Amazon Press Event - 02 Apr

[wizwor]

Originally Posted by silverraven

Nothing to entice me yet. I have a Roku..........
Unless they are going to cut their channel from the Roku?
Now if it were free with Prime?? YES!!!
S

As an OTA first cord cutter with PS3/Xbox/WII plus gaming PCs, this is not particularly exciting for me. I own six Rokus and have stopped buying them in anticipation of this and the Mohu Channels box.

The fact is that, while this device will have limited appeal to OTA types, it kills Roku, ATV, CC, and Ouya. Check this out...



With the Amazon Fire TV, you get the best hardware, the broadest selection of apps (media and games) and excellent tablet support for less than $100. I think Apple will bow out due to the slim margins required to compete with Amazon, I think Roku will fold since they are not making a profit selling their Roku 3 for the same price, and I think the Ouya was going down already.

The only real question is whether Google is interested in competing with Amazon. If the answer to that is yes, we are in for some amazing innovation and that is all any of us could really ask for.

[Namekuseijin]

"Instant streaming—Exclusive new feature ASAP predicts what movies and TV episodes you’ll want to watch and buffers them for playback before you hit play"

ZOMG, hope it doesn't read my mind and begins buffering pr0n in the middle of a family gathering

[wizwor]

more likely it cues the second episode of a series while you are watching the first.

[twowheels]

One benefit of the Roku that nobody seems to be talking about is the ability to add private channels.

I'm curious if Amazon will be as open as the Roku. If so, they might steal much of Roku's thunder, but otherwise I believe that Roku still has a strong place in the market.

[Sydney's Mom]

The mirroring from a Kindle HDX is nice, but not worth the price, because I get Amazon Instant Video on my Roku. And now that Directv has signed on with HBO Go, I can't imagine needing anything else.

[WillysJeepMan]

Originally Posted by twowheels

One benefit of the Roku that nobody seems to be talking about is the ability to add private channels.

I'm curious if Amazon will be as open as the Roku. If so, they might steal much of Roku's thunder, but otherwise I believe that Roku still has a strong place in the market.

You can bet good money that it won't be as open as the Roku. But given Amazon's name recognition and near-Apple customer loyalty it will sell well.

[shanghaichica]

Well if it launches in the UK for £99 I'll probably get one. It will be nice to use amazon instant video without having to airplay from my iPad to the Apple TV. Plus I like the idea of being able to play mobile games on the TV. I know I can AirPlay from my iPad to the Apple TV, but using touch screen controls is not the same as using a proper games pad.

It can add to all the other overlapping devices I have connected to my TV.

[Graham]

Originally Posted by wizwor

As an OTA first cord cutter with PS3/Xbox/WII plus gaming PCs, this is not particularly exciting for me. I own six Rokus and have stopped buying them in anticipation of this and the Mohu Channels box.

The fact is that, while this device will have limited appeal to OTA types, it kills Roku, ATV, CC, and Ouya. Check this out...

That table's slightly disingenuous though. I can't speak for the AppleTV or Roku, but with regard to the Chromecast:

• It does have voice search, in that Google will happily pull out your content by voice on your phone or tablet.
• The device that you plug it into may have an optical audio out.
• The device that you plug it into may have Dolby Digital Plus surround sound (the Chromecast does support this)
• The whole point of Chromecast is that your casting device acts as the remote (and is a lot better at performing this function)

Graham

[DiapDealer]

Looks interesting. I'm open (when and if I decide one of my older Roku's might need an upgrade) to it. But just like Roku's latest model ... why on earth is the ethernet port only 10/100? I would think it would be difficult to find non-gigabit hardware these days.

[whitearrow]

No HBO GO = a nonstarter for me. I'm happy with my previous generation Roku, and when I upgrade it will be a Roku 3.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Looks interesting. I'm open (when and if I decide one of my older Roku's might need an upgrade) to it. But just like Roku's latest model ... why on earth is the ethernet port only 10/100? I would think it would be difficult to find non-gigabit hardware these days.

For internet streaming it is irrelevant.
In fact, the dual band MIMO wireless is overkill. Specsheet engineering.
Except for Netflix's upcoming 4K video streams, most internet streaming services keep their 1080p streams well under 10Mbps. Netflix typically runs around 6Mbps. And most households are lucky to get 20Mbps throughput off their broadband service.

Where gigabit pays off is for local file transfers and DLNA streaming. Which isn't something Amazon wants to encourage: they want to sell you fikes and cloud storage, not just a hunk of hardware.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Where gigabit pays off is for local file transfers and DLNA streaming. Which isn't something Amazon wants to encourage:

Sure it is. They prominently advertise the Plex channel which is all about streaming from a local Plex server (which I do a lot of).

But I concede your point in general. It just annoys me that my Roku is the only non-gigabit device on my local network. Why is anything other than 10/100/1000 even on the market anymore?

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Why is anything other than 10/100/1000 even on the market anymore?

5 cent chips.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

5 cent chips.

I'll gladly pay $99.15 or so if it would help.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I'll gladly pay $99.15 or so if it would help.

The WiFi chip is likely the same as the tablets but since the tablets don't have ethernet ports they don't need a wired Ethernet chip so their orders will be low volume. They probably figured the thing was goldplated enough and a gigabit chip wouldn't add enough sales to cut their margin or boost the price to $109.

Besides, they need something to add for the FireTV 2.0.