Amazon Fire TV users

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by daglesj, Nov 4, 2014.

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  1. daglesj

    daglesj Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Norfolk, UK
    Anyone got one of these boxes? How do you like it?

    I got mine a couple of weeks ago and am really impressed by it. Super fast and easy to use, not to mention 100% quieter then the Xbox 360 I was using for streaming.

    Just using it for Prime and Netflix at the moment which it does a solid job.

    Voice search works really well but I did find one anomaly. I (for some strange reason) decided to speak some rude words into search to see what it did. Most didn't do anything but the word "douche-bag" brought up the TV show Supernatural, which I thought amusing. Interesting search algorithm there Amazon.

    Oh yes only one downside is that it doesn't support 1080i. Now before you all jump in going "but dude, 1080p is far better!" My TV and a lot of older TVs don't support 1080p. In fact my TV is only 540 res but it does a perfect fit downscale of 1080 material which looks great.

    Currently running it at 720p instead which is okay.
     
    Last edited: Nov 4, 2014
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  2. DreadPikathulhu

    DreadPikathulhu Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    I got the Fire Stick for $19.00 thanks to my Prime membership and really like it. Very speedy and great picture and sound for such a small device. Plus it supports closed captioning, which is essential for me. Also outputs 1080p.

    It's got a much better interface for Amazon content than my Blu ray player does, and Apple TV doesn't support Amazon.
     
    Last edited: Dec 16, 2014
  3. mdm08033

    mdm08033 Senior Member

    I was interested, but didn't follow through because TiVo added Amazon instant streaming video to my Roamio DVR a few weeks ago. They engineered an all new interface for the Amazon store. I wonder how similar the Fire TV Roamio graphic user interfaces are?

    With that addition of Amazon streaming, my Roamio is coming closer to owning input 1 on my receiver. We still use the Roku to streamHBO Go and Showtime Anytime.
     
  4. Doug Sclar

    Doug Sclar Forum Legend

    Location:
    The OC
    I have one but I rarely use it as my Sammy 75" 4k set has most of what it offers and they're a bit easier to use.

    That said, I used it the other day to watch a SDSU basketball game on ESPN 3, since I couldn't find that app on the TV.

    One other advantage is if I want to switch between two sources it's easier to have them both HDMI because to switch to the smart TV function is much more complex.
     
  5. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    I got the Fire TV stick.

    Amazing functionality for $19 and such a small size.

    That said, there are some issues, particularly related to searching.

    1) You can't limit a search to Amazon Prime (free) content. If you search, all video (or music) content available through Amazon is returned and you have to flip through the results to find which ones are free.

    2) Main level searches don't include Netflix. If you want to search Netflix, you have to search within the Netflix app.

    3) Voice search (available through the Android app) is pretty weak. Voice recognition is poor compared to, say, the Google voice recognition software built into Android.
     
  6. VU Master

    VU Master Senior Member

    Wife and I signed up with Amazon fire as an experiment to see if it might be a reasonable alternative to AT&T U-Verse, which has been costing us about $150/month all in. We cancelled AT&T soon after our box (for the main TV) and stick (for my workshop set) arrived. Our initial impression was that Fire was a pain to use and not very good PQ. For some reason AT&T left us connected though, so we took the lazy way out and avoided Fire. Until a few days ago that is, when AT&T finally cut us off for real, forcing us to bite the bullet and get used to Fire.

    Still not too impressed, to say the least. For sure, setting up the various apps and subscriptions is a pain, especially repeatedly signing in with that little 8 button remote. That "homework" is mostly done now, but IMO the Fire user interface is pretty user unfriendly. Some gripes:

    The voice function is helpful but if for example I say "BBC News" I get a long list of random BBC stories, but no live feed. There's probably some fix for this or a way to add live news as a favorite or something but the process seems very fuzzy.

    I miss having numbered channels in logical groups, simply displayed as a list. Decoding that busy screen, filled with splashy graphics and program/network names in different positions, colors and fonts seems to require a lot more mental energy than a simple, vertical, text-only list. Maybe it's just me.

    With the fire box PQ is ok, but not as good as U-Verse. With the stick it's downright bad, and freezes periodically.

    I wish there was a way to pause or record programs. I really miss that. Maybe they have another system with a DVR function?

    Feeds from the 3 major networks and the news channels seem to have weird pauses where the commercials would normally be. It's as if the Fire apps use some kind of "B Feeds" that are clunky and lacking in continuity.

    OK, sorry, enough complaining.

    This thread has very few replies. Surely other people here have tried Fire, would anyone else care to comment? Is a lot of this just learning curve stuff ? Have others here with Fire learned to love it? Have others here given up in disgust and switched to other services?
     
  7. DreadPikathulhu

    DreadPikathulhu Senior Member

    Location:
    Seattle
    I use it less than I was. I find that as with Netflix, outside of the original programming most of the content just isn't that good. The device itself is OK though I think that AppleTV has better buffering and fewer issues with the image breaking up.
     
  8. Daniel Plainview

    Daniel Plainview God's Lonely Man

    I want to ditch Time Warner Cable and use a service such as this. As a Prime member would this thing be able to fill the void? Do I get networks and such? Can I get my TCM?
     
  9. daglesj

    daglesj Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Norfolk, UK
    It has totally replaced our TV viewing. We now only watch Prime or Netflix through the Fire. We hardly watch any broadcast stuff now.
     
  10. Raylinds

    Raylinds Resident Lake Surfer

    We are experiencing the same thing. I am loving my Fire TV- the streaming quality is very good, even with 4k content. It seems to have a good sized buffer.
     
  11. Malina

    Malina Forum Resident

    Location:
    NYC
    Per a friend of mine you can do a jailbreak on the Fire and watch just about any movie streaming.
     
  12. Bhob

    Bhob Forum Resident

    Location:
    Atlanta Ga
    Love it. I can now go directly through the tv instead of using my picky Sony bluray player.
     
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  13. Encuentro

    Encuentro Forum Resident

    I stream through my Sony Blu-ray player. I'm wondering if you've had any issues streaming Netflix. When I start any show or movie on Netflix, it takes a few seconds for the picture to appear while the buffering circle is spinning at 99%, but you can hear the sound. I often have to rewind the show or movie I'm watching to see those few seconds. Furthermore, if I'm watching something with subtitles, the subtitles are often out of sync with the spoken dialogue. I discovered this while watching Narcos. If I rewind and pause, the subtitles will come closer to the dialogue but will still sometimes be slightly out of sync. This doesn't happen on my laptop. I'm wondering if something like the Amazon Fire Stick will resolve this. I don't have any of these problems when I stream on Amazon.
     
  14. daglesj

    daglesj Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Norfolk, UK
    Never ever get noticeable buffering with any streaming service.
     
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  15. Bhob

    Bhob Forum Resident

    Location:
    Atlanta Ga
    Initial startup is faster through the Firestick than the Sony. The only problem I've had is that the tv isn't connected to the A/V receiver, so I can only listen to the Firestick through it. Not a biggie though, and I'll eventually correct that.[/QUOTE]t
     
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  16. EricF

    EricF Well-Known Member

    Location:
    nowhere
    There isn't enough content through Amazon Prime alone. You'd have to subscribe to a few services like Netflix, Hulu and possibly Sling or PlayStation Vue to get an experience similar to cable or satellite.
     
  17. MikeInFla

    MikeInFla Glad to be out of Florida

    Location:
    Kalamazoo, MI
    Just bought a Firestick and set it up last night. Took a while to do. Had to download Netflix, ESPN, AMC, Cartoon Network, Nick, etc and install all of them then log in to each with a code for my cable provider. Pretty easy to do but took longer than i wanted it to. Haven't tried it out yet but it seems to have a good picture. I know the kids will enjoy having DisneyXD, Cartoon Network and Nick "on demand". Tons of shows from each of those and I assume they are free since I do have cable. No problems at all with the voice remote it had a quick response and would find the stuff I was looking for.

    Decided to get it because our YouTube on the smart Vizio TV no longer works (this app no longer supported as of 6/30/2017). My wife has videos from her phone that she posts there and the kids like to see them on TV so that was my excuse for getting one. Also have Amazon Prime so I'll be able to watch those shows as well.

    The biggest pain was having to log into a website like nick.com/activate and activate all of them

    I also installed on called Pluto-TV. I have no idea what Pluto is but it was pretty cool! I found a station on there with classic Little Rascals and Stooges and it seems to be a live feed from somewhere because the Stooges episode was in progress when I went to that channel... It was also in color which looked a little odd to me. It has a "guide channel" much like a cable provider but I could not scroll to see what was coming up, you could only see the first and next hour. Will investigate Pluto over the weekend.
     
  18. GLENN

    GLENN Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kingsport,TN, USA
    Yes, Pluto has some cool stuff. There's an all MST3K channel, some movie channels and several news channels too. Please report back if you figure out how to scroll beyond the first and next hour on the guide because I haven't been able to either.
     
  19. Chip Z

    Chip Z Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cleveland, OH, USA
    The Alexa control is pretty cool.
     
  20. MikeInFla

    MikeInFla Glad to be out of Florida

    Location:
    Kalamazoo, MI
    Will mess with it this weekend. Kind of bummed you can't see what is coming up. Was curious to see what would be coming up on the Shout Factory channel. I even went to their website and it really doesn't have a lot of information about what shows air at what time. It is kind of random I guess. You just have to turn it on and hope something you wanna see is on.
     
  21. MikeInFla

    MikeInFla Glad to be out of Florida

    Location:
    Kalamazoo, MI
    Haven't figured out Pluto yet(scrolling thru the hours, only shows current hour and next) but my 16 year old daughter walked in the living room while I had Pluto on the Guide Channel. She said "what is that? Is this new cable? It looks different. So I explained to her I bought a firestick. She had no idea what it was but I showed her all the stuff on it and she wanted to watch some Nick shows from when she was younger (Ned's Declassified, etc). She said she wanted one for her room. I wonder if you can run multiple firesticks in the same home. This would be a perfect Christmas gift for her and my younger daughter.
     
  22. mj_patrick

    mj_patrick Senior Member

    Location:
    Elkhart, IN, USA
    My random overall impressions of the Fire Stick:

    All in all a great deal for the money.

    MUCH better after they updated the interface– it totally sucked before. So bad, in fact, I wouldn't use the device.

    It's probably the least stable streaming device I've ever owned; I've crashed it more than any other device. That said, I still recommend it.

    Throw Plex on it, stream your personal library from a computer.

    The fact that you can sideload / install 3rd party apps on it outside of the store gives it an edge of sorts over Apple TV and Roku.

    I have HBO, Netflix, Sling all running on it and other devices.... who needs cable?
     
  23. wwaldmanfan

    wwaldmanfan Born In The 50's

    Location:
    NJ
    Anybody using this device with HULU beta? That service is streaming the major national TV networks and local network affililiates, as well as other popular cable channels.
     
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