Amazon Fire TV Stick

[Sushubh]

Amazon Fire TV Remote App - Android Apps on Google Play

this is the mobile app i believe.

@Nishant got his Amazon Fire TV unit today and he played with the device for a while. he might post photos and views tomorrow. the device allows third party app install. he was able to easily install kodi and stream content from his network. that's what i required it to do. i should get my unit tomorrow and i would post my experiences after playing with it.

 

[Nishant]

I got only a limited time yesterday to play around with it due to a power cut. Overall a pretty good device. I wouldn't compare it with Chromecast as both are very different. Here are some pics.

The package

I initially connected to my Anker multi USB charger but that resulted in the below loop. It just kept doing this and then restart.

I then connected it to the bundled 1A charger and it was fine. Pretty strange that my Anker charger which is capable of outputting upto 2A didn't work and the bundled charger worked.

It actually came partly preconfigured with my Amazon ID and I just had to put my password.

I had no idea that there is a Fire TV stick app to control the device instead of the bundled remote. Typing passwords are much easier with the app.

Installing Kodi was quite easy. You just have to enable ADB Debugging and Apps from Unknown Sources in from the Settings -> Device screen.

Once that's done, install Apps2Fire, put on the IP address of the Fire Stick in the setting of this app and then push the 32bit version apk of Kodi and you will be able to see Kodi under the list of install apps.

The voice control of the remote is pretty solid too. It was able to detect Indian accent easily without any issues. It also supports miracast (screen mirroring) although I didn't test it yesterday.

Netflix, Hotstar are also working as expected. The UI is fluid enough with no visible lags. If anyone wants me to test something or have any queries, do let me know here.

 

[ijsa]

Are Ditto and NDTV working on this....

Remote looks quite big in comparision to Shield.....

 

[Nishant]

Will test and post here today.

 

[gopichandpai]

Ditto works fine. I haven't tested NDTV. I have Fire TV though(not fire tv stick)

 

[Nishant]

If it works on Fire TV, it should work on Fire TV Stick too.

 

[igloo]

Jio tv app download from app store and try via wifi hotspot?
Gonna save me heaps if it works.

 

[Sushubh]

so i got my Amazon fire tv unit today. here are my initial views.

• It does what I wanted it to do.
• It is not very localized as the device comes bundled with tons of US specific apps that you cannot use locally like HBO, Starz and Spotify.
• It has India English language option but for location it only accepts US Zip Code. I entered a dummy one and I cannot leave it blank now.
• You get Alexa!
• Location based searches on Alexa did not work for me. I tried 'temperature in gurgaon' and it keeps on showing me temperature of Seattle. I guess the zip i entered was for Seattle.
• I do not like the mobile app. It disconnects as soon as you leave the app and takes a few seconds to connect back. Controlling the UI without looking at the phone is also painful because you do not feel the buttons etc. But it is good for typing passwords and as backup. I do not see Amazon selling remote separately so it would suck to lose it. I also could not find a way to connect the app initially with the device. It only worked after I had configured Wireless on the device. So not sure what one would need to do if he loses the remote (or it stops working for whatever reason) and the device is resetted.
• I did not need to enter Amazon password as well. Not sure why Nishant had to. Netflix of course required both username and password. Connecting YouTube was easy. It showed a code which I needed to enter on the YouTube website and it logged in just fine.
• VLC is shite. The UI for entering network password did not work for me at all. So it failed to connect with my Pi. It should however play local videos just fine.
• Device has around 5.2GB of available space.
• Managed to install Kodi using Nishant's instructions. Worked fine. I was able to easily connect to my Pi and streaming files downloaded from the internet.
• The app he mentioned to install apps can also be used to upload files to the Fire storage so I suppose you can upload videos to it for playing? Seems pointless because of 5GB storage space.
• There is no option to shutdown. Amazon support docs say that it is fine to just pull out the power cord or turn off the adapter. There is a sleep option that activates automatically and can also be used manually. There is also a screensaver feature.
• Remote is nice.
• Voice search works well. Searched Andaaz Apna Apna and it detected it just fine.
• I had to restart the device to get voice search working after initial setup. I also had to restart the device to get the apk installer app working from the phone after turning on dev settings and install from unknown sources. So, if something is not working, just restart the device.
• UI is smooth.

 

[Sushubh]

This is a sample Alexa output!

 

[gopichandpai]

@igloo you need to sideload jio tv apps.