I have both an ATV and a Shield TV Pro. Playback of recorded programs when using FF and RW is much faster on ATV than the Shield. Is Channels DVR app faster on ATV? Other apps all seem have same speed playing on either streamer. Thanks
I haven't done a side by side comparison, but I feel pretty safe in saying that the Shield is much more powerful than ATV. However, Apple devices typically do well on the image processing side. I don't know if ATV is actually faster at processing video or if it is simply good at making it look that way. To me it doesn't matter. I use ATV because it does a really good job of doing what it does and I don't want to tinker with my streamer. If I wanted to tinker, Shield would be the way to go.
Thanks for your response. I was looking at using shield only because I like the UI better. However not enough to sacrifice ATV/channels dvr speed for seeking recording programs. I’ll stick with ATV for now.
I have both curent gen Apple TV 4K and 2019 Shield Pro & Tube models.
FF/RR speed of recorded programs seem the same to me on 3 devices.
I do have a 500GB Samsung S7 SSD connected to the Shield but that is not used for streaming from the server a recorded program.
My Channels DVR server is a RPi4 with a Samsung S7 500GB ssd.
Is your Shield hardwired via ethernet and on the same switch as the ATV and server?
I use nothing but Apple devices for channels and it works perfectly. No issues with the application at all.
I don't have an Apple TV, so I can't give you a direct comparison. However, my Shied TV devices FF or rewind almost instantaneously. There is very little to no noticeable lag.
I have checked your speed to the server from each device. Maybe one is hardwired or has a better wifi signal than the other. It could be the connection to the server that is causing the discrepancy.
I have the ATV 4K and 2019 shield tv pro as well. I’m running server on M1 Mac mini and using a T7 external Samsung ssd connected to mini for recordings. Both shield and ATV are hard wired from my router. RW and FF are the same on ATV and shield when seeking live Tv. Recordings are much slower on Shield however. Very strange. I cleared cache with no result.
What source are the recordings, OTA or TVE?
they have different formats and bitrates and audio.
That could be a factor.
I rarely watch live tv, when I press the FF or RW on the shield for my records (OTA or TVE), it feels instant to me. Mine are all hardwired as well, and I am getting 900-1000mbps from the shield to the server (running on a windows 10 PC). I have noticed a few times in the past where there is a slight delay on the FF or RW, but a restart of the server PC clears that up. It doesn't happen very often and could be due to other program running on my Channels DVR PC.
I have 2 shield pros so I tried the second shield to my connection. It works flawlessly. Im thinking the shield i had hooked up originally could be the problem. As painful as it is I’m going to do a factory reset. That should tell me if its a shield software problem.
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One of the key advantages of a Apple TV over the Shield is the Apple's Top Shelf user interface. I have the Channels client on the left hand side of the top row of apps. Next to it I have the Apple TV App. Yep, the Apple TV App. I link the Apple TV app to all my streaming apps (except for Netflix 
).
Therefore I get a unified tracking view of all that I am currently watching. With Channels DVR, I see what's most recently been recorded AND what is on live right now (in my channel order). When I click over to the Apple TV app, I see the most recent shows we have been watching across all our streaming apps 
Yep - its all there!!!
Here's a link to a 2.5 minute video showing this visually - which you must watch!!
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I actually find this a slightly annoying feature of the Apple TV.
The Channel bars of Android TV (on the Nvidia Shield) are far more powerful and customizable.
However, the one for Channels DVR, it would list each channel and what was on now, but it often never updated....not sure if they ever fixed that. but that was nice to see what was on and scroll a horizontal mini guide right on the home screen without having to open the app.
However again, ever since Google went all content aggregate crazy, and the Android/Google TV home screen is full of a diarrhea of ads for things i do not want to see....i'll take Apple clean UI with no ads and just a minor top row of actual useful thumbnails specific to the apps in the top dock any day.
And, saw the vid, and that make me want to mention one thing about the Apple TV app.
It is very nice to have a all in one app that combines other apps into it for watch history and progress, watch list, etc.
However, it is quite annoying that often it is not a one click play thing, like with HBO Max item. I click on the episode to watch it, and it opens the HBO Max app, but stops on the Select your profile screen, click on that, then it loads the show. Should you not already know who is watching and what profile to load? But i guess the Apple TV app does not pass that data to the app is triggers to load. Even if there is only one single profile in the HBO app, it still stops at that screen. I guess its a thing HBO has to work out, as other apps pas through that step fine.
Not natively. I don't consider using a 3rd party launcher viable. They are too janky and have bugs with the system launcher overriding 3rd party ones at times. Unless one does some ADB hacks, which i do not want to do.
And no telling what will happen when an update to the os pushed.
No one wanted the new launcher, 99% of Shield users hate it and created a fuss over it when it changed over. But Google don't care. whatever makes them more money is their choice.
Depending on the version of andorid tv on your device, you can now disable all of the diarrhea. Go to your profile and turn on apps only mode.
There is no Apps only mode on Nvidia Shield. Which runs on Android TV 9. As is fully updated.
Glad you will take the Apple UI any day!
On the other hand, those with 'Android TV', especially on Nvidia, here's a link to How To Disable Top Ads Row Nvidia, Android TV. This is on my not-quite-ready-to-launch website EnjoyMyTV.com,
I did this "How To' a year ago when I was actively using the Nvidia as our streaming device, so my guide to getting rid of the top row ads may be a bit out of date....appreciate any feedback from those who try the "How To" out.
That method no longer works.
For many, the option to remove updates is greyed out.
Furthermore, that is the trick i used to keep the new launcher off my TiVo Stream 4K.
I never updated the Android TV Home, had auto update disabled, and one day, it force updated it self and can not be reverted.
My 2x Shields, also had older launcher, not updated, and even with the old version, much later after the Tivo got the ads, they got them, with zero change or updates.
If you do some research, you will find it was a sever side change, and not directly related to the launcher version you had.
I found and published a different trick, put the Shield into Restricted Profile mode.
And that did infact restore the old launcher, but only for a short time. It auto switched to the new one anyway after a day, regardless of updates being disabled.
At least with the Google Chromecast with GTV dongle, that thing has a App only mode.
Nvidia has not implemented that feature yet, infact, they are very very slow in pushing updates for the Shield, maybe 1 or 2 per year.
The CCwGTV I found to be too slow and limited in app only mode, and just poor overall.
Did not feel like buying a adapter to hardwire it.
It also had too little internal storage space to be practical, just like the TS4K.
Special and sincere thanks for checking my checklist (no longer valid) and for providing very detailed information of what is going on across the Android/Google TV platforms.....
This re-enforces my personal streaming device rankings:
- Apple TV
- Fire TV
- Smart TV (LG, Samsung, Sony)
- Android/Google TV (Google Chromecast, Xiaomi Box S, Nvidia, TiVo Stream)
- Roku (for multiple reasons inc. doesn't support Channels DVR)
BTW: my TiVo Stream 4K was a beta unit, so I don't have the latest version, so I probably should get a new one. (And full disclosure, the head of Apple TV and I worked together @ Motorola)
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Apple TV (4K current gen) does not seem to support greater than 60hz output.
I had to replace my adored LG 32in 1080P IPS Glossy monitor since it started having bad image retention for channel logos and things.
I got a MSI 32in 2K 165hz monitor now. (I use it in SDR mode only cause HDR sucks with the local dimming and picture options disabled and i have no HDR content anyways)
The Apple TV defaulted to using 4K res setting, which looks like crap on the monitor since it is not native. After some fiddling it will do the 2K (2560 x 1440) at 60Hz.
There are no options for anything higher than 60hz in any resolution.
My 2019 Nvidia Shield TV pro is odd. It will do either 4K 60hz res, OR 1080P 120hz (in various color formats and specs).
No 2K options.
Can't use 4K res, cause again, not native to the panel and looks crappy.
1080p 120hz looks very sharp and crisp, a tad too much.
I have never been one to be able to see any difference with high hz refresh screens, other than a jitter, or some effect i can't describe "soap opera effect" i think some call it.
Sure, the Shield's UI and OS an apps feels very zippy and ultra smooth.
But, watching TV or videos via streaming, i see no difference at all compared to 60hz.
Most content is still NTSC 23.97, or streaming 30/60fps. So i see no advantage to high refresh rate for normal media.
Anyways, I am puzzled why the Apple TV can not do high refresh rate....these stream boxes are so highly praised and I would think would support the modern standards.
I found a few articles that state high refresh formats was to be added in TVos 15, but i am on 15.1 now and its not an option.
And also puzzled why the Shield will not do 2K res.