FireTV 4k max vs FireTV 4k quality difference

[bitemydust]

What is up with the FireTV 4k Max (2021) hardware that makes the video quality worse than the regular FireTV 4k (1st edition)? I have both. And the video quality on the max is worse than my 4k stick. It's also worse than my TV's Google TV and my Onn 4k stick. I have a 65Tv and I notice the difference big time. I'm a stickler for PQ and on the max the hair on news anchors and such just isn't as sharp as on the 4K. And this problem is only on the HDHomerun app. Other streaming apps it's fine and the same. Since you are the developers, I'm wondering if you can tell me where this issue lies. I've switched out my max to the bedroom TV as I can't take inferior picture quality.

[jasonl]

Do you see a Video Quality option in the gear menu in the app on the Max? If so, that indicates that the hardware decoder on the device is either blocked for everyone because it is known to be broken, or has been blocked during use by the app because it detected a failure of the decoder. The app will switch back to software decoding if no working hardware decoders are available, and this will likely result in much worse quality on 1080i channels due to processing power limitations. A number of FireTV models have notoriously unreliable MPEG2 video decoders. Streaming wouldn't see an issue with this because streaming video doesn't use MPEG2.

[bitemydust]

Ah, that's what it is and what I figured. The app used to have a video option but it was removed in the latest builds. Probably because of my complaining haha. I wonder if the newer FireTV versions have the same problem. Anyone know?

[rpcameron]

It seems every update to Fire devices changes the firmware, and what used to decode well is now a stop-motion mess. This has been the state of Amazon's development for nearly a decade.

Perhaps after they drop their sad and butchered Android fork for their own (presumably Tizen-like) OS, things will improve. (However, history would indicate otherwise.)

[bitemydust]

It seems every update to Fire devices changes the firmware, and what used to decode well is now a stop-motion mess. This has been the state of Amazon's development for nearly a decade.

Perhaps after they drop their sad and butchered Android fork for their own (presumably Tizen-like) OS, things will improve. (However, history would indicate otherwise.)

I just can't stand GoogleTV. Bugs galore. The software on my TV has a bug when you use the accessibility function with Projectivity Launcher, up and down on the remote double skips on the home page and Youtube. The Onn 4k has audio issues. Great PQ though. HDHomerun sucks on the Apple TV too. Tried it. And Roku is a no go.
I'll just use the Fire 4k until something better comes along.

[rpcameron]

HDHomerun sucks on the Apple TV too. Tried it. And Roku is a no go.
I'll just use the Fire 4k until something better comes along.

There are no shortage of apps that can access HDHR tuners that also run on AppleTV. (Plus, nearly every single one provides a superior UX than SD provides.)

[nickk]

The Onn 4k has audio issues. Great PQ though.

We are not tracking any audio issues on Onn... what are you experiencing?

BTW - the next HDHomeRun app for Android release adds 7.1 audio support.

HDHomerun sucks on the Apple TV too. Tried it.

Can you go into detail? We have put a lot of work into Apple TV over the last 6 months. The next big feature nearing release for Apple TV 4K is 1080i60 -> 1080p60 deinterlacing.

[bitemydust]

The Onn 4k has audio issues. Great PQ though.

We are not tracking any audio issues on Onn... what are you experiencing?

Not from your app. Streaming DLNA apps.

[bitemydust]

Can you go into detail? We have put a lot of work into Apple TV over the last 6 months. The next big feature nearing release for Apple TV 4K is 1080i60 -> 1080p60 deinterlacing.
[/quote]

I just felt the app lacked polish compared to other Apple apps. Picture quality wasn't quite as good. And the app was slow. This was about a month ago. I returned the Apple TV.