Amazon Fire TV • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon Fire TV

#131

Post by mikeryan » Wed, Apr 02, 2014, 4:59 PM UTC

bitcrusher wrote: post #111

programminggeek wrote: post #84

This is pretty much what Google TV should have been all along, but Google cares too much about web search and not enough about what people actually want to do on a TV - watch shows and play games. The gaming aspect of this will make it a winner. OUYA's big problem is that it didn't do streaming and was a bit clunky. Amazon has a big game library and just needs controller support. As a parent, a $100 streaming box and…

It's interesting how different perspectives work: > The gaming aspect of this will make it a winner. OUYA's big problem is that it didn't do streaming and was a bit clunky. Amazon has a big game library and just needs controller support. I think the gaming aspects are the worst part and are entirely useless. Who wants to casual game with an underpowered box on a giant TV screen? Goofy games are fun on a 4-7" screen b…

Perhaps they would have been better served by spending their time getting HBO-Go, Starz/Encore and Spotify all hooked into their little box

Give it time. These are usually 3rd party apps not built by the provider of the platform (as a note, my company just finished building Starz/Encore/Movieplex Play for Xbox 360). The important thing is that Amazon provides an Ecosystem,it just needs some time for all the other offerings to get on there.

The SDK just opened up to all third parties today as well https://developer.amazon.com/public/community/post/Tx1K5ORNN...

Re: Amazon Fire TV

#132

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Apr 02, 2014, 5:00 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Amazon Fire TV

#133

Post by cweiss » Wed, Apr 02, 2014, 5:00 PM UTC

WoodenChair wrote: post #45

I'm really not that impressed. This is just Apple TV for the Amazon eco-system with gaming lopped on. The majority of people don't care about the specs of their set-top box since that really doesn't affect the performance of streaming an HD video in this day and age. So the two differentiating features are: - Voice Search - Gaming Are those enough of a value proposition? Probably not to make converts. I suspect the m…

"This is just Apple TV for the Amazon eco-system"

Which is not an insignificant demographic. There's a whole lot of folks who actually arent invested in the Apple ecosystem, this addresses a huge market segment, regardless of whether games are included.

Re: Amazon Fire TV

#134

Post by feverishaaron » Wed, Apr 02, 2014, 5:01 PM UTC

bitcrusher wrote: post #111

programminggeek wrote: post #84

This is pretty much what Google TV should have been all along, but Google cares too much about web search and not enough about what people actually want to do on a TV - watch shows and play games. The gaming aspect of this will make it a winner. OUYA's big problem is that it didn't do streaming and was a bit clunky. Amazon has a big game library and just needs controller support. As a parent, a $100 streaming box and…

It's interesting how different perspectives work: > The gaming aspect of this will make it a winner. OUYA's big problem is that it didn't do streaming and was a bit clunky. Amazon has a big game library and just needs controller support. I think the gaming aspects are the worst part and are entirely useless. Who wants to casual game with an underpowered box on a giant TV screen? Goofy games are fun on a 4-7" screen b…

It would be a gateway console for little kids who want to play Angry Birds (which is basically all my 6 year old wants to do).

Re: Amazon Fire TV

#135

Post by walkon » Wed, Apr 02, 2014, 5:02 PM UTC

Do these convex/rounded remotes that this and the Roku have bother anyone else? They seem to slide off the couch easier and if I set it down on a flat surface, it rocks back and forth for several seconds.

Re: Amazon Fire TV

#136

Post by Pxtl » Wed, Apr 02, 2014, 5:02 PM UTC

How hackable will the android on this thing be? Will you be able to connect bluetooth-based gamepads to it?

Re: Amazon Fire TV

#137

Post by personZ » Wed, Apr 02, 2014, 5:03 PM UTC

bitcrusher wrote: post #111

programminggeek wrote: post #84

This is pretty much what Google TV should have been all along, but Google cares too much about web search and not enough about what people actually want to do on a TV - watch shows and play games. The gaming aspect of this will make it a winner. OUYA's big problem is that it didn't do streaming and was a bit clunky. Amazon has a big game library and just needs controller support. As a parent, a $100 streaming box and…

It's interesting how different perspectives work: > The gaming aspect of this will make it a winner. OUYA's big problem is that it didn't do streaming and was a bit clunky. Amazon has a big game library and just needs controller support. I think the gaming aspects are the worst part and are entirely useless. Who wants to casual game with an underpowered box on a giant TV screen? Goofy games are fun on a 4-7" screen b…

How is the simple inclusion of the feature the "worst aspect"? You don't have to play games on the device, of course. They didn't force the controller with the base purchase. Given that it's Android powered, I suspect they didn't have to spend much engineering effort on making it capable of playing games.

Also, don't sell mobile gaming short. There are current generation mobile chipsets capable of PS3 level graphics (especially given that many smartphones now have a resolution greater than that big television), and in this case they don't even have to live within the power bounds of a battery power deviced, opening up the high end (they claim it's a "dedicated" GPU, which is an odd phrasing in the era of SoCs).

PS3 level graphics are beyond satisfactory for a huge range of gaming genres (especially given that many of the PS3s limitations were courtesy of the 256MB/256MB memory limit).

Re: Amazon Fire TV

#138

Post by drivers99 » Wed, Apr 02, 2014, 5:04 PM UTC

Touche wrote: post #82

scottm01 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, I own a roku and a chromecast, there is literally nothing here that makes me regret either, and nothing that would make me choose the Fire TV over AppleTV if I did want to be tied closer to one ecosystem. I guess I'm bummed that it means it's unlikely the prime video interface will get any better on Roku, but Prime Instant video quality is already so much worse for me then any other source it's not that big a…

> and nothing that would make me choose the Fire TV over AppleTV if I did want to be tied closer to one ecosystem. Well, Amazon is at least available on a variety of platforms whereas iTunes is only on Apple devices -- and will always only be available on Apple devices.

"iTunes is only on Apple devices"

No; iTunes runs on Windows.

Also, you can use Apple TV with non-iTunes bought stuff[1] although it does support iTunes sourced media of course, and fewer channels than Roku et.al. I usually just use it for Netflix, streaming radio stations and podcasts, and YouTube.

[1] http://www.apple.com/appletv/whats-on/

Re: Amazon Fire TV

#139

Post by bratsche » Wed, Apr 02, 2014, 5:04 PM UTC

downandout wrote: post #107

programminggeek wrote: post #84

This is pretty much what Google TV should have been all along, but Google cares too much about web search and not enough about what people actually want to do on a TV - watch shows and play games. The gaming aspect of this will make it a winner. OUYA's big problem is that it didn't do streaming and was a bit clunky. Amazon has a big game library and just needs controller support. As a parent, a $100 streaming box and…

With screen mirroring, Apple TV offers the ability to play any game in the App Store on a TV wirelessly without having to buy a controller. That game library will likely always be larger than this one. Granted, you must have an iPhone or iPad, but I am surprised that Apple does not tout this feature more. I use it daily and it is pretty awesome.

If AppleTV let me watch Amazon Prime video it would be perfect. I use Amazon Prime and Hulu+ for TV, and right now the only device I have that lets me watch both is my PS3, and its UI sucks (plus it's constantly requiring me to download updates).

Re: Amazon Fire TV

#140

Post by mindslight » Wed, Apr 02, 2014, 5:05 PM UTC

Osiris wrote: post #80

mindslight wrote: post #52

Or simply stick with a Raspberry Pi, which is free of arbitrary manufacturer-imposted restrictions and comfortably off of the locked-down-software induced upgrade treadmill.

RPI is a single-core @700mhz with 512MB RAM compared to quad-core, 2GB of RAM, so it's a significant bump up in hardware specs for not that much money. I'm curious how long it will take people to root it.

Sure, the hardware is faster, but for what purpose and at what cost? We're well into the a time where the capabilities of a device have much more to do with its software than its raw hardware specs.

When you root a proprietary environment, the best you can do is gain a leg-up within the ecosystem of the initial manufacturer. You're always swimming against an overall current of what the manufacturer implements, and paying a usability tax every time you use the device and things that should be easy are either a little harder, or have to be coped with on other devices.