Gadgetory

it's safe to say that chromecast has had a huge impact on streaming media to your TV for $30 you can easily cast your content and control it right from your mobile device Amazon has seen Google's success and is ready to step up to the plate and take on Google for your living room Amazon's weapon of choice is the fire TV we'll put them head-to-head and will determine which one is the best for you the Amazon fire TV was released in early April 2014 this is about eight months after the chromecast Amazon has had a lot of time to see where the chromecast excels and also where it lacks Amazon took the set-top box approach versus a dongle you plug the fire TV into the HDMI dropping the power cord and you're ready to go the initial boot up is quick because you already logged into your Amazon account any Amazon Prime video purchases and active Reynolds are all ready to be watched within a few moments from the interface the chromecast is a simple dongle it's less than three inches long and it's designed to just play your media set up on the Google chromecast is a quick one as well although a may not be as quick as the fire TV you just plug in your HDMI into your TV plug the USB cable for power and then switch to the correct input now on the screen just follow a few more directions like typing in your network password and within five minutes you're up and running the fire TV at launch has support for over 30 applications all the big players but HBO was at the party we have Netflix Showtime Hulu crackle vie mole and the list goes on unlike the chromecast the fire TV actually plays 3d games accord Amazon there is over a hundred games and thousands more are coming some of the games that are worth mentioning our asphalt 8 Riptide GP and also the pixelated heroes for Minecraft performance-wise it's comparable to a high-end Android smartphone you can also buy additional gaming controller or with some games you can use the remote that comes with the fire TV if you currently use Amazon Prime as your means of accessing media whether it's their cloud music offering or photos they really make it easy to access that stuff and it's fast it eventually becomes pre-cached to the box as well because once you click the file it opens with little delay this applies to video too and this feature is called ASAP it predicts what you're going to watch next by your viewing habits then it downloads it to your fire TV without user interaction also if you own a Kindle Fire you can push any Amazon media directly to your fire TV just by flicking it over all the programs I mentioned are downloadable from the dashboard you can easily use the menu to navigate to the application or you can simply use a voice search for it once you're in the application the normal functionality from the fire TV is now gone you are locked down to this applications rules and just like any other platform when pressing the menu button depending on which application you get a different result in some applications I can press on the menu button and change the aspect ratio however other applications you can and also the voice search does not work in all applications only a few are supported the chromecast at launch had very limited application support Google Play Music movies Netflix Chrome and YouTube it took about six months for them to open up the SDK and once that happened the floodgates opened up new applications are adding support for chromecast daily and since there are normal Play Store applications updates can be pushed out at a regular basis you launch these applications from your phone or tablet and then there is a new icon on the screen this icon signifies that it works with chromecast the fire TV is pre-configured to your Amazon account the interface is quick fluid and downright pretty it really looks just like the Kindle Fire and just like other companies they're trying to make one interface for all their devices from the home screen you can do a voice search for an actor director movie title or even an application and this concept seems great and it works good for the most part and as I mentioned earlier the voice search does not integrate to all applications for example if I want to continue to watch house of cards via Netflix I do a voice search and it takes me to a house of cards on prime to rent it versus where I left off on Netflix it creates inconsistencies within the Experian and thus some time creates frustrations sometimes you find yourself cycling through videos to find what you are looking for because the voice search is not working for that application there's also no way to pin items as well and sometimes it leaves you flipping and scrolling to get to that thing you just watched a few moments ago with the chromecast you are using your host device to control the media for example you open an application connect to the chromecast and then from there you can simply play your media it launches on your TV and then you can adjust the volume play pause skim all through your mobile device I'll sum it up like this if you're the type of person that always has their phone on you and you want to stream your media to your TV and chromecast will work best for you if you're looking for entertainment system and something for the family then the fire TV is the best option for you if you don't have a Prime membership the experience is not as fluid it's not as quick but it's still a pretty decent one while I was in the middle of editing this video there's a few more points that I thought I should bring up the first point is in the video you'll see that when I'm casting to my chromecast I have an option to cast to the fire TV well that is correct you can actually cast in a fire TV but the only thing that it does it actually launched the application and then a request for you to link the account with the fire TV once you link the account then it does work sort of like a chromecast except for it is not as fluid and it's a little bit clunky and it just really has some bugs that it needs to iron out but it is possible to catch to it directly from your phone and also when it comes to gaming some games require the controller and some games do not you can actually use the remote as your controller it actually works pretty good for the games that I tested on now some of the games like the first-person shooters do require for you to go out and purchase that controller and so there it is that was the Google chromecast versus the Amazon fire TV now as always I just give you the information and from there you need to make a decision on which one works best for you both of these have their pros and they both actually have their cons so it's up to you to make the form decision on which one you want to purchase and when you figure out which one you already purchased all the one you already have going to leave it down below we would love to check it out and while you're down there go ahead and give this video a big thumbs up and also subscribe to our channel if you are not subscribed already for more great content and also every Sunday we do have a big giveaway that is it guys my name is Kevin the tech ninja you can find me on youtube and on google+ and this is android authority your source for all things Android take care guys