Amazon Releases New Fire TV (2015)
by Andrei Frumusanu on September 17, 2015 9:25 PM EST- Posted in
- Home Theater
- Amazon
- Fire TV
| Fire TV (2014) | Fire TV (2015) | |
| SoC | Qualcomm APQ8064 Snapdragon 600 4x Krait 300 @ 1.7GHz Adreno 320 @ 400MHz |
MediaTek MT8173C 2x Cortex A72 @ 1989MHz 2x Cortex A53 @ 1573MHz Power VR GX6250 600MHz |
| RAM | 2GB | |
| Storage | 8GB | 8GB + microSD |
| Connectivity | 5.5 mm DC Jack Type A HDMI 1.4b output, w/HDCP Optical Audio (TOSLINK) 10/100 Ethernet USB 2.0 Type A 802.11a/b/g/n 2x2 MIMO |
5.5 mm DC Jack Type A HDMI 2.0 output, w/HDCP 2.2 microSD 10/100 Ethernet USB 2.0 Type A 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2x2 MIMO |
| Launch OS | Fire OS 3.0 | Fire OS 5.0 |
The new SoC is a 2x2 big.LITTLE configuration with 2 A72 cores clocked in at 1989MHz and 2 A53 cores at 1573MHz. The new CPUs should give a significant performance boost over the Krait 300 found in the 2014 variant.
The new SoC also allows for hardware HEVC decoding and Amazon is touting this as the main feature of the new SKU as it allows for halving of the required bandwidth to stream 1080p content or allows for 4Kp30 content playback. Alas it seems 4Kp60 decoding is not supported and thus makes new Fire TV not quite as future proof as one would have hoped. The new unit comes with a new HDMI 2.0 port sporting HDCP 2.2 compatibility and allows connecting a TV or monitor at up to 2160p at 24/25/30/50/60Hz.
An important change in the connectivity is the dropping of the TOSLINK optical audio out connector in favour of a microSD slot. Also added is 802.11ac Wi-Fi connectivity, still sporting a 2x2 MIMO antenna configuration.
As an accessory to the Fire TV, Amazon also released a new gaming controller, aptly named the Amazon Fire Game Controller. The controller is equipped with the same voice-control functionality that the Fire Voice Remote comes with, thus being able to use replace it as the main controller/remote.
The new Fire TV starts shipping on the 5th of October for $99.99 without the controller or $139.99 for the Gaming Edition which contains both the media play and the controller. Amazon also now releases the original Fire TV Stick with the Voice Remote for $59.99.
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solipsism - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
1) I'm glad to see they went with 2160p, HEVC, and HDMI 2.0, as well as stating their 1080p content is being converted to HEVC. I only wish I could find the max bitrate or video profile for the various codecs supported.2) Notice that it also drops TOS-Link and only supports 100Mibps Ethernet. I wonder if people will be up in arms about this as much as they were the G4 Apple TV last week. I'm guessing they won't.
3) Solid update, at a great price, that bests the new Apple TV in many HW features and in the shipping date. If the voice control works as well as with the Echo in my kitchen this could be a great living room Alexa.
r3loaded - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
I'd have loved VP9 hardware decoding as well, but it seems only the Tegra X1 in the Nvidia Shield and a couple of other SoCs support it.chiVelle - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
I am disappointed with the drop of TOS-Link as my Insignia TV drops all HD Dolby and DTS 5.1 streams to stereo when forwarding the audio to the TOS-Link digital output to my Vizio soundbar. Is there any solution to this problem besides setting up a HTPC? Unfortunately, I can't seem to tell which tv manufacturers do unaltered digital audio output from the HDMI input. Thanks.nathanddrews - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
The TV you are looking for does not exist. HD/lossless audio bitstreams don't work over TOSLINK, so it's a moot point. You should probably be looking into ditching your soundbar and expand into buying an AVR (audio/video receiver) and connecting conventional speakers to it. You will be able to do just about everything you could ever want or need.Most soundbars are only 2-channel amps with two physical drivers or several wired in parallel, especially the budget models, so again, it's a moot point. Everything you send to it is mixed to stereo. If you have a separate woofer, then it sends lower frequencies to that, but most are still not true x.1 implementations.
chiVelle - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
Thanks, that's what I thought. I have the Vizio 5.1 soundbar setup which sounds great when a dedicated TOS-Link cable is driving the input like from my Xbox One. I guess I was just hoping for TOS-Link passthrough when it comes to the tv, that way I could use a device like this Fire TV.Demi9OD - Saturday, September 19, 2015 - link
I use an HDMI splitter that splits the signal from HDMI(A/V) to TOSLINK(A) and HDMI(V) with my Vizio 5.1 bar.webdoctors - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
Can you guys do a comparison of the Amazon Fire TV Gaming Edition vs the Nvidia Shield? I was looking at the Amazon table but it didn't compare to non-Amazon products and didn't have any benchmarks. With the Google credit, they're pretty closely priced to each other.Should be interesting if Amazon gives a free year of prime in the future like they did with their phones which are essentially free right now...
Schecter1989 - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
The nvidia shield will blow that away on all fronts. Cpu gpu and gaming too. By far.syxbit - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
Not CPU in single threaded perf.Shield has X-1 with four A57. This has the new Arm A72
TheJian - Friday, September 18, 2015 - link
You're likely only right for another 2 months as NV releases their new soc from samsung fabs probably for a new nexus device first, then new shield unit for xmas. It looks like at least a shield handheld update coming but I hope they update everything to the samsung fabbed soc.NV's core should go back to custom also, as they said they only went off the shelf for time to market with X1 and will go back to a custom core again. With another year to tweak Denver or come up with A72 based custom version (like everyone else), it should be able to finally compete in a phone too. Considering how lacking S810 is, they may get a few high end units for a while until Qcom can get back to custom cpu cores (non samsung devices most likely until GPU IP suit ends). Surely the shrink+custom+Finfet can make up for putting in someone's modem if needed (if they don't have certain network support). Though 150mbps of Icera should be fine for quite some time considering networks just hit that. You are really only speeding to your cap these days with most at 2GB (1/2 a 720P movie?...LOL). Qcom is saying H1 2016 for S820, so it sounds like LATE in that time period or you'd say Q1.
I can't wait for a samsung fabbed NV tablet 13in+ and the larger the better for watching training vids. I hope toshiba or HP puts out a 20in+ too (AIO or whatever, I could use one of both). NV's stuff will definitely be great for the upcoming unreal4/unity5 etc games. Android has some great stuff already that can complement my PC gaming, but output to tv, as I really have no intention of gaming on a tablet. I'm after training ON the tablet, then gaming out to tv when not on a PC.
The older I get the less time I can spend on a PC without getting fat feet after an 8hr day at work on a PC already. So TV time without a console would be great as I have no intention of buying a console again from MS or Sony (screw $60 console games, I'll take android).