Please educate me... what is so special about these boxes? I have an Nvidia Shield and run IPTV Extreme Pro / Perfect Player / Smarters Pro and run basis IPTV services.
What do the dedicated IPTV boxes bring to the table that I'm not currently experiencing?
What is the current "best box" and what gives it that distinction?
I have Googled these boxes but it's not obvious to me why people live them so much.
These boxes do natively what the other boxes emulate
dreamlink/formuler and buzztv all have their own IPTV app. That is what you are paying for. Without their iptv apps, they are just $50 - $60 android boxes.
Bottom line there's no "best" box just the box that's best for your needs. If you're happy with the shield then no need to try anything else and vice versa.
I have a Shield, after coming from a Mag.
....the Shield is night and day better than my Mag.
I have the UK version of the Formuler Z7+ I’m selling for $100 (that includes shipping). Let me know if you’re interested in picking it up.
Special? Two things in comparison to your Shield.
Their proprietary IPTV APK. For Formuler/Dreamlink its MyTVOnline/DreamOnline (same app). Not sure what the Buzz calls it, but its a similar apk. These apks are far superior to anything I've used for any basic android box, including all the ones you mentioned that you use.
An actual cable-box like remote control. Using a crappy 5 or 6 button android remote, or some monstrous bluetooth keyboard may be fine for some people, but give me a proper multi-function remote like you get from your cable company.
That's it. These boxes are designed to do one thing extremely well, and that's IPTV. They can also do other things not so well, like any cheap chinese android box, they run a phone O/S version of android and can do basic android functions, but they are really designed for IPTV and do it very well.
Your Shield is designed to do everything android better than any other android box. Its an incredible box, for sure, but in my opinion it will never be the same experience as a dedicated box. The channels will play just as well and you can find a way to do almost everything a Formuler does (like Timeshift and recording, etc) with your Shield, but it will never be as simple or as seemless as with a box like the Formuler.