The Amazon Fire TV is on sale for $49.99. The lowest price the Fire TV has ever been is $44.99, but that was only for Prime members. This $49.99 sale is the lowest it has ever been for everyone. If you’re wondering if the new Fire TV is right for you, take a look at this article where I break down who should or shouldn’t buy the new device. Also on sale today is the Fire TV Stick for $29.99.
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I’d happily pay twice that for one that still had wired Ethernet and the optical audio output.
Agreed. Amazon makes a high end Kindle, the Oasis, so why not a high end Fire TV? It would need ethernet, an optical audio output, HDR 10, Dolby Vision, and a super fast processor!
Oh, you mean a Shield.
Minus the optical out, becasue that is gone and regretfully not coming back.
I guess I did pretty much describe a Shield! What’s the status of Dolby Vision on the Shield?
Don’t hold your breath on seeing a super premium Fire TV with all the bells and whistles. I don’t see that happening anytime soon. That’s simply never been Amazon’s style or M.O.
The Kindle Oasis exists (as a super premium version of the Kindle line) because Amazon dominates ebook readers. There is currently no competition that matters. When a company has already won an entire market, the best direction to go is to dominate all price points of that market, which is why the Kindle Oasis exists.
Amazon isn’t anywhere close to dominating the streaming device market. No single company or line of devices is close to dominating that market. So while it’s anyone’s game, the smart strategy is to concentrate on making mass appeal products, which is what Amazon is doing.
The unfortunate truth is that a super premium streaming device is a very niche market. Estimates show that Amazon sells 5 to 10 Fire TV Sticks for every Fire TV they sell. If a $200 Fire TV was made with all the bells and whistles, it would have even fewer buyers thant he current Fire TV.
You can still find brand new 1st gen fire tvs on ebay for $100. And they have the optical out feature you’re looking for.
Not up on it myself, my sound system doesn’t support Dolby Digital Plus, only DD. So if I want 5.1 in Netflix, I have to stick with the, admittedly still pretty awesome, Fire TV 2. Shield doesn’t support it DD in Netflix, only DD+.
So until I bring myself to shell out for newer sound system, keeping up on the Shield has been too painful for me. ;-)
Interesting. Hard to imagine the Shield, like every Roku except the 2016 Ultra, does not output Standard Dolby Digital audio. I’m in the same boat. I paid a fortune for my surround system years ago, before HDMI, and it’s still awesome and some devices give me standard Dolby. They are the 2016 Ultra, any fireTV, and AppleTV. I was stunned when I found out the 39.99 stick would output standard Dolby and all the Roku’s I had owned over years never did. With every knew Roku I dared to dream Netflix in Dolby, but I never got it until I bought my first 1st gen fireTV box.
The Shield does. Netflix on the Shield doesn’t, Dolby Digital Plus only.
The devices mentioned can transcode Netflix Dolby Plus to Standard. That is the difference. As much as I’ve wanted a Shield, this short coming, as I see it, makes it less desirable for me as a streamer. I guess I’ve never really thought about it and assumed it would trancode Plus. The power and capability of the device cannot be denied, but in terms of suiting my situation the devices mentioned do what I need in terms of audio. Roku enabled that transcoding on one device in their history and that is the 2016 Ultra. I have two and bought and returned the 2017 version. I don’t know why trancoding is such a low priority with some set top box makers, when Amazon’s 40.00 stick does it. It was always the Holy Grail for me and my ancient surround system.
Does anyone know if this does USB OTG storage for Kodi data? Or if USB OTG becomes unmounted after a while like the Fire TV Stick v2?
(It does appear to support USB OTG storage in general: http://www.aftvnews.com/amazon-fire-tv-3-supports-usb-peripherals-via-otg-cable-including-usb-drives-keyboards-mice-flirc-ethernet-hubs-etc/)
Problem with this FTV 4K is 60fps output for Amazon’s own 23.976 HDR content like ‘Bosch’. Amazon Prime Video app on nVidia Shield plays 4K and HDR better. Also, even after all the f/w updates, FTV 4K feels kinda sluggish.