hey guys this is austin. can you get a decentgame console for $100? as the little brother to the ps4 the playstationtv is definitely the most gaming focused of this group. inside this is basically a psvita that connects to your tv which gives you access to a full library of games. itworks with ps3 and ps4 controllers and you can get the console by itself or the bundlewhich comes with a ps3 controller and a few
Android TV player, extras. next up we’ve got the amazon firetv. this might seem like a weird choice but the fire tv is outfitted with some prettydecent specs including a quad core processor. this is a more well rounded set top box withplenty of video and music apps on top of the games. it only comes with a remote out ofthe box however there’s also a fire tv controller
available. last but definitely not least there’sthe nexus player. this is the first device running android tv which is based on lollipop.the player is packing some serious firepower as well with a quad core intel atom processorand like the fire tv you can play some games with the included remote or you can also pickup the nexus player gamepad. now let’s crack these open. inside the playstation tv bundleyou’ve got a ps3 controller, mini usb cable to charge it, eight gigabyte vita memory cardwhich is basically a necessity and a code to download the lego movie game. dig a littledeeper and you’ll find the playstation tv itself, an hdmi cable which is a nice additionand the slightly bulky two piece power adapter. the hardware is absolutely tiny and it’srocking a decent selection of ports including
ethernet and a slot for vita memory cardsand game carts. now let’s jump over to the fire tv. inside you’ll find a small poweradapter, the fire tv itself which is pretty decent looking in person and finally the firetv remote. around back you’re looking at hdmi, optical audio, ethernet and a usb port.slide open up the nexus player and right up top you’ll find the player itself. the hardwarefits right between the others in terms of size however it’s fairly light on ports.you’ve got power in, a microusb port and hdmi out all tucked away on bottom. it’snice to keep cables clean but that means the player is wi-fi only, albeit with rock solid802.11ac wireless. you’ve also got a remote which is pretty basic, it sports a microphonefor voice search and a couple buttons. the
fire tv remote looks almost identical buthas a few extra buttons and a nicer feel in the hand. turn on the playstation tv and you’llsee this is a game console first and foremost. titles like need for speed most wanted showthat games that look decent on a five inch handheld don’t quite make the transitionto the big screen very well. games like nidhogg look basically identical to on the ps4 though,nicely running at sixty frames per second and being awesome fun at the same time. minecraftisn’t quite as robust as on the bigger consoles though, it’s basically the full game butthe frame rate is more than a little choppy at times. arkham origins: blackgate does agood job of bringing a lot of what’s great about the full console game into a lighterversion however here i ran into one of my
first big problems, the lack of a touchscreen.most vita games work just fine on the ps3 controller but if they use the front or backtouchpads you’ll have to dive into the menu and enable the touch pointer by pressing downthe left or right thumbstick. this is a decent workaround but you’re still going to runinto some games where this won’t be very practical. vita games are great but one ofthe best parts of the playstation tv is that it can play a huge variety of games. you’vegot a good selection of ps1 classics and psp games you can download from the store as wellas ps3 games using playstation now. this is streaming based so you’ll need a decentinternet connection but once you’re up and running it can be a cool way of playing someof the best ps3 games out there like the last
of us. there is some latency which can beminimized if you’re connected via ethernet but for $20 a month it’s a cool way of addingsome top notch games to the playstation tv. you’ve also got ps4 link to connect to yourps4 as long it’s on the same network as the playstation tv. there’s a fair bit oflatency with this right now so it’s not a perfect solution but it can be handy ifyou want to play ps4 games on multiple tvs in your house. controller wise you can useeither the bundled ps3 gamepad or the much better ps4 controller. this combined withthe ability to play physical vita games on top of all the digital titles makes the playstationtv hard to beat for $100, but it’s not quite that simple. the amazon fire tv has some gamingchops as well. games like asphalt 8 don’t
quite measure up to console quality but it’snot too far off. since the fire tv is android based you will find some actual console portslike gta: san andreas on board which you can run in hd with higher detail than the original,if you don’t mind ps2 like frame rates. interestingly minecraft runs better here thanon the vita, likely because it’s the pocket edition instead of a port of the console version.there are also a few exclusives like sev zero which is a hybrid tower defense game and firstperson shooter which is really surprisingly fun. the controller is pretty decent, it mimicsthe layout of an xbox gamepad and includes a few media controls. if it’s not your thingthough the fire tv works with other bluetooth controllers including the one from the nexusplayer. since it’s running android tv which
is fairly new the game library on the nexusis a bit sparse right now. it comes with badland preinstalled which is a really fun sidescrollerthat not only looks awesome but could easily pass for a top notch console title. leo’sfortune is another mobile game that scales nicely to the tv, it runs smoothly and bringsa solid platformer to the nexus player. real boxing is a very arcade style boxing gamebut it’s one of the better looking games on any of these consoles. riptide gp2 hasbeen around for a while but it’s still one of my favorite racing games for mobile andamazingly enough, it works well on the nexus player. unfortunately only a tiny fractionof android games have made the jump to android tv and minecraft is one of the big holdoutsat the moment. i’m also not a huge fan of
the controller, not only is it a fairly hefty$40 but the layout feels a little cramped to me, luckily just like the fire tv thoughit is compatible with other bluetooth controllers. while all three have plenty of gaming credit’s not enough to just play games in this group. spend a few minutes with the playstationtv and you’ll find one of the big drawbacks, it’s limited to 720p compared to 1080 onthe others. this would be a major problem for watching video, if that was much of anoption in the first place. download the youtube app and it’ll let you get as far as openingit before reminding you that it’s only for the vita. try to download netflix or huluplus and you won’t even get the option of downloading. you can watch tv shows and moviesfrom the playstation store but if media is
a big deal for you the playstation tv justdoesn’t cut it. the fire tv is much more well rounded. not only does it have the basicslike netflix and hulu but you’ll also find apps like hbo go, twitch, amazon video andeven solid music apps like my personal favorite, spotify. the os is nice and responsive andallows you to listen to music in other apps although there is a slight drawback and thatis youtube. since google doesn’t officially support amazon’s version of android you’llhave to settle for the web version of youtube which works decently but tended not to playvideos in 1080p for me. you do have a handy voice search option using the remote whichis faster than manually typing but it’s pretty limited in what it looks for. androidtv on the nexus player has hands down my favorite
ui of the bunch. just like lollipop everythingstays smooth at 60 fps and it’s just quick to do basically everything. up top you haveyour recommendations from youtube and the play store with a slightly more useful voicesearch that pulls from lots of sources and, okay okay come on. the youtube app is thebest i’ve seen for the big screen and it also works like a chromecast if you want tostream media from a phone or tablet. that’s important because like with games androidtv is still missing a few key apps like hbo go which can be casted and spotify which can’tbe, leaving google play as your best option for music. alright so that was a lot of information.the question is, are any of these actually worth it? if gaming is your number one prioritythe playstation tv is hard to beat for $100.
you’re getting a huge library of playstationgames going all the way back to the ps1 through the ps4 and vita. android tv on the nexusplayer is right up there with the xbox one in terms of looks and speed of the ui whichi really appreciate but the app and game support is just a bit too limited at the moment. idoubt this will be a problem for very long but as of today the nexus player is more aboutpromise than anything else. that leaves us with the amazon fire tv which really surprisedme. it’s hands down the best media box here with ethernet, optical audio and basicallyevery streaming service out there and the game library really isn’t half bad. it mightnot be quite as slick as the nexus player and have the huge titles of the playstationtv but for your $100 the fire tv might just
be the best of both worlds. so which wouldyou go with? definitely be sure to let me know in the comments below! also i got tothe chance to do something really cool recently.
while i was at ces at&t asked me to checkout their developer conference and hackathon and make a video for their official channel.that’s live right now so if you guys want to go check it out and let them know whatyou think the link will be in the description! anyway guys thank you so much for watchingand i will catch you in the next one!
