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Amazon Fire TV
Amazon Fire TV
- Access to over 200,000 TV episodes and movies, jillions of songs, and over a cardinal games
- With vocalise search, only feature the study of what you poverty to check and move enjoying in seconds
- Fast quad-core processor, 2 GB of memory, sacred GPU, nonnegative 1080p HD recording and Dolby Digital Plus touch sound
- Play best-selling games including Minecraft, The Walking Dead, Monsters University and more, nonnegative Amazon exclusives
Amazon Fire TV is a tiny incase that connects your telecasting to a concern of online entertainment. With a Brobdingnagian activity of TV episodes and movies, vocalise see that rattling works, nonnegative inner features same Amazon FreeTime, it’s the easiest artefact to savor Netflix, Prime Instant Video, Hulu Plus, low-cost flick rentals, music, photos, games, and more. What’s on Amazon Fire TV? Amazon Fire TV combines every your activity subscriptions and moving services with Amazon’s large activity of digital content. Watch over 200,000 TV episodes and movies, lease videos from meet 99 cents, or squawk backwards with your activity sports, news, music, and games. Perfect with Prime Prime members savor unlimited, commercial-free moving of tens of thousands of popul
List Price: $ 99.00
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Amadeus B. Klein "MG"
April 12, 2014 at 7:57 pm
Reviewed after a thorough hands on, I’m Happy with it…,
Customer Video Review Length:: 9:34 Mins
Feel Free to check out My unboxing and overview of the Fire TV!
**Quick update about surround sound**
The Fire Box Seems to default to Stereo, you need to go into settings and turn on “Dolby Digital Plus.” This can be found under the settings heading, under the far right setting box, then under Audio, you have to choose whether it will be Optical or HDMI. This should solve the no surround sound issues…
I am not a vine member (Those folks do excellent reviews, I’m just not that lucky to be Vine yet), nor am I speaking to something I don’t own, By that I mean that I paid for it myself and here is my Experience so Far:
Is it the best thing ever? No…
Is it the worst thing ever? Nope, Not by a long shot…
In fact, it’s up with the top streaming boxes when you take into account future app development…
It’s a very good device, comparable to a Roku in most ways, some better some worse (Once apps start getting ported we’ll see what happens) but there is plenty of room to make a “FireTV 2” much better in the future…
So here’s my review:
Overall the packaging came in perfect order, it was easy to open, and nothing was missing.
Setup was simple, It took a few minutes thanks to a large initial update to download, but otherwise just as easy as setting up a kindle fire.
Pros:
Android Based (which means many apps coming and the potential to root and gain more features
Ability to use Apps (Not just having to rely on what’s preloaded like to many older TV boxes and Bluray players)
Accurate voice search – This one surprised me, It actually worked, Way better than Xbox Voice Commands or Siri, and Better than S Voice…
Bluetooth remote (for some this is a con, but I don’t want another Wifi device jamming my crowded signal Read on to see why I think this)
It’s not flashy – Matte Colors and no crazy lights
Quick to load – Just 28 seconds from Plug in to ready to stream (My Roku 3 takes 78 Seconds to do the same)
Feels heavy – for the size it really has good heft (Doesn’t feel cheap)
Only 1 white light on front, It is a bit bright but not a deal breaker
Does Dolby Digital sound Out (DTS, 5.1 Etc) Via Optical or HDMI
Netflix In HD (Some android based players couldn’t do this)
Cons:
Need to purchase separate gaming remote
No Headphone jack in remote
Low on apps to start with
No Native DLNA Support (Hopefully Apps will fix that soon)
No AC wireless band it has 5Ghz N but not AC
Case can pick up fingerprints, but they remove easily
Immediate update after first plug in is big, Almost 900MB so it may take a while
The power brick is bigger than I was hoping for, if you have a crowded power strip it might be an issue
Plex is the only local media app available so far.
Voice Search for media only works on Amazon Prime Videos, It will give you options to watch on netflix or Hulu if you go in, but if you want your personal network media you have to go into your app (Plex is the only one currently available) and search manually (Voice search kicks you back out to Amazon Video if you try it.
Full Disclosure here I run 2 full HTPC’s and a Roku XD and Roku 3 in my house, so my expectations of how this will end up working are very high.
To beat out my other devices it has to Play local media (From my HTPC Server), have better functioning Apps than my Roku and be easier to navigate than my HTPC setups are. It also needs to stream flawlessly and with as little buffering as possible (Netflix, Amazon Video, hulu, Etc.)
So does it do this? So Close! But not quite…
It is faster to stream than my Roku and HTPC when coming from internet sources, and it’s faster to play local media (Using the Plex App) But, right now Apps are not yet ported over, for me one of the most important ones is Mediabrowser 3, which powers my main HTPC setups and feeds local media to my Rokus, but Plex works fine, just without parental controls which I want…
As far as lack of apps I’m not concerned with this as being android based it is simple for a dev to port them over and given that this will sell excellent regardless of the reviews here there will be thousands of apps coming in the next few weeks/months…
My neighborhood is crowded with Wifi signals which makes interference a huge issue for me, the Roku 3 uses “Direct Wifi” to connect it’s remote, which means that there is another device that puts out a signal to interfere with your other ones, plus it uses the same channel as your router so you can’t even move channels to avoid the extra interference. It may not be much in most cases but in an uber crowded locale like mine it is a definite negative, the FireTV’s Bluetooth doesn’t seem to cause any wifi interference…
Voice Serch, I was…
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|William Hardin
April 12, 2014 at 7:31 pm
This box is a GAME CHANGER for on demand content! Amazon knocked it out of the park. Refreshed & UPDATED with Tips!,
I am not a casual user of on-demand content and devices. Having tried smart tv’s from 3 brands, smart dvd/bluray players, Apple TV, WDTV, HTPC, Chromecast and too many other competing products to mention–for streaming content, before this box you really had two options (for a simple to use box that doesn’t require additional items or tweaking):
First is Apple TV which is easy to use (interface) but Apple limits the content you can get greatly (including no Prime Streaming built in) and it lacks a lot in features as well and is slow. The reason for selecting Apple TV is if you have other apple products that unlock features (like Amazon’s content).
The second option you could consider was Roku–which really means a Roku 3 box since it is heads and tails better than past Roku boxes in terms of remote and speed. Now Roku stands out with the most content and the most features of any box with the Roku 3. It is for that reason you will see me address the Roku 3 so often in this review.
I have added quick summaries of other options to make sure everyone knows about the other options out there.
WDTV: Are great for streaming your own content but not very user friendly.
Chromecast: Is very cheap at $35 but requires other items to use (no remote included!), is limited to 16 channels according to their own site with other content broadcast via Chrome’s browser not at the same quality level. This does allow you to browse the internet on your tv and is amazing for the cost but is more of a niche market than FireTV/Roku/Apple TV. But if you can live with the short comings, it is worth a look at 1/3 the price of these devices.
Smart TVs: Most of these are FINE for occasional use but not nearly as pleasant to use daily like separate boxes. Normally you pay $150-$400+ extra for features that are found in these $100 boxes. I have not found a smart tv that is decent and is also a good value for what you are getting. The advantage is that you can use your TV remote to access the content. (and that is about it!)
HTPC: These are desktop computers or Mac Minis or Android Sticks that you load software on to stream video to your TV. These can add content that no normal streaming box can access, without giving up quality but they are only recommended for something comfortable with technology that doesn’t mind fixing the issues that come up from time to time.
Video Game Consoles: Xbox/Playstations can access some of the content that streaming boxes do and have plenty of power to deliver the streams. The downside is the cost (unless you already have one) and the interfaces. These consoles are not designed to stream video exclusively so the interfaces are decent but can be clunky.
(You can use other options but frankly they aren’t worth the hassle for the amount of hair pulling you would do.)
Now this Amazon product has changed everything. It might not be the box for you…but honestly there is a good chance that it SHOULD BE. This is a brand new category for Amazon and they got a lot right, but there are a few shortcomings (at least at launch) as well so read all of this to see what those are.
Amazon’s Fire TV box
Pros:
+ Nothing else is this fast. While Roku 3 impressed the world, this raises the bar dramatically. With a quad core processor and 4 times the memory of any other streaming product, it speeds through menus, boots quicker, starts videos quicker and honestly has the muscle to not struggle with higher end resolutions and surround sound like other boxes can do at times. The best way I can explain it, you will have extra hours at the end of the year because this box is THAT much faster.
+ Voice search is amazing. It really works. Less using a four directional keypad to enter in titles is a real time saver and makes you wonder why this wasn’t done before but it is only for Amazon content and VEVO (music videos) (at least for now). You can not use the voice search with Netflix for example.
+ Ready for gaming, well at least once you spend another $40. The $40 gaming controller feels a bit pricy for this type of gaming and really should be $25 or less in my opinion. That being said, this box has real games you would actually want to play instead of a VERY limited selection on Roku 3 but it is not a “REAL” console at $100 and honestly shouldn’t be compared to them.
+ Better image quality? I know you are thinking I am imagining things or have changed my setup but both myself and my wife have noticed that generally (in different apps) the video is slightly sharper and clearer. We are using the exact same tv, settings, even the same HDMI cable that we used with the Roku 3 until we switched it for the Fire TV box. We have noticed that especially on poor quality feeds that the image quality is noticeably better than under the same feeds with Roku 3. Now I don’t…
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