Amazon Fire TV

BionicRasher

Amazon Fire TV
Anyone interested in one of these?
They look like a very capable machine.
Quad-core processor, 2 GB of memory, dedicated GPU, 1080p HD video and Dolby Digital Plus surround sound, Ethernet, Dual band WiFi, Bluetooth remote, Voice search. They seem to be able to do a lot and more of what a Roku/Chromecast/Apple TV can do but in a small package and it has games too.
Plex can be installed so local streaming seems possible.
If we could get it for the price it seems great. If it could have XBMC on board it might be even better

jester77

I'm very interested. I've been waiting a long time for a product to replace my mac mini htpc running plex. This might just be that product. If it can handle plex direct streaming with little/none transcoding on the server side and allows for DNS server changing then I will probably pick one up.

The_B_Man

Any time I see things like this, I get excited. But then I remember I have a smart tv and it has all these apps already.
I could do with the gamepad tho!!

ThisRegard

I don't have a Smart TV, I saw a Roku 2 for cheap enough on Amazon yesterday, and I read about the Fire TV last night.

The thing is, although I want them, do I actually need them ?

I'm a light user of Youtube, don't have Netflix, and stream anything from my laptop via a HDMI cable if I want to watch it on a big screen.

So the question is, will I get any use of something like these ?

same ol sh1te

ThisRegard wrote: »

I don't have a Smart TV, I saw a Roku 2 for cheap enough on Amazon yesterday, and I read about the Fire TV last night.

The thing is, although I want them, do I actually need them ?

I'm a light user of Youtube, don't have Netflix, and stream anything from my laptop via a HDMI cable if I want to watch it on a big screen.

So the question is, will I get any use of something like these ?

Yes, if you want use of the laptop while streaming or playing local files.

Telchak

If XBMC and an N64 emulator can be sideloaded on (or even some way of playing DLNA from my RaspBMC) then this would become a very attractive device!

ThisRegard

same ol sh1te wrote: »

Yes, if you want use of the laptop while streaming or playing local files.

Maybe I should rephrase my question, is there any advantage, apart from lugging the laptop to whatever TV I want to use ?

same ol sh1te

ThisRegard wrote: »

Maybe I should rephrase my question, is there any advantage, apart from lugging the laptop to whatever TV I want to use ?

Yes, it's a complete package and comes with a remote. The apps will be preconfigured and self updating, less hassle. You'll also be able to access on demand Amazon content

curehead

i use it to watch tv and movies from my phone not every site lets you or gives the option to, i'm still trying to figure out some other things on it

Gran Hermano

Don't see the point in buying one until Amazon offers prime to Irish customers.

ThisRegard

curehead wrote: »

i use it to watch tv and movies from my phone not every site lets you or gives the option to, i'm still trying to figure out some other things on it

The Fire TV is not out yet, are you talking about something else?

Agent Coulson

I'd nearly get one just for this ad alone! Don't do meth kids

BionicRasher

Lots of work ongoing in the XBMC forum with the box so hopefully they will get XBMC working.

Plex is available on the box but XBMC is 10 times better IMO.

Would be a great XBMC box at the price.

gingernut79

Don't bother with the roku 2 I got one earlier this week it's already gone back to amazon. All the good apps are only on the roku 3 and the streaming stick

ThisRegard wrote: »

I don't have a Smart TV, I saw a Roku 2 for cheap enough on Amazon yesterday, and I read about the Fire TV last night.

The thing is, although I want them, do I actually need them ?

I'm a light user of Youtube, don't have Netflix, and stream anything from my laptop via a HDMI cable if I want to watch it on a big screen.

So the question is, will I get any use of something like these ?

gingernut79

Don't bother with the roku 2 I got one earlier this week it's already gone back to amazon. All the good apps are only on the roku 3 and the streaming stick

ThisRegard wrote: »

I don't have a Smart TV, I saw a Roku 2 for cheap enough on Amazon yesterday, and I read about the Fire TV last night.

The thing is, although I want them, do I actually need them ?

I'm a light user of Youtube, don't have Netflix, and stream anything from my laptop via a HDMI cable if I want to watch it on a big screen.

So the question is, will I get any use of something like these ?

jester77

BionicRasher wrote: »

Lots of work ongoing in the XBMC forum with the box so hopefully they will get XBMC working.

Plex is available on the box but XBMC is 10 times better IMO.

Would be a great XBMC box at the price.

hmm, I would have to disagree. I find Plex so much better than xbmc. Just set it up on the server once and off you go, no more configuring. You can install a client almost anywhere and everything is ready to go out of the box. Plus the sync feature is priceless. When a new show is added to my plex server overnight, it is automatically synced to my phone and I can watch it on the way to work in the morning. I don't have to do anything.

same ol sh1te

jester77 wrote: »

hmm, I would have to disagree. I find Plex so much better than xbmc. Just set it up on the server once and off you go, no more configuring. You can install a client almost anywhere and everything is ready to go out of the box. Plus the sync feature is priceless. When a new show is added to my plex server overnight, it is automatically synced to my phone and I can watch it on the way to work in the morning. I don't have to do anything.

Yes, but some of us remember the history of Plex and support XBMC which is truly multi-platform and completely open source code. The Plex developers were members of the XBMC team but were kicked out. They forked the XBMC source code (which will always be open) and closed it.

jester77

same ol sh1te wrote: »

Yes, but some of us remember the history of Plex and support XBMC which is truly multi-platform and completely open source code. The Plex developers were members of the XBMC team but were kicked out. They forked the XBMC source code (which will always be open) and closed it.

I know the history, I started using plex when they forked from the main xbmc branch. At the time it was only because they were heavily focused on optimising it to run on OSX, which was perfect for me back then. Since then it has evolved into a fantastic media center, the splitting into client/server was a great decision. This alone is why I consider it better than xbmc. Leave the plex server running in the basement and all my clients can connect to it without having to be configured.

BionicRasher

jester77 wrote: »

hmm, I would have to disagree. I find Plex so much better than xbmc. Just set it up on the server once and off you go, no more configuring. You can install a client almost anywhere and everything is ready to go out of the box. Plus the sync feature is priceless. When a new show is added to my plex server overnight, it is automatically synced to my phone and I can watch it on the way to work in the morning. I don't have to do anything.

Plex is ok and yes works out of the box in most cases but XBMC is so much more customisable, looks nicer, has more features, better Live TV (not even sure Plex will do Live TV)
Throw all my files on a server and XBMC clients around the house and its great. Install Trakt and it figures out what you have watched on different devices. Yatse remote on mobile devices is great too for XBMC

Maybe its a bit like the Apple v Android relationship!

witnessmenow

Anyone have any suggestions on how to buy one of these?

I have a game I would like to deploy to it, but would like to see it running first

witnessmenow

Ordered one today, a co-worker will be in the US for the next couple of week so they are going to bring it back.

Looking forward to trying it out.

Riesen_Meal

witnessmenow wrote: »

Ordered one today, a co-worker will be in the US for the next couple of week so they are going to bring it back.

Looking forward to trying it out.

Looks like a fantastic little device, like a high end Chinese dongle, I would say its great for emulation....

And XBMC, there is a guide to install it on XDA....

Is there an SD slot on it or onboard memory do you know?

witnessmenow

I dont think so.

The main reason I bought it is that I have a game written for the Ouya that I would like to port to the Kindle Fire TV. I am actually pretty happy with the Ouya in general for XBMC etc.

Im interested to check the Kindle Fire TV out anyways

witnessmenow

Got the Kindle Fire TV last week. Seems like a nice device, although I haven't done to much with it other than test my game and watch a bit of plex.

But any questions on it, feel free to ask

mcw92

witnessmenow wrote: »

Got the Kindle Fire TV last week. Seems like a nice device, although I haven't done to much with it other than test my game and watch a bit of plex.

But any questions on it, feel free to ask

You hardly went about installing XBMC on it no?
Would have a few questions so if you did

witnessmenow

mcw92 wrote: »

You hardly went about installing XBMC on it no?
Would have a few questions so if you did

Yeah I installed XBMC, I dont however use any streaming service/plugins with it. And this is isn't me trying to be cute to avoid talking about stuff we shouldn't, I honestly don't!

I use it to play stuff of a local network shared drive.

What would you like to know?