Amazon's Fire TV Is Powerful, but Voice Search Limitations Hamper User Experience

[phoenixsan]

Seems to me.....

like Apple have the inside track with Siri. We must wait and see if Siri is integrated on upcoming AppleTV models. And then, how well the feature go implemented....

 

[samcraig]

Well, as I said earlier, out of the 26 people who regularly read and post to MR - 18 agree with me.

Yes. Clearly your "26" is accurate. Again - you are just proving my point. You think how many likes you get matters. Obviously you need the validation.

p.s. (277 members and 6948 guests) are current reading MR.

 

[RedOrchestra]

Yes. Clearly your "26" is accurate. Again - you are just proving my point. You think how many likes you get matters. Obviously you need the validation.

It's got NOTHING to do with personal validation - I made a statement and 70% of those who regularly read and post to MR agree with that statement — nothing more, nothing less.

 

[samcraig]

It's got NOTHING to do with personal validation - I made a statement and 70% of those who regularly read and post to MR agree with that statement — nothing more, nothing less.

incorrect.

 

[bozzykid]

Is the Amazon Prime selection of quality programming even worse than Netflix? I find that hard to believe, since the selection on Netflix is pretty abysmal.

That is hard to say. Prime has made some deals with some newer tv shows where as Netflix is content to having more older tv shows and tv shows without the current season that is airing. Movie selection is no better and some would say worse than Netflix. However, the value is many people use Prime to get free shipping and the video content is bonus. Personally, I like it because Netflix and Amazon are fighting over exclusive rights to many of the content. So if you have both, you end up with a solid all you can eat selection of content.

 

[IJ Reilly]

That is hard to say. Prime has made some deals with some newer tv shows where as Netflix is content to having more older tv shows and tv shows without the current season that is airing. Movie selection is no better and some would say worse than Netflix. However, the value is many people use Prime to get free shipping and the video content is bonus. Personally, I like it because Netflix and Amazon are fighting over exclusive rights to many of the content. So if you have both, you end up with a solid all you can eat selection of content.

I'm not into all you can eat. I just want the good stuff. Unfortunately both services are more like McDonalds than a fine restaurant.

 

[malexandria]

Amazon Sucks No Trust

No - your comments are all about how popular YOUR statement is. I don't concern myself with how many up votes my comments make. Clearly you do because you keep posting about the #s as if you need that validation. I don't need validation for my comments because I stick by them even if they are unpopular.

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Was this for "excessive" returns. Because perhaps that "trust" is a two way street. I'm asking sincerely. The only people I have ever "known" to be banned are those that have abused Amazon's return system.

"excessive returns" yes. But what the hell does that even mean when their policy isn't CLEARLY outlined and they don't provide any warnings? I followed their rules to the letter and it wasn't "excessive" returns it was over a dispute when I threatened to return something else unless they resolved the dispute (they ripped me off for $900) that's when they claimed excessive returns.

No way in hell should that have impacted my THOUSANDS of dollars in DIGITAL purchase and my 3 1st Gen KINDLES (which were, what $300 each at the time?). If they want to ban me from their store, more power to them, but that shouldn't give them the right to brick my Kindles and DIGITAL content that I ****ing bought!

So NO Trust isn't a ***** two way street. Trust is me making a purchase, they delivering it and me using it. Not me make a purchase and if I do something piss you off you get to keep my money not deliver the goods. That's ROBBERY.

Everytime I post this story in various forums the fanboys completely slam me and say it's my fault and Amazon is correct. It is amazing what lemmings people are, but wait until it happens to YOU then you'll be singing a different tune. Again, I followed their return policies and they shouldn't have the right to BAN people WITHOUT WARNING when again they don't clearly state what their rules are! It's ********.

 

[samcraig]

"excessive returns" yes. But what the hell does that even mean when their policy isn't CLEARLY outlined and they don't provide any warnings? I followed their rules to the letter and it wasn't "excessive" returns it was over a dispute when I threatened to return something else unless they resolved the dispute (they ripped me off for $900) that's when they claimed excessive returns.

No way in hell should that have impacted my THOUSANDS of dollars in DIGITAL purchase and my 3 1st Gen KINDLES (which were, what $300 each at the time?). If they want to ban me from their store, more power to them, but that shouldn't give them the right to brick my Kindles and DIGITAL content that I ****ing bought!

So NO Trust isn't a ***** two way street. Trust is me making a purchase, they delivering it and me using it. Not me make a purchase and if I do something piss you off you get to keep my money not deliver the goods. That's ROBBERY.

Everytime I post this story in various forums the fanboys completely slam me and say it's my fault and Amazon is correct. It is amazing what lemmings people are, but wait until it happens to YOU then you'll be singing a different tune. Again, I followed their return policies and they shouldn't have the right to BAN people WITHOUT WARNING when again they don't clearly state what their rules are! It's ********.

You don't need to resort to calling me a fanboy. I'm nothing of the sort. I asked a question. I can only imagine how frustrated you must feel over the situation. And not in defense of Amazon (because I believe this is universal) is that I don't believe people purchase the material in the sense that they own it. I believe there's some EULA involved that states otherwise. I could be wrong. And again - I'm not defending Amazon. Personally - this is why I would never (I say this now) go full "cloud" with my media. I still prefer to have physical discs. Not that it means any more sense of ownership - but at least if my internet goes down or a service is terminated, I'm no "worse" off.

 

[Lazy]

Why? The 'n' (or even 'g') is more than fast enough for any streaming purposes, and 'n' has got all that MIMO goodness. What operational benefit do you think you'd get from having 'ac'?

View attachment 467422

(Image showing 700Mbps download speed.)

Ok, but so what? You've completely missed the point. What streaming service are you doing to use on any device that will provide you content at a bit rate exceeding that of an 'n' connection? The answer is absolutely none.

No one said 'ac' wasn't faster or that faster isn't better when the faster speed can actually be used (e.g. on speedtest.net ).

 

[bozzykid]

I'm not into all you can eat. I just want the good stuff. Unfortunately both services are more like McDonalds than a fine restaurant.

What is the "good stuff"? Do you mean new movies? If so, a service like that would likely cost $30/month. At the end of the day, neither Netflix or Amazon can provide the best collection possible by charging what they do. They can only find the best balance.

 

[IJ Reilly]

What is the "good stuff"? Do you mean new movies? If so, a service like that would likely cost $30/month. At the end of the day, neither Netflix or Amazon can provide the best collection possible by charging what they do. They can only find the best balance.

Nope, not what I am talking about. The Netflix library of streamable better, older movies is pathetic, and it sadly is the best available. Most of them can be rented or purchased from Apple and are available from Netflix on disc, but not for streaming. More than 90% of the movies I have on my Netflix cue at any given time are not streamable.

 

[aperry]

"excessive returns" yes. But what the hell does that even mean when their policy isn't CLEARLY outlined and they don't provide any warnings? I followed their rules to the letter and it wasn't "excessive" returns it was over a dispute when I threatened to return something else unless they resolved the dispute (they ripped me off for $900) that's when they claimed excessive returns.

No way in hell should that have impacted my THOUSANDS of dollars in DIGITAL purchase and my 3 1st Gen KINDLES (which were, what $300 each at the time?). If they want to ban me from their store, more power to them, but that shouldn't give them the right to brick my Kindles and DIGITAL content that I ****ing bought!

So NO Trust isn't a ***** two way street. Trust is me making a purchase, they delivering it and me using it. Not me make a purchase and if I do something piss you off you get to keep my money not deliver the goods. That's ROBBERY.

Everytime I post this story in various forums the fanboys completely slam me and say it's my fault and Amazon is correct. It is amazing what lemmings people are, but wait until it happens to YOU then you'll be singing a different tune. Again, I followed their return policies and they shouldn't have the right to BAN people WITHOUT WARNING when again they don't clearly state what their rules are! It's ********.

No offense, but people are probably slamming you because you've left out all of the important facts and details. So far it sounds like you had some sort of mysterious "dispute" with Amazon and then you attempted to blackmail Amazon by threatening to return some unrelated item if your dispute wasn't resolved favorably. I'm not even sure if that's correct, because there's so much missing here. Apparently they terminated your account at some point in the disagreement. What was this "dispute" and how nasty were you to the CSR? Have you brought them to small claims court yet? I certainly would if I had thousands of dollars taken away from me in a situation where I thought I was the victim. The judge would either show me in the EULA/contract/agreement where I'm wrong, or they'd give me my money back. But something tells me there's a lot more to this story, which likely explains why you lost your money.

By the way, I'm not even an Amazon fan. I like Prime, but otherwise I'm pretty ambivalent.

 

[bozzykid]

Nope, not what I am talking about. The Netflix library of streamable better, older movies is pathetic, and it sadly is the best available. Most of them can be rented or purchased from Apple and are available from Netflix on disc, but not for streaming. More than 90% of the movies I have on my Netflix cue at any given time are not streamable.

Sure. But your tastes are not everyone else's. Streaming content licenses are only going up. Netflix will never provide all the movies you want. This is why they are getting into creating their own content.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Sure. But your tastes are not everyone else's. Streaming content licenses are only going up. Netflix will never provide all the movies you want. This is why they are getting into creating their own content.

Nobody's tastes are everyone else's. The point is, around 90% of the Netflix library can only be viewed by them sending you pieces of plastic in envelopes through the mail. Kind of defeats the purpose of streaming when the selection is so poor.

 

[Tech198]

It'll pick up... From the amount of articles point out the flaws, you would think its supposed to work great from the get go, as though it must be perfect...

Well.. in the imaginary world, yes.. but the facts are there..

Regardless, this is still a great device..

 

[Rogifan]

Here's the problem with TV:

 

[IJ Reilly]

Here's the problem with TV:

Image

Venn Diagrams rule.

 

[balamw]

Venn Diagrams rule.

I think we also need a circle to describe the set of "Good stuff I actually have time to watch." In my case that's about one of the "O"s in "STUFF THAT IS GOOD TO WATCH!"

B

 

[hakr100]

This new device sounds very nice, but...

I have hundreds of movies on my server, which I play on my TV via Wi Fi through a Western Digital device. I haven't seen where the Amazon Fire TV has this capability.

 

[Mockenrue]

I just picked up the Fire TV - mostly because our family likes to game on TV and I like the idea of $1-$5 games - too many times burned by an expensive console title that they played 3 times. The controller won't arrive for a few weeks though, so that will have to wait.

The app ecosystem is pretty good for a 1.0 release. Hopefully they'll quickly add more channels in the coming months like Chromecast has done since its even more limited launch. The interfaces are probably the best and most responsive of my streaming sources (ATV 3, Roku 3, Chromecast, Samsung smart TV apps). Some of the 3rd party apps lack polish, but it's still early days.

I was actually pretty impressed with the voice search too. It interpreted everything I threw it's way correctly. I even tried to stump it with odd words. For example, I said the name of the obscure band Marillion in two different ways - quickly and all run together (murilyun) and slowly like it was multiple words (muh-ri-li-un). It understand both times and returned the band name with a concert movie on Amazon instant and also a result from Vevo - so voice search must go into a few other apps. But my positive experience only underscores the disappointment that it doesn't work across all of the media sources.

I'm left with cautious optimism. This box has amazing potential for someone who uses Amazon ecosystem - which I do. But they need to keep evolving it. I'm hoping to see some of my regulars like Vudu, TED, and TWIT coming soon.

 

[nia820]

After seeing the fire TV, I feel self conscious about my atv. I really the next gen atv has an app store and gaming controller.

 

[penplotter]

Welcome, Amazon; glad you could make it after all. Grab a beer if there's any left...

 

[aperry]

This new device sounds very nice, but...

I have hundreds of movies on my server, which I play on my TV via Wi Fi through a Western Digital device. I haven't seen where the Amazon Fire TV has this capability.

Plex and XBMC both do this and they're both running on the Fire TV.

 

[penplotter]

Plex and XBMC both do this and they're both running on the Fire TV.

Surely, and you have to know how to install them - it IS NOT trivial for everyone; I'm sure every consumer can be bothered to do that, even if they know about it.

Apple's winning formula is "out of the box ready", and yet people still persistently miss that point.

 

[Dave.UK]

Apple's winning formula is "out of the box ready", and yet people still persistently miss that point.

Its also whats holding them back.

Android devices are "out the box ready" but can do a lot more then Apple devices.