Amazon Fire TV

I joined the crowd with one of these today and again I have to say I am impressed so far.

The basic functionality I have of playing my media collection on the attached TV works very well indeed (My collection includes Blu Ray rips of 25G+ that so far are playing perfectly).

I was fully intending to put XBMC on this but Plex is currently handling my needs so I am undecided.

I also have Netflix and Amazon Prime that both also work very well. Annoyingly the voice search works extremely well with amazon prime , I say annoyingly because everything I have so far searched for you have to pay for :( As a side note Amazon really need to have a way of filtering between paid and free prime content.

So now I need to start playing with side loading and there are 3 apps I am looking for and do not even know if they work.

So Itv player ? 4OD ? and Now TV ? do they exist do they work ?
 
Limelight is absolutely worth having a go with really impressive little app :)

Honestly looking at this little box and Shadows of Mordor on the TV and I really can see game streaming as being the future.

The fact this works just so well doing something it was not even designed to do is really quite impressive.
 
A guy at work has one of these and is raving about it. I've got Plex and Netflix and a real desire to have something like this in my living room...

But no IR has killed it for me :(. I've just got rid of all my media remotes and got a Harmony, but it won't control the Fire TV as its bluetooth :(
 
Skeeter said:
A guy at work has one of these and is raving about it. I've got Plex and Netflix and a real desire to have something like this in my living room...

But no IR has killed it for me :(. I've just got rid of all my media remotes and got a Harmony, but it won't control the Fire TV as its bluetooth :(
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If you've just got it then return it and pick up Harmony Smart Controller. Apart from generally just being a better remote it can control Bluetooth devices as well.
 
Unless i'm missing something isn't the harmony smart control basically just a phone app, a reciever and a physical controller that's not even as good as the 650? Personally i find using phones tedious in the long run for controlling things.
 
NexusK said:
Unless i'm missing something isn't the harmony smart control basically just a phone app, a reciever and a physical controller that's not even as good as the 650? Personally i find using phones tedious in the long run for controlling things.
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You are absolutely missing something - it's easily the best all in one remote money can buy at the moment.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18631835

Lack of a touch screen is made up by the fact that it can flawlessly control everything automatically. Why use a touch screen to control extra functionality of your devices when you can set an activity to do these steps automatically?

Also don't be fooled by it's small size, every button can have two functions assigned to it (usual "tap" and "long press") and then of course you could always get the "ultimate" that include a touch screen anyway.

Edit: P.S. I agree using phone is the single worst way to control AV equipment. It takes FOREVER to unlock you device and wait for an app to load (and/or connect/crash) and then you can't even do a command by feel. The last part is the reason I don't even like touch screens on my remote.
 
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Unless I can get a Harmony Hub based remote setup for 45 quid or less ill stick with my 650.

I think both Google and Amazon have missed a trick with not including any IR. It eliminates almost all universal remotes.

Is anyone else joining the Android TV arena? Both the Nexus Player and the Fire TV have drawbacks to them. I'm hoping someone else fills the gap with another device.
 
Skeeter said:
Unless I can get a Harmony Hub based remote setup for 45 quid or less ill stick with my 650.

I think both Google and Amazon have missed a trick with not including any IR. It eliminates almost all universal remotes.

Is anyone else joining the Android TV arena? Both the Nexus Player and the Fire TV have drawbacks to them. I'm hoping someone else fills the gap with another device.
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I think you're missing the trend for devices to move away from IR control. Hell, even my new TV has a bluetooth remote.

Also, watch out for the "Harmony Smart Control" remote dropping in price as the new range of "Harmony Home Control" remotes come out.

Physically look almost identical but they come with buttons to control lightswitches and plug sockets if combined with the correct hardware.

P.S. Why not buy the Harmony Smart Control from the forest for £70 - try it for 15 days and then return it if you don't like it ;)

picnic said:
If you're heavily in to the voice search then you need the FTV remote anyway. Can't see that working over IR.
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Also, this. The voice search on the FTV is pretty amazing and a pretty hard task with IR. Will be interesting to see what other kind of functionality can be included with remotes with the added bandwidth of bluetooth - like the Roku3 headphone socket (but I think that's possibly WiFi tech it uses)
 
I almost ordered a Fire TV box yesterday until I found out that the prime instant membership doesn't actually give you access to the movies you'd think. My Mrs pays for it and uses it on her pc so I had a look and found that a good deal of films require you to pay extra for them. I use the postal side (lovefilm) and looking through my list some of the movies I can rent by post I'd have to pay extra for on instant. I don't understand this. I may as well just rent them from the sky store via the nowtv box as they're the same price.
 
Just received mine today. Before I sideload XBMC on it can I clarify there is no way of streaming my video collection with the standard software. I know there is plex but I understand you need the media server installed at the other end as well? I have a Synology DS414 which doesn't support the media server... Basically, I can't use plex on the FTV without installing plex on the NAS?
 
Amp34 said:
Just received mine today. Before I sideload XBMC on it can I clarify there is no way of streaming my video collection with the standard software. I know there is plex but I understand you need the media server installed at the other end as well? I have a Synology DS414 which doesn't support the media server... Basically, I can't use plex on the FTV without installing plex on the NAS?
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It's easier to remove a sideloaded app than it is to install so I wouldn't worry about that.

But yes, unfortunately there's no built in application that lets you play your own media and Plex Media Server cannot currently be installed on your NAS. XBMC is likely your best bet at the moment.
 
Well I installed it shortly after writing that and everything is set up now. It's a great little player and plays all the MKVs I've thrown at it so far (admittedly not many). I'll probably buy another one for the other TV shortly.
 
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