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Firing my Roku, going with Amazon Fire TV

I purchased an Amazon Fire TV as I needed another streaming device and I got it for $30 off. It came yesterday and I set it up and am not very impressed.

I don't care for the user interface but that may be due to my familiarity with Roku devices, I may get used to it. PQ is inferior too what I am getting from my Roku. Picture seems to pixilate quite a bit.

I am not going to return it as I can use it on the bedroom TV once I put a TV in there but at this point I would recommend a Roku over the Fire TV.
 
Haywood said:
KODI boxes with illegal add-ons are not just illegal, they are dangerous. Friends do not let friends torrent.
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Any "Not stealing" type online tv subscription serves out there for live tv(besides hulu)? I want to drop cable but I need fox business and a couple other business channels.
 
mzpro5 said:
I purchased an Amazon Fire TV as I needed another streaming device and I got it for $30 off. It came yesterday and I set it up and am not very impressed.

I don't care for the user interface but that may be due to my familiarity with Roku devices, I may get used to it. PQ is inferior too what I am getting from my Roku. Picture seems to pixilate quite a bit.

I am not going to return it as I can use it on the bedroom TV once I put a TV in there but at this point I would recommend a Roku over the Fire TV.
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Well, that's exactly the opposite of my experience. Of course, differences in UI is a mere matter of preference (just like I hate the MacOS UI), but I got significantly better video performance with no stuttering or buffering or resolution shifting with the three FireTV boxes than I ever got from the three Roku boxes I've owned which all had issues with buffering, resolution shifts, and even sudden shut down of the stream when there were unexplained network problems. Even when I wired them directly and switched routers the problem didn't go away. That's why I shifted.
 
Batman said:
Have you tried hardwiring it directly to your router?
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The stick doesn't do that (I am assuming you have the Stick), and he shouldn't have to anyway. It should just work. He is making the right decision on using the Roku until something happens on the FireTV (like an update) which solves the performance problems. Even so, if he doesn't like the UI, then why bother. Both play streaming services.
 
Flint said:
The stick doesn't do that (I am assuming you have the Stick), and he shouldn't have to anyway. It should just work. He is making the right decision on using the Roku until something happens on the FireTV (like an update) which solves the performance problems. Even so, if he doesn't like the UI, then why bother. Both play streaming services.
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I do not have the stick but this one

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N32NCPM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It is a small box with a short HDMI connector
 
The NVidia SHIELD is fantastic, if you don't like Roku or FireTV.
  • Clean, uncluttered interface
  • Fast and stable
  • Full 60 fps UHD HDR support
  • Supports Amazon, Google and Vudu
  • Excellent Bluetooth remote with both IR and CEC volume control for other devices
 
I reallylike my Roku order the fire TV on an impulse to see how it would work with tmy system.
 
I went through about a 30 day period in the spring last, where I kept getting security handshake issues. It's been flawless the last 5 months or so and it was flawless the 2 prior years before that period of issues (Ruku 3).
 
mzpro5 said:
Is the remote signal for this Bluetooth? Seems I can't setup my Harmony One to work with it.
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I have no idea. I don't use complicated remotes anymore. I just use my programmable remote to turn on or off everything and do the rest with my FireTV remote. I like the sleek and simple 10 button remote.
 
The sleek Samsung TV remote also works to control the FireTV (I assume via CEC, but I haven't checked).
 
I had a $25 Best Buy gift card burning a hole in my pocket and Amazon Fire Sticks were on sale for $25 so I grabbed on for the bedroom to replace an older Apple TV.

I really like the experience so far and especially like the voice search functionality. I tried plugging it in directly w/o connecting the USB power supply and it didn't work. My set has a USB port so I tried that for power. I initially got an alert that the Fire Stick wasn't properly powered but its been working like a champ.
 
Towen7 said:
My set has a USB port so I tried that for power. I initially got an alert that the Fire Stick wasn't properly powered but its been working like a champ.
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I was able to use the TV's USB port when I had an older, cheap 32" TV in Virginia. I sold that TV when I moved out of the apartment there, but I assumed my new upper-midrange 43" Samsung TV would offer the same option of using the USB port to power my Fire TV Stick. It sorta worked, but sometimes while opening apps, like Netflix or Hulu, it would restart for no other reason. After trying everything else, I went to a proper USB charging dongle I had around and that worked perfectly. So, not all the USB ports on TVs provide enough power for the Stick to do everything.

My current generation Fire TV box simply won't work, it starts rebooting in a loop, when I try to use the TV's USB port for power.
 
I've been happy with Roku, but I've been not too pleased with some of the apps I use, namely AMC. Every now and then, I have to verify that I have a provider, which means logging into My PSVue account to verify. Then wait for AMC to load the episode I'm wanting to watch. Dish was a lot higher, but the simplicity of watching a TV can not be beat imo. Sports is a whole other pain in the ass when it comes to Internet streaming.

I'm thinking about going back to Sling, but I hate how it's single device dependent. Sling would only allow you to use one device at a time which I hated. PSvue, didn't plus gave you "DVR like" options are far as FFW/REV goes, but wasn't as streamlined as Dish was.

On the flip side, I've not lost any sleep over and/or had the desire to watch any typical TV for that matter. Most of my "TV" watching has been Netflix, YouTube, and AMC in that order.
 
Yesfan70 said:
I've been happy with Roku, but I've been not too pleased with some of the apps I use, namely AMC. Every now and then, I have to verify that I have a provider, which means logging into My PSVue account to verify. Then wait for AMC to load the episode I'm wanting to watch. Dish was a lot higher, but the simplicity of watching a TV can not be beat imo. Sports is a whole other pain in the ass when it comes to Internet streaming.

I'm thinking about going back to Sling, but I hate how it's single device dependent. Sling would only allow you to use one device at a time which I hated. PSvue, didn't plus gave you "DVR like" options are far as FFW/REV goes, but wasn't as streamlined as Dish was.

On the flip side, I've not lost any sleep over and/or had the desire to watch any typical TV for that matter. Most of my "TV" watching has been Netflix, YouTube, and AMC in that order.
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YesFan’s experience of linear TV being simpler than OTT is one thing that gives me pause. And despite having have no desire for 99.9% of linear programming the very notable exceptions are local news and sports. Those happen to be the two areas where OTT is the most lacking.
 
If anyone uses YouTube on an Amazon device, you could be SOL come January. Apparently Google intends to block YouTube on Amazon devices then.
 
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Hadn’t read that but I’m not surprised. Amazon and Google don’t get along. So much so that Amazon won’t sell certain TVs that feature SmartCast capabilities.
 
Towen7 said:
Hadn’t read that but I’m not surprised. Amazon and Google don’t get along. So much so that Amazon won’t sell certain TVs that feature SmartCast capabilities.
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To clarify, they don't like TVs with SmartCast which won't support Amazon streaming apps.
 
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