skeetingtons
New Member
Forgive my life story I'm about to write, scroll to the TL;DR if you're not interested.
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Last year I bought an LG C1, and dove headfirst into the HiFi world. Since then I feel like I've gone very far down the rabbit hole, but I still feel like there are further depths to reach.
My first 4K device was the Fire TV Stick 4K, and I bought the Max version when that came out too. It did everything I needed, although in hindsight it was a bit slow to start up and navigate, but no big issues.
I decided at some point that I wanted to push my TV to the absolute limit. My first attempt was buying some Blu-rays and playing them on my PS5. This was good, but it seemed** like there was a lot of quality left on the table with this method.
So my next attempt was getting Plex. I acquired some remux files, bought the Plex pass, and played them on my Fire TV Stick 4K Max. I noticed it would buffer at some points even on WiFi 6 (I have a AX5400 modem). I did some research and determined** that even if I solved the bandwidth issue with ethernet, the Fire TV Stick was still limiting the picture quality to some degree.
So I bought the latest Apple TV 4K, because from what I was reading it seemed** like this would give the best quality picture for my Plex streamed remux files (or at least very close to the best, I preferred Apple over Shield Pro).
With the Apple TV 4K, I didn't necessarily notice much of a quality jump with my remux files. I did notice that apps like Netflix looked so much better than the Fire TV Stick version, that was surprising and unexpected. But anyway, I was satisfied with my purchase and believed I'd reached the end of my rabbit hole. I was content with my content.
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Fast forward to the present. I am now questioning every assumption (indicated by **) I have ever made.
My friend also has an LG C1 (a remote friend that I can't visit), and they are using a Chromecast Ultra. I can't find any details about whether the Apple TV 4K is giving a better quality picture for remux files than just a Chromecast. I have no idea why I never considered it, and it seems there's barely any technical information to compare the two that I can find. I guess for some reason I assumed the set top box style devices with larger hardware was of course going to provide better quality that a small dongle device, but now I can't seem to justify that at all. Plenty of people say it's better, but with no real evidence that I can see, and plenty of Chromecast users say there is no difference.
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TL;DR
So what is the truth? Is the latest Chromecast capable of delivering the same picture quality as the latest Apple TV? Have I deluded myself into thinking lossless 4K content streaming was more expensive than it is? Was the Firestick just as capable as my Apple TV? So many questions, so little answers. Thank you for reading.
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Extra credit question:
If money wasn't an issue, what does your streaming setup look like and why?
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Last year I bought an LG C1, and dove headfirst into the HiFi world. Since then I feel like I've gone very far down the rabbit hole, but I still feel like there are further depths to reach.
My first 4K device was the Fire TV Stick 4K, and I bought the Max version when that came out too. It did everything I needed, although in hindsight it was a bit slow to start up and navigate, but no big issues.
I decided at some point that I wanted to push my TV to the absolute limit. My first attempt was buying some Blu-rays and playing them on my PS5. This was good, but it seemed** like there was a lot of quality left on the table with this method.
So my next attempt was getting Plex. I acquired some remux files, bought the Plex pass, and played them on my Fire TV Stick 4K Max. I noticed it would buffer at some points even on WiFi 6 (I have a AX5400 modem). I did some research and determined** that even if I solved the bandwidth issue with ethernet, the Fire TV Stick was still limiting the picture quality to some degree.
So I bought the latest Apple TV 4K, because from what I was reading it seemed** like this would give the best quality picture for my Plex streamed remux files (or at least very close to the best, I preferred Apple over Shield Pro).
With the Apple TV 4K, I didn't necessarily notice much of a quality jump with my remux files. I did notice that apps like Netflix looked so much better than the Fire TV Stick version, that was surprising and unexpected. But anyway, I was satisfied with my purchase and believed I'd reached the end of my rabbit hole. I was content with my content.
----
Fast forward to the present. I am now questioning every assumption (indicated by **) I have ever made.
My friend also has an LG C1 (a remote friend that I can't visit), and they are using a Chromecast Ultra. I can't find any details about whether the Apple TV 4K is giving a better quality picture for remux files than just a Chromecast. I have no idea why I never considered it, and it seems there's barely any technical information to compare the two that I can find. I guess for some reason I assumed the set top box style devices with larger hardware was of course going to provide better quality that a small dongle device, but now I can't seem to justify that at all. Plenty of people say it's better, but with no real evidence that I can see, and plenty of Chromecast users say there is no difference.
----
TL;DR
So what is the truth? Is the latest Chromecast capable of delivering the same picture quality as the latest Apple TV? Have I deluded myself into thinking lossless 4K content streaming was more expensive than it is? Was the Firestick just as capable as my Apple TV? So many questions, so little answers. Thank you for reading.
----
Extra credit question:
If money wasn't an issue, what does your streaming setup look like and why?