Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Thanks, Monkey.
I've had for years a Western Digital "Live TV" media streamer than I use to watch video, listen to music, look at photographs, etc. It's something I use every day, and I regard it as one of the most useful gadgets I've ever bought. Sounds as in the "Fire TV" box is a better version of that, with the added ability to stream Prime Video.
Presumably I can plug an external USB drive into a Fire TV box, as I can with my WD box?
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No, the WD Live TV is by far the better media player for local media.
I have one and nothing else from a reliable vendor comes close to its range of format support especially ISOs. It supports USB hubs so I can hook up six or seven hard drives to it. I've only hooked up 4 but it looks like it might go a dozen or more. It also exports those drives as SMB mounts so it can serve as a NAS hub. My Logitech remote calls it a Media Center rather than an STB.
The last update with the new GUI kicked it up a notch with a customizable front end.
I love that thing.
The FireTV box beats the WDTV in commercial streaming services supported, mostly because the wd box won't do the Amazon sites. (Yet.) Both pale before Roku though.
Where the FireTV box really shines is in casual gaming support and hackability because it runs Android and folks have already figured out how to sideload apps and run stuff it isn't supposed to be able to run.
Check here:
http://www.aftvnews.com/
The stick is a lower spec version but with similar capabilities. At the $19-25 prices it hits on sale it is a very useful tool but it has its limits.