Nvidia Shield TV Pro vs Amazon Fire Cube Gen 3 for Emby

[veletron 8]

Hi

Nvidia Shield TV Pro vs Amazon Fire Cube Gen 3 for Emby

Which of the above is most worth my $£ please? I have been using Emby theatre running on my server for ages, its alright but I would quite like to move to a single box that does everything rather than switching inputs:

- I need: Emby. Netflix, Prime video, Amazon Music, iPlayer, Youtube. Alexa is my preferred voice assistant.

- My Amp is old Skool DD/DTS with only Coax/Optical inputs.  (ARCAM AR200). SPDIF would be handy otherwise I will use an HDMI audio extractor to coaxial. Amp will eventually get upgraded

- I like super simple, super snappy UI's clutter, adverts and nonsense free eg customisable

TV is a recent 65"/4K Samsung - which might have been fine on its own (bar music) but for the fact that its Emby app wont play the audio from most UK TV channels (Same channel plays fine direct from HD Homerun).

Thanks

Edited April 12, 2023 by veletron

[rbjtech 5284]

If you are not planning on using HD Audio (I guess not an option with that amp) - then either will be good choices. 

The Fire Cube G3 is a lot faster than the Shield Pro in general UI performance and has AV1 decode - but the Shield still has it beat on 1Gig Ethernet (vs 100Mbit) and DTS HD Audio. 

I would probably go for the FireTV Cube - and fully test it before the Amazon return policy expires to ensure it meets your expectations ...   

btw - the FireTV 4K Max does everything the Cube does from an AV perspective - so if you don't need the actual Alexa functionality (to turn on your TV or open emby with your voice) then you can save yourself some money here.  

Edited April 12, 2023 by rbjtech

[ebr 16169]

3 hours ago, veletron said:

Alexa is my preferred voice assistant

This would lean you towards the Fire.

3 hours ago, veletron said:

clutter, adverts and nonsense free eg customisable

But this is definitely not the case with Amazon (or, really anyone other than some custom solution but especially not Amazon).

[ALD76 26]

Plus the Cube will do HDR10+ which is handy if you have a Samsung tv.