Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

imhereareyou

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 28, 2013
245
95
So I was at a friends and he has a Fire Tv Stick and it seemed pretty darn cool. Anyone here have the apple tv and the fire stick? Any suggestions? Info I should know? Is it worth it? And do I need it since I have the apple tv?
Thanks
 
Last edited by a moderator:
what did you think was cool about the fire tv stick?
Well he had EVERY movie possible and he said they were free! I like free. lol And it was fast when he scrolled thru the movies, my apple tv has a lag loading I can scroll then lag, then scroll again. Not a big deal really.
 
Well he had EVERY movie possible and he said they were free! I like free. lol And it was fast when he scrolled thru the movies, my apple tv has a lag loading I can scroll then lag, then scroll again. Not a big deal really.
gotta go with free
 
Which AppleTV do you have? FireTV Sticks are certainly not fast. Are you sure he didn't have the FireTV "box"?

As for "every movie free", I assume he has Amazon Prime so anything with the Prime logo would be available at no extra cost. But it is not even close to "every movie".
 
Which AppleTV do you have? FireTV Sticks are certainly not fast. Are you sure he didn't have the FireTV "box"?

As for "every movie free", I assume he has Amazon Prime so anything with the Prime logo would be available at no extra cost. But it is not even close to "every movie".
Seems like a lot of FireTV Sticks have Kodi installed and are getting Pirate TV. But not sure if that is the case here. But that would explain the "every movie".
 
Which AppleTV do you have? FireTV Sticks are certainly not fast. Are you sure he didn't have the FireTV "box"?

As for "every movie free", I assume he has Amazon Prime so anything with the Prime logo would be available at no extra cost. But it is not even close to "every movie".
I am not sure, he might of had the box, but he had movies that were in theaters still?!
I do have prime I am an amazon junkie...lol
 
lol well yeah...what movies do you know of that are in the theaters but they're available for purchase to the public?
Well I have seen a few on iTunes before that you can purchase, when I had a spinal fusion and was in a fancy hospital they had movies in the theater I got to watch from the hospital bed, so I know there are some around.
 
Well I have seen a few on iTunes before that you can purchase, when I had a spinal fusion and was in a fancy hospital they had movies in the theater I got to watch from the hospital bed, so I know there are some around.
they have pre-orders available. but if you say you've seen it, i can't argue with you. i honestly think you're lying, but i'll never know lol :p
 
It could also have been somewhat recent movies that are still out at "dollar theaters" and in Amazon's library for rent/purchase.

Remember, everything you see on the menu on FireTV is NOT necessarily free (same as on the AppleTV when you are on the Movies icon for instance, the thumbnails will appear across the top of the screen, but you still have to rent/buy the movie).

There are tons of threads on the value of AppleTV, FireTV, Roku, and other streaming options. A recent thread is:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/annual-bonus-time-sell-me-on-the-apple-tv.1961556/

And by the way, if you like the idea of the FireTV, it is really not a bad option and is only $40. Personally, I don't care for it relative to the AppleTV, but part of it is because of my home setup.
 
I have both the Fire stick and the ATV4. Each have their uses. I have Prime, so a lot of content is 'free' on the Fire stick. The ATV / Netflix gets a lot more use out of me, perhaps because its a recent purchase and I'm playing with Plex as well.
If you have a Prime subscription it seems silly not to have a Fire stick and I know that some people have 'hacked' their Fire to enjoy free content from Kodi.
Each device has its uses and I wouldn't like to be without either
 
I have both the Fire stick and the ATV4. Each have their uses. I have Prime, so a lot of content is 'free' on the Fire stick. The ATV / Netflix gets a lot more use out of me, perhaps because its a recent purchase and I'm playing with Plex as well.
If you have a Prime subscription it seems silly not to have a Fire stick and I know that some people have 'hacked' their Fire to enjoy free content from Kodi.
Each device has its uses and I wouldn't like to be without either
I do have prime and that is one of the reasons, but I also have netflix and hulu. I don't have cable at home just internet.
Thanks for this, I will probably just get it.
 
I've got both the FireTV and ATV 4. These days the ATV4 is relegated to pretty much accessing iTunes library and renting movies. The FireTV is used for everything else except Netflix as of yesterday since my Dish Hopper 3 now has 4K Netflix. I have the FireTV box not the stick, the stick doesn't support 4K and is very slow in operation.

The ATV4 has been a bit disappointing. For me, it really doesn't offer anything my ATV3 does.
 
ATV4 has been a huge letdown. No optical and movies loaded from Home Sharing library will occasionally stutter. Even when the movie is already FULLY LOADED in buffer on ATV. You have to quickly pause and play to get it smooth again. This is not streamed playback, its fully loaded on ATV4. It's just junk. Every ATV 3 and 2 I have plays it all smoothly.
 
ATV4 has been a huge letdown. No optical and movies loaded from Home Sharing library will occasionally stutter. Even when the movie is already FULLY LOADED in buffer on ATV. You have to quickly pause and play to get it smooth again. This is not streamed playback, its fully loaded on ATV4. It's just junk. Every ATV 3 and 2 I have plays it all smoothly.
I would suggest you take yours back...or minimally do a full restore. I have 3 ATV4s and they do not stutter 1 bit. They replaced ATV3s.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lparsons21
I would suggest you take yours back...or minimally do a full restore. I have 3 ATV4s and they do not stutter 1 bit. They replaced ATV3s.
I've returned it twice. Experimented with direct Ethernet and one device on 5Ghz ac observing 550mbs. It just randomly stutters. No rhyme or reason on which point of the movies. Even SD it stutters. You can really see it on a 60" or larger screen. So far reading the leak post of beta tester, no one has addressed this issue. Lets not even talk about the altered DD Surround that ATV 4 outputs since 9.1 change.
 
I've returned it twice. Experimented with direct Ethernet and one device on 5Ghz ac observing 550mbs. It just randomly stutters. No rhyme or reason on which point of the movies. Even SD it stutters. You can really see it on a 60" or larger screen. So far reading the leak post of beta tester, no one has addressed this issue. Lets not even talk about the altered DD Surround that ATV 4 outputs since 9.1 change.
That stinks. A couple of other troubleshooting steps (if you have the patience):

1) Airplay the videos
2) Swap out a router
3) Put videos on a different computer/server
4) Try Plex, Infuse, etc.

I know those are not direct fixes, but might help you narrow down the issue.
 
Infuse plays it all fine so does Air Video HD. It's the ATV4 Native player that is at fault. Just bad crappy shoddy work from Apple lately. Specially when third party apps out perform it. Sad lol.
 
My ATV does the same thing every once in a while when I am watching Hulu. Doesn't do it on netflix.
 
ATV4 has been a huge letdown. No optical and movies loaded from Home Sharing library will occasionally stutter. Even when the movie is already FULLY LOADED in buffer on ATV. You have to quickly pause and play to get it smooth again. This is not streamed playback, its fully loaded on ATV4. It's just junk. Every ATV 3 and 2 I have plays it all smoothly.
I have the ATV2 and it doesn't play smoothly! It annoys me some days
 
No wonder you think the the FTV stick is faster. You're comparing it to the ATV2. lol

And the free movies that your friend has on the FTV stick are most likely from the piracy add-ons in Kodi.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.