New Firestick UI

[lparsons21]

Yup. The Up Next queue is the Apple TV's killer feature, IMO. Google TV is kinda sorta getting there but I don't know if it'll ever be as polished as Apple TV in that regard.

Google’s is almost as good as Apple’s in the way it works, just doesn’t cover as many services. I think the only one missing from Apple’s is Netflix and that’s because Netflix doesn’t want to allow that.

On Google’s Netflix can be tracked for some shows, but not for the Netflix Originals.

 

[NashGuy]

Google’s is almost as good as Apple’s in the way it works, just doesn’t cover as many services. I think the only one missing from Apple’s is Netflix and that’s because Netflix doesn’t want to allow that.

On Google’s Netflix can be tracked for some shows, but not for the Netflix Originals.

Google TV just isn't nearly as good for this. It has two queues/rows -- Watchlist and Continue Watching -- whereas the Apple TV app combines them into one, positioned right at the top of the main tab. Meanwhile, on Google TV, Watchlist is way over on the Library tab, although sometimes it pops up on the main For You tab, although you never know if it will or where it will be located. Sometimes it's up near the Continue Watching row, sometimes not. And when you've finished watching something, it doesn't remove itself from Watchlist. With Apple TV's Up Next, when you're caught up with a show, it temporarily disappears until a new episode becomes available, then it reappears at the front of the row. It's just a much better thought-out system.

Some apps that are otherwise supported by Google TV don't seem to work with Continue Watching. And some that do act weird, e.g. watch a preview for a show or movie in the HBO Max app and that title gets added to Continue Watching, even though you haven't *started* watching it. But at least Google TV finally added the option to manually remove titles from Continue Watching so that stuff isn't just stuck there forever.

 

[HipKat]

Yeah, I know. I think is is 2 rows lower than it used to be. They just keep putting what I want farther and farther away from the default starting point. Is it the end of the world? No. I just don't like the UI choices. I am sure some algorithm told them to design it this way, but it is way too busy and ad-laden and requires too many button presses to get to what I want compared to what it used to be and what others currently offer.

I expect Android TV on my Shields to eventually look similar to this as well, the way things are going. I may eventually have to try out an alternative launcher.

I know there are some that are more in line with the older FS UI. I downloaded one, but can't remember the name of it now

 

[lparsons21]

Yup. The Up Next queue is the Apple TV's killer feature, IMO. Google TV is kinda sorta getting there but I don't know if it'll ever be as polished as Apple TV in that regard.

Yeah, Apple TV’s ‘up next’ is the best of breed as it covers nearly every VOD service out there with the exception of Netflix.

FireTV doesn’t do it for anything not Amazon but it does include the ‘channels’ you subscribe to via Amazon.

3rd party show/app trackers aren’t really even close to what Apple and Google are doing. ReelGood works to track the shows, but it is manual in that it just gives you a place to step through episodes. It’s app calling is woefully poor and well behind which apps are o which devices. Seems to offer their best app calling for the Roku though there are holes in that too, just not as many.

Ideally I would like to use AppleTV with my LG soundbar but the LG soundbar doesn’t handle PCM/LPCM properly and that’s what Apple TV puts out.

FireTV and the LG Soundbar get along quite well when audio is set to ‘best available’ on the FireTV, but then you have to track your shows/episodes manually or by memory.

 

[NashGuy]

Ideally I would like to use AppleTV with my LG soundbar but the LG soundbar doesn’t handle PCM/LPCM properly and that’s what Apple TV puts out.

How is everything connected? Is it possible to connect the Apple TV directly to the TV and then connect the TV to the soundbar via HDMI ARC? Or would it make a difference if the soundbar is connected via optical audio? Have you tried having the Apple TV encode and output all audio as DD 5.1 rather than PCM? (Although if you have an Atmos-compatible soundbar, that's probably not a solution you'd want.)

 

[lparsons21]

How is everything connected? Is it possible to connect the Apple TV directly to the TV and then connect the TV to the soundbar via HDMI ARC? Or would it make a difference if the soundbar is connected via optical audio? Have you tried having the Apple TV encode and output all audio as DD 5.1 rather than PCM? (Although if you have an Atmos-compatible soundbar, that's probably not a solution you'd want.)

It is connected straight to the soundbar. And the soundbar is an upscale one that does excellent Atmos so switching audio output from AppleTV would kill that. But even if that was acceptable when you make that change everything DD5.1 or better works right but stereo still comes out PCM and on this soundbar that really sucks.

So until it pisses me off again I’ll use the FireTV for most watching and just switch to AppleTV for the ATV+ originals. Switching works well. I’ll use ReelGood to track until something better comes along.

 

[HipKat]

Wolf Launcher, which is a 3rd party app is the same as the old Firesick UI. I never used it and I don't know if it's a legit app or not, FYI

 

[lparsons21]

Wolf Launcher, which is a 3rd party app is the same as the old Firesick UI. I never used it and I don't know if it's a legit app or not, FYI

Thanks, I was reading about that earlier today. Doesn’t appear to have the tracking I’m looking for though it is hard to tell since the sites I looked at did more how to than show it in use.

 

[HipKat]

Thanks, I was reading about that earlier today. Doesn’t appear to have the tracking I’m looking for though it is hard to tell since the sites I looked at did more how to than show it in use.

I have a friend that uses it, which is how I know about it. From what I could see, it looked identical to the older UI. But you could be right about what you're looking for.

I haven't followed your Audio portion of this, BUT I had an older Sharp TV that had no Optical or Analogue Audio Outputs so bought this neat little HDMI Converter off Amazon - (Not sure why Amazon links don't show up on here) - that worked GREAT for my Sound bar using my Firestick. Not sure if it will work for you or not

4K HDMI Audio Extractor Splitter, avedio links 1080P HDMI to HDMI Audio Converter + Optical Toslink SPDIF + RCA L/R Stereo Analog Audio, HDMI Audio Adapter for Fire Stick, Blu-Ray Player​

 

[lparsons21]

Thanks for the suggestion though in this case it would limit the audio going to the soundbar.

 

[stardust3]

I'm not minding the new UI, the firestick has been my go to device for awhile now. On my dining room tv I've got an echo studio and echo sub woofer paired with the firestick. It's pretty decent sound, better than any sound bar I've heard.