Amazon Fire TV • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon Fire TV

#41

Post by limejuice » Wed, Apr 02, 2014, 4:23 PM UTC

I have a Sony BluRay player I bought for $70 which plays Blu Rays, Amazon video, Netflix, etc. Why would I want to pay $99 for this box.

Re: Amazon Fire TV

#42

Post by j_s » Wed, Apr 02, 2014, 4:23 PM UTC

mashmac2 wrote: post #29

Amazon FreeTime (coming next month, according to this page) is the most interesting piece for me - customized child safety settings for each child, with monthly subscriptions at $2.99 for children's TV shows. It seems like Amazon recognized the popularity of streaming services for parents of young kids and is setting this up just for them...

Kindle FreeTime Unlimited is available now. http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?&docId=1000863021

Re: Amazon Fire TV

#43

Post by notatoad » Wed, Apr 02, 2014, 4:23 PM UTC

karangoeluw wrote: post #3

This seems like a really good offering by Amazon. Now we'll just have to see if the competition lowers its prices or no.

Why would they drop prices? At 99 this is just following the status quo.

Re: Amazon Fire TV

#44

Post by mkempe » Wed, Apr 02, 2014, 4:24 PM UTC

I've thought for a while that a voice-interface was one of the features Steve Jobs saw as key to "cracking" TV.

Now Amazon has done it. I'm curious about what Apple may announce later this month.

Re: Amazon Fire TV

#45

Post by WoodenChair » Wed, Apr 02, 2014, 4:24 PM UTC

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 main buyers will be those who simply have bought into Amazon Instant Video as opposed to iTunes in the past. Let's see what Apple's next revision of Apple TV offers.

Re: Amazon Fire TV

#46

Post by abhinavg » Wed, Apr 02, 2014, 4:24 PM UTC

matthewaustin wrote: post #21

Prominently showing Game of Thrones content in the images, even though the Fire doesn't support HBO Go? Way to be deceptive, Amazon.

Game of Thrones is also available on Amazon Instant Video.

Re: Amazon Fire TV

#47

Post by badman_ting » Wed, Apr 02, 2014, 4:24 PM UTC

I have a WD Live TV box that I've enjoyed so far. It has all these streaming services except Amazon Prime, and it will play all my AVI/MP4/MKV files, streaming over DLNA.

This has some sweet features though, the voice search sounds good and the horsepower should allow for an overall nicer experience (speed of booting, menus, graphical effects in apps, etc).

Re: Amazon Fire TV

#48

Post by jauer » Wed, Apr 02, 2014, 4:24 PM UTC

schrodinger wrote: post #24

aroch wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you mean "any device that isn't Amazon branded", since Android devices that aren't in the Kindle Fire family also can't watch Amazon streaming stuff. Amazon is attempting vendor lockin.

There is an ios app for Amazon streaming...

Yes, but not on non-Amazon Android.

Re: Amazon Fire TV

#49

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Apr 02, 2014, 4:24 PM UTC

matthewaustin wrote: post #21

Prominently showing Game of Thrones content in the images, even though the Fire doesn't support HBO Go? Way to be deceptive, Amazon.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon Fire TV

#50

Post by Igglyboo » Wed, Apr 02, 2014, 4:25 PM UTC

pazimzadeh wrote: post #7

What I'm taking away from this is that Fire TV is the same as Roku and Apple TV. As for the gaming capabilities, it'll be interesting to see if they can compete with Steam Machine.

Well this is running android and Steam Machine is running full fledged linux(debian?). Comparing a set top box to a personal computer isn't really fair.