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... :rimshot:
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.
Delivery had been pushed back to the 17th but I just got an email that it's now December 9th.
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...
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.
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.)
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.
Quote from: d00hickey on December 10, 2014, 12:42:00 AM
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.
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.
Yea, I ended up ordering the Roku because I found a deal that came with 3 month trials to Netflix, HULU, and Vudu.
Quote from: d00hickey on December 10, 2014, 03:50:16 PM
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...
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.
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.
Quote from: MartyS (Gromit) on December 10, 2014, 10:11:32 PM
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.
Quote from: mattwnelson on December 11, 2014, 07:06:49 AM
Quote from: MartyS (Gromit) on December 10, 2014, 10:11:32 PM
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.
Quote from: MartyS (Gromit) on December 10, 2014, 09:29:34 PM
Quote from: d00hickey on December 10, 2014, 03:50:16 PM
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...
You're right, there is no Vudu. There is Netflix, Hulu, and there was a credit or trial for something I can't remember.
Quote from: MartyS (Gromit) on December 11, 2014, 08:15:00 AM
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.
I have no idea. I get my wifi access from my landlord, who just lets me log onto his network. It's a pretty sweet deal, I'm not gonna lie, because it means I get free internet and stuff, but it does mean that if there's a problem I sadly have no way to fix it myself.
Still, any and all problems I've had with the stick have been solved each time by a quick power cycle. I just wish there was an actual power off button rather than just a sleep button on the main menu, because putting the device to sleep doesn't seem to help. But I digress.
Overall I really like it! It's been running pretty steadily since I got it on Monday, so I won't complain at all. Shoot, I consider it paid for already, basically, since I only spent 20 bucks.
I would try the little extension that comes with the thing so the stick is out from the back of the TV, if the signal is weak because the router is far away anything to get it out away from the metal back of the TV should help the stick get better reception.
Hm. Well, maybe! It's not like it's a frequent occurrence. If it keeps happening I'll try it, but since it's only happened twice I'm not too worried.
I ordered the voice remote. With that button handy the lack of a good recently viewed list will be moot. It's been working well with the phone app but you've got to scroll down that icon and hold it while you talk, so not as easy has pressing a button.
I wish the game controller had a microphone, I would have gotten that instead if it could do everything the regular remote could do.
The voice remote has better ergonomics than the slim one that comes with the stick.
Had my first lockup, but I've had them on the Roku and Apple TV once in a while as well requiring a power cycle. I had to re-pair the new remote after the reboot so it may have had something to do with that.
The search feature is starting to get annoying. I was hoping the voice search could replace the recently viewed list that is on the Roku Amazon app, but the more I use the searching the less helpful it gets. If I search for a show I searched for yesterday it doesn't come up in the list! WTF? I think this thing is trying to be too smart or something and trying to guess what I want and not listing stuff I watched recently? If I want to watch another episode of a show I watched a few days ago I've been going back to the Roku because I can get to them easier....
After a few days of not using the search feature and they trying it again it seems to be back to the way it was when new. Hopefully it was a glitch in the server that feeds the search results and not something that the device "learns" when you use it a lot.
The latest software update that added the X Ray stuff seems to have broken fast forward and rewind. The little thumbnails don't work anymore to show you where you are, and it seems to be hit or miss now if you are jumping 10 seconds or going right into fast forward.
Ok I finally got me a fire stick on sale for $19.99 -15% with my Target discounts..
Got it 'chipped' and I like the selection I'm seeing so far, but the main reason I got it was to see if I can catch the Bills NFL games on it.
Any pointers on where to go (what app?) on the fire stick to catch the live games would be helpful :)
Quote from: RVR II on August 08, 2018, 07:12:52 AM
Ok I finally got me a fire stick on sale for $19.99 -15% with my Target discounts..
Got it 'chipped' and I like the selection I'm seeing so far, but the main reason I got it was to see if I can catch the Bills NFL games on it.
Any pointers on where to go (what app?) on the fire stick to catch the live games would be helpful :)
What do you mean by "got it 'chipped'"?
I replaced my stick with the regular box last winter, the stick was not working well any more, it was the first version, as they got older they were prone to overheating, hopefully that has been fixed with the newer versions.
I don't use my FireTV for anything other than Amazon video, I use my Roku for everything else, so can't help with apps that might do what you want.
Quote from: MartyS (Gromit) on August 08, 2018, 07:31:54 AM
Quote from: RVR II on August 08, 2018, 07:12:52 AM
Ok I finally got me a fire stick on sale for $19.99 -15% with my Target discounts..
Got it 'chipped' and I like the selection I'm seeing so far, but the main reason I got it was to see if I can catch the Bills NFL games on it.
Any pointers on where to go (what app?) on the fire stick to catch the live games would be helpful :)
What do you mean by "got it 'chipped'"?
I replaced my stick with the regular box last winter, the stick was not working well any more, it was the first version, as they got older they were prone to overheating, hopefully that has been fixed with the newer versions.
I don't use my FireTV for anything other than Amazon video, I use my Roku for everything else, so can't help with apps that might do what you want.
I got extra shows/movies programmed onto it. They call it 'jail broken' using Kodi.. They're readily available on ebay.
It has the NFL app and I can get a lot of extra channels so I'll try that out
Quote from: RVR II on August 08, 2018, 07:42:25 AM
Quote from: MartyS (Gromit) on August 08, 2018, 07:31:54 AM
Quote from: RVR II on August 08, 2018, 07:12:52 AM
Ok I finally got me a fire stick on sale for $19.99 -15% with my Target discounts..
Got it 'chipped' and I like the selection I'm seeing so far, but the main reason I got it was to see if I can catch the Bills NFL games on it.
Any pointers on where to go (what app?) on the fire stick to catch the live games would be helpful :)
What do you mean by "got it 'chipped'"?
I replaced my stick with the regular box last winter, the stick was not working well any more, it was the first version, as they got older they were prone to overheating, hopefully that has been fixed with the newer versions.
I don't use my FireTV for anything other than Amazon video, I use my Roku for everything else, so can't help with apps that might do what you want.
I got extra shows/movies programmed onto it. They call it 'jail broken' using Kodi.. They're readily available on ebay.
It has the NFL app and I can get a lot of extra channels so I'll try that out
Hope you didn't pay extra for installing Kodi. Looked it up and it's an app you can install yourself with fairly simple instructions, doesn't even require altering the firmware, so it's not really jail breaking the device like you do with a phone or tablet in order to bypass company lockouts for apps or features. Amazon lets you install it you just have to click on a few settings options to allow loading of apps not available on the Amazon app store.
But there are plenty of warnings about using Kodi. There are legal channels and illegal ones, and unless you are using a VPN to hide what you do online your ISP can see it and reprot you for copyright violations.
Quote from: MartyS (Gromit) on August 08, 2018, 11:05:18 AM
Quote from: RVR II on August 08, 2018, 07:42:25 AM
Quote from: MartyS (Gromit) on August 08, 2018, 07:31:54 AM
Quote from: RVR II on August 08, 2018, 07:12:52 AM
Ok I finally got me a fire stick on sale for $19.99 -15% with my Target discounts..
Got it 'chipped' and I like the selection I'm seeing so far, but the main reason I got it was to see if I can catch the Bills NFL games on it.
Any pointers on where to go (what app?) on the fire stick to catch the live games would be helpful :)
What do you mean by "got it 'chipped'"?
I replaced my stick with the regular box last winter, the stick was not working well any more, it was the first version, as they got older they were prone to overheating, hopefully that has been fixed with the newer versions.
I don't use my FireTV for anything other than Amazon video, I use my Roku for everything else, so can't help with apps that might do what you want.
I got extra shows/movies programmed onto it. They call it 'jail broken' using Kodi.. They're readily available on ebay.
It has the NFL app and I can get a lot of extra channels so I'll try that out
Hope you didn't pay extra for installing Kodi. Looked it up and it's an app you can install yourself with fairly simple instructions, doesn't even require altering the firmware, so it's not really jail breaking the device like you do with a phone or tablet in order to bypass company lockouts for apps or features. Amazon lets you install it you just have to click on a few settings options to allow loading of apps not available on the Amazon app store.
But there are plenty of warnings about using Kodi. There are legal channels and illegal ones, and unless you are using a VPN to hide what you do online your ISP can see it and reprot you for copyright violations.
Just $20 to a coworker so I have $40 total invested, and it looks like I got a few hundred channels from around the world it seems like :o
Yeah this is my first time using a Fire stick and Kodi so I'm giving myself a crash course in all the apps, movies, shows, & channels available.
Quote from: RVR II on August 08, 2018, 07:42:25 AM
I got extra shows/movies programmed onto it. They call it 'jail broken' using Kodi.. They're readily available on ebay.
Oh, THAT's not suspicious. That's not suspicious at all! ::)
Quote from: Darth Geek on August 08, 2018, 01:06:19 PM
Quote from: RVR II on August 08, 2018, 07:42:25 AM
I got extra shows/movies programmed onto it. They call it 'jail broken' using Kodi.. They're readily available on ebay.
Oh, THAT's not suspicious. That's not suspicious at all! ::)
I'm just.. 'Observing' :-X