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Amazon Vega OS and Vega Developer Tools

developer.amazon.com

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Re: Amazon Vega OS and Vega Developer Tools

#21

Post by alias_neo »

cebert wrote: post #9
benbristow wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They may as well stop selling them. I doubt many people are going to buy a Fire Stick to watch Prime and Netflix when you already can on any standard Smart TV. It's harder to buy a dumb TV now than it is a smart one. Never mind if you also have a game console connected which can run the same apps. Or a set top box like Virgin Media which run apps too.

The nice thing about sticks is when you go on trips or vacation. You’re authenticated into all of your subscriptions already and don’t have to sign in. The convenience of using sticks they eliminate the need to sign in at hotels or other places, which is why I love them.

Presumably some services have issues with locale? Does anyone run a VPN to home on these devices? I'd never considered taking my Firestick on holiday but I'll definitely consider that for the future.

Re: Amazon Vega OS and Vega Developer Tools

#22

Post by benbristow »

alias_neo wrote: post #21
cebert wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The nice thing about sticks is when you go on trips or vacation. You’re authenticated into all of your subscriptions already and don’t have to sign in. The convenience of using sticks they eliminate the need to sign in at hotels or other places, which is why I love them.

Presumably some services have issues with locale? Does anyone run a VPN to home on these devices? I'd never considered taking my Firestick on holiday but I'll definitely consider that for the future.

NordVPN have an app on the Store and so do others.

Re: Amazon Vega OS and Vega Developer Tools

#23

Post by close04 »

pwarner wrote: post #16
JCM9 wrote: post #13

I find Amazon’s software for streaming much slower and buggier than other providers. The streams too also seem to have more issues.

What's better? I'm not in the Apple ecosystem. My key criteria would be UX and video quality. Thanks

I own multiple FireTVs, Google’s Android TV, and an Apple TV and for almost everything I do the AppleTV is far ahead.

The only thing the FireTV had as an edge was the Xbox game streaming app which worked fine over WiFi6E. Otherwise it was absolutely ad-ridden, poor UI/UX, and Amazon’s apps suck on any platform. Since I no longer use the Xbox stuff, the stick and the older versions I have line the bottom of some drawer.

The Android TV turned out be almost as ad ridden as the Fire Stick and no obvious outstanding features. Works ok though. I wanted it to sideload some TV apps from another country to stream those TV channels. But the Android apks didn’t behave well on Android TV so into the drawer it went.

The AppleTV can’t run those apps either, they’re not in the store but at least it’s not showing ads and the UI/UX and performance are top notch. Integration with the rest of the Apple ecosystem really brings value to me. And that brings me to probably the most important point.

In the end what matters more is what ecosystem you are or want to be in. Unless you have a super specific requirement or ecosystem preference then generally I’d rank them Apple TV > Android TV > Fire Stick. Amazon doesn’t have an ecosystem to speak of so it hard to take it as a serious competitor to Google and Apple.

Re: Amazon Vega OS and Vega Developer Tools

#24

Post by benbristow »

alias_neo wrote: post #19
benbristow wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'll find another Android based device to use instead. The main reason, at least around the people I know, people buy Fire Sticks is to watch football/soccer at 3pm on a Saturday (there's a UK wide blackout to encourage fans to go to their local game, albeit if you're a fan of a club far away or a Premier League team you're going to struggle to get there, games are still aired abroad, IPTV services skirt round thi…

> people will stop buying them as they're close to useless as people have Smart TVs for the legal stuff I don't know if by "people" you mean specifically the people who use them for illegal streams, but there are others of us who buy them. I have a perfectly good high-end LG OLED TV that's now ~7-8 years old, and I wanted something with better performance (and newer WiFi standards) for streaming apps in 4K, I've used…

If you go into any pub in the UK and say fire stick, people assume it's not legit content you're using one for. They're infamous for allowing people to watch football (soccer!) games illegally on Saturday at 3pm when the TV blackout is on, as people outside the country can watch the games.

Re: Amazon Vega OS and Vega Developer Tools

#25

Post by benbristow »

shermantanktop wrote: post #14
cebert wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The nice thing about sticks is when you go on trips or vacation. You’re authenticated into all of your subscriptions already and don’t have to sign in. The convenience of using sticks they eliminate the need to sign in at hotels or other places, which is why I love them.

+1, that’s what I do. Only problem is that the HDMI port can be hard to get to.

A lot of hotels I've been to recently have a HDMI port baked into the row of plugs and switches above the desk. Handy.

Might be worth getting a male to female HDMI extension cable to make it easier to plug in.

Re: Amazon Vega OS and Vega Developer Tools

#26

Post by lillecarl »

pwarner wrote: post #16
JCM9 wrote: post #13

I find Amazon’s software for streaming much slower and buggier than other providers. The streams too also seem to have more issues.

What's better? I'm not in the Apple ecosystem. My key criteria would be UX and video quality. Thanks

"Google TV Streamer" is Googles official one, it's very streaming focused, any Android TV device of a reputable brand is good. NVIDIA Shields being the best.

I can recommend the app "Stremio" which has an extensive add-on ecosystem you can explore, works on Android, Android TV, Linux, MacOS and Windows!

Re: Amazon Vega OS and Vega Developer Tools

#27

Post by mmahemoff »

cebert wrote: post #9
benbristow wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They may as well stop selling them. I doubt many people are going to buy a Fire Stick to watch Prime and Netflix when you already can on any standard Smart TV. It's harder to buy a dumb TV now than it is a smart one. Never mind if you also have a game console connected which can run the same apps. Or a set top box like Virgin Media which run apps too.

The nice thing about sticks is when you go on trips or vacation. You’re authenticated into all of your subscriptions already and don’t have to sign in. The convenience of using sticks they eliminate the need to sign in at hotels or other places, which is why I love them.

Yes and combine with a travel router so you don’t have to endure logging into a wifi portal with a soft keyboard on the TV, if the stick OS even allows it. Then having to repeat the process daily due to expiration times, or as soon as you remove the key card from the hotel room slot, causing the router to power down and the TV stick to time out.

Re: Amazon Vega OS and Vega Developer Tools

#28

Post by mmahemoff »

alias_neo wrote: post #21
cebert wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The nice thing about sticks is when you go on trips or vacation. You’re authenticated into all of your subscriptions already and don’t have to sign in. The convenience of using sticks they eliminate the need to sign in at hotels or other places, which is why I love them.

Presumably some services have issues with locale? Does anyone run a VPN to home on these devices? I'd never considered taking my Firestick on holiday but I'll definitely consider that for the future.

Correct. Fortunately a number of streaming services are available in many regions nowadays, e.g., Netflix, Apple TV, Disney, HBO Max or whatever it’s called now.

The content may vary between regions though, e.g., you open Netflix in another country and no longer see a show you’re watching while see other ones appear. This can sometimes feel like a feature more than a bug.

Re: Amazon Vega OS and Vega Developer Tools

#29

Post by baggachipz »

alias_neo wrote: post #17
JCM9 wrote: post #13

I find Amazon’s software for streaming much slower and buggier than other providers. The streams too also seem to have more issues.

I wonder if the Vega stuff will be much better. There's really nothing to like about the Fire TV sticks. I bought the 4K Max thinking it might be the best option for 4K streaming from all of the major providers as an upgrade for my aging Mi Box (3, I think); aside from the home screen being majority advert, the AV sync is constantly out and differs per-app, so changing it for one makes another worse, WiFi signal is p…

Apparently the only redeeming quality for FireTV Sticks is the ease of piracy. Easily flashed with Kodi or whatever with all the pirate streams pre-configured. I had a FireTV Stick once and never again, their OS is some franken-android monstrosity.

Re: Amazon Vega OS and Vega Developer Tools

#30

Post by baggachipz »

lillecarl wrote: post #26
pwarner wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's better? I'm not in the Apple ecosystem. My key criteria would be UX and video quality. Thanks

"Google TV Streamer" is Googles official one, it's very streaming focused, any Android TV device of a reputable brand is good. NVIDIA Shields being the best. I can recommend the app "Stremio" which has an extensive add-on ecosystem you can explore, works on Android, Android TV, Linux, MacOS and Windows!

It's the current official one, until it's killed and bricked for the next official one.
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