The Almost Official Fire TV Thread

[booklover6]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Once set up it takes over my TV and will not allow me to change volume, any TV settings, and worst of all it will not allow my to switch away from the HDMI input on which the Fire TV Stick is plugged in. So plug it in and set your TV to the Fire TV Stick HDMI input port and you are stuck.

That was not my experience. I had no trouble switching input, changing volume, or operating any other function of the various remotes.

Originally Posted by jswinden

And not only that but the video quality totally sucks compared to my U-Verse TV reception. The Fire TV Stick provides a very dark and low resolution image, even though it is set to 1080p at 60Hz.

I mainly used mine for WWE Network, and that is where the experience became unsatisfactory. Stuttering, freezing, rewinding live video, and eventually, stopped playing video on the channel altogether. It did work fine for the 5 minutes I had it playing Netflix I sold it and got a Fire TV. So far, so good, with the box.

I still say it is a total POS. My Sony Bravia has three HDMI input ports. I've used those ports with a LOT of devices over the past few years, and no other device has prevented my TV from changing HDMI port selection, nor locked out all TV menu and volume settings. Pure junk! And good lord what an effing crappy picture it gives me. I'm used to DVD quality or better with U-Verse and my Apple TV, and superb video quality with Blu-Ray, but the Fire TV Stick delivers what looks like 720i (not 720p) that has been upscaled. It looks horrible and it looks extremely dark. Shadows are everywhere in the video. I like shopping at Amazon, but I think this is the last crappy Amazon device I will buy. Their tablets suck, their phone is a joke, their eInks are not that good, and now this POS takes the cake as far as garbage design goes. I'll stick with running the Amazon Prime Video app on my Mac Mini and streaming it to my TV via Apple TV. That is clunky, but at least it works well and looks good.

[Blossom]

I love my Fire TV Stick. It works flawlessly. Maybe yours is broken. I also have a Sony Bravia. No problems. Beautiful video and no buffering issues. I do use the Extender it came with to plug it in.

[Anthem]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Their tablets suck, their phone is a joke, their eInks are not that good, and now this POS takes the cake as far as garbage design goes.

Their tablets are perfectly fine content consumption devices that have only gotten better with time. Their phone is a bit of a joke. Their e-inks are class leading devices. And most people are reviewing the Fire TV Stick rather favorably in terms of speed, functionality, and playback quality. Also, as someone who owns the full Fire TV I can say that the video quality on that device, at least, is excellent and not appreciably different in any way from my Apple TV on the same television.

Originally Posted by jswinden

I'll stick with running the Amazon Prime Video app on my Mac Mini and streaming it to my TV via Apple TV. That is clunky, but at least it works well and looks good.

Clunky is an understatement. I used to do stuff like this YEARS ago to get my streaming content to my TV. Thank god the Dark Ages are over now that set top boxes are available.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by Anthem

Their tablets are perfectly fine content consumption devices that have only gotten better with time. Their phone is a bit of a joke. Their e-inks are class leading devices. And most people are reviewing the Fire TV Stick rather favorably in terms of speed, functionality, and playback quality. Also, as someone who owns the full Fire TV I can say that the video quality on that device, at least, is excellent and not appreciably different in any way from my Apple TV on the same television.



Clunky is an understatement. I used to do stuff like this YEARS ago to get my streaming content to my TV. Thank god the Dark Ages are over now that set top boxes are available.

Their e-inks may be class leading devices, but options for line spacing, margins, and font size are sorely lacking.

[booklover6]

Originally Posted by Anthem

Their phone is a bit of a joke.

Not to me! Of course I've never had an iphone or other top of the line smart phone. But I have the Fire Phone on the AT&T GoPhone prepaid plan and I just love it!

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by booklover6

Not to me! Of course I've never had an iphone or other top of the line smart phone. But I have the Fire Phone on the AT&T GoPhone prepaid plan and I just love it!

You said it. I love my Fire phone but I always had LGs before this with Gingerbread or Froyo. I am using mine with Straight Talk and it works great! I bought the phone for a media player but I am using it as phone now and realize that's it's such a great phone and has even more potential if they upgrade it to Sangria.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

Their e-inks may be class leading devices, but options for line spacing, margins, and font size are sorely lacking.

I never had a problem with that what I had a problem with quality of screen and playing roulette in getting one without defects or flaws. My last Kindle was a Paperwhite v1 and it's pretty nice but I prefer my Kindle Fire 6 to read on which is the best Kindle Fire they have made to date. The text rendering is amazing on that little thing. So sharp and crisp compared to other tablets like the Nexus 7. The Fire phone has good text rendering to about the same as the Nexus 7.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by Blossom

I never had a problem with that what I had a problem with quality of screen and playing roulette in getting one without defects or flaws. My last Kindle was a Paperwhite v1 and it's pretty nice but I prefer my Kindle Fire 6 to read on which is the best Kindle Fire they have made to date. The text rendering is amazing on that little thing. So sharp and crisp compared to other tablets like the Nexus 7. The Fire phone has good text rendering to about the same as the Nexus 7.

Yes, as long as their options are what you would choose anyway, they're fine. I prefer small margins and single spaced lined. Amazon prefers large margins and double spacing. And if you need a little larger font than usual, you're out of luck as well - I can have huge or a little too small fonts. A little too small wouldn't be too bad if it just didn't make my vision go double.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

Yes, as long as their options are what you would choose anyway, they're fine. I prefer small margins and single spaced lined. Amazon prefers large margins and double spacing. And if you need a little larger font than usual, you're out of luck as well - I can have huge or a little too small fonts. A little too small wouldn't be too bad if it just didn't make my vision go double.

I use a custom font and set my own margins on my K4 and my Paperwhite when use a Custom font you get normal line spacing.

[tubemonkey]

Amazon Fire TV Remote

...is now available in the iTunes App Store. Requires iOS 7.0 or later.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Amazon Fire TV Remote

...is now available in the iTunes App Store. Requires iOS 7.0 or later.

I'd wish they would make it compatible with Gingerbread. I hate how they are leaving old Android versions in the dust.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Blossom

I'd wish they would make it compatible with Gingerbread. I hate how they are leaving old Android versions in the dust.

Progress; and it's happening to iOS too.

[Anthem]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

Their e-inks may be class leading devices, but options for line spacing, margins, and font size are sorely lacking.

They are minimal, but they do give you something to work with.

Originally Posted by booklover6

Not to me! Of course I've never had an iphone or other top of the line smart phone. But I have the Fire Phone on the AT&T GoPhone prepaid plan and I just love it!

That's awesome. Personally, I like the Fire phone, but the sales of the phone have been truly terrible. My wife loves her Windows phone (she has two!) and I helped her pick it out. A device doesn't have to sell well to be liked by some people. If you like it, that is all that matters. (And support from developers... that matters too.)

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by Anthem

They are minimal, but they do give you something to work with.

I don't consider changing from triple spacing to double spacing something to work with. I also don't consider the font size doubling and no choices in between something to work with. The margins also go from huge to too big.