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Replacing my htpc with a Fire TV.

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wagex

Chapstick Eating Premium Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2011
an amazon Fire TV.. i know what you are thinking... thats crazy, but il explain in a few.
for the last couple weeks ive been using a fire tv stick made me want a full fire tv which will be here today because im so impressed by the stick ;).

the main reason i wanted a full fire tv is usb input for my xbox 360 controller, and wired ethernet connection as i have a few movies on my server that are too high bitrate for wireless bgn 2x2(mimo) to handle well. (60mb/s+)
i will be keeping the stick to put in my bedroom on the tv.

some pros / cons.
pros:
-super simple operation even my kids can use it can do every single thing needed with the included remote, comes with everything you need to get started.
-runs spmc a version of xbmc designed just for the fire tv and sideloading android apps is very simple
-thing runs spmc extremely well i am able to play high bitrate movies fine barely uses 50% of the cpu.(tv stick)
-ability to stream games from your pc and play them on the tv with a wireless xbox 360 controller with the wireless usb adapter using limelite app
-super low power 2w idle 5w gaming so depending on your htpc setup this thing could pay for itself in a year with power alone
-powered from usb on back of tv or using included power adapter
-very small the tv stick is 1" x 3.3" x 0.5", the fire TV is 4.5" x 4.5" x 0.7"
-$80 for the tv(refurb) $100 (new) new one is often on sale for $85 or $80 and $40 for the tv stick

cons:
-no 4k support as far as i know, not sure if they can do it with an update or if the hardware is even capable, if someone wants to tune in lemme know.
-search function only searches a few video apps, eg: amazon instant video, hulu, and sho time for some reason it wont search netflix:confused:
-fire tv stick comes with a cheaper remote that doesn't have voice search you need to pay $30 for one which isn't worth it imo, but i have yet to try the voice searchvoice search is awesome though i wish it would search netflix, it searches hulu and amazon videos dont have any other streaming apps to try it out on.
-if you have prime they try and bait you into buying shows by giving the first couple episodes free, on the other hand if you were wanting to try the show already that isn't necessarily a bad thing.
-no usb storage devices, so you cannot play movies from a flash drive. non issue for me as i stream everything from my server over LAN.
-some of them with updated firmware cannot be rooted, which for me isnt really a con but for some it is. you dont need a rooted firetv to sideload any apps, it just gives you storage through usb.


this is all i can come up with at the moment i will be updating the thread as i go through the experience with my other fire tv over the next week or two.
so far i have been running my tv stick for the last ~two weeks with out any need for my htpc.
 
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cons:
-if you have prime they try and bait you into buying shows by giving the first couple episodes free, on the other hand if you were wanting to try the show already that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

They give you "free" stuff (of course, Prime isn't really free :)), and that's a con? :rolleyes:
 
i meant to elaborate on that sorry i was in kind of a rush when doing that, they will also show their prime content over free hulu or netflix content even if it costs money and the other video streaming services offer the same show free.

p.s. i will be updating the thread for the firetv i have been using for the last week :) so far its pretty awesome i still need to try the game streaming from my pc on there before i start on it.

but so far its snappier obv. because of the better hardware than the stick
playing a 60mb/s blu ray rip over the network to xbmc its powerful enough that two cores sit completely idle while playing.
instantly recognized my k400 wireless keyboard which was nice for setting up accounts, even the media controls on it worked flawlessly.
i have my 360 controller plugged into it but havent tried to mess with it yet il use it when i test the game streaming using limelite.

so if you plan on playing large files over the network through xbmc the firetv non stick is the better option with ethernet even though its just 100mb/s as BGN MIMO for me atleast tops out at about 30mb/s and causes stutter and long load / buffer times with some of my movies.

comparison vs my htpc so far, way simpler to use, everything is integrated no advance setup besides sideloading xbmc through adb over the network but that was even pretty simple. setting up a shortcut to the launch screen for xbmc was the most challenging thing but wasnt hard at all.
 
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update: been playing some portal 2 using limelite runs great at 720p@60hz i need to get around to adjusting the settings in limelite to 1080p @30hz as that is the highest the snapdragon cpu can decode h264 at. but it runs great the 360 controller is recognized by games as it should also played some skyrim on it which ran pretty well had to up the bitrate in limelite to get it to run visually well though which isnt a problem.

i seem to be the only person who cannot get games to run through steam's big picture mode streaming through limelite though which is kind of annoying it acts like they are going to load then... nothing.
 
another update the new firetv does 4k, including 4k h264 decoding so streaming games 1080@60 or 120hz might be possible, it also has gigabit lan. i might grab one in the future depending if i upgrade to a 4k tv or not.

the new one seems like a beast hope to try it within the next year or 3 haha with more kiddo's on the way and another vehicle payment 4k doesnt seem to be in the near future :(

by the way 1080@30fps works great on the first gen i did get a chance to play skyrim on it for a few hours.
 
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