Amazon FireTV

[poofyhairguy]

I never really messed with XBMC skins til yesterday. I always just used default skin. I bought Asus chromebox yesterday and hacked it to dual boot ChromeOS and OpenXLEC XBMC. I installed Ace and Aeon skins and played around with it but it was pretty confusing navigating because I was so used to the default skin. Maybe it's me but I like the default skin.

There is nothing wrong with the default XBMC skin (Confluence). It is middle of the road on eye candy and performance requirements, which is a perfect sweet spot for many.

Personally I don't use it much, but that is due to my building habits. When I end up making XBMC boxes they are at the extremes- either "fast" x86 ones for my use, or whatever low-powered stuff I can get cheap that I throw together to give to family members.

Aeon on a more powerful machine (and by powerful I mean an Ivy Celeron basically) has that "wow" factor when you turn on all the effects. Plus its very easy to customize, for example I added a "Games" menu heading that takes me to my emulators (via the Rom Collection Browser plugin) that looks stock. But I am buying extra hardware JUST to run Aeon at 60fps with everything turned on and not many want to do that.

On the weaker machines (so the level of ARM, Pi, Atom, Pentium 4, etc.) that I give to people I just want the smoothest experience possible on that hardware, which is Bello.

But Confluence certainly has its place and there is a reason its the default. Heck I still like it on an iPad more than the "Touched" skin because it's way less buggy.

 

[bearxor]

bearxor isn't big on the idea of sinking time into customization after install, which is the biggest strength of XBMC. I think that is a perfectly reasonable perspective he has, some people want turnkey which is Plex+something (Roku, FireTV, etc) currently.

I just don't have the energy for it anymore. I get in my head that this or that would be awesome to do and then I sit down and it's just like "f it, let's go of something else instead." I think I'm just too mentally exhausted to deal with this stuff.

But credit to you for remembering some discussions we've had!

But I will add that sometime late last year, Oct or so, I went through every single XBMC skin on my LRPC. There was one that I sort of liked and it was always my intention to revisit it. A friend of mine, whom uses XBMC exclusively, have often talked about making a skin that works great for us but just never feel like exploring it.

I have run in to one problem with the FireTV. Lack of a web browser. I normally wouldn't care, but it's impossible to authenticate to some hotel wifi networks without it. Should have side loaded one before I left but I wasn't even thinking about it.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I just don't have the energy for it anymore. I get in my head that this or that would be awesome to do and then I sit down and it's just like "f it, let's go of something else instead." I think I'm just too mentally exhausted to deal with this stuff.

I understand completely.

I used to be a warrior about XBMC machines a few years ago. I was making one every three months as a hobby in itself, and answering thousands of hardware questions on the forum. I had all these tuners running and it was running on all these different OSes on my many clients. But nowadays I am too tired to do much more than build for me and mine, and I switched them all to linux a few months ago to make it easier. Without the benefit of already blowing through the XBMC learning curve back when life was less busy I too might be Plexing it up.

But credit to you for remembering some discussions we've had!

 

[bearxor]

Doh. Of course.

And thanks bearxor for the response. The Plex app has to be bought from the Amazon App Store, correct? Is it the same one for Android or is it a specific Fire TV app? I bought my Plex on the Play Store and I don't subscribe to PlexPass so I'm going to have to buy the app again (which is no problem especially today with like 2000+ free coins from Amazon because of the offer).

Its the one on the Amazon App Store. Its the same one that's on the play store though. I bought it when the FTV came out for .99.

I just ran across this article that has a method for getting $3 in credit for free.

Edit: Also, 900 free coins here:
http://www.firetvnews.com/get-900-amazon-coins-for-free/

And then roll that in to 2000 free coins:
http://www.firetvnews.com/get-gta-san-andreas-for-3-99-or-free-plus-2000-amazon-coins/

I started the night with zero coins. Now I have 2,500 of them and a copy of GTA:SA

 

[cronos]

(which is no problem especially today with like 2000+ free coins from Amazon because of the offer).

Its the one on the Amazon App Store. Its the same one that's on the play store though. I bought it when the FTV came out for .99.

I just ran across this article that has a method for getting $3 in credit for free.

Edit: Also, 900 free coins here:
http://www.firetvnews.com/get-900-amazon-coins-for-free/

And then roll that in to 2000 free coins:
http://www.firetvnews.com/get-gta-san-andreas-for-3-99-or-free-plus-2000-amazon-coins/

I started the night with zero coins. Now I have 2,500 of them and a copy of GTA:SA

Yup, I mentioned that in my post above. I still had some leftover coins from when I got the Fire HDX for my wife, so I'm still over 3000 coins now after doing all that and buying some apps/games including Plex.

Here's also a good game (Sonic The Hedgehog 2) for 299 coins but you'll get back 240 coins http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HAPRVWS/

 

[cronos]

Pulled the trigger on the Fire TV just now. Didn't take advantage of the installments offer though and decided I'd just use some credits. Got a couple of ~$25 prepaid cards from rebates and such came in the past week, so I turned them into Amazon credits right away. Also I've got about $10 of thank you points on a card I never used. So I used that card using up the thank you points and the credits, ended up charging only about $47 to the card. Technically not a 'deal' but it felt like it

Never really seriously tinker around with XBMC before and I've been pretty content with my Plex arrangements for several years now, but I'm definitely going to try it this time. One thing that's starting to bother me with Plex is how it's so picky and inconsistent with subtitle files. We currently watch movies/series that need subtitles and it feels like throwing a dice every time whether the subtitle would show up or not (all of them have no problem showing up if the movie files are played directly through VLC), and I couldn't figure out what the cause is. Hopefully XBMC will be better on this.

 

[poofyhairguy]

One thing that's starting to bother me with Plex is how it's so picky and inconsistent with subtitle files. We currently watch movies/series that need subtitles and it feels like throwing a dice every time whether the subtitle would show up or not (all of them have no problem showing up if the movie files are played directly through VLC), and I couldn't figure out what the cause is. Hopefully XBMC will be better on this.

That is a common issue that is due to Plex transcoding the file. With XBMC (or VLC) you are playing the unmodified file directly on the device which means you get full support.

XBMC will even download subs for you if a file lacks it. Here is how:

http://www.howtogeek.com/186660/how-to-enable-automatic-subtitle-downloading-in-xbmc/

 

[SAWYER]

I got my Fire TV and loaded XBMC 13 on it. I could not get my main add on to work so I uninstalled and loaded the Ouya version of XBMC and now 1channel works. I havent tried the others but so far I am more than pleased. I sold my jailbroke Apple TV 2 for 190 so made some cash and got the Fire TV!

 

[ponyo]

That is a common issue that is due to Plex transcoding the file. With XBMC (or VLC) you are playing the unmodified file directly on the device which means you get full support.

XBMC will even download subs for you if a file lacks it. Here is how:

http://www.howtogeek.com/186660/how-to-enable-automatic-subtitle-downloading-in-xbmc/

I watch movies and TV shows with subtitles and that's my favorite feature of XBMC. I use it all the time. I don't have to worry about having subtitle file.

 

[SAWYER]

I need a recommendation on a good bluetooth controller, one that is like the form of a 360 controller would be good.

 

[ponyo]

I got my Fire TV and loaded XBMC 13 on it. I could not get my main add on to work so I uninstalled and loaded the Ouya version of XBMC and now 1channel works. I havent tried the others but so far I am more than pleased. I sold my jailbroke Apple TV 2 for 190 so made some cash and got the Fire TV!

Where did you sell your jailbroken AppleTV2? I have three right now and I want to sell two. I don't trust EBay.

I'm switching everything over to intel NUC and Asus Chromebox. I like the maximum compatibility and power of Intel CPU and having local USB ports for storage and devices. ARM Android XBMC is just too incompatible and unpolished for my liking.

 

[SAWYER]

fredmiranda

 

[cronos]

That is a common issue that is due to Plex transcoding the file. With XBMC (or VLC) you are playing the unmodified file directly on the device which means you get full support.

XBMC will even download subs for you if a file lacks it. Here is how:

http://www.howtogeek.com/186660/how-to-enable-automatic-subtitle-downloading-in-xbmc/

Thanks for the tip!

 

[poofyhairguy]

I need a recommendation on a good bluetooth controller, one that is like the form of a 360 controller would be good.

Why not the official one?

http://www.amazon.com/Amazon-53-0008.../dp/B00DU0ZI8Q

 

[SAWYER]

I dont want to spend 40 bucks on it but I supposed if it is better than the 3rd party I would

 

[poofyhairguy]

I dont want to spend 40 bucks on it but I supposed if it is better than the 3rd party I would

It would be hard to spend less and not get crap. I have spent over $100 on crap Android controllers, now I just use my Six Axis because they all sucked.

 

[dlock13]

I got my Fire TV in the mail yesterday from that 30-day trial promo. I was playing with it all last night, and all I can say is that I love it. I wish I had the $99 to spend on it so I could keep it, but alas, the wife and I are buying a house so we've got to save up.

 

[WelshBloke]

I watch movies and TV shows with subtitles and that's my favorite feature of XBMC. I use it all the time. I don't have to worry about having subtitle file.

Any chance one of you could start a thread about XBMC for noobs?

I've been meaning to get around to working with it but have just stayed with WMC/homeserver sort of arrangement.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Any chance one of you could start a thread about XBMC for noobs?

I've been meaning to get around to working with it but have just stayed with WMC/homeserver sort of arrangement.

What do you want to know?

It is client HTPC software, the same basic backend as Mplayer but with an emphasis on a 10 foot interface. Given enough power it can play almost any video file in existence, and it can also stream content from certain PVR software. Any local (as in on your network) content (from many sources) can be put together in a single library with consistent descriptions and fan art. On top of that it has a plugin architecture that allows for streaming content from many different online sources.

Its biggest plus is its flexibility. It has the best HTPC skins around (anything comparable is copying something XBMC had first) which can be greatly customized, and the program can be connected to other apps such as emulators or steam. If you want all your XBMC installs can share a MySQL DB which allows you to stop content in one room and finish it in another.

The biggest downside is the flexibility. Most people have to configure it a little bit just to get full sound support or to properly connect to your sources. To get full benefit (and maximum WAF) you honestly need good equipment (like a Chromebox or to a lessor degree a FireTV) and some free time to decide what skin and whatnot you like best. The whole Apple "plug and play and it Just Works even though you only have like three options" is the opposite of XBMC.

Ask anything else you want.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I got my Fire TV in the mail yesterday from that 30-day trial promo. I was playing with it all last night, and all I can say is that I love it. I wish I had the $99 to spend on it so I could keep it, but alas, the wife and I are buying a house so we've got to save up.

As a contrast to the story above, I am returning mine after less than a week with the 30-day trial. For my uses, my fleet of Rokus is simply superior and I just had too many issues with the FireTV to make it worth the time and effort trying to fix it.

 

[WelshBloke]

...

I don't really want to derail this thread but...

At the moment I've got a fairly powerful PC with a few TV tuners in, a low powered office PC, a laptop that mainly does duty piping media to the TV in the lounge, a WHS that has a bunch of media plus all the stuff that the PC with the TV tuners records, and a bunch of Android based devices.

At the least I'd like to get the laptop using a better interface to play everything on the TV.
It'll be mostly stuff that WMC has recorded that's stored on the server (although I'm in the process of converting all the wtv files to mp4), as well as amazon instant streaming stuff and a bunch of avi files.

Ultimately I'd like to scrap the WHS and get a more modern OS that does a similar job.

 

[lupi]

finally got around to installing the one I got for the kids room. from opening the box till the software updates finished installed was about 10 minutes. thing is pretty slick and after connecting to the n-5g signal from 2 rooms down, near instant speed and very nice looking picture. haven't run netflix in my house, but from watching over others no where near the delays between programs or occasional buffering I'm used to.

need to look up how to use parental controls. have it set for on but it doesn't seem to actually do anything though.

I would say well worth it if you have a prime account and want a easy to use way for watching it over a tv.

went to the main amazon site and it would let me adjust viewing restrictions for all devices except the fire tv, says that must be done on the actual device. haven't found yet where to actually do so though.

 

[cronos]

went to the main amazon site and it would let me adjust viewing restrictions for all devices except the fire tv, says that must be done on the actual device. haven't found yet where to actually do so though.

Go to Settings all the way at the bottom, and a few options to the right there's settings for Parental Control.

 

[lupi]

that doesn't really do anything. looks like for the fire tv you have to go into the freetime profile and manually add everything you want accessible. can't just log into the main account and let everything below a certain rating be accessible. that kinda sucks a big one.

 

[slugg]

I'm quite unhappy with my FireTV, one year later. We never got the voice search to work with Netflix, as they promised. It also tends to slow down and get glitchy/choppy over time, requiring a reboot, just like any other Android device I've ever used. This is especially annoying when there isn't a software reboot available and everything is tucked away in the back of my entertainment center.

One incredibly annoying thing is that other than Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix, all other third party video apps tend to be choppy and have stutter. Crackle, Pluto TV, Plex, XBMC... You name it, it won't play back smoothly.

Then there's the video sync. There is no way to change the output frequency based on the content. So you experience constant judder in movies, basically.

I had a bad experience with the Kindle Fire HDX, too. After that, and after this Fire TV, I think it's safe to say that I won't be buying another Amazon device in a long time. I still love Amazon itself, but their gadgets just haven't offered me a good experience.