "Physical Memory" section at the bottom?

Then, just snap a quick screenshot of that.

Thanks so much in advance!!

Well, since you’re being so kind with the praise, I guess I owe you one:
🙂

Hey, check it out! It’s actually not even that crowded, especially since we're dealing with 32-bit Windows. Pretty handy...

Thanks!

What can I say... it's been running for a few weeks now without any issues—multitasking is smooth enough. I'm just doing the usual stuff, Kodi, browsing, messing around, some light gaming... it's not like I'm trying to run NASA simulations or weather models on this little thing anyway. 😁

😁 Well, of course not. But honestly, that 2GB of RAM was really bugging me. I suppose I was comparing it to running Windows on a PC, where the memory allocation on 32-bit Windows is handled quite differently. Though, looking back, that’s probably not even a fair comparison to make. I've mostly steered clear of these kinds of devices in the past, but now I'm actually second-guessing whether I should play it safe with a Raspberry Pi or just go with an Amazon device. The Amazon one has a metal casing, so at least it should stay a bit cooler. To be fair, I haven't even checked the thermal specs for the Raspberry Pi yet.
Huh, you've definitely given me something to think about! 😉

I’d say I’m interested in these kinds of gadgets when they're used as HD players, but this lineup is off to a pretty rough start—they completely overlooked multi-channel digital audio.

Most of the devices I've looked at don't even have an optical or coaxial S/PDIF output, which seems like a huge oversight since it basically ignores anyone still using older A/V gear that lacks HDMI. (And honestly, I can't even tell if the chipset is capable of handling it anyway)

Plus, with just an HDMI port, it’s anyone's guess whether digital audio actually works through it or what kind of bandwidth we're looking at—like, does it support 5.1, 7.1, or what?

That said, the price point looks promising, and I suspect we'll see plenty of other models hitting the market soon—maybe some that actually include S/PDIF

If anyone ends up testing out the audio via HDMI through an A/V receiver, I’d be curious to hear how it actually performs.

@Nicholas Johnson8/">@@Nicholas Johnson8: I'm wondering how much control I can actually get over this thing using my existing TV remote. From what I can tell, it should work thanks to the HDMI-CEC standard—my current set is a Sony, which uses their version of the tech. I'm really aiming to manage everything with just one remote 🙂

My TV doesn't have HDMI-CEC. I haven't really messed around with CEC settings before, so I just went into the manual to see if it was even an option. Turns out... it isn't.
So, I can't really help you there...
Though, honestly, CEC is mostly useful for just sitting back and playing movies or music.
If you actually want to use the device properly, you need something like a Logitech K400—that's what I use, and it’s perfect for these kinds of setups.

Kudos on such an excellent review! I actually own a W2 tablet running Windows that essentially shares the same hardware specs, and honestly, I've been quite happy with it as a tablet, though I do wish the battery life could hold up a bit longer.

When it came to picking out a dedicated media center, however, I decided to head in a slightly different direction. Devices like the Amazon tablet really require certain extra peripherals to function properly as a home theater hub—most notably an external hard drive. I mean, let's be real, you need somewhere to actually store all those movies and songs, right?🙂

So, for just a tiny bit more money (which, if you factor in the cost of the external drive you'd have to buy to go along with the Fire Stick, ends up being practically the same price), I picked up a 2007 Mac Mini with a Core 2 Duo processor and 4GB of RAM. It basically acts like a convenient remote control! It plays through my movies without any hiccups, and what actually caught me off guard was how much better the audio output is compared to the standard stuff you get on a typical PC. I have mine hooked up to studio monitors, so I can say for certain that the difference is night and day.
In short, this is my top recommendation for anyone looking to build a media center.

Hey there...

Do you still have that Amazon Fire TV Stick? How’s it holding up after a few months of actual use?? Also—have you had a chance to check the CPU temps when things get a little heavy?

I'm actually thinking about pulling the trigger and buying one myself... but I've been doing some digging and trying to make sense of all the different opinions out there. 😁

Anyway, nice job on the first post...

My kid spent the whole day absolutely hammering this thing with Minecraft, Kodi, and whatever else...
The temps peaked at about 68 degrees while he was playing Minecraft—though I did stick that half-centimeter thermal pad under the motherboard to help out.
Anyway, the machine is still running just as smooth as the day I got it. 🙂

Nicholas Johnson8 said:My kid basically spent the entire day hammering away at it with Minecraft, coding projects, and whatnot...
The peak temperature hit 68 degrees during the Minecraft sessions. I did, however, install that half-centimeter thick thermal pad underneath the motherboard.
Anyway, the rig is running just as smooth as the day I built it. 🙂

👍 Thanks for the write-up! Just one more thing—when you ordered from Geekbuying, did you end up getting hit with customs fees, or do they ship directly from their European Union warehouse??