Amazon Fire TV

UberTiger said:
Ohh, just had mine delivered. Will get it set up later. Box feels surprisingly heavy.

What's the consensus on applying updates out of the box. Will that prevent any optional rooting or other jailbreak like functionality?

Not sure if I'll need to root, but would rather keep the option open if it makes a difference.
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I don't think you can stop the automatic update - seemed to be the consensus on XDA
 
This works really well. Its so quick to open a stream, seconds till it comes on. Also carries on from where you left the episode on another device, which is handy.

My only gripes so far. I've set up parent controls because its so easy to buy things, only a pin for purchases for an extra step of protection, my fault for not seeing the prime banner, but one accidental click on a big bang theory episode and I was down £2.50. It just seemed so easy to buy things, that im sure I would keep accidently buying things.

Other thing is that the box uses the same signal as my sky remote. When I try to control my sharp TV using the sky remote to change input, it controls the fire TV instead. Would be solved if there was an easy way to turn the fire TV off or to standby.

Is there anyway I can change the signal on the remotes to stop this?
 
Now some of you have had a day to play with them how do they compared to a cheap NUC (£92 celeron one+ram+ssd) for XBMC? Been waiting for others opinions on this before buying a NUC as the firetv is considerably cheaper once you factor in the ram and ssd.

Just want to have the PC's turned off when not in use tbh as they're on 24/7 atm for media, tried WDTV but it's to clunky compared to XBMC.
 
HecFam said:
My only gripes so far. I've set up parent controls
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Cheer for the tip! I've ended up doing this on quite a few devices for this exact reason.

HecFam said:
Other thing is that the box uses the same signal as my sky remote. When I try to control my sharp TV using the sky remote to change input, it controls the fire TV instead. Would be solved if there was an easy way to turn the fire TV off or to standby.

Is there anyway I can change the signal on the remotes to stop this?
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I'm personally not aware of any way of stopping this by changing IR frequencies / commands.

However, the Harmony Smart Control lets you use IR repeaters. As part of the device setup you can select which repeater output to use (the main hub, optional IR output 1, or optional IR output 2) so that you can avoid this exact problem.

Loads of other good reasons to buy one which is why I started the thread about them the other day :) http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18631835
 
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Raymond Lin said:
Actually that sucks, because that means I need the amazon fire remote, as opposed to covered by the Harmony.
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Harmony Smart Control works with it because it supports Bluetooth. Also someone else was saying it was responding to their sky remote, so might be worth investigating!

OK, since no one else seemed to care I've had to try Limelight myself! :-)

Got mine last night and the first thing I did was sideboard it. It works amazingly! I'm actually able to play Watchdogs over WiFi with it! Girlfriend and I completed a episode of Wolf Among Us in bed while the PC streamed it from upstairs.

It's not perfect, limelight supports mouse emulation with a touch screen on other android device but we're screwed at the moment - so uPlay based games will likely require some intervention. Apart from that if you've got an Nvidia card then there's no reason not to get this installed!

Download the Limelight APK here (I used non root version) https://github.com/limelight-stream/limelight-android/releases

How to sideload here: http://www.aftvnews.com/how-to-sideload-apps-to-your-amazon-fire-tv-using-a-windows-pc/
 
RoyMi6 said:
Harmony Smart Control works with it because it supports Bluetooth. Also someone else was saying it was responding to their sky remote, so might be worth investigating!

OK, since no one else seemed to care I've had to try Limelight myself! :-)

Got mine last night and the first thing I did was sideboard it. It works amazingly! I'm actually able to play Watchdogs over WiFi with it! Girlfriend and I completed a episode of Wolf Among Us in bed while the PC streamed it from upstairs.

It's not perfect, limelight supports mouse emulation with a touch screen on other android device but we're screwed at the moment - so uPlay based games will likely require some intervention. Apart from that if you've got an Nvidia card then there's no reason not to get this installed!

Download the Limelight APK here (I used non root version) https://github.com/limelight-stream/limelight-android/releases

How to sideload here: http://www.aftvnews.com/how-to-sideload-apps-to-your-amazon-fire-tv-using-a-windows-pc/
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Awesome, Thanks for that!
 
So this can have XBMC installed on it, and it can pick up all my movies via wifi to my media server?

Does it support DTS, and 1080P?

Quite interested now, altough the google version looks good too!
 
Dts is fine with XBMC I believe. Still issues with 23.976 fps content though plus the xbmc forums are full of threads with problems on this device.

With so many more powerful solutions out and better still on the horizon I would be buying one of these if you are after a fantastic XBMC experience.
 
Woah, so I don't get it.

Is the fire stick just a lightweight fire TV?

Except it has more memory than the fire TV! It has 8GB whereas my new fire TV has 5GB

The UI looks just the same.

Loving my TV so far just using built in functions. The TWIT app is good if you listen to the twit network podcasts.

A bit weird but it saves all your voice snippets when you use the mic.
 
I'm loving the 'You Don't Know Jack' game too.

I used to play it with my dad on a desktop years ago. Have a little bet on each round.

Really good fun trivia game :)

It's great to bring it into the living room and more party friendly
 
UberTiger said:
Woah, so I don't get it.

Is the fire stick just a lightweight fire TV?

Except it has more memory than the fire TV! It has 8GB whereas my new fire TV has 5GB

The UI looks just the same.

Loving my TV so far just using built in functions. The TWIT app is good if you listen to the twit network podcasts.

A bit weird but it saves all your voice snippets when you use the mic.
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It's just like the Roku stick compared to the rest of the Roku line - a compact version that will no doubt have some limitations applied simply due to the differences in hardware.

One other major difference for me is that it doesn't have Ethernet, which for a really robust streaming solution I wouldn't be happy with.
 
Hmn I think I want the Fire stick. Reckon we'll get the £19 deal?

My quandry is this.. I get free Amazon Prime through work, but I have all of my music on Google Music.

Don't know whether to get a Fire TV/stick (no Google Music), or Chromecast (no Amazon Instant). Hmn.. :(

Also, will you be able to use the Amazon Instant Video app on a non-Fire tablet, to play to your TV?
 
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