Roger Fingas
Amazon on Wednesday launched a new version of its Fire TV Stick, adding not just 4K video but support for Dolby Atmos surround sound and all three major HDR (high dynamic range) formats.
Supported HDR standards include HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision. Relatively few streaming devices support Dolby Vision, the best-known example being the Apple TV 4K. Even the Fire TV Cube, released earlier this year, only supports HDR10 and HDR10+.
Vision and HDR10+ are notable for enabling dynamic metadata, which can produce more detail in highlights and shadows on compatible TVs.
Dolby Atmos simulates sound in 3D space, rather than simply pushing sounds to specific channels. Apple only introduced Atmos support to the Apple TV with September's tvOS 12 update, a year after it announced plans.
Another significant update is the Stick's remote, which will finally have its own power, mute, and volume controls.
The Fire TV Stick 4K will cost $49.99, $10 more than its predecessor, and ship in North America on Oct. 31. The U.K. will get the product on Nov. 14.
Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
5 Comments
I have an older Fire Stick I picked up on Black Friday for $25 a year ago. While it works it is quite laggy and the remote leaves a lot to be desired (double clicks often). In my opinion all the various steaming boxes have their issues, including the TV. With the TV (fourth generation) I really don’t like Apple’s refusal to passthrough the encoded audio signal. My Yamaha AVR always shows PCM from the TV and setting it to Dolby Digital feels like cheating. Does anyone know if the 4K movies out for streaming support any audio format other than Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital+, or DTS for example?
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I agree on remote's I cannot belive that nobody can come up with proper solution to lag. User action is priority action and should be acknowledged and executed immediately preempting anything else. Also collecting clicks should be priority to interpret them correctly.
as far as Apple TV I really think they should stop forcing cloud and access to Internet if we have content on our own servers or even in other cloud than iCloud. Thi is major reason I am moving all content to Plex after 11 years with Apple TV native solution (the idea of first generation management is dead). I can choose few cloud solutions and also have content on my own servers always reliable with Plex. I will only need Amazona dn Apple rentals from their respective devices.
That product line is getting clogged up and incomprehensible. Inexpensive, but the interface is awful and I don't see the need for the stick, the cube, and the slightly-bigger-than-the-stick-but-not-that-much dangly FireTV. I got a few FireTVs but they're getting replaced by AppleTVs. I'm happy to pay a little more to have a well thought out, well supported device with a good UI. As long as it runs Plex, Netflix, Amazon Video and DirecTV Now, I'm happy.
Nice remote. Unlike the Apple TV.