Apple TV 4K vs Amazon 4K Fire Stick and Netflix

Liver

Supreme [H]ardness
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Oct 24, 2005
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This is by no means a scientific study, just an observation and I have questions.

I live in the country and I have very limited bandwidth. Briefly, I have 2 DSL lines (load balanced, not bonded) and each line is about 5/1.

Quite consistently, when I use the Apple TV 4K to watch Netflix, it stutters and the picture degrades significantly. I assume because of my slow internet.

The Amazon 4K Firestick almost always has a perfect picture quality (like 100%), once it starts playing.

From my limited experience it seems like the Firestick handles slow speeds better.

Anyone know the real answer? Have anything to back up my limited experience?

Or call me crazy.
 
Better upscaler on the Amazon box?

The bandwidth should be identical.

Yes. Bandwidth is the same. All I know is the image is way better and no stuttering. I’m wondering if the way it manages the bandwidth is better.

I dont know.
 
Are you sure the FS is playing even 1080? There is a hidden stats menu tou can turn on with a key combo from the remote. That will tell you res/bandwidth is being used.
 
Is the ATV wired? I'm assuming the FireTV is wifi, so if both are wifi perhaps move the ATV for better reception.
 
ATV has gig ethernet.

And...? Perhaps it's a bad cable, perhaps the wired network is misconfigured; one could do a speed test on the ATV to verify connection speed...Just throwing out troubleshooting tactics.
 
And...? Perhaps it's a bad cable, perhaps the wired network is misconfigured; one could do a speed test on the ATV to verify connection speed...Just throwing out troubleshooting tactics.

OMG lol, it just dropped me to the bottom of the thread, and i thought you were asking if the ATV had that capability at all... i realize now you are asking about his setup lol.
 
I only have experience with Apple, the Apple 4K will drop you out of 4K and 1080p in a heartbeat if the bandwidth drops. I assume you are not trying for 4K on that connection. Do you have any local content that streams from a local computer (iTunes library or purchases)? Apple TV 4K will ONLY stream iTunes 4K purchases, you can't download them locally. You can get 4K material from external sources and add them to iTunes library (h265) and it will play that fine.
 
After months of this. The Fire Stick absolutely does better with a limited bandwidth.

I do not know how, the evidence is clear (get it?).
 
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