New Fire TV cube

Hi @tmm1 @maddox @eric, what are your thoughts on the updated Fire TV Cube that was just announced? Do you expect this to resolve performance issues with the current Cube? Do you think it will perform as well as or better than the Fire TV 4K stick?

I'm getting increasingly frustrated with my Nvidia Shield, particularly since the botched 8.0 update, so I'm thinking about trying out the Fire TV again.

It sounds like it should.

What is wrong with the Shield update has been perfect for me ... what kind of problems are you having with it ?

I'm having all sorts of HDMI handshake/sync issues resulting in random black screens on modesets (refresh rate changes, power on, etc). It's a fairly common complaint on the Nvidia forums since the 8.0 update.

Nevermind about the new Fire TV. Though it would be fine for Channels, I forgot why I ruled it out in the first place: no pass-through support for Dolby TrueHD, (true) Atmos or any flavour of DTS. Absolute deal-breaker for my personal media collection. As far as I know, the Shield is still the only streaming device that supports full audio pass-through, though it doesn't support Dolby Vision and has a lacklustre UK app selection. Trade-offs...

Have you signed up for the Hotfixes? I don't think your specific issue is mentioned in them but it could be worth a shot.

The update also caused an issue with Emby and Plex being able to playback video files with VC-1 codec in them. The Hotfix corrected that for me. Otherwise I haven't had any issues. Fortunately the handshake issue didn't affect me.

Yeah on the Hotfix...no change. They're still investigating the modeset issues.

Sorry Channels forum for the off-topic posts. :grinning:

I hope the cube does fix the deinterlaced issues. From reading github it sounds like it will as someone mentioned "The fire tv cube has a mali based GPU similar to the non 4K fire stick which de-interlaces fine."

The cube is not ideal as it's quite expensive compared to the 4k anyway. Not too bad for a single device but I need 7 of the things. It's also very bulky compared to the 4k so won't hide behind my smaller TVs. I think I'll buy a single unit for now and the main living room TV can then play TV perfectly hopefully. The rest of the house can stick with 4Ks until Amazon finally release either a fix (which I now doubt will ever come) or more likely release a newer version of the stick which fixes the issues.

As mentioned though hopefully the code can fix the issue on the TVs we use mainly for watching live TV the other TVs tend to play from Plex and the 4K works beautifully for that in fairness

Anything new for the new Cube? I'm looking at it to replace a
stick mostly for the increased buffer , speeds and a/v control..
Thoughts? Are the mpeg2 issues resolved?

Looks like it:

I’ve just got the cube. I really like it. It is much faster than anything that’s come before.

However it’s REALLY hard on HDMI cables. I’ve had cables before that couldn’t pass the sufficient data rate for UHD HDR with for example the ATV4K the chrome cast ultra and the FTV 4K stick. However I’ve been using one which works fine on all 3 of those. The FTV cube however maxes it out and I get lots of corruption unless I drop down to 1080p.

I’ve purchased a new Amazon basic 4K cable which works fine but now I have to thread it through the wall cavity to replace my old one. That’s the third cable “upgrade” I’ve had to do as standards evolve.

Thanx, guys, for the reports; probably will pop for a new Cube and pass the Stick along to
the wifey as an alternate for her Roku Ultra

Eventually ran 2 Amazon Basic 4K HDMI cables through the wall to replace the originals. Going into an LG OLED. ARC back to a Sonos Amp. Absolutely brilliant experience. Alexa works the TV, the Amp - everything. Also controls my smart lights and sensors (connected via an Echo Plus in another room).

The only beef I have with the cube is a) it no longer supports the Amazon game controller (of which I have a couple - it does support the Xbox One S controller though) b) the included external USB ethernet adaptor is annoying - why not build one in to the box? c) please Amazon allow Sev Zero to be used on the cube. I really like this game but it has always been a FTV 2 exclusive because none of the other FTVs were quick enough - the new cube obviously is.