Got my FireTV (FTV)yesterday. Here is my take after a day or so with it.
My unpackaging impression was that it was nicey boxed up, but I noticed that the unit itself as well as the remote felt a little cheap compared to the ATV. The initial setup is very easy and it ties right into your Amazon account and libraries. Of course, you have access to Amazon Instant video in HD and Prime Music. I easily installed Pandora, iHeartRadio, and even Slingbox player and they all worked great so that was a good start. I then delved into the world of sideloading what Amazon didn't want me to install and found it was pretty easy and most everything works well. I installed Firefox, Chrome, Kodi, and they all work very nicely. They open in a snap! Here's the icing on the cake for me, I installed TVGo and it actually works!
The Amazon home page, of course, is featuring lots of things they want to sell you. Where the ATV just has movies and the like at the very top of the homepage, the Fire layout has horizontal rows of Movies, TV shows, games, etc. along with "recommendations." But, if you can look past the clutter, it's quite easy to use and super quick.
When you sideload an app, they do not show up on the home screen, so you have to dig into settings to open them. Fortunately, there are a few alternatives. I installed Firestarter which is an alternative launcher and gives you a clean homepage with just the app icons. I configured it so that one press of the home button on my remote takes me to the Amazon home screen and two presses takes me to the Firestarter home screen.
The voice command on the remote is nice. It does somethings Siri won't, for instance I can ask Alexa the weather, sports scores, etc. But, if I say "Pandora", it opens a highlighted word "Pandora" and shows me a bunch of videos that may have "Pandora" in the title or something. I can tell it to play Tom Petty music and it just does, using Prime Music. I can tell it to play my Tom Petty station on iHeartRadio and it will do that. It won't do the same for Pandora. Voice searches for something like "Modern Family" are quick but only showed Amazon Instant Video options, it did not include HULU, which I have installed and am subscribed to.
One negative, the FTV will not support Open VPN or similar without rooting.
The FTV has a micro sd card slot as well as a usb port. Just for the heck of it, I plugged in my Logitech wireless keyboard dongle and was surprised to find that it worked instantly. The mousepad and touchpad come in quite handy, especially when you are trying to navigate things you have sideloaded. In fact, I would say it's a necessity and I have ordered a nice bluetooth keyboard and touchpad.
I put a movie on a usb stick and plugged it in and navigated to it using ES File Explorer and it played without any fuss.
In summary, I am really impressed. To be honest, this box does everything ATV does and more. (except access iTunes music and video) It is lightning fast and is giving me all the features on a TV box I was missing. I still really like my ATV4. It has a classy easy to use interface and works great. But, if I could only have one, it's no contest; I would keep the FireTV.
My unpackaging impression was that it was nicey boxed up, but I noticed that the unit itself as well as the remote felt a little cheap compared to the ATV. The initial setup is very easy and it ties right into your Amazon account and libraries. Of course, you have access to Amazon Instant video in HD and Prime Music. I easily installed Pandora, iHeartRadio, and even Slingbox player and they all worked great so that was a good start. I then delved into the world of sideloading what Amazon didn't want me to install and found it was pretty easy and most everything works well. I installed Firefox, Chrome, Kodi, and they all work very nicely. They open in a snap! Here's the icing on the cake for me, I installed TVGo and it actually works!
The Amazon home page, of course, is featuring lots of things they want to sell you. Where the ATV just has movies and the like at the very top of the homepage, the Fire layout has horizontal rows of Movies, TV shows, games, etc. along with "recommendations." But, if you can look past the clutter, it's quite easy to use and super quick.
When you sideload an app, they do not show up on the home screen, so you have to dig into settings to open them. Fortunately, there are a few alternatives. I installed Firestarter which is an alternative launcher and gives you a clean homepage with just the app icons. I configured it so that one press of the home button on my remote takes me to the Amazon home screen and two presses takes me to the Firestarter home screen.
The voice command on the remote is nice. It does somethings Siri won't, for instance I can ask Alexa the weather, sports scores, etc. But, if I say "Pandora", it opens a highlighted word "Pandora" and shows me a bunch of videos that may have "Pandora" in the title or something. I can tell it to play Tom Petty music and it just does, using Prime Music. I can tell it to play my Tom Petty station on iHeartRadio and it will do that. It won't do the same for Pandora. Voice searches for something like "Modern Family" are quick but only showed Amazon Instant Video options, it did not include HULU, which I have installed and am subscribed to.
One negative, the FTV will not support Open VPN or similar without rooting.
The FTV has a micro sd card slot as well as a usb port. Just for the heck of it, I plugged in my Logitech wireless keyboard dongle and was surprised to find that it worked instantly. The mousepad and touchpad come in quite handy, especially when you are trying to navigate things you have sideloaded. In fact, I would say it's a necessity and I have ordered a nice bluetooth keyboard and touchpad.
I put a movie on a usb stick and plugged it in and navigated to it using ES File Explorer and it played without any fuss.
In summary, I am really impressed. To be honest, this box does everything ATV does and more. (except access iTunes music and video) It is lightning fast and is giving me all the features on a TV box I was missing. I still really like my ATV4. It has a classy easy to use interface and works great. But, if I could only have one, it's no contest; I would keep the FireTV.
