I’m looking to get one of these for my parents to replace their sat. subscription.
I’ve used an Apple TV and the interface is fairly decent and easy to use.
I’ve never used an Android TV device and I’m wondering if the Shield is preferable to the Apple TV in any way.
It will strictly be used to watch TV channels/Netflix.
The price is the same for both devices and all apps needed are available on either one.
Do your parents own any other Apple devices?
Also, how tech savvy are they?
Yeah my mom got both an iPhone and iPad.
4/10 tech savvy.
Hmmm, as much as I don’t like Apple, they might be better off with the Apple TV. The interface is nice enough, and shouldn’t be too hard to pickup.
I’ve never had the chance to use the Shield, but I can’t imagine that it would necessarily be a bad choice either.
I guess it just comes down to user interface. Somebody here is bound to have a Shield, so hopefully they can chime in.
I use a Shield TV. At the time I purchased it, it was the more powerful option versus the Fire TV and Apple TV. It’s basically a low end gaming console with a 1 Gbit NIC and H.265 hardware decoder built in. I think the Apple TV is pretty much on par spec wise now with the new models. The main differences being support for Dolby Atmos (Shield TV) and Dolby Vision (Apple TV). Neither one of those matter if you don’t have an Atmos compatible sound system or a TV that supports Dolby Vision. The both support HDR10. The Shield TV also has USB ports so you can plug in external drives or a mouse and keyboard.
The UI is fairly simple and easy to use. I haven’t used an Apple TV, just the iPhone and iPad but I would image that it would be just as simple to use. I would probably also suggest going with the Apple TV since you would be able to link it to any content they may have already purchased on the iTunes store easily. The Shield TV is really more oriented towards gamers who don’t want to build a dedicated multimedia PC for the living room. The game stream function works pretty well.
Owned a older Apple TV and currently have a shield. The shield is definitely the more power user friendly. They are both normal user friendly.
If your mom has other apple devices and owns content on iTunes go with the Apple TV. They will enjoy airplay even though Chromecasting on the Shield is better.
If they are already in the Apple ecosystem, the AppleTV will simply be the better choice for them. Things like AirPlay and such will work very seamlessly.
Decided on the Apple TV, thanks for the input.
It is painful to recommend but it makes sense in their case.