[Ygz26]

Hello everybody.

What is for you the best device for audio and video playback (I do not take into account subscription streaming) between Apple TV 4K, Nvidia Shield TV Pro 2019 and a Chinese Amlogic box with CoreElec?

Technically CoreELEC looks better to me but doesn't have Dolby Vision and the Shield has a powerful AI upscal feature that can tip the scales in its favor. Apple TV 4K apparently has HDR issues, does not support Dolby Atmos and DTS-X, and compresses the audio (ex: 24bit / 192KHz audio) is compressed.

Apple TV 4K 2021 seems to me to be really below the 2 other solutions but are there not some parameters that I have forgotten?

Thank you for giving your opinion.

 

[Ryan1]

I've had the Shield (and got rid of it after about a year) and now using Chromecast Google TV on a bedroom TV. Also, various Rokus and Firesticks.

To me, Apple TV is the best, by a mile. It has been supporting Atmos for a while now.

Apple has by far the best UI. It also has by far the best apps. It's more expensive than most of the others, but you get what you pay for, IMO.

BTW, despite what you read on the internets, no regular human can reliably tell the difference between the modern compression codecs and uncompressed audio, in double-blind tests (there are plenty of those, do a search). This is a marketing myth right up there with $900 power cords and exotic speaker wires.

 

[ozzman-832]

I agree. Apple TV is the best all rounder. Local playback plus streaming apps performance. The shield is not too far behind, but the picture quality just looks so beautiful on the Apple TV for some reason.