Amazon - Fire TV Streaming Device - Black

As a video streaming device, this little box is great. We use Netflix so I activated the free Netflix app. I like how there is a separate Netflix for kids app. The remote is small, lightweight and simple to use. The voice search is very accurate, but it only provides hits that belong to Amazon. How lame is that?! This device is clearly geared for use with Amazon Prime membership. Since I am a student and Get Amazon Prime for half price, I decided to try it out. It was very easy to set up using only my Fire TV remote. I don't think I would want to pay the full price for it. Netflix has a bigger selection of the stuff that I like. Whether you opt to subscribe to Amazon Prime or not, you will be bombarded with opportunity to spend money for Amazon products and services. I find that a bit distasteful. I like that there are kid friendly games available for free download. I researched buying a high-end gaming console like X-box but was turned off by the very high price and very limited selection of young-kid-friendly games. The fire TV is no match for a dedicated high-end gaming system, but it is all my family will need for a few more years. There is also a separate game controller available for purchase (if you don't want to use the simple remote controller). Many games require the optional game controller. I will probably be more interested in it when my 5 and 6 year olds become 7 and 8 year olds. To my disappointment, I haven't encountered any web browsing apps to download. I think that would be a nice enhancement (if they do it right). At any rate, I bought two of these to turn two big dumb HDTVs into big smart HDTVs. The tiny Fire TV box can be easily concealed behind the TV (since line of sight is not needed for the remote). A single HDMI cable between the Fire TV box and the TV provides both video and audio signals. The Fire TV supports WIFI so I stream wirelessly with amazing results. If you leave your TV on when finished using, a slideshow begins to play with a nice assortment of very scenic pictures that are replaced/updated from time to time so you don't get tired of looking at them. You have the option of putting personal/family pictures on Amazon (for free, I think) and using those as the screen-saver slide show source. If you want to rent a movie that you don't have available by subscription (Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime, etc.) you have only to press the microphone button and speak. Then, for a small fee, you can instantly stream the title of your choice. At least that's the theory. I haven't spent a penny on apps, movies or games (other than my monthly subscriptions) since I bought the thing. However, it does sound like a nice alternative to driving to the nearest video rental store and worrying about return dates and late fees. I hope this helps. Good luck.

With several computers connected on my home network, all with their share of stored media files, I've needed a dedicated media player for some time now. I've tried using various Blu-Ray players to watch these on my 65" TV (who wants to have a movie party around a computer monitor?!), but none of them really were cut out for the job. After doing some research, I saw that Amazon's Fire TV out-classed similar devices (Apple TV, Google, Roku) in hardware specs. I already had an Amazon Prime subscription, too, and with Prime service integrated in the software, Fire TV seemed like a good choice. Performance-wise, I'm happy with Fire TV. The interface is smooth as silk, with absolutely no lag. Streaming video, in most cases, starts almost instantly, and the quality is nice (much better than with my Samsung Blu-Ray). A big draw for me was the ability to run apps on the box. I purposely didn't buy a smart TV, because I knew that the OS would be dated long before the TV stopped working; running apps on an external device would let me upgrade my media experience without buying a new TV. Apps on the Fire TV are OK... Just OK. Again, better than on my Blu-Ray, but for a 2 GHz quad-core device with 2GB RAM, one would expect more in the apps department. One of the first apps I downloaded was the Plex media center, which is a very slick app for navigating your video libraries on your home network. This app is very, very nice -- but it did cost $4.99, whereas on other platforms it could be free. The overall interface of the box is good, but I do hope it gets updated soon. It has a slightly dated feel somehow, or it's as if it wasn't quite polished as much as it could be before its release. It does its job, though, and I haven't noticed any glaring issues with logic in navigating through it. I haven't done in-depth testing of the voice search feature; it's not something I need, anyway. I've seen where some reviewers complained that the search isn't global across the device (in other words, it may be limited to Amazon results?), but if I don't use it, that doesn't matter so much to me. Overall, like most things, how much you like it depends on how you use it. This box handles Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime very well, and I think a lot of people probably won't go beyond that. I don't do gaming, so I didn't bother testing the games on offer. As for handling media files, downloading the Plex app (which requires the Plex Media Server running on your network, BTW) rounded out the whole feature set.

I love the Amazon Fire TV. It looks great and works great. I use it for Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu Plus and Plex. First off, I was using a Roku 2 XS and I was frustrated that the Netflix app didn't support Profiles. On a whim, I picked up a Roku 1 (which ironically is actually newer and better than MY Roku 2 XS, faster too) and I really liked it... but again, no netflix profiles. So I was really in the market for a device that one, offered a rich Plex experience and two, offered support for Netflix profiles. Amazon Fire TV fit both of these roles. The only Roku that did what I wanted was the Roku 3, which was the same price as the Fire TV. (Technically I could have gone with Chromecast, but I wanted a independent device with a remote.) I really enjoy the FireTV. The Remote is sleek and works great, the device is very fast. Now, complaints: 1. No universal search. I hope they update this. If you use the search (voice or otherwise) it will only present you with Amazon results, you can get to the others, but it's not very intuitive. I understand Amazon results being prominent on an Amazon device, but what I'd like is to also see all my items and options. 2. Cluttered UI. I'm sure they'll fix this eventually, but right now the UI is just... kind of ugly and disjointed. Not a deal breaker, but still. I took one point off value for price because there are some cheaper alternatives out there around the $50 point (or the Chromecast if that's your thing), but it's very much a good competitor to the Apple TV, and Roku 3. For my $99, it'd take the Fire TV any day over those two options. I took two off of Features for the cluttered UI and Search functions, but I'm confident this will be no problem by next year. All in all, this is a *great* device. I'm happy I took a chance on it.

After numerous reviews of the Roku, Sony, and Firetv we decide on the Amazon product. We are Amazon prime members in our household and thought this would be great for us. We have a first gen appletv which we liked in the beginning but lacked many apps we use on other devices. We are primarily a movie and tv app kind of family so we were extremely disappointed in this product. First, just on the setup side. When we got the box home we assumed plug and play. That was incorrect. When we hooked it up to our sound bar with hdmi we got no sound. We decided to hook it up straight to the tv. Again, no sound. We called tech support and they didn't have a clue about what was wrong but they sent us a new hdmi cable as a possible fix. I decided to take it back and exchange for another incase it was a glitch. I got it home and the same issue happened. I pulled an optical cable out of our media room and hooked it up to the sound bar and the hdmi to the tv. Finally I got sound, but this was completely unexceptable as hdmi should cover everything. Now we have to set the tv and the sound bar to get it to work. Once everything was setup we enjoyed manuevering through the interface. This is the only reason I didn't give it a one star. We soon found out that it did not handle cinemanow or vudu. Big problem since our entire video collection is on ultraviolet. They do offer flixster for ultraviolet but when I signed up for the account it won't even recognize my video library on ultrviolet. I than tried to see if we could watch one of the major network channel sites however they don't offer that. Next we thought about music. I love Pandora which they offer but we searched for the iheart app. To my surprise, no app. I think I could've gotten past the technical issues however if I cant get the apps I need than what use is this. Sure the voice feature is nice, but I'm not spending my time talking to this thing. I'd rather be watching a movie in my library which I can't.

I've owned this for about a month and have used it quite a bit over that time. PROS: 1) I find it nearly perfect for streaming videos (I use it for Amazon instant video plus I've side loaded SPMC to stream our DVD/Blu-ray collection from our local network). 2) It is also surprisingly fun for playing games. I've played Minecraft, Asphalt, Farming Simulator, Terraria, etc. using a wireless Xbox 360 controller (Terraria was the only game that had issues with the controller - maybe the Amazon controller or another 3rd party controller would work better with that app). 3) The interface is beautiful, intuitive, and responsive. This may seem minor but in my opinion it was a selling point above the Roku 3, which I also owned but ended up returning. The Roku 3 just seemed dated compared to the Amazon Fire TV. CONS: 1) Small storage capacity. Only 8 GB of storage (in reality only ~5 GB is available for saving apps, games, and data). That means you can only have a handful of larger apps and games installed at the same time (FYI: I have Asphalt, Minecraft, Terraria, Mickey's Castle of Illusions, Farming Simulator, SPMC, and a handful of other apps and my storage is nearly full). At the time of this writing there is no way to expand the storage so you have to manage your apps and games wisely. 2) The parental controls are lacking in my opinion. I would like to restrict content to PG or lower but you cannot specify that type of granularity with the Fire TV. You can only lock everything with a PIN. It would be nice to be able to set more granular restrictions so the kids could use it without worry. BOTTOM LINE: Overall this is an awesome product! I would highly recommend it - what a bargain for all that it can do!

The Amazon Fire TV is by far the best streaming media device I've used. I did a lot of research to compare to the competing products, ranging from the latest Roku, Google, Apple TV, smart TVs and smart blu ray players. The Fire TV has them all beat by a mile in terms of technical specs. And so far, its performance has been very impressive and lived up to the superior specs, both in terms of speed, connection reliability, and interface. I previously used two different smart blu ray players for streaming, but they were much slower, less reliable in terms of the wifi signal, and in retrospect they had much clunkier interfaces and frustrating navigation limitations (like not being able to fast forward or rewind within a show without having to re-buffer). The Fire does all this much more smoothly and naturally. Physically, the box is surprisingly small and attractive – it does not draw attention to itself, but is very well designed and packaged. The remote is sleek, simple, and ergonomic. I have no complaints, other than the fact that the much advertised voice search feature only works within the amazon content, not within Netflix, etc (unless I’m missing something). In terms of streaming content, the Fire has all the things I wanted. Most of the devices out there include all the major streaming providers, and most of them are missing various content, just depending on the licensing deals each company has made. But for the overall combination of content, interface, and technical quality, the Fire just flat wins the fight... at least for now. Better, faster, stronger!

The Amazon Prime series alone make this box worth the money, but only 5 GB's of storage make the game controller I bought along with the Fire TV box, almost worthless! I downloaded one game to the box and have no room to download another! That means I have to delete one game just to play another, with no cloud storage for it and no option to add an external hard drive to it. You slipped up there Amazon! That being said, I've had a Fire TV box for a little more than a month now, and I find something new every time I turn it on! The entertainment this box provides is seemingly endless. Hulu, Netflicks, HBOGo Youtube and the Showtime Anytime apps, among other, are available with most media streaming devices, but Amazon Prime offers exclusive series like Transparent, (which is rightfully acclaimed), and Mozart In The Jungle, (unsung, but hopefully soon recognized), along with some great, Disney-esque / Nickleodeon type shows for kids, and some great new pilot series to watch, aimed at both adults and children. The movie, music and learning apps are endless, with a good portion aimed at kids. This device doesn't just make your TV a smart TV, it makes it a genius TV! This device is seriously making me wonder why I pay so much for cable? I will most likely downgrade my cable and eliminate some boxes. The storage issue is the only reason the box missed out on a 5 star rating! I sill highly recommend!

This is touted for it's speed and ability to game...for me, it gets an underwhelming "meh." I had been using a 5 year old Roku unit. It hardly ever had to buffer. I think this actually buffers more frequently. It takes ages for games to load...and the selection isn't too great. The voice search works surprisingly well. I think this makes up for what is lacking on the Prime UI. Visually, it is difficult to tell what is included with Prime vs what is paid. That said, the Amazon app is better than the Roku's UI for Amazon Prime. The Netflix app (which is what I used far more frequently) does not compare to the UI that Roku developed. Not nearly as helpful. The unit is pretty small and fairly non-invasive (though larger than Roku devices). The blue LED indicator light is surprisingly bright. I don't like that. Compared to Roku options, the build quality seems better, so it may have that going for it. Fire TV does deliver as far as incorporating your Amazon music cloud...if you have a sound system hooked to your tv, you may find this feature incredibly nice. This was not something I gave much thought to on my purchase, but afterward, I was pleased with that aspect. I'm not sure if it's a huge selling point, though. I have the app on my phone and can already stream to other devices via bluetooth. Dollar for dollar, I don't think you get nearly as much as the hype may lead you to believe about Fire TV. I would not discourage purchasing, but I would definitely temper a potential buyer's expectations.