Amazon Fire TV

[pceinc]

Just setup my Amazon Fire TV. I love it so far. The deciding factor for me buying it was the lan port. Chromecast would be so much better if it had a lan port. Fire TV was easy to setup. The voice control is actually pretty useful. The first thing I installed was Plex. No more Rasplex. Raspberry Pi and Rasplex is garbage compared to the Fire TV. Streaming from Prime is real nice too. I recommend it if you are looking for a new TV gadget.

 

[Rosco]

Just setup my Amazon Fire TV. I love it so far. The deciding factor for me buying it was the lan port. Chromecast would be so much better if it had a lan port. Fire TV was easy to setup. The voice control is actually pretty useful. The first thing I installed was Plex. No more Rasplex. Raspberry Pi and Rasplex is garbage compared to the Fire TV. Streaming from Prime is real nice too. I recommend it if you are looking for a new TV gadget.

Better than a roku?

 

[altrenda]

I would prefer the Roku 3. It gets all the channels the Fire does, plus a few others, and has a lan port.
While the fire has the voice search, it only searches Amazon Prime programs. The Roku search will search for a title across every channel.

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

Sorry to dig up an old thread. Figured it was better than littering up the place with a new one. Finally cutting the cord so to speak. Ordered a pair of Roku boxes for the house (Roku 2 and 3) after some painstaking research. Although I'm not crazy about no ethernet on the Roku 2 it was a necessity since one of the TVs is not HD and Roku 3 is HD only. Also, that TV is literally one wall between it and where the router is. The Roku 3 I'll likely run a cable for over the weekend. I've already got Amazon Prime and an MLB.tv premium package for my baseball fix. Hardest part is weaning the wife off of cable. But I had her scrolling through the Amazon Prime offerings and she seemed receptive. I'm keeping the barebones local channel offerings from Comcast and pretty much blowing away the rest. But I suspect even those will soon go away as we have little interest in the big network channels or local news.

Interested to hear of any techies that have made this move and their experiences so far. A techie friend of mine has been completely cable free since 2011 and hasn't looked back. Of course, it was a tad easier for him since he's not into sports. I personally follow baseball like crazy but that's covered for the most part.

 

[TenYardFight]

I did it for 18 months. My desire to watch live sports is what killed it for me. What I added to your mix was an OTA antennae and a Tivo DVR.

 

[fergeeks]

I have been cable free since 2005; currently running Plex on a Roku 3 and loving it.

 

[Blues]

I have 2 PS3's but one is broken I need to fix it to put it on my 2nd TV. The lady wants cable back though. Do any of the devices have good source for like the local news? We have a OTA antenna but we only get 2 stations with it and am scared to buy a "better" one and not really get an improved signal.

 

[mikeroq]

I don't have a STB or even a TV. I also haven't had cable (that I've paid for) in over 6 years. I stream everything online on my PC or phone. Someday I would like to get a TV not sure what device I will get yet but no cable for me.

Currently using: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu (not so much) and "other" sources.

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

I did it for 18 months. My desire to watch live sports is what killed it for me. What I added to your mix was an OTA antennae and a Tivo DVR.

This is what I'm realizing. An MLB premium count does nothing for you if the team you are following is in your market area (Unless you are okay with waiting 90 minutes after the conclusion of the game to finally see it). Makes it pretty hard to watch a game as most start at 7pm. So essentially, if you can stay up all night and avoid any sports until 90 minutes after the game is over. So maybe by 11:30 pm or later you can start watching. So $129 a year gets you access to anybody but your local team live? So, essentially all this leaves sports fans with is cable or pirating sources unfortunately.

 

[mcnelly34]

Well that leaves me out of not having cable, im a huge sports fan and couldnt go without it!

 

[pceinc]

I just finished loading XBMC, which is now called Kodi, on my Fire TV. Pretty straight forward process. I recommend anyone who has a Fire TV that likes to stream their content to check it out. You will not be disappointed.

 

[Moltuae]

I just finished loading XBMC, which is now called Kodi, on my Fire TV. Pretty straight forward process. I recommend anyone who has a Fire TV that likes to stream their content to check it out. You will not be disappointed.

I didn't realise the Fire TV could run XBMC.

I have a dedicated HTPC running XBMC. What would a Fire TV running XBMC bring you that a PC running XBMC won't?

I can play anything and everything on my HTPC -- in fact anything that a PC can play of course -- so I've always considered media players like the Fire TV to be inferior devices with greater limitations. So what's the advantages?

 

[LifelineIT]

I didn't realise the Fire TV could run XBMC.

I have a dedicated HTPC running XBMC. What would a Fire TV running XBMC bring you that a PC running XBMC won't?

I can play anything and everything on my HTPC -- in fact anything that a PC can play of course -- so I've always considered media players like the Fire TV to be inferior devices with greater limitations. So what's the advantages?

I don't have a ktv but I do have an ouya with kodi and a jailbroken atv2 with xbmc and the answer to your question is "effectively everything a full fledged htpc can do, for $80"

Idk about the ktv but the ouya has onboard hardware decoding, I haven't yet found any file at any resolution that I can't play.

 

[Moltuae]

I don't have a ktv but I do have an ouya with kodi and a jailbroken atv2 with xbmc and the answer to your question is "effectively everything a full fledged htpc can do, for $80"

Idk about the ktv but the ouya has onboard hardware decoding, I haven't yet found any file at any resolution that I can't play.

Ah, ok thanks.

So essentially, they're just smaller, cheaper and simpler than a HTPC solution. Not something worth having if you've already got a HTPC then I guess.

I was tempted to order a Fire TV, since they're just about to be released in the UK and are presently being offered for just £49 (pre-order) to Prime members, which sounds like it could be a good deal ... if I needed one.

 

[LifelineIT]

Ah, ok thanks.

So essentially, they're just smaller, cheaper and simpler than a HTPC solution. Not something worth having if you've already got a HTPC then I guess.

I was tempted to order a Fire TV, since they're just about to be released in the UK and are presently being offered for just £49 (pre-order) to Prime members, which sounds like it could be a good deal ... if I needed one.

Correct. We're kind of in an era now where htpcs are really only necessary if you're capturing tv versus just displaying it. Hardware decode for the win!

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

I just finished loading XBMC, which is now called Kodi, on my Fire TV. Pretty straight forward process. I recommend anyone who has a Fire TV that likes to stream their content to check it out. You will not be disappointed.

Whoa I didnt know you could do that. I may have to check out the fire tv product.

 

[cypress]

I myself would love to just go with a Roku and get rid of them cable bill altogether but I love my sports. Especially baseball. That's really the only reason I still watch cable. Picking up the ChromeCast for my father, played with it at my friends house and loved it.

 

[PBComputer]

Ah, ok thanks.

So essentially, they're just smaller, cheaper and simpler than a HTPC solution. Not something worth having if you've already got a HTPC then I guess.

I was tempted to order a Fire TV, since they're just about to be released in the UK and are presently being offered for just £49 (pre-order) to Prime members, which sounds like it could be a good deal ... if I needed one.

I've pre-ordered one. Just could not resist.

 

[Moltuae]

I've pre-ordered one. Just could not resist.

lol

I'm still tempted, even though I don't really need one. I've been trying to think of ways I can use it just to justify buying one. It's been in and out of my shopping basket about 3 times. Bloody good price ... very tempting!

 

[Krilus]

I've done some work side loading into the AFTV and its a bit of a pain. The GUI is beautiful though. Myself I have two Minix NEO x7 mini's at my place and find it's a much better option than AFTV, and besides its much harder to get in Canada.