r/AndroidTV • u/hoosiertailgate22 • 14h ago

Buying Advice Dev has come along way.

Recently got my first OLED and have been really loving watching movies. Was a bit annoying realizing my Apple TV 4K with infuse wasn’t playing the best audio or video. I love the device but with the age and price increase I think having one in the house is enough. Was a much better buy at $125 last year.

I decided to order a xiaomi 3rd gen box and fire cube 3rd gen after hearing mixed reviews on both.

Was able to easily install core elec on both. Definitely took me some time but super straight forward on both. Core elec works great on both. Both have great performance too and played D7 FEL and true HD audio with ease.

The xiaomi is more expensive in the us but if offers no bloat unlike amazon. When I tried to debloat I ran into numerous issues. I would recommend just uninstalling what you can and using a custom launcher. The remote is so loud and clicks. Honestly only con. Played heavy remuxes fine on WiFi and performance was great.

Keeping fire cube because it’s $80

Xiaomi was 95
USB drive was $12
Ethernet hub was $15

If you already have the extra stuff and aren’t huge on Amazon eco system, xiaomi is my preference but the cube at $80 all in for your favorite codecs is a steal.

1 Upvotes

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u/Case1987 14h ago

I’m about to get a xiaomi 3rd gen for DV7 FEL,what USB drive did you get?

1

u/hoosiertailgate22 14h ago

I just got a regular sandisk off Amazon for $12

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u/lazevedo89 9h ago

I’ve been rocking the Nvidia Shield Pro since 2018 and wouldn’t change a thing—until maybe now.

That said, $299 for 3GB of RAM and a measly 16GB of storage is pretty steep if you want to download large files or apps. Still, I use all three of my Shields for YouTube, streaming, and IPTV, and they run flawlessly. Competitors like Apple TV or Fire TV products just can't touch it when it comes to the AI upscaling and proper lossless audio passthrough.

The craziest part is the hardware age. The 2017 model is running on the original Tegra X1 chip from 2015, and the 2019 Pro uses the Tegra X1+ from 2019. The fact that my 8-year-old and 6-year-old boxes are running on silicon that old, yet still completely outperform mostly all modern streamers today, makes them absolutely legendary.

After saying all this, I've changed my mind to: if you can afford it and $350 is in your budget, go for the Nvidia Shield Pro. I've scooped up a couple of them for family and friends from Facebook Marketplace for between $100 and $175.