I added 5 models for Android TV box. Can you help to choose the better one please

[jagadeeshwarank]

For Amazon Fire TV stick (regular/4k) if you want to attach external USB HDD, use something like this, it works (checked with 1TB WD passport, however not sure if there is any issue with higher capacity). Of course best way to enjoy full potential of Fire Tv stick is to stream from a NAS instead of attaching a HDD.

PS.: My bias towards Fire TV stick 4K is due to its price, support and easy official availability here in India. Otherwise a better choice would be nVidia Shield Pro. Recent Shield (non pro) does not have USB port.

Using the Microusb cable above said has its own limitations. Firetv stick supports just Fat32 formatted drives(so can store only file size less than 4GB) , I went down this route bought the cable only to realize this later. Firetv stick DOESN'T support NTFS or exFAT.

NAS would be better but not sure about the network latency. Firetv stick 4k doesn't have ethernet port either, streaming large files over wifi would make the videos lag atleast in case of 4K Lossless Surround audio format. Also I doubt if FireTV stick supports DTS, DTS-HD-MA passthrough. Going the NAS route it adds to the cost again, Synology 2 bay NAS costs around 16k, and you would need to buy SATA internal HDDs.

For me nVidia shield pro negates the need for a NAS, we can use our existing portable HDDs so the cost is justified in my opinion.

 

[dipdawiz]

Firetv stick DOESN'T support NTFS or exFAT

Ok, did not know that, just tried once to check for a friend, I personally do not use this splitter or external HDD.

I use a cheapo 3TB WD NAS (My Cloud sort of thing, did not go for synology as I was not intended to transcode from NAS or running any other app). Over 5ghz wifi it stream sufficiently well (not sure about lossless and all, but 40-50gb bluray rips with hvec 265 10 bit works fine with Dolby, Dolby True HD and DTS).

Yes Fire tv stick 4k plays DTS without any issue using Kodi (not DTS HD MA, in that case HD MA part is ignored but it still bitstreams DTS core).

However I agree it is not suitable for everyone's scenario and use case. In my case local contents are less than 10% of my viewing requirement, depend mainly on Netflix and Prime video. So if someone depends more on bluray rips then nVidia Shield pro makes more sense.

 

[manivas]

Ok, did not know that, just tried once to check for a friend, I personally do not use this splitter or external HDD.

I use a cheapo 3TB WD NAS (My Cloud sort of thing, did not go for synology as I was not intended to transcode from NAS or running any other app). Over 5ghz wifi it stream sufficiently well (not sure about lossless and all, but 40-50gb bluray rips with hvec 265 10 bit works fine with Dolby, Dolby True HD and DTS).

Yes Fire tv stick 4k plays DTS without any issue using Kodi (not DTS HD MA, in that case HD MA part is ignored but it still bitstreams DTS core).

However I agree it is not suitable for everyone's scenario and use case. In my case local contents are less than 10% of my viewing requirement, depend mainly on Netflix and Prime video. So if someone depends more on bluray rips than nVidia Shield pro makes more sense.

I played jellyfish 120 mbps hvec file on firestick 4k (with wifi 5ghz band). It played smoothly.
Firestick 4k (connected with 5 ghz wifi) is better at playing blue ray rips than Sony android tv with mediatek chipsets (LAN connected).

 

[mathan]

Does fire tv 4k transcode Dolby Tru HD and DTS HD MA from NAS. The earlier firestick version transcodes Dolby D+ onlly

 

[jagadeeshwarank]

Firetv stick 4k has Dolby Atmos( which is extension of TrueHD) support, which means it should support TrueHD. From @dipdawiz it looks like it supports only plain DTS. Maybe someone with firetv stick 4k can cross verify.

 

[manivas]

Firetv stick 4k has Dolby Atmos( which is extension of TrueHD) support, which means it should support TrueHD. From @dipdawiz it looks like it supports only plain DTS. Maybe someone with firetv stick 4k can cross verify.

fire stick 4k supports dolby atmos only thru DD+ lossy format (not thru loseless format). Refer to below link.

Redirect | Amazon Fire TV

This page moved to ../fire-tv/device-specifications-fire-tv-streaming-media-player.html.

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