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Amazon Fire TV

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Re: Amazon Fire TV

#331

Post by alexeisadeski3 »

declan wrote: post #321
alexeisadeski3 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple TV lets you watch all three (iTunes, Netflix, and Amazon Prime). Airplay is a thing.

Ah, but I want to be able to view Amazon Prime without resorting to an Airplay workaround. For my living room use case Airplay isn't an option; I'm looking for an integrated unit.

I must plead ignorance:

How is that a "workaround"?

An iPad, iPad Mini, iPod, or iPhone is your remote - the AppleTV remote is horrible anyways and I've personally long ago tossed it. Fire up your new remote and play anything you like... it's incredibly simple.

Re: Amazon Fire TV

#332

Post by 72deluxe »

bratsche wrote: post #139
downandout wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

Have you noticed how Amazon Prime now has the rubbishest films on it for the "included with Prime" section but the films you'd expect to be included are now "buy!" or "rent!"

Re: Amazon Fire TV

#333

Post by shirro »

I love chromecast (have two imported) and for my use the lack of features such as remote/ui are a huge bonus over the slow dysfunctional bloatware crap in "smart" televisions. I want my screen to be just another display device I can send stuff too rather than the focus. That would probably change if I wanted my tv dongle to double as a games console but at current price/performance I don't see acceptable big screen gaming happening in a sub $100 device for awhile yet.

I think people are going to go with price rather than features for tv and Chromecast/Roku and a mountain of clones will take most of the sales. People who want to play games aren't going to do it on a $100 box from Amazon. They will stick to Xbox One/PS4 or a Steam box.

I imagine Amazon are thinking they can rely on content to sell these but I don't know that they are that strong an offering. However this turns out the real winners are going to be Netflix.

Re: Amazon Fire TV

#335

Post by firloop »

adestefan wrote: post #205
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…

If this Amazon box ever gets MLB.TV I'll buy one that day to replace my AppleTV. I don't watch enough movies or non-sports TV to make Netflix worth it to me, but having ties into what Amazon Prime streaming would be enough to pull me over.

According to this page[1], it's coming soon to the Amazon Fire TV

[1]: http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/subscriptions/index.jsp?content=produ...

Re: Amazon Fire TV

#336

Post by revelation »

Alpha House

And there it is, as a dropdown appears with only one entry you still have to select, and then continue to travel three menus deep to get to a point where video appears.

What are they thinking?

Re: Amazon Fire TV

#337

Post by tptacek »

ANH wrote: post #73
swanson wrote: post #32

The side-by-side comparison with Roku/AppleTV actually looks pretty bad for Amazon Fire TV... Same price, the only differences are that the Fire TV has voice search (don't care), a bunch of technical specs that the layperson doesn't care about, and a bunch of games (don't care). It's missing the checkbox for HBO GO (deal breaker for me personally). I was expecting something like a monthly subscription for all-you-can…

Eh, looks pretty good to me. Our wants are diametrically opposed: Voice search (do care -- Apple TV search is painful), tech specs (non line-of-sight remote -- Apple TV is line-of-sight), games (eh, might be a nice diversion for a few minutes after an episode of Walking Dead), and I don't have an HBO subscription.

I know the Apple TV came with a remote, but I never use it, because I have an iPhone. The RF remote isn't a huge win for people that use their phones to control the TV, which, as time goes on, will eventually be "everybody".

Re: Amazon Fire TV

#338

Post by periferral »

The one thing about the Roku I like a lot is the headset on the remote. I love that! I can be in a room with my headset and not disturb my wife sleeping and enjoy the show.

The lack on the headset jack on the remote on this for me would be a non-starter. Other than that, nothing to write home about. I can't see anything here that would make me switch from the Roku.

Re: Amazon Fire TV

#339

Post by shanknbake »

sanderjd wrote: post #277
eclipxe wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think people confuse the ChromeCast tab/screen mirroring (which is slow and laggy) and ChromeCast DIAL/casting from apps like Netflix which actually just sends a URL to the Chromecast to stream

Yeah, ChromeCast is a great product and a major marketing failure. Hardly anybody (even techies!!) understands that it is about competing with Apple TV (and now Amazon Fire TV) in the streaming market, not sending arbitrary stuff from the browser to your TV. Honestly, they should have launched without any of the confusing and crappy tab-casting functionality at all and probably called it something different than Chro…

as a techie that doesn't know how to use ChromeCast the way it should be used (as you've mentioned) would you mind enlightening me? How, exactly do you use it if not with the tab-casting?

Re: Amazon Fire TV

#340

Post by thezilch »

shanknbake wrote: post #339
sanderjd wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, ChromeCast is a great product and a major marketing failure. Hardly anybody (even techies!!) understands that it is about competing with Apple TV (and now Amazon Fire TV) in the streaming market, not sending arbitrary stuff from the browser to your TV. Honestly, they should have launched without any of the confusing and crappy tab-casting functionality at all and probably called it something different than Chro…

as a techie that doesn't know how to use ChromeCast the way it should be used (as you've mentioned) would you mind enlightening me? How, exactly do you use it if not with the tab-casting?

Use any of the following apps, and use the button supplied in those apps to instruct your ChromeCast to play the given media directly.

https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromecast/app...

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