Amazon Fire TV stick

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Well, Amazon is taking on the Chromecast stick with their own stick.

Couldn't resist preordering it, if you are a prime member they are giving you $20 off for the next 2 days, so it will only be $20, that's just too cheap not to give it a shot. It's supposed to arrive December 4th.

They are not giving you the voice search option at that price (or the standard $40 price of the stick), you have to pay as much as the price of the stick just for the remote with the microphone.

Pretty sure it won't beat my Roku, but if it is better than the amazon app on the Roku for accessing my Amazon VOD stuff it might get some use.

With Roku having their own stick it seems like all these companies are trying to beat each other with sticks... 

[Lembach]

I nabbed one too. (huge surprise coming from the Amazon whore, I know). Now I can ditch my Xbox 360.

Or rather, I can in January.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Delivery had been pushed back to the 17th but I just got an email that it's now December 9th.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

My Fire TV stick has shipped.

The email about it mentions that the android app give you voice search capability, that should be very interesting to try out...

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Been trying out the Fire TV stick.

Got the android app for remote control and voice searching installed on my phone.  It is pretty nice, best remote control app I've used, the swipe controls are good enough that you can watch the TV and use your thumb to navigate the menus and select things without having to look at the phone.

The voice searching works great, even "comedians in cars getting coffee" worked and took me to the Crackle app.

Have to try the Netflix app more, but first impressions are not good, I like the one on the Roku better.

The Crackle app is even worse.

For Amazon video it's pretty good once you get used to it.

The home screen is a bit clunky, the Amazon app on the Roku is laid out better.  To get to an app you have to scroll way down to apps, and as far as I can tell you can't customize the layout.

One thing I use all the time on the Amazon Roku app is the recently watched list, on the stick there's one list of the last 10 things you've done and that's it, the list includes stuff like using the Netflix app so it's way less useful than the list of recently watched shows and movies that are on the Roku app.

[mattwnelson]

I'm digging it pretty hardcore. One of my favorite things about it is streaming videos from my phone to my TV. I've turned my old smartphone into a little mini-server and I'm planning to load it up with the biggest SD card it'll accept full of my favorite Rifftrax. The Fire finds it easily. It's great (especially since no matter what I do, I have never been able to get my laptop to share videos with any connected devices in my house... This is a viable workaround for me.)

[d00hickey]

My parents just commissioned me to help them cut their cable. Since I endorse giving Comcast less money I'm happy to help.

Initially we plan to ween them off cable slowly, cutting the subscription down slowly.

Right now I'm leaning towards the Roku 2 because I understand it's the easiest for old folks to operate and it appears to have the most dominate support from streaming services now and in the future.

Do you guys find the Amazon FireTV to be as easy to use and likely to have just as many services?

Also, word on the street is that HBOgo will be available without cable in q1 2015, which is awesome. 

[mattwnelson]

Do you guys find the Amazon FireTV to be as easy to use and likely to have just as many services?

I have friends who have a Roku ...3? I can't recall. But the Fire stick is basically the same thing. Only difference is lack of a USB port to play videos from a flash drive. As much as the Home menu is a little borked on the Fire, I'd say it's really no different/worse than the Roku.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

The Roku does support more streaming sites than the Fire TV or Apple TV.  I doubt Vudu will ever be available on them because they directly compete for sales and rentals.  Of course all the stuff on Vudu is available on the other sites, except for 3D content, that is the reason I have an account there.

As far as ease of navigation and finding stuff, I'd say the Roku has a slight advantage in the layout of their screens, but the Fire has the voice search, so pretty much it's a wash. 

I'd say if you are planning out cord cutting now decide between Apple or Amazon for buying and/or renting the stuff that's on cable, then go with the hardware that best fits that company. 

[d00hickey]

Yea, I ended up ordering the Roku because I found a deal that came with 3 month trials to Netflix, HULU, and Vudu.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Yea, I ended up ordering the Roku because I found a deal that came with 3 month trials to Netflix, HULU, and Vudu.

3 months of Vudu?  I didn't know they did subscriptions?  When I started I got something like $12 of startup credit because they were giving you $3 for each device you registered, so I loaded the app onto my TV, Blu-Ray, Roku, and I think my phone.

Tried out the Netflix app on the Fire TV more tonight, like it more now that I'm used to it.  Although vertically scrolling through episodes just seems odd when everything else is horizontal...

Just got a big Amazon gift certificate, might pick up the voice remote so I don't have to use my phone...

[mattwnelson]

Only issue I'm seeing with it is that occasionally the Fire stick seems to want to crap itself and forget how to connect properly to my network (it SAYS it's connected, but can't send or receive data from the internet). Fortunately, the two times it's done this, a simple unplugging from and reconnecting to power fixes the problem. I don't know if this is my network or the stick, though.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Do you have it flat against the back of the TV or hanging out using the little extension cord?

I haven't seen any connection issues, I've got mine logged into my 5GHz network, and since it's plugged into my receiver so I can get surround sound it's only about 3 feet from my router. 

[mattwnelson]

Do you have it flat against the back of the TV or hanging out using the little extension cord?

I haven't seen any connection issues, I've got mine logged into my 5GHz network, and since it's plugged into my receiver so I can get surround sound it's only about 3 feet from my router.

Plugged straight into the TV.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Do you have it flat against the back of the TV or hanging out using the little extension cord?

I haven't seen any connection issues, I've got mine logged into my 5GHz network, and since it's plugged into my receiver so I can get surround sound it's only about 3 feet from my router.

Plugged straight into the TV.

Wow, hit modify by accident instead of quote, didn't know the thread starter could modify any post in a thread...

Maybe using the extension cable to get it away from the TV a little would help.  Might be getting a weak signal if the TV is between the stick and the router.