Amazon Fire TV

Mr Paul · 5 Oct 2015 at 21:04

wellibob said:
Apps2fire android app. Let you send any apk file to the Fire TV and you simply run and Install it from application manager on Fire TV.

Ah cool!

StevieP · 6 Oct 2015 at 09:29

Do you get the "full" version of Kodi if you install it on the FTV (or FTV2)? (ie. the versions of Plex for example seem to be "cut-down" for installation on the Now TV!)

I assume it runs pretty much perfectly given the power of the unit?

Schizo · 6 Oct 2015 at 09:37

StevieP said:
Do you get the "full" version of Kodi if you install it on the FTV (or FTV2)? (ie. the versions of Plex for example seem to be "cut-down" for installation on the Now TV!)

I assume it runs pretty much perfectly given the power of the unit?

Not sure about the full version but kodi runs very very smooth on the fire tv.

Psycho Sonny · 7 Oct 2015 at 00:24

i'll wait for black friday before getting the 4k version.

guaranteed to be on sale then

SexyGreyFox · 7 Oct 2015 at 07:31

StevieP said:
Do you get the "full" version of Kodi if you install it on the FTV (or FTV2)? (ie. the versions of Plex for example seem to be "cut-down" for installation on the Now TV!)

I assume it runs pretty much perfectly given the power of the unit?

Install TVMC instead

darkblade · 9 Oct 2015 at 11:29

I really don't see the point of the FTV 4K. Most 4K TVs have most of the smart features already built in. I (and I suspect many others) was interested in using this with my 4K monitor - except they have dropped the optical out, so I can't route the audio to my sound system.

Scam · 15 Oct 2015 at 14:48

Has anyone used the Android NowTV app to cast to their FireTV? Is it possible? I'm debating trying to get a free trial of NowTV for The Walking Dead but I don't really want to buy another box (Chromecast, maybe). What resolution would I get by casting from my phone? Does it work? :confused:

Kemik · 15 Oct 2015 at 15:58

Scam said:
Has anyone used the Android NowTV app to cast to their FireTV? Is it possible? I'm debating trying to get a free trial of NowTV for The Walking Dead but I don't really want to buy another box (Chromecast, maybe). What resolution would I get by casting from my phone? Does it work?

I have a Chromecast and FireTV box. Don't need anything else as these two cover everything. Definitely recommend a Chromecast if you can. I actually prefer using that to the FireTV but you're a little restricted on the supported apps.

Scam · 15 Oct 2015 at 16:15

But since the FTV now supports casting, what does the Chromecast do that it can't? I have a Sonos for music..

Captain · 29 Oct 2015 at 19:18

Are people still suffering with playback issues when streaming 1080p films from a NAS?

I had mine connected via Ethernet and any film i played had stuttering on my 50" TV, weirdly none at all on my 32"?

Would like to get one again and give Kodi another try.

Techno_Viking · 30 Oct 2015 at 08:43

Clov!s said:
Are people still suffering with playback issues when streaming 1080p films from a NAS?

I had mine connected via Ethernet and any film i played had stuttering on my 50" TV, weirdly none at all on my 32"?

Would like to get one again and give Kodi another try.

For me it's been flawless. The only issue I had with buffering was when the internal storage of the fire TV was all but used due to the Kodi app using >5GB. To correct it I created an advanced settings file which saves all fanart and graphics to the NAS itself.
I thought it may have slowed the menus and loading of fanart but it has actually improved it. When I used only the Fire TV for storage it would always take a couple of seconds to load the background fanart on the main menu - it doesn't any more.

Captain · 30 Oct 2015 at 11:44

I never had any issues with the app itself, but when watching a film on my 50" TV, it was almost like watching a film done @ 4 FPS, never could figure out why it didn't happen when playing the same films on a 32" tv.

Both were 1080p TV's.

Smok3y · 14 Nov 2015 at 15:03

Dimple said:
Install TVMC instead

I've taken your advice but it won't finish the install. When I click on the finalize button it just gets stuck on the Downloading screen. Any help?

Psycho Sonny · 14 Nov 2015 at 15:33

darkblade said:
I really don't see the point of the FTV 4K. Most 4K TVs have most of the smart features already built in. I (and I suspect many others) was interested in using this with my 4K monitor - except they have dropped the optical out, so I can't route the audio to my sound system.

i'm buying it just to have a more powerful fire tv.

i can sell the old one for £40 to a mate at work. means the new one will cost me like £20 for the upgrade if i get one on black friday

horrorwood · 14 Nov 2015 at 16:49

Smok3y said:
I've taken your advice but it won't finish the install. When I click on the finalize button it just gets stuck on the Downloading screen. Any help?

Install the latest version of Kodi and then use Fusion installer. You get the same result but with the latest version of Kodi

SoliD · 17 Nov 2015 at 08:12

Clov!s said:
Are people still suffering with playback issues when streaming 1080p films from a NAS?

I had mine connected via Ethernet and any film i played had stuttering on my 50" TV, weirdly none at all on my 32"?

Would like to get one again and give Kodi another try.

I had a little bit of an issue with this recently when scenes were quite detailed. Changed some of the settings in kodi and seems to be working flawlessly now. I would tell you what I changed but I can't remember, but stuff like hardware acceleration and quit kodi after 30 mins non activity so it's always starting fresh seemed to have helled.i just wish plex output dts properly!

Vimes · 17 Nov 2015 at 08:50

SoliD said:
I had a little bit of an issue with this recently when scenes were quite detailed. Changed some of the settings in kodi and seems to be working flawlessly now. I would tell you what I changed but I can't remember, but stuff like hardware acceleration and quit kodi after 30 mins non activity so it's always starting fresh seemed to have helled.i just wish plex output dts properly!

Isn't it a matter of turning off MediaCodec under the video acceleration and leaving the LibStageFright one turned on, and then re start Kodi. That is what I did.

StevieP · 17 Nov 2015 at 09:12

Does the Fire TV come with Plex Home Theatre pre-installed and free to use or do you have to buy it (like you do the phone app) or subscribe to the monthly subscription?

Metallifux · 17 Nov 2015 at 09:37

Vimes said:
Isn't it a matter of turning off MediaCodec under the video acceleration and leaving the LibStageFright one turned on, and then re start Kodi. That is what I did.

It seems that with Kodi 16 (Jarvis) libstagefright is being removed and only mediacodec will be available. So if you have issues with mediacodec don't update.

Vimes · 17 Nov 2015 at 10:00

Metallifux said:
It seems that with Kodi 16 (Jarvis) libstagefright is being removed and only mediacodec will be available. So if you have issues with mediacodec don't update.

I'm not sure if that is good news for some Android users....?

I did read something about that as they termed "legacy support" for certain types of hardware / Android revisions will be dropped (as well as Karaoke but who uses that) and for me that might mean avoiding Jarvis unless they have improved it some other way to work fine with the AFTV.

Thanks for the heads up

More here....

Removal of libstagefright
With the Android platform becoming more mature regarding audio/video with the MediaCodec implementation it was time to say goodbye to libstagefright. The old implementation for audio and video is called libstagefright and has been in the media several times this year, this method has become very outdated and the implementation wasn’t the best, as such we have removed the support for this and will fully focus on MediaCodec. This means that for certain devices this will be a step back for Kodi usage, or perhaps Kodi might even become unusable if they have firmware which doesn’t make proper use MediaCodec. We’re sorry that this is happening but keeping support for libstagefright is hurting further progress, stability and puts a too large support burden on the our Android developer, so we hope you will all understand this decision.