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Amazon To Put Android In Set-top Box To Compete With Apple, Roku
sfcrazy writes "Amazon is all set to get Apple and Roku some serious competition with its own 'web-TV' or set-top box. According to reports, Amazon will be using Google's Android to build the box. Amazon already has a huge library of content (from Amazon Prime) which it can push to the living room through the box. Amazon, like Netflix, is also investing heavily in producing content to their own set-box. Amazon has also been hiring game developers and it won't be surprising if the company also dabbles into gaming." And while it may be only a rumor, the idea's got some reasonable legs: besides the content on Prime, Amazon has been making media-centric Android devices for a few years with its Kindle Fire line.
Unless the other features include something compelling, not sure the motivation to buy this. Even on Apple TV, you can play Amazon Video content if streamed via AirPlay from an iPhone/iPad.
I've used both Android set-top boxes and Chromecast, and I prefer Chromecast. An Android set-top box requires more attention and configuration than I like, and a direct phone-to-TV connection ties up the phone. Chromecast strikes a nice middle ground, allowing autonomous playback without the hassles of having to maintain another device.
Or, they could just add Chromecast and prime instant streaming support for existing Android devices. Much less e-waste that way.
I completely understand what Amazon is trying to do, but the whole set-top box thing is a bad play.
Amazon is working from an old playbook. They're trying to do now with this box what M$ did with Xbox...it's why M$ could allow Xbox to run at a loss...it got Microsoft a space on the shelf in the living room.
Shelf space as marketing tool is old news (and was never a good idea)...ex: Netflix
Amazon is going to lose money on this deal. No one wants **another** box....especially one that doesn't do anything that Netflix can't do.
Amazon should work on competing with iTunes, spotify, etc instead of this move...the movie business is almost always a losing proposition for tech...Netflix is an exception that can't easily be supplanted.
Thank you Dave Raggett
Hi! We're looking for a new Receiver, and it should probably have about 20-30 hdmi ports.
If it:
- Accepts large (TerraByte) external storage media via USB and understands FATxx, NTFS, ext3fs and HFS+
- Understands and plays m4v files to at least the level supported on current iPads (i.e. H.264 video, AAC surround, captions and chapters)
- Can translate AAC 5.1 to LPCM 5.1 when using HDMI output and/or and has 5.1 analog outputs and converts AAC 5.1 to them
I am pre-ordering NOW. I mean really NOW. Amazon, please take my money... please....
I personally have been looking at the Gbox Midnight MX2. They come pre-rooted, with a bunch of pre-loaded software such as Xbmc.
Right now I use a WD TV Live, and it works alright. I really do not like how it organizes content and is not very customizable.
I had a HTPC at one point, running Linux and my own custom interface I developed myself, but the lack of Netflix is what drove me to the WD TV Live. Now netflix is supposed to be easier to set up on Linux via pipelight, I haven't played with it yet though, and I'm sure I could integrate it into my software... but the Gbox Midnight MX2, with Full Android and access to Google Play, hard to pass up, honestly.
the Ouya- and it's got it's own closed, walled garden you have to sideload into
If you can sideload without a separate recurring fee, it's not a "closed, walled garden". The built-in app store just has a privileged position on the launcher; choose "MAKE" from the top-level menu to use the web browser or sideloaded applications. Once I installed Rhythm Software File Manager, I had little or no problem sideloading APKs onto my OUYA console, so long as an application is available as an APK in the first place.
Amazon is going to lose money on this deal. No one wants **another** box....especially one that doesn't do anything that Netflix can't do.
Netflix can't combine all-you-can-eat VOD and a substantial discount on expedited shipping of physical goods into one subscription.
If this is like the Kindle Fire I'd suggest people stick with Roku:
- The Kindle Fire has stuck a worse UI over Android than even Samsung managed with Touchwiz
- As Amazon wants you to use their store over Google Play it also means you lose out on Google Maps, Chrome, etc
- It's the only tablet I know where you need to pay to remove ads from the lock screen.
- Regular Android tablets and the iPad already have access to Amazon content, so there's no reason to buy a device that makes it difficult to get content anywhere else.
I can't see a Kindle TV box being any better.
Accepts large (TerraByte) external storage media via USB and understands FATxx, NTFS, ext3fs and HFS+
I'd be surprised if Microsoft and Apple would allow licensing of NTFS and HFS+ patents at a reasonable royalty. I think it'd be better to use UDF for removable USB mass storage, which GNU/Linux, OS X, and every Windows operating system since Vista can read and write. The last desktop PC operating system to lack UDF write support will lose security updates in two months.
What advantage any of this will have over a Chromebook + HDMI cable + bluetooth keyboard & mouse combination?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Im not buying a half dozen boxes and subscribing to their services just to get all the exclusive content
Netflix doesn't need to. An open platform for competiting services already exist. Netflix doesn't have to stand alone. It can stand beside competitors and benefit from their presence.
Which competing shipping discount service were you talking about?
Seems unlikely.
All of the Amazon protected video content is protected by FlashAccess, which would mean a working implementation outside of the built-in one that's in the official Google Chrome, but not in Chromium.
This wouldn't be such a PITA, but at the end of Feb of 2012, the verification mechanism for the FlashAccess plugin for Flash changed. Unless the box contained a TPM and a trusted boot path, it would be possible to have one device impersonate another by interposing the unique device identifier reporting channel at a kernel level, unless you were (alternately) willing to further lock-down the Android being used so that it was unable to be used for anything else.
It turns out DRM has holes; who would have guessed?
If they would make a Chromecast app I'd be more than willing to buy movies through their service. I already have about 30 Google Play Movies titles but there are some titles in Amazon streaming that are not available. Until they make it viewable on my screen, I won't buy any more from them.
There must be about a million varieties of Android STBs. The Gbox doesn't appear to be anything special and as the webpage says (it's framed as a warning, but actually it's an advertisement) there are lots of cheaper versions around. It also seems to be "last year's" tech - given that the newest Android STBs sport 2GB of RAM and quad-core processors.
I really don't see why Amazon would try to get into a well established and over-supplied market. They don't have anything original or worthwhile to offer.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Allows you to put your Amazon purchases on said external storage so that we dont have to stream. And if they had it so that it began downloading as soon as the purchase completed...say in the middle of the night for those people that bought the entire season, then even better.
Streaming sucks. Even on cable, streaming sucks. Its only redeeming feature is that it vastly increases what is available. Just do it Amazon, give us the download to disk option. Heck, they could even setup a torrent....everybody who orders a title downloads the same image, but its useless until its decrypted onto the disk. But what goes onto the disk is drm locked to the player by the program performing the decryption.
I agree with all of your specifications. And I'd like to add some form of networking and a gigabit Ethernet connection to them.
BUT!!!
How about thinking of different scenarios that you'd like supported by this?
1. Sitting in front of a TV (directly attached box) and watching a [DVD / Blu-ray / laser disc / other disc media]. (probably via external device and converter cable or whatever)
2. Sitting in front of a TV (directly attached box) and watching a streaming video from [Netflix / Amazon / Hulu / etc].
3. Sitting in front of a TV (directly attached box) and watching a video from REMOVABLE storage attached to the box.
4. Sitting in front of a TV (directly attached box) and watching a video from a network accessible drive [samba / NFS / etc].
5. Sitting in front of a TV (directly attached box) and watching a video that is being streamed from an [iPhone / iPad / Android phone / etc].
6 - 9. See 1-4 above but the box streams the video so I can watch via [iPhone / iPad / Android phone / etc] in a different room.
10. [PVR / DVR] functionality.
Any other scenarios that people would like? Might as well get EVERYTHING onto the wish list.
There have been regular rumors that Amazon will be raising Prime subscription fees. It seems plausible that they would include the set top box for free with increased Prime fees to control PR and incentivize renewal. Amazon already treats other devices (e.g., Kindle) as loss-leaders.
The don't allow you to even watch video in a browser on any other Android device.
I guess now I know why the Amazon Instant Video viewer app isn't available to any normal Android device... Bugs me because I already have an Android set-top box that flawlessly plays 1080p video, not just streaming stuff, but like h264 and whatnot... And it only cost me $25 unlike the $100+ I'm sure Amazon is going to charge.
Friend: "The NIC is misconfigured..." Me: "No prob, I'll just telnet in and fix it." *Silence*
Netflix was one stop shopping.
Now Warner things I will pay the same price for just their movies.
Will amazon Prime box be the same problem with Roku?
Do they really expect me to hook a half dozen boxes to my TV when one box with software apps would do?
Seems like VHS vs Betamax-- and ROKU is pretty well established so It's probably VHS.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
With the exception of the latter part, something is wrong with your device.
Yes Chrome tab casting sucks from the PC.
But from an Android device - every single one I've tried - it's like butter. Or silk. Or perhaps silky butter or even buttery silk.
No crashy crashy for me.