The Amazon Fire TV Is Kind of a Mess

redletterdave writes: "At the Fire TV unveiling, Amazon officials sounded like they perfectly understood how frustrating TV streaming devices are for their owners. Amazon focused on three main problems: Search is hard, especially for anything not on a bestseller list; streaming devices often provide slow or laggy performance; and TV set-top boxes tend to be closed ecosystems. The Fire TV is Amazon's attempt to solve these three problems—the key word here being 'attempt.' Perhaps Amazon's homegrown solution was a bit premature and its ambitions too lofty, because while Fire TV can do almost everything, little of it is done right." An example given by the review is how the touted Voice Search works — it doesn't interact at all with supported apps, instead bringing up Amazon search results. Thus, even if you have access to a movie for free through Netflix, using the Voice Search for that movie will only bring up Amazon's paid options.

Comments

NOTABUG

[idontgno]

Thus, even if you have access to a movie for free through Netflix, using the Voice Search for that movie will only bring up Amazon's paid options.

You make that sound like a bad thing.

--Signed,
Jeff Bezos

Local content?

[waltmarkers]

So, yet another netflix streamer is ok, but I want something as good or better than the boxes box for local content. About 50% of my streaming media are things that I have locally on my network.

If Fire TV supported file sharing protocols I'd be a buyer.

Re:Local content?

[wiredlogic]

Just get an Android box running XBMC. You can get decent examples like the Matricom G-Box MX2 for $99.

Re:Local content?

[slaker]

This review read like an Apple user looking for things to whine about. I don't recall seeing anywhere in the verbiage of press over the last two days any promise from Amazon that it would be some universal media-seeking device.

That being said, like any respectable media streamer these days, it DOES support Plex access, which should be your go-to tool for local content access. If it's on the same LAN with a client, you can also connect to it via DLNA and thereby use it with pretty much set top box smart enough to connect to the internet.

The single best STB I've ever found in terms of capability is the LG Smart TV Upgrader, which LG sold for about two months back in 2009 or so. It supports SMB, AFP and NFS, but it also has support for Netflix, Youtube, Hulu Plus and Amazon. It can play h.264, open VideoTS folders and it doesn't have a problem with AC3 or DTS audio. Unfortunately, it's slow as hell and the UI is ugly. I'm not entirely sure if LG is still releasing firmware updates for them but they're a pretty good alternative to a fully functional HTPC.

Re:Local content?

[Lumpy]

Get 2 boxes. 1 for netflix and Hulu plus, and an XBMC for local content. all existing players are utter crap compared to an XBMC box. Or better yet, upgrade that bluray player with something that has the NEtflix and Hulu apps on it if you have tech ADHD and cant stand having more than one device.

Re:Local content?

[Jethro]

Or a Raspberry PI with one of the XBMC distros for well under $50 including all the accessories you'll need. I have one of those set up as an entertainment center for my treadmill.

The living room has a mini PC with Ubuntu and an old version of MythTV. I'd love to switch to XBMC (or a current version of Myth) but customising the remote buttons with XBMC is an insane pain, and the music player in the new MythTV (and XBMC) are horrific.

Re:Local content?

[fermion]

There is no good streaming option, and really there is no paid digital video ownership option that is reasonable. If you buy a video, and Apple or Amazon, or whoever, does not want to support the streaming anymore, you no longer are able to use the bits that you own. Most boxes that you put on your tv are either tied to a vendor so options are limited or are not so options are limited.

Honestly a box that can hook up to the cable, steam all common formats from a personal external hard disk, and can steam most paid services still wouldn't be any good(is there box close to this, maybe TiVo?) because the cable company can pull the service at any time or streaming might change and there is no guarantee you can upgrade.

All parties are so focused on maximizing revenue, by forcing a separate $100 box for each service, by renting DVR for cable, that the entire service is writing it own doom. We have been down this road before with DVDs. The copy protection and high price and ads that could not be skipped meant I stopped buying DVDs years ago, and never will pay a blue ray. That is money they left on the table.

We also saw this with CDs. Huge prices, the exec must have thought they came when the profits rolled in, then technology meant that all the CDs could be copied, and it all fell because there was no strategy to deal with the new reality, and only legal hoopla to try to stop it.

At some point bandwidth will be fast enough, even with the obstruction of the major ISP, and enough people will be willing to take a risk, that if there is not a streaming option the video will feel the same loss of value of the audio industry.

Incorrect Comment on Voice Search

[Anonymous Coward]

"Thus, even if you have access to a movie for free through Netflix, using the Voice Search for that movie will only bring up Amazon's paid options."

This isn't exactly accurate. I got my Fire TV yesterday and the voice search showed results from Hulu as well. I believe the problem with Netflix is that it's not a Fire TV specific app and is just using their standard Android app (which is evident by the login prompts and keyboard being inconsistent from the rest of the Fire TV login prompts). If the individual app supports it, the Fire TV voice search will show you results from that app as well. It's the same way with the Roku search, it shows results from some apps but not from all.

Can I Stream It?

[almitydave]

Can I Sream.It is a must-have smartphone app (or website). Anyone who makes one of these streaming boxes should just license a version that searches the catalogs of whatever services you've installed on the box. That alone would make all of these boxes tremendously more useful - it's really the missing key to this puzzle. That and more content, although a lot of progress has been made on this front - compare with Netflix's initial pitiful streaming selections.

I know Roku supports centralized search for some of their "channels" (apps).

Current iTunes store user sees limited value...

[uCallHimDrJ0NES]

...hilariously biased article. This guy obviously prefers AppleTV. Does Apple plan to have a cross-vendor search function for streaming? I doubt it. I was in for one on the FireTV because I like the hardware and audio output options. I'm tired of vendors pushing HDMI audio at me.

XBMC

[JeffElkins]

XBMC's Gotham release already runs on this device and XDA members are sideloading apps already. It's early days for the FireTV, but it looks promising.

http://forum.xda-developers.co...

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthre...

Firetv.com

[esperto]

I think the worst fail is that no one, not a single intern, tried to enter firetv.com on a browser before deciding on the name. It will be great people trying to show grandma firetv set up box and end up on PORN set up box with "My wife caught me assf*cking her mother 6" as the first title.

Doesn't Roku do integrated search?

[SuperKendall]

I was wondering if the Amazon voice search was just for their stuff... I figured that would be the case.

However, I thought that Roku (which I don't have) did exactly that - I seem to remember read they had a cross-channel search of some kind (though I would guess it had some limitations). Does anyone know if that's the case?

Re:no local content playback == mess

[slaker]

A Pivos Xios running Linux firmware with XBMC might be a decent fit. It can't keep up well at high bit rates, but the one I have can and and does play 1080p content including AC3 and DTS.

Re:So...

[Lumpy]

Nope. unless they are AppleTV2's. then sell them for a profit and buy 2 apple TV3's and still have $90 left over.

Re:Google TV failed..possible Chromecast is the wa

[slaker]

Chromecast doesn't do enough to add value. The only thing it really brings to the table is the novel control scheme. Yes, it's a cheap streamer that I can control with a $75 tablet or retired smartphone, but I'll bet I can find a price-competitive BluRay player that can do both those things and still play discs AND use a proper ethernet connection.

First impressions from an owner

[adisakp]

My Amazon Fire TV arrived today. Initial impressions:

The box is a lot bigger than Apple TV and includes an external power brick (unlike AppleTV). The physical look and feel of the device and remove are very premium.

The controller is big and uncomfortable. D-PAD is very poorly positioned. This is worse than the Pre-S XBox Controller. It feels like the NVidia Shield a bit but that at least has an entire computer (roughly as powerful as the Fire TV) inside the controller. Seriously, I think they hired the Atari Jaguar controller design team here

First impression is that the UI is not as polished or pretty as the Apple TV but it seems usable. Voice Search is fairly fast but not nearly as "instant" as the commercials and videos online make it seem. Also, the results are only for Amazon Instant Video, Amazon App Store (and supposedly Hulu but I haven't seen any of those).

HBO GO is not on it yet. I installed Flixster to access my Ultraviolet Collection. Unfortunately, Flixster will not play any of my movies in HD and highly compressed 480 SD resolution is a mess on my 65" TV.

And my Fire TV remote seems to lose "pairing" a lot. I sometimes have to use the game controller to go to settings and then to Add Remote and it will find it again.

Re:First impressions from an owner

[adisakp]

FWIW, I also own two Apple TV's, an Atom-based HDMI-out net top, a Chromecast, and now the Amazon Fire TV. I think the software needs a little work. They need to figure out the pairing issue with the remote. The game controlled needs a serious redesign though. It's painful. Or hopefully they will support third party controllers.

The Plex App on Fire TV is $0.99 and I bought it as well with some of the free Amazon "Coins" that I got from buying the Amazon Controller. I'll update some info when I get the device paired with my Plex Server.

Re:First impressions from an owner

[adisakp]

Also, there is a USB Port. I've got a keyboard hooked up to it right now. However, not all the apps support input with the keyboard and some are clunky. I was hoping to avoid using the remote / controller for passwords and usernames during setup. It worked for a number of things. However, not all apps support the tab key to switch between fields or the enter key (it acts like the select button rather than a completions). The Amazon Video PIN entry also doesn't recognize numbers on the keyboard so you have to use the arrow keys and the enter/return key for select.

I'm hoping that software updates bring a little more polish to using the keyboard but it's not terrible if you consider it to be sort of a public "beta" until a couple software updates occur.

Re:First impressions from an owner

[adisakp]

One other silly note... I can't find an "off" button or a menu item to turn it off other than unplugging the device. And plugging back in turns it back on. It has a 16W power brick so there might be some continual background power drain if this thing is plugged in. Also, for some reason, the AC adapter made sparks at the plug both times I tried plugging it in. I was a little scared that I might have burnt it out but it seems to work fine.

Re:no local content playback == mess

[adisakp]

There is support for Plex. I have the Amazon Fire TV and I bought the Plex App for it. It's $0.99 (or 99 Coins) on sale from $4.99 for an introductory period. This works with your PC Plex server or a Drobo or Synology box running Plex server apps.

Also, there is a USB Port. I've got a keyboard hooked up to it right now.

Or ....

[chuckugly]

Or just toss (free) Plex server on your NAS and install the (free) Plex app on a $40 Roku.

Yes and No

[Maltheus]

I was very disappointed that Voice Search didn't include Netflix, especially as I had returned a Roku 3, precisely for this "cross-search" feature.

That being said, I never used Amazon Prime Video much because every interface for it is so abysmal. And FireTV finally gets the Prime interface right. For instance, they now finally tell me where I left off in an episode, and which one is next. Now I can finally start using Prime for more than just shipping. And they seem to have a lot that Netflix doesn't.

I hestiate to call it a mess, because it works just as good as the Roku for me, and seems better at buffering Netflix (I can rewind a bit, without it having to rebuffer). I'm hoping it will improve over time, to do a fraction of what they claimed it would, but until Roku 4 comes out, this is the best streamer out there right now.