Fire TV

KM0201 · 18. März 2015

So with the intention of becoming a cord cutter, and debating forever on a streaming device to get... I picked up a Fire TV Stick yesterday. Brought it home, had it set up in no time. First, the surprising thing... Plex plays all my media (even my old .avi's) without transcoding them. Also side loaded Kodi... but honestly... I'll probably remove it because Plex seems to be handling all my stuff perfectly.

I've got my NAS with my Movie/TV collection and Netflix which seems to handle most of my entertainment. I'm thinking about adding Hulu Plus, but I want to wait till the weekend to get a good look at it.

Then the only thing, is how to stream NFL games.... I know the NFL has a service they are planning to start next year, but I'd like to cancel my cable sooner than that (I very rarely watch network television anymore)

So far... I'm really happy with it, and for only $40... I'd consider it a bargain.

ryecoaaron · 18. März 2015

I have changed all of my set top boxes (ditched cable/satellite over 3 years ago) to Fire TVs or Fire TV Sticks. Love them I paid $19 for the stick and my Fire TVs are refurbs for $79.

Not a fan of the plex app though (wrong info, no or bad subtitles, etc). I side loaded kodi and put the icon on the main screen. Kodi gets the files over samba. Much more reliable for me and no server program to worry about. I use quite a bit of Amazon prime video.

For sports, I use the WatchESPN app and I have hdhomerun connected to my attenna on the roof. The hdhomerun has a dlna server builtin and can even transcode (firetv/stick doesn't need it though). I get most NFL games over the antenna. The rest are usually on the WatchESPN app.

subzero79 · 18. März 2015

40? Is that the stick or the bigger one?
Haven't hire any TV service in 5 years. Every time I am in a friend's house and turn on the TV Is like a flow of rubbish to the screen.

ryecoaaron · 18. März 2015

$39 is the stick. $100 ($84 when sale priced) is the bigger, wired box. Refurbs are always $79 though.

tekkb · 18. März 2015

The hardware version is my client of choice....

KM0201 · 23. März 2015

Well, Plex started acting weird on some select movies (oddly enough.. not .avi's... which I expected to have the most probs out of).. the movie would start.. and then just randomly start skipping through the movie.. Beginning, end, middle, end, beginning, middle.. It was odd.

Went to using Kodi exclusively, and all seems to be going perfectly. Even found a good tutorial on how to add Kodi to the dashboard.

davidh2k · 4. April 2015

Lets see when my Fire TV Stick arrives if its any good.

Also have a RPI 2 here for testing now.

Greetings
David

KM0201 · 8. April 2015

I really like it.Man, what a crazy last 2 months

Ended up in the hospital a few days... check.
Working like a slave... checkBasketball tournament in town, city is going nanners... check.
Laptop croaked (USB ports all went out).. check.

I need a vacation... again. I finally had time to go a couple days ago and get me a new laptop... which is good. Windows 8 absolutely sucks. Glad I'm a Linux user.

Meniak · 18. April 2015

I had lots of problems with High Quality files and stutter on Kodi with FireTV connected through Lan-cable. Heard people having better result with wifi but that wasn't a solution for me either. I changed advancedsettings.xml, changed Kodi versions, no solution whatsoever. Finally I installed SPMC which is basically just a Kodi-fork and that's working wonderful! Also, to have the icons in recent, you could surf to the amazon appstore via a PC, 1-click install the app (it will say it's not suited for FireTV but just go ahead and install) sideload the app on the fireTV, go to my account on FireTV, sync amazon content, open the app 1 time from your installed apps and voila, the icon appears in recent!

I tried ALOT of media players: Popcorn Hour a-400, Minix (several version including latest android X8H-Plus), Ouya, Cubox-I4 (Openelec, Android), Raspberry Pi, Banana Pi, Xbox, Playstation, and probably some more I (most luckily) I forgot.

They all have 1 thing in common, they all fail in bringing good Netflix- support combined with Kodi. If you use PLEX, there's plenty of options though, but as suggested before, I don't like the subtitle support AT ALL!
Minix does a fairly good job but Netflix doesn't want to allow 1080p support on pure Android boxes.

That only leaves Fire TV: not perfect also as no native Kodi support (although very easily sideloaded) which means you won't find the Kodi apps inside the app section on the Fire TV, in my case it needed tinkering with Kodi and finally I settled for SPMC.
sometimes after a few days of media consumption it seems as if there's a buffer problem in Netflix and Kodiwhich makes the image micro-stutter (a reboot does the trick)
Because there's no official support for Kodi on the FireTV, Amazon could potentially release an update that blocks Kodi completely (They already released an update which bricked FireTV's of rooted users)

All those negatives just point to 1 conclusion: Why isn't there a decent out of the box experience that just has a good full HD Netflix app combined with Kodi that just works. You could go for a Windows/Linux box but I don't want to sit on the couch browsing media with a keyboard or flymouse.

ryecoaaron · 18. April 2015

My FireTV with wired connection plays 1080p bluray rips and even Windows Media Center 1080p .wtv files using kodi. Not sure what type of file you are having issues with. I don't think wireless would make it better. Even my FireTV stick over wireless plays 1080p with not much stutter.

It is easy enough to add an icon for kodi (see pic). Sideloading apps is how developers test their apps. I doubt amazon will remove that feature. Blocking rooted boxes is done to prevent piracy. Two very different issues there.

davidh2k · 18. April 2015

I'll check in a couple of days how my, just arrived today, FireTV Stick will handle my Files.

Greetings
David

Meniak · 18. April 2015

I think I had problems with High quality, high compressed MKV files. I tried different advancedsettings.xml files, disabling hardware acceleration (libstagefright, mediacodec, both or single) increased buffering, connection through wifi, ... There's tons of forum posts on XDA about the issue. Some people don't have a single problem (some series would play absolutely fine here too) and others never really solved the problem and switched boxes.

Luckily I installed SPMC (including Icon for IconoTV which starts SPMC) and that fixed all my problems which makes me believe that certain settings in Kodi would've fixed my problem too as SPMC is a Kodi-fork. The guy that makes it is an official Kodi programmer.

There's some really cool features in SPMC that Kodi doesn't have: double tap back button on start screen will minimize SPMC, pushing the back button in video will actually stop the video instead of it playing in the back which annoys me, faster Fast forward and backward, auto 3d-switching, UHD in codec, some other nifty stuff, and the fact that I can watch stutter-free now!!

ryecoaaron · 18. April 2015

Trying spmc on the firetv stick now

ryecoaaron · 18. April 2015

I'm impressed... SPMC plays 1080p (mpg, mkv and wtv) with subtitles over wifi on a firetv stick with NO stuttering

chanders · 23. April 2015

I think I just found my favourite thread

I bought both the Fire TV Stick and Fire Tv. In fact that was the reason I built my OMV box! I love it. I have done the same as you guys and installed KODI. My setup works perfectly so I didn't bother to install SPMC.

I think I will still look into it though. I am still amazed what this little hardware can do.

What Skins do you guys find works best? I use bello but I think experience works just as well.

Do you guys have any tips you all would like to share?

ryecoaaron · 23. April 2015

SPMC is nice because it pauses the movie when you hit the back button.

I use the default skin (coherent?).

The biggest tip I have only applies to people who use Amazon Prime video. There are times when it says it can't connect. I have to go into applications and Force Stop kodi/spmc and then amazon prime video works.

chanders · 23. April 2015

You can change the action for the back button in KODI to do the same by editing the keyboards.xml file so you can get the same behavior in KODI. The default skin is Confluence.

I too have had the same problem with Amazon video. I usually just restart the Fire TV but I will use your tip if it givs trouble in the future.

My tip: Explore the "Live TV" section. Right now I am using KODI as my set top box with over 500 premium channels so I only use one device for Media (OMV) /Streaming (Amazon Video, Netflix) / Live TV (HBO, Sho, CBS, DSC...).

ryecoaaron · 23. April 2015

I have an hdhomerun box that has a dlna server (transcodes too). So, I watch live tv over antenna on my firetv as well (using kodi).

tekkb · 23. April 2015

I use Slingbox for remote live TV. The app for Slingbox on Fire TV is one of the better I've seen. It works well with the remote control too.

If I was a college student I would hook up a Slinbox at my parents and not even pay for Cable TV. Just get broadband and use your Fire TV.

chanders · 23. April 2015

What quality do you get? Do you need a dedicated additional cable box for it to work?

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