I run IPTV (Smarters Pro) and Kodi 17.6 on multiple Firesticks (2 x Gen 1, 1 x 4K) and no buffering. The 2nd gen units and up have the advantage of being able to be wired with an adapter. Nice kit that’s cheap and the remotes are very user friendly.

You can't go wrong with a Firestick V2! Cheap - £25 here in the UK put Smarters Pro on there for free and use our sub! Magic. Never get an issue with buffering or my Firestick playing up. It just works!

You can put any app on you like (almost) if you sideload them which is easy enough to do and you can get all the film and TV you can shake a stick at with the free apps around.

Chromecasts aren't for streaming apps like a Firestick and Roku I've not had experience of these before but never had too as Firesticks just do it.

Buy a xiaomi mi box s , real android tv experience

I have the ATV 4K, a Shield, Fire Stick 4K, and even tried a dedicated IPTV Box (Formuler). While iPlayTV is not perfect, it’s pretty close. It’s fast, reliable, has good features. But it isn’t as easy for someone (a guest, for example) to just pick up and start watching TV. I always end up using iPlayTV at the end of the day.

Fire Sticks are fine, but it limits your options since it doesn’t have Google Play. But if you like Smarters or Perfect Player, it’s great. I personally don’t like Smarters, but it’s probably the most widely used app since so many services have it branded for subscribers. PP is a great app, but I just don’t use it anymore. STBEmu is also frequently ran on these devices. I always travel with a stick.

Shield is a great box. Super fast, and has all the Google Play options. Crap remote though. For apps, MyIPTV Player Pro gets better every week it seems, but I personally keep running into some small issues. The roadmap is promising, and the dev is super responsive. People seem to like IPTV Extreme, but I haven’t found it to be very user friendly. Another promising app is Tivimate, but it’s still pretty early in its development.

You could also check out the MiBox S from Walmart. It’s usually around $50, give or take $10. It’s similar to the shield, but cheaper and less powerful.

Fire tv stick is absolutely amazing. I use it and suggest it to everyone. My previous experience is using various android boxes, roku and web os.

Fire Stick 4K with Vader's app has been great for me. A little finicky but better than my experience with generic android boxes. My girlfriend is able to easier use the guide with the Fire Remote which a decent unit of measure as well.

Just know that you will be shocked going from Apple TV to something else. Apple TV is much faster than the rest and you will notice the lag on Android TV or fire stick. I started with the latest Nexus player and loved it but now realize how slow it is after using the Apple TV. Tried the fire stick as well and had to return it due to slowness and interface not as nice. Also know that YouTube and YouTube TV apps don't exist on fire stick.

Having issues with EPG for Vader Streams in iPlay TV for Apple TV 4K. Using this M3U: http://vaders.tv/p2.xml

Are you using same one?? Is there another Vader Streams M3U EPG?

I have an android box and Apple TV 4K. I prefer the ease of Apple TV.

Buy nvidia shield.