signalnoise posted:

What's the current status of hotel room usage for this stuff? And what if I just want to stream stuff off a laptop

signalnoise posted:

or other storage media

Spermanent Record posted:

Does anyone know whether the apks will auto update?

thebushcommander posted:

So no issues with Kodi on the new stick/box? I am thinking about handing out a couple of the gen2 sticks pre-loaded with "fun" for Christmas. Is there a way you can setup and sideload the apps without a signing into an amazon account or a way to remove said account after? Don't want people accessing my prime account and buying movies and poo poo afterall.

PuTTY riot posted:

What's a good choice for a couple of basic controllers for a fire stick? Mainly for nes/snes emulation.

thebushcommander posted:

I was mostly just going to sideload a couple things i.e. Kodi and what not, but I seem to recall you need an amazon account to even do the initial setup to get into the main menus to enable unknown apps and debugging. If that's not the case I guess it's no big deal.

quote:

Last week, I fired up a “how to make your first app” video on YouTube and I made my first app for the Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick. It’s called Downloader and it just got approved into the Fire TV appstore. Downloader’s purpose is to make sideloading apps on the Fire TV as easy as possible. The app simply has a URL field where you enter the URL of any file you want downloaded to your device. After the file has downloaded, it will automatically be installed if it’s an APK file. That’s it.

Grump posted:

My mom just told me some dude she works with is selling jailbroken Fire TVs for $125.

That's a ripoff right? Or at least sounds sketchy. If I tell her to buy a Fire Stick and jailbreak it myself, it's pretty much the same experience right?

wandler20 posted:

Any idea if a new Fire Tv is coming? I'm picking up a new OLED TV but want the benefits of HDR and the current model doesn't support it. I really like the Fire TV (I have 3 fire tv's and 3 sticks) but might get the new Roku instead.

Hadlock posted:

Is there any way to legally stream Alton Brown's "Good Eats" show on the Fire TV? Like, all episodes of all ~14 seasons? Netflix has 30 or so, but that's it, the other 250 episodes are unavailable, and aren't on YouTube anymore and you can't even find a box set of the DVDs on eBay these days. I'm open to any suggestions, my girlfriend has decided to learn to cook and I just can't explain this stuff as well as he can.

Hadlock posted:

Yeah I was hoping for a steaming solution, as at ~$200 that's a lot more than I was hoping to spend I think we paid ~$130 for game of thrones but that was a special exception as we ended up watching a lot of that offline on her Kindle tablet

quote:

The Fire TV version features solo play against up to 4 AI players, local multiplayer play with up to 4 people, and online multiplayer. The online multiplayer is cross-platform, which means there will always be plenty of Android, iOS, Mac, and PC players to play with. Ticket To Ride is compatible with all Fire TV and Fire TV Stick models, and works with either a remote control or game controller.

thebushcommander posted:

Pro tip for anyone using a Kodi on firetv box or stick... Last night I encountered a lack of storage on my box for the first time ever. After inspecting apps it seemed Kodi was using 3.2GB of storage on my box. This of course causes caching issues with streaming videos etc as it didn't have any place to put more data coming in. After poking around the file manager for a minute I realized that the Thumbnails folder was using 2.6GB! of space. Now I assume there is a tool or way to remove them all to "start" fresh downloading movies/tv show tumbnail art etc, however a quick google suggested that the majority of the space used in that file is all the actor thumbnails. It literally downloaded via IMDB or MovieDB every single actors picture from basically anything I've watched. Which why the gently caress would you need any of that.

tl;dr - Go to Settings > Video - Uncheck "Download actor thumbnails" which should help prevent rapid build up of storage usage.

Croatoan posted:

Yeah I've been checking every day. I figure us early adopters will get hosed and maybe see it sometime after the new year. The old one sucks and It's the only reason I use my Roku. I'd love to swap them. I hate that the apps are organized the way they currently are and that you have to go around and look for what apps need updating.

PuTTY riot posted:

2) I have a few blu rays with "digital copies" that are "ultraviolet". Assuming that's some sort of brand. Is there an app or thing that'll let me watch those movies on my sticks? Disney's Finding Dory let me add it to my amazon account directly and it shows up under "your movies".

quote:

I’m not positive, but it seems like the 5.2.4.0 software update, that started rolling out to Fire TVs and Fire TV Sticks just over a week ago, has been temporarily halted. It’s not uncommon for Amazon to stop distributing a software update if a serious issue is detected with the first round of devices that receive the update, and it seems like that may be the case with this latest software update.

When Amazon stops pushing out a software update due to an issue, they’ll fix the issue and begin pushing out a slightly different version of the software update. When this happens, the update’s version number usually remains the same between version, but the build number changes. This is what happened with the earlier 5.2.1.0 software update, which initially had a build number of 550144920, but was then halted and restarted with a new build number of 550145120, due to a bug that prevented the screensaver from launching.

Amazon just updated their Fire TV software version page last night to now list the new 5.2.4.0 update. However, instead of listing the build number of the update, like they’ve always done in the past, the page instead has the word “[PLACEHOLDER]” where the build number should be. This is the main reason I think the first build of 5.2.4.0 has been halted and a new build will begin rolling out in the near future. Amazon has never omitted the build number on that page, so I think they know a new build number is coming soon, but instead of waiting for the new build of 5.2.4.0 to be finalized, they updated the page with a placeholder.

Of course, I could absolutely be wrong about this, but it does seem like this updating is taking longer than usual to arrive. None of my 5 devices eligible for this update have received it yet, which is unusual for me when the update has been out for over a week. The only issue with the 5.2.4.0 that I’ve come across that might be serious enough to halt the update is an odd incompatibility with older TVs that can only display 1080i/480p.

I’d love to know in the comments below what date exactly did your Fire TV or Fire TV Stick receive the 5.2.4.0 update. It’s actually possible for devices to update to the initial 5.2.4.0 build even after it has been halted. This could happen if a device receives notice of the update during the roll out but doesn’t decide to install it until much later. Despite that, getting a quick senses of when these updates have arrived could give us a better idea of whether or not the update has been halted.

thebushcommander posted:

This didn't happen. Unless it was only a day. I bought 6 firetv sticks to give as Christmas presents and each one has been updating with the newest FireOS after setup is complete. Still haven't seen it on my Box or Stick at home though, but I haven't checked yet either.

Also so far I am not a fan of the new menu layout.

Craptacular! posted:

My understanding is that gen1 sticks will be officially forgotten about in this update. Whether they get any bugfixes etc going forward with their old interface, I don't know. It's good enough to watch Prime and watch NextPVR through Kodi, which is all we use them for, so unless it's a night and day revelation in those departments we will continue to stick with what we've got.

Harik posted:

Update's pretty damned awful. I really detest it. All the loving helpful tips that are only supposed to show up once show up constantly, they hid my apps deep in a menu, it's not as clear what's currently selected with their new navigation system... overall it's just a mess and feels like they changed poo poo just to change it.

I really REALLY hate the "down, right" navigation. Your selection is in the upper left. Can't see what's above it without going up, can't see left without going left. And gently caress the auto-play HBO ad that kicks off if you pause too long on the home screen.

"Apps" now apparently means "go buy something". Installed apps, the things you actually use, are pretty well hidden. At least holding home goes to a menu.... that shows you a dozen FREE!!!!!! apps before yours until you manually select each one and bring them to the front. Why the gently caress was it too hard to copy the "Recently used Apps" setting from the previous build? The world may never know.

I want my $40 back. If it's just an ad platform now, it should be free.

Harik posted:

Cicero posted:

What are the pros and cons of the Fire TV stick vs the Roku stick? Googling around it looks like the main advantage with the Fire is better voice search and fewer clicks to start playing, main advantage to Roku is being a bit faster overall and more platform-agnostic searching?

edit: oh looks like you can't put Kodi onto a Roku stick. I think that makes my decision easier.

edit2: yeah fire TV stick it is

BlackMK4 posted:

I bought a Fire TV and the remote stops working as soon as you get to the home screen. Animations continue. Anyone else had this issue?

delfin posted:

I have a first-gen Fire TV Stick and recently got a Fire HD 8 for my wife for Christmas. Is there any particular synergy between these devices via Alexa beyond what the Amazon Fire TV Remote App delivers?

delfin posted:

Neat, but since the tablet itself has Alexa on it, is the only difference with the Echo/Dot/Tap that she doesn't have to push the button on the tablet? i.e. "Alexa, wikipedia Julia Roberts" instead of *hold Home button* "Alexa, wikipedia Julia Roberts" or am I missing something?

Craptacular! posted:

Probably the same kind of hardware profile nonsense that causes Google Play Store to deem certain apps "not available" for certain Android tablets.

Sideload this for now.

Craptacular! posted:

Is there any decent alternative to ES? I've tried sideloading Solid Explorer and Astro and they don't work right with the remote interface or lack networking features for some reason.

Ever since ES sold to a Chinese outfit and promptly bloated up with system addons and popup messages at launch, I've gotten tired of their poo poo.

Vykk.Draygo posted:

What could they add to the Fire TV that would make it worth buying over the current generation?

Hadlock posted:

Building the Fire TV in to an Echo or Echo Dot seems pretty straightforward. 95% of what we use our Fire TV for is a radio. I don't know what you would use more ram or internal space, we have the HBO GO/NOW app installed, netflix, pandora, youtube and some local weather radar app that combined can't make up more than 200mb of space. "More hard drive space" is not something I ask for on a streaming media device typicaly.

CubanMissile posted:

I would like a USB port so I can have the option of adding external storage to the Firestick.

PuTTY riot posted:

Could this be used as a car setup with no wifi and just storing videos for kodi on a usb stick?

PuTTY riot posted:

There weren't always ads on the home screen, right? Or am I crazy?

PuTTY riot posted:

quote:

The Prime Photos app on the Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick has been updated with a new option that allows customers to disable the app altogether. As you would expect, disabling the app prevents it from being launched. More importantly though, and likely the main reason for adding this new option, disabling the app also prevents it from storing photos and videos from your Amazon Drive onto the Fire TV or Fire TV Sticks internal storage. This allows customers who don’t use the Photos app to reclaim the precious internal storage space that the app normally uses.

The new Prime Photos app is being released through a system app update. This means only the one app is being updated and not the entire operating system of the Fire TV and Fire TV Stick. There will be no indication that the update arrives, other than the new option to disable the app appearing in the Fire TV’s settings menu. You can check if you have the new version by going to Settings > Applications and scrolling down to see if you have version FOS-5 801027110 of the Prime Photos app. It appears only 2nd-gen devices with the new user interface are currently receiving the updated photos app, but it will likely come to older 1st-gen devices later this year when those devices eventually receive the new interface.

Strangely, Amazon has updated the Fire TV’s Software Update page to indicate that a new operating system version has been released for 2nd-gen devices. While the true latest software version seems to still be 5.2.4.0, the page now indicates the latest software version to be 5.3.2.0 with a build number of 801027110. I think this is a mistake because the new alleged operating system build number is actually the version number of the new Prime Photos app. I expect the software update page will be reverted back once someone at Amazon realises the mistake … or reads this post ;-).

As for the new option to disable the Prime Photos app, you can find it by going to Settings > Applications > Prime Photos. When you select the new option, you’ll have to confirm you want to disable the app; first by selecting “Disable Prime Photos” and second by selecting “Disable” to confirm. With the app disabled, it will still appear in your list of apps in the Fire TV’s interface, but selecting the Prime Photos app will display a message telling you the app is disabled and that you need to go into settings and enable it before you can launch the app.

As soon as you disable the app, it automatically deletes all of the photos and videos that it was storing locally on your device, which were previously downloaded from your Amazon Drive. For me, disabling the app freed up 1.48 GB of internal storage. Even if it’s disabled, the photos app will still use around 400MB of internal storage due to various interface images that it must store, like the default screen saver images.

While it would be better to be given the option within the photos app to select which photos and videos it stores locally, or better yet, the option to cap how much internal storage it uses, the new option to disable the app altogether is a welcomed addition. Hopefully a completely new Prime Photos app, that both better matches the new interface and has more advanced storage management options, is in the works, and that this updated app is just a temporary stopgap.

thebushcommander posted:

Posted this elsewhere a few days ago, but so far no replies...

My first gen FireTV is being weird with Prime Video. When I pull up a show and select and episode it will play no problem. When I pause the video it pauses no problem, when I press play again, however, the video will begin playing, but all audio is gone. At first I thought it was just trying to reopen the stream so I let it sit for a little while, that turned into 15+ minutes of an episode playing and no sound coming back. If I hit the back button and return to the episode select screen, choose the same episode and then hit "resume" from there it begins to play back with audio no problem. So it's only when I pause something I am currently watching and it' only Amazon Prime video that does it. HBO Go, Netflix both work as intended as well as everything else video/audio related on the box. It's been happening for a couple weeks now and I can't figure out what the problem is. I've replaced the HDMI cable, moved to a different port tried optical audio direct to the receiver rather than tunneling the tv, messed with audio settings on the box nothing seems to fix the issue. It's getting pretty annoying. I have 3 other FireStick's in the house and none of them have any problems. Short of resetting the firetv tp factory is there anything else I can do? Just seems weird it's literally only prime video.

quote:

If you’re still experiencing the issue, you should go into your device’s settings and clear the data and cache of the Amazon video app under the Manage Applications menu.

GOOD TIMES ON METH posted:

My Roku 3 is starting to feel pretty old so I was thinking about picking one up the full Fire TV box and noticed it isn't available to ship until March. Is there an updated version coming out then? Or does it just occasionally go out of stock?