Not sure what you're talking about. You only need to navigate Plex content on your phone/tablet if you are watching them on your phone/tablet, or if you use ChromeCast (since all ChromeCast does is stream stuff, it doesn't have a UI in itself).
But if you are watching your Plex content on your 70 inch TV through a Roku/AppleTV/WDTV, and obviously this FireTV, you of course navigate the content right there on your "beautiful 1080p" on your TV. Did you seriously not get that?
Edit: What the heck. You are talking specifically about Chromecast? This thread is about FireTV and its competitors so that's why I responded like that. Chromecast is definitely not for everyone. But this device from Amazon is not trying to compete with it. It's trying to compete against Roku and AppleTV. Chromecast is a completely different thing and targeted people with completely different usage patterns.
Plex for Android is now 99c in the Amazon App Store. https://blog.plex.tv/2014/04/02/plex-available-amazons-fire-tv/
Still $4.99 in Google Play. Is it the same if I just grab it from the Amazon App Store (which I had to install via apk for my Note 3)?
Anyone know what size tv tential has?
And you can do that with Plex or even the abomination known as iTunes or any other device that supports DLNA.
Essentially, I don't want to keep a PC in the living room. I mean, I'm fine with a tablet or phone, so Chromecast has some functionality for me that works fine. But I don't want to start up Netflix or Hulu or Plex on my phone, naviagte using the phone and then stream it to the Chromecast. I've had way too many problems where my phone turns off, loses connection to the Chromecast and then I can't reconnect it.
I'll give you an example of where a dumb remote is better at controlling the experience that a tablet or phone.
Watching House of Cards during dinner on Netflix. Need to get up to get a drink refill. Turn phone on and unlock it. Wait for the Netflix app to reconnect to the Chromecast (cross fingers it does), once reconnected, wait for it to recognize it's place in the video, hit the pause button. Process takes about 10 seconds. Go to kitchen, make drink, come back, repeat process except this time to press play.
Watching a video on my Boxee, same situation. Pick up Boxee remote, press pause. I think there's room for both situations here. A tablet/phone to browse content and pick it out, a dumb remote to control playback functions.
Yeah, how? Don't they have to play through the browser? Or through a device app that you can browse to them? Doesn't Plex provide the same functionality?
No, I'm not buying the argument that a remote control is equivalent to a smartphone or tablet. See above a few replies.
AppleTV is IR. Why not program it in to the universal remote you (likely) already use for everything else?
If you like using your smartphone/tablet to control things, why not download the Remote app for AppleTV? Isn't that exactly what you say you're looking for?
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/remote/id284417350?mt=8
As noted, completely disagree.
I can't imagine using a chromecast to surf the internet without having the computer right beside me. Since Chrome only casts one tab at a time, what do you do if something opens a new tab? Do you use keyboard shortcuts to search around for it like a blind person? Is there a keyboard shortcut to start casting (not sure, actually).
I have an Apple TV, Roku 3, and Chromecast. I like them all in their special little ways.
The Apple TV was what I bought first. I have an iPad and wanted it for AirPlay. They apps are functional, but feel severly outdated. YouTube and Netflix are horrible. My Apple TV is my least used device now.
Roku 3 is what I got after the Apple TV, I think it had an app that Apple TV didn't (Amazon Instant Video I think). And oh my goodness, the UI is so much better, than apps get updated more often and are much easier to use. To this day the Roku 3 is my main go to media player. I still love this thing to death. My only criticism is it has a USB port, but doesn't support USB keyboards or any kind of keyboard (other than the one on the phone app).
Chromecast I bought just because it was so cheap and I'm a Google fan, have a few Nexus phones and tablets. It works amazingly well, I used it a lot at first. However after the novelty wore off, I went back to the Roku 3. It's just much more convenient to have a physical remote and not need to rely on using my phone or PC to operate the Chromecast. I apparently prefer a device that can operate on it's own.
On the Amazon Fire TV, I obviously like the idea of faster performance. While I haven't really said to myself "damn this Roku 3 is slow", I mostly accepted it because it seemed fast enough for the job. But hey if something wants to load apps up to 3 times faster, I'm all for that. I also like the voice input. I don't search much, mostly because it's been an awkward experience on the Roku 3 with no keyboard and with the Apple TV the BT keyboard is usually across the room. Being able to speak my searches sounds like a great idea.
I ordered the Fire TV this afternoon. Hopefully it'll arrive Friday as it said. I passed on the game controller. I think I want to see reviews on how that works first before I spend $40 on what looks like a kinda cheap controller.
And it's probably time for me to sell that Apple TV. But I'm definitely keeping the Chromecast. Hoping Android mirroring will come to that soon or eventually.
Just playing the movies in Chrome. By going ctrl-o in Chrome you get a file open window and then just choose whatever you have on your hard drive and open it. It then plays in Chrome.What software on the PC are you using to stream to the tv that has no lag? I tried Plex and the Chrome browser itself. Both lag really badly or skips (low fps) that it's unwatchable. My tv/chromecast is only 10ft away from the PC / wifi router.
As I stated above I also have no lag nor buffering with Chromecast.Why bother running to a PC? Your phone can also be used to control chromecast. And 99 percent of people have their phone on them all the time.
I use plex from my phone to stream to chromecast, no lag at all. Anecdotal evidence, sure...but at least its proof that it works. I do need to do more testing with HD videos though. I believe i've had no trouble streaming 720p stuff.
Great, just what everyone wants to see in an Amazon FireTV thread, the pros and cons of Chromecast.
-KeithP
Surf the web? You can do that on MOST DEVICES and play videos off EVERY page. Amazon Kindle, FireTV, etc. ALL have webbrowsers.
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Looks fast, which is my biggest complaint about my WDTV Live.
I have a PS3 as well, but Cinavia kills that as a media streamer.
No point in buying a Roku or anything else on the market, with this being $99.
Yes, but the Chromecast is far easier to use with a real mouse and keyboard. Surfing with a Roku remote is terrible. Plus Chrome on Windows is far more powerful than most of the web browsers on set top boxes.
Weird thing is Roku kinda killed the $99 Roku 3 first. They announced the Roku Stick a couple weeks ago that seems to do almost everything the Roku 3 does, for only $49.
So now we got something covering all the budgets.
$35 Chromecast. Flexible device, use your own phone/computer as a remote.
$50 Roku Stick. Lots of channels, comes with it's own basic remote.
$100 Fire TV. Much faster performance, gaming capable.
Now we wait to see what the Apple TV will bring.
Something is still missing though. None of these have HDMI passthru. I would love for a media streamer to have this. Come on Roku, it's your chance to earn your top spot back.
If you could mirror from Android tablets and phones this would be huge, hope Google doesnt screw up their box they have in the works.
I'd always heard PLEX was good but haven't used it personally, the FireTV does look interesting and watching it a bit myself.
Is there a foolproof way to AirPlay avi's to my AppleTV? I'm using Infuse for mp4's but playing an avi with Infuse to my ATV forces it to use AirPlay Mirroring and it's unwatchable. I'm seeing Air Video HD is an app that does AirPlay avi's? Anybody here try it? Or use something else?