Amazon - Fire TV Cube 4K Streaming Media Player with Alexa and All-New Alexa Voice Remote - Black

I was excited to get the new fire TV cube as it combined two of my favorite devices - Fire TV stick and Echo dot, but was a bit disappointed with the result. Don't get me wrong, the device is a capable 4K streaming device - it is just that it cannot provide you complete voice control on your TV. The reason is two fold - (1) Some controls are just not supported (e.g., powering on or off your cable set top box - it can only control boxes that are already on), and (2) it is just easier, and faster to get certain things done with the remotes. Now however, the one great thing is commanding Alexa across the room to get something started and to see it few moments letter - makes you feel like you're living in the future. If you don't care about your power bills or environment - switch off "auto power off/power save" on your cable set top box and let it always remain on. Fire TV cube can work well then. The other great thing is that the cube knows when to use its own speakers, and when to turn on the TV and use that. But unlike echo dot - you cannot ask it to pair bluetooth speakers or call your family! Also, when you use echo dot to control your fire TV stick, that works quite well too - so really, you could, in theory - buy the latest echo dot 3rd get ($ 49.99) and Echo fire TV stick with new report ($ 49.99) combined for about $ 20 cheaper than this device and have more capability and flexibility overall. The new remote of the new Fire TV stick 4K is the same as this item, so you can still power on your TV with it. What you cannot do is should across the room to control your TV. So, there you have it - you can combine two AMAZING 5***** products but the result can be average, but then again, amazon has brought about many new features using over the air software upgrades. So you never know, this may become more capable in future. A feature, that amazon should consider via software update is the ability to teach IR commands - like you can do with "Pronto Peel" and "Logitech Harmony" devices. That would make it more compatible with additional devices. Another thing that amazon can do is somehow make the device more zippy, faster, more responsive. It is not as quick on its feet as echo dot, and the performance seems at par with a cheaper fire TV stick 4K.

My house is filled with numerous Alexa devices ranging from a couple of 2nd generation Echos, an Echo Spot, and two Sonos One speakers. Adding the Fire TV Cube was a natural fit as I could now use Alexa to control my TV, cable box, and even music throughout my home Sonos setup. Did it work like I expected? Well, yes and no. I'll go over the positives and negatives of the Fire TV Cube. First and foremost, if you have a Fire TV device, you'll be familiar with the interface. It's the same old grid you get with every device. Amazon really needs to clean this up and separate everything out to different tabs or have a grid of apps. Navigating videos available for Prime Video streaming is a pain yet the Prime Video app takes you to videos Amazon wants you to buy/rent. Instead, the Prime Video app should have to tabs: one for free Prime streaming and another for renting/purchasing. The idea is to just use Alexa to queue things up but it's not perfect. Just last night I said "Alexa, I want to watch Doctor Who." The entire series is available to stream for free for Prime subscribers yet Alexa's first result was to buy the series on Prime Video, the second result was to install the BBC app and pay for their streaming option. Everything after that was either a documentary about the series or one off specials that I could stream, buy, and/or rent. I have never been a fan of the Fire TV interface and the Fire TV Cube doesn't do anything to better that. I also still have issues with streaming over wi-fi. I had a Fire TV stick years ago hooked up to a different router and ISP. It would constantly buffer and stream in 480p despite being inches away from the router and me having a 50Mbps connection (tested on my phone). Now I have a mesh network with 200Mbps throughout my home and, when using wi-fi, the Fire TV Cube would often just play HD or 1080p HD despite my Apple TV 4K playing 4K HDR Netflix content without issues. I had to wire my Fire TV Cube to one of my routers and it works a lot better but still prefers to play 1080p versions of 4K content. The main positive of the Fire TV Cube is being able to use Alexa to playback music throughout my house, control my smart devices, and control my living room entertainment setup. Alexa does a pretty good job at this, better than I thought. I still need a remote from time-to-time but Alexa does a good job with turning on my TV, controlling my cable box, and music (to an extent). I subscribe to Apple Music and Amazon Music. Right now, the Fire TV Cube only works with Amazon Music (also Pandora, Sirius XM, Spotify, Tidal, and Deezer). Apple Music was just added to Echo devices so it's probably only a matter of time but the Fire TV Cube perfectly controls Amazon Music and understand every command. The control of smart devices is no different than an Echo speaker but it's nice that the Cube will mute my TV speakers (which is actually a Sonos PlayBase) when I'm giving a command or asking a question. Alexa can easily change channels on my cable receiver. I can either belt out the exact channel name "Alexa, turn the cable to channel 847" or I can simply say "Alexa, turn the cable to HBO." That part really surprised me with how well it works. The Fire TV Cube was also easy to setup. It discovered my TV, Apple TV 4K, and cable receiver (and appropriate company) without issues. The only thing it didn't discover automatically was my Nintendo Switch. It even knew my TV was outputting audio via digital coaxial to my Sonos PlayBase. I'm not sure if this was due to the Cube or my TV (a 2018 Samsung QN65QF), or communication between both, but it was nice. Aside from the Fire TV UI, using the Cube was a breeze and anyone who has ever use an Alexa device will be able to use it just fine. All-in-all, I was pleasantly surprised by the controlling capabilities of the Cube. It automatically discovered my TV, Sonos PlayBase, and other media/cable devices hooked up to my TV. It knows my cable provider and which networks are on which channels. It can provide basic controls for my cable box (like play/pause) and gives my TV access to all of my smart devices. I'm not a fan of the Fire TV interface and it still feels like Amazon uses cheap networking hardware in their Fire devices. I would have given this a higher score had Amazon not made me plug the Ethernet adapter into the Cube and if Amazon updated the old Fire interface (which is showing its age). I would still recommend this for people who want to control their TV's with their voice without having to hold a remote up. I liked it enough that I purchased a second one for my bedroom.

I purchased this on sale, it only cost a bit more than a 4K Roku stick. At first I regretted purchasing it, and wanted to exchange it for a Roku; but, ended up keeping it in hopes that Amazon will release updates to make it better. I had hoped that the Cube would serve as a media player; but, also be able to replace the Echo Dot that’s in the bedroom; but, it sort of can’t replace an Echo. I usually ask my Echo to play music for sleep at night, and it plays music through its built in speaker; where the Cube has a built in speaker; but, it can’t stream music without turning on the TV, which creates annoying light that I don’t want while trying to fall asleep. It’s also not smart enough to be able to turn the TV off in x-minutes or x-hours. I wish the Cube didn’t want to use the TV for almost everything, and that it were able to use its built in speaker for more things. I did end up keeping it, and it’s pretty useful for some things, like I can ask it to play a certain show, and it will turn on the TV and play the show, and then when done I can ask it to turn off the TV. With that said, it does some annoying things, like I might ask it to pause the show while I step away for a bit, and it does; but, if asked to continue playing, it’ll either switch to read a Kindle ebook, or stream music; so it’s touchy on how it wants certain commands. The remote that it came with is great, and works nicely - unlike the older remotes that shipped with the Firestick’s, this one actually has built in volume and power buttons. Voice commands work nicely with Amazon apps; but, in apps like PS Vue, not so well - like I can;t ask it to stream X-show on PS Vue; I can just ask it to open PS Vue. The nice thing is that Amazon allows for different names on their devices, so I kept the Echo in the room and call her “Alexa”, which the Cube is “Echo”.

Great at voice commands and you have the ability to play and control music via your soundbar or home entertainment/theater system is seamless. However I could not access the TV Cubes Dolby Atmos feature. Despite it stating Dolby Atmos clearly on the Box. Which is the only reason I bought the Cube. I Made a call to Amazon Tech Support and they couldn’t activate the Cubes Dolby Atmos feature either.., Long story short I returned it. But only because I have a Fire TV Stick. If you want Dolby Atmos then I wouldn’t recommend buying the TV Cube. However if you don’t want or need Dolby Atmos then I would highly recommend The Amazon Fire TV Cube. After all who doesn’t want to control things with your voice. I was able to turn the TV off and On, control the volume and change the channel all with my voice. I was even able to Control Netflix, Amazon Video, Music Apps and my Xbox all with my voice. How cool is that...!!!

you can control everything hands free which is great but u have to repeat things sometimes which is the same with the echo dot or echo, so not so bad but using the remote with voice things are heard much clearer. Keep it away from speakers, tv speakers or sound bars. There is one thing that keeps happening on my tv sometimes which is when I ask it to change input to tv, game, or any orther input it goes to my tv usb input setup which is weird but could be a isolated brand. My tv is a toshiba. All for the price I paid $60 I can deal with the small issues. 4K streaming is awesome so to have that and combined with the other smart applications in the house lights, thermostat, plugs, garage, etc... it’s worth getting especially if u get it at a cheaper price than $120

I would give the Amazon Fire Tv cube a 5 star raiting but it does not have a USB input slot. I have hundreds of movies that I put on a USB memory stick but I have to use my DVD player because Amazon did away with the slot on the last Fire TV box and continued with the Cube. I own the original stick, the 4K stick, the Fire Tv Box 2, the Fire Tv box 3 and now the Cube. The Cube is Amazing though. What I love most is I am Lazy and with my voice I can turn on and off my Tv, my Stereo and my DVD player using the Cube. No remotes needed. This makes my life so much easier. You can also install Kodi and all you other apps very easily. You have Netflix, Hulu and Vudu available. Forget Roku and get a real streamer the Fire TV Cube. Oh and I paid for my Cube.

I got this because it was on sale. Didn't think I would really use it. After getting this I was lost on what can it do besides telling me the weather and play music or something on netflix. I can change the color of my hue lights and turn on or off with just my voice. Ask how the traffic is from my house to the mall or wherever. Set timers and alarms. Get the spelling of words or definitions. Everyday I learn something new that Alexa can do. Surprisingly fun and unique experience to have. Yeah some people are paranoid about it possibly always listening but there is a mute button.

It is definitely high on the cool factor, but there are two large obstacles: the skill set is growing, which implies that it is not yet robust. The other difficulty is that you need to be able to speak her language. What this means is that sometimes she understands what you are saying and can do it, but in others she can't. The one that causes me to scratch my head is that she cannot do all the commands on Amazon Prime. I would have thought that this was an obvious thing to have done first. Setup was fairly straight forward, though there is a problem with it not being able to feed my sound through the AVR yet without some additional manipulation.