Don’t you get warm under all that tin foil?
If it wasn’t for the shipping, I would have bought one or two in a heartbeat, but the shipping makes it a no deal. I’ll wait for the July 4th sale or Black Friday. We already have 2, another would be great for our vacation home or birthday gift
Fire TV + Kodi = best Home Theater/Streaming device out there for regular users. You get your Prime content, access to Plex, Hulu, Netflix, Hbo Go, and all the other services plus Kodi which literally gives you everything you could want. Plus you can sideload apps. People talk about Roku and it’s search function or thousands of “channels” but it really doesn’t trump the Fire TV imo. The Fire TV really does have a nice interface as well.
The only case where you’ll want a different device is if you are running directly to a Receiver need DTS HD etc support. Or if you are a Plex junky and have specific needs that the Plex app on the Fire TV can’t meet.
As for Fire TV stick vs Fire TV box the stick can do all of the above and it’s what I use in the bedroom vs Box in the living room. There is a performance difference but for under $50 what you can do on a Fire TV stick is really incredible. At $34 this is a total no-brainer.
I’m not really sure what Kodi is for other than watching pirated channels or watching torrented files over your network?
Are any of the channels/apps on Kodi legit? Their site makes it seem like they kind of tip toe the line.
Not that it has anything to do with this Fire Stick, but the 4K tv function of the 4K Fire Box only works with UHD tv’s with HDCP version 2.2 functionality.
I got a ultra cheep 4K tv that says it has 4k HDMI inputs, but no mention of HDCP 2.2 function and I can drive them at 4K with a couple of devices, but I can’t get the Fire box to drive a 4k signal into it, although to be fair, I haven’t spent a lot of time investigating the issue, I suspect its because of the HDCP 2.2 thing.
[QUOTE=tfseth, post:30, topic:582867]
Bought it for specifically Playstation Vue. Works decent enough for the most part. Router is on the opposite side of the wall and occasionally get buffering issues. My biggest complaint in the 2 months I’ve had it is 4 times while watching Vue the stick crashed hard. Not sure what is causing it exactly.
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I am in the same spot. I think that it’s the vue app itself. I don’t have the same buffering and occasional freezes/crash with Netflix or Amazon as I do with Vue. I am hoping that it improves with some updates.
[QUOTE=aaronshupp, post:28, topic:582867]
They ought to pay YOU to use it considering all of the behavior data they’re going to steal off that mic in your living room.
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[QUOTE=johnt007871, post:41, topic:582867]
Don’t you get warm under all that tin foil?
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Pretty sure it comes with a complimentary tin foil hat, so if he isn’t already, he will be soon.
Please don’t be stupid aaronshupp. They do not listen to your conversations in your living room. It is for the voice commands to work. If you worry about it that much, unplug the stupid thing when your done. Or is it too much work for you to get off your ass one more time to do that?
[MOD: ^^ Doesn’t play well with others]
Item work very well for the price. [Amazon BF price was same w/out shipping.] It’s a no-brainer if you have Amazon Prime. I personally like the Bluetooth remote [smaller] (and also shut off the WHOOSH sound effect).
Starting to have WIFI issues since the last two updates. Usually a restart/reboot will fix it. Have not been able to connect with 5G network.
I have Amazon Video on my XBOX360. Would this give me anything more?
If I get this, do I still need an Amazon Prime (annual) account?
This puppy saved my life last week. Setting up for a tech conference at a gorgeous resort in Cle Elum and the family joined me. Swimming during the day, but later the wife was stuck in the room with the kids. Worked fine on hotel wifi in the middle of nowhere. A little slow to buffer at first but once it got streaming, kept the kids quiet while I was fiddling with projectors down in the conference center. Ironically, Netflix was a little faster/smoother (sorry Uncle Jeff) but both video sources worked fine. If you travel a lot, I recommend throwing one of these in your luggage. Writing as a customer, not as the cereal bar organizer.
[QUOTE=dashblastr, post:49, topic:582867]
I have Amazon Video on my XBOX360. Would this give me anything more?
If I get this, do I still need an Amazon Prime (annual) account?
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To the first question - maybe not, except it is more portable and also gives you music, photos, etc. And the music often shows lyrics - yay karaoke party!
To the second question - it doesn’t come with Prime content, so you do still need a Prime account to access Prime Video and Music content. But you can use it without Prime (e.g. with Netflix app etc).
I have cheap internet (15mbs download) and a terribly cheap router.
I have absolutely no issues with the fire stick buffering from across the house.
I have the fire and two sticks. I have kodi loaded on the fire, but not the sticks.
One of the sticks is VERY far away from the router, many walls and even a floor, and seems to work okay, while the other is on top of the router through a floor, and works well.
I still recommend the fire tv box though.
Oh boy voice control. Something else for big brother to listen in on what’s happening in your home.
Just like some others, I have not had buffering or connectivity issues with my FireStick. My router is in the basement behind and below my main TV. I have 1000/1000 Internet and an Asus RT-N66U access point. “Usually” if I am having issues with the FireStick with a specific service, that same service isn’t working well directly on my TV or phone either.
As previously stated, WiFi speeds are rarely the same as your actual Internet speeds. My WiFi speeds vary from 3Mbps out in my garage to 200Mbps in my Living Room, while my wired speeds are in the 950Mbps range. You need to be able to hold a solid 3-5Mbps to stream a lot of content. Some content requires more…while some requires less.
[QUOTE=prazbotta, post:47, topic:582867]
Pretty sure it comes with a complimentary tin foil hat, so if he isn’t already, he will be soon.
Please don’t be stupid aaronshupp. They do not listen to your conversations in your living room. It is for the voice commands to work. If you worry about it that much, unplug the stupid thing when your done. Or is it too much work for you to get off your ass one more time to do that?
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It is important to point out that the voice recognition is handled by Amazon remotely. It does get uploaded for processing and is saved so they can use it to improve their algorithms.
They say it only listens/uploads after the wake command, but it’s still important to note it gets uploaded and saved. And the user doesn’t really have any way of knowing whether or not the device is listening.
This is kind of a big issue with the rise of smart devices and the internet of things. People need to be more aware of when stuff they do in their home is being saved remotely. In most cases it isn’t made clear, nor is it clear how long it is saved for or what kind of identifying info accompanies it.
Obviously I’m not saying we shouldn’t buy these things, just that we need to be aware of what they are actually doing.
It appears that the device only “listens” while the mike button is held down on the remote. This would be reasonably easy to test by monitoring the device transmissions.
I believe the device doesn’t listen until you press the ‘listen’ button on the remote, so one doesn’t need to worry too much about Amazon spying on you. Of course what I believe, what they tell us and the reality of things may not all be the same truth.
Bought it and going to use Kodi to see how much expense I can save on satellite programming.
Should pay for itself within a couple a months if not sooner if it works like it should.
The Remote Voice is only used when you hold down the mic button. If it didn’t the remote controller batteries would probably run out really fast if it was constantly listening.
The Echo line doesn’t have this issue because it is constantly plugged in so that could monitor you.