Cutting the cord. Amazon firestick worth it?

[Sonikku]

My mother can't afford to keep DirecTV any more as she has piled on more expenses in the last few months and the $80 they want every month for increasingly fewer channels is just getting to be too much. I have an amazon prime sub and am considering getting a fire stick with alexa combo.

https://www.amazon.com/amazon-fire-..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=GSDA6D6HVTB8YA2FH9FN

Do any of you have one that can tell me more about it? I get the gist of it being a thumb drive you plug into your HDTV's usb port to access Amazon video, but where does the Dot and alex and voice come into play? Basically I'm thinking of getting her a netflix sub and setting up an antenna so that she should get movies and local channels for $12 a month. She has poor eyesight and if the Dot can be used for voice commands, that would be great. But I know little about these things.

 

[SearchMaster]

My son got one recently.

The voice control is through the remote, so you push a button on the remote and give it a command. His is not used in conjunction with a Dot. FWIW, it plugs into the TV's HDMI port not USB.

Frankly Netflix doesn't work flawlessly on it; the audio gets out of sync and you have to pause and restart to get it back. One other inconvenience - it utilizes CEC where the TV can power on when you turn the fire stick on. But it kept turning the TV on at night while he was sleeping, so we disabled CEC on that HDMI port but it still happens occasionally. It could be an issue with the TV as well, it's not been a huge issue since we disabled CEC since the TV comes on black.

It's certainly worth the $35 he paid for it if you don't have a smart TV. He has a PS3 so he can do Netflix through that but the fire stick (other than audio sync issues) is a much smoother implementation. And assuming you have an Amazon Prime account hooked to it, you have that avenue for movies and shows as well.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I haven't tried the Alexa thing, but the FireTV stick I have is nice enough. Has apps for Plex, Netflix, and Hulu, and supports bluetooth audio now, so it does a pretty good imitation of a one-size-fits-all solution.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Kodi = yay

 

[Sonikku]

My son got one recently.

The voice control is through the remote, so you push a button on the remote and give it a command. His is not used in conjunction with a Dot. FWIW, it plugs into the TV's HDMI port not USB.

Frankly Netflix doesn't work flawlessly on it; the audio gets out of sync and you have to pause and restart to get it back. One other inconvenience - it utilizes CEC where the TV can power on when you turn the fire stick on. But it kept turning the TV on at night while he was sleeping, so we disabled CEC on that HDMI port but it still happens occasionally. It could be an issue with the TV as well, it's not been a huge issue since we disabled CEC since the TV comes on black.

It's certainly worth the $35 he paid for it if you don't have a smart TV. He has a PS3 so he can do Netflix through that but the fire stick (other than audio sync issues) is a much smoother implementation. And assuming you have an Amazon Prime account hooked to it, you have that avenue for movies and shows as well.

So wait, the speaker is in the remote itself? Then what is the point of the alexa dot included in the bundle? And are there alternative sticks to Firestick that are better? I'm lost in all of this.

 

[SearchMaster]

I think that's just a bundle. You don't need the Dot to work with the Fire stick. The Dot will hook up to a stereo, for example, to stream Prime Music and do other Amazon Prime functions as well as potentially turn lights and appliances on and off. I don't know if or how it interacts with the Fire stick.

The microphone for the Fire stick is in the remote but it uses the TV's speaker. So, for example, you might hold the microphone button on the remote and say "Netflix" and Alexa's voice on the TV will respond "Here's Netflix" and start the app.

As for alternatives, there's Apple TV ($$$ relatively), Google Chromecast, and Roku streaming stick (about the same price as the Fire IIRC). I have no experience with Chromecast or Roku.

 

[smitbret]

So wait, the speaker is in the remote itself? Then what is the point of the alexa dot included in the bundle? And are there alternative sticks to Firestick that are better? I'm lost in all of this.

I have one FireTV box and 3 FireTV sticks, all Gen 2. All have worked pretty much flawlessly with NetFlix in the year that I have had them. I have had no trouble with the CEC function, either.

The voice control is in the remote. I don't have any Dots or Echoes but Amazon recently rolled out the ability for you to control FireTV through the Echo as long as they are all on the same network. I would think that using the Echo would probably be a little easier than the remote so I wouldn't even tell her it's in the remote then you won't have to worry about her pressing and holding the button appropriately.

 

[SearchMaster]

And yes, as monkeydelmagico indicated, you can install Kodi on the Fire stick pretty easily which potentially gives you access to streamed content of variable legality (mostly illegal). It's not something I'd recommend for your mother.

I don't know if you're a heavy Netflix user or not, but it has certainly shifted away from Hollywood blockbusters and more toward original content. A lot of it is very good to outstanding content, but is often more geared toward adult content (think HBO versus network television). So I don't know how your mother would respond to language, violence, and sexual programming. They still have older movies and occasionally more recent movies. Amazon Prime has original content as well (to a lesser degree) but seems to have more recent theatrical releases and also has pay-per-view new movies which Netflix doesn't have.

 

[thedarkwolf]

The only bad thing I'll say about the stick, think mine is a gen 2, is it is sluggish. The newer ones are faster but I haven't used one of those. Mine is really only annoying when using it with PS Vue which is a bit of a cpu hog. I have a Fire Tv box hooked up to my main Tv and it is a much nicer user experience.

 

[NoTine42]

Depending on what mom is looking for, DirecTv has a little advertised Family channel package that’s around $30/mo


http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/compare/printablePackageChannels.jsp?packageId=960004

 

[WaTaGuMp]

Kodi = yay

Word, but might be a little too complicated for older folks that also don't know anything about tech.

 

[ultimatebob]

Word, but might be a little too complicated for older folks that also don't know anything about tech.

She wouldn't be able to handle the initial Kodi plugin or service setup (or the reconfiguring if she's using some bootleg service that will inevitably get shut down by the feds), but the actual interface of Kodi and it's plugins as about as easy as using Netflix.

 

[vi edit]

Skip the stick and go for Nvidia shield. Soooooo much faster. It gets Amazon Video and the built in Google Assistant is light years ahead of the voice recognition of the Amazon Fire solutions.

 

[pcslookout]

Skip the stick and go for Nvidia shield. Soooooo much faster. It gets Amazon Video and the built in Google Assistant is light years ahead of the voice recognition of the Amazon Fire solutions.

Is the Amazon shield really worth $200 ? I almost bought one a few months back.

 

[vi edit]

It's been as low as $150. And compared to my Fire stick. Yeah. It's worth it. The fire stick is infuriatingly slow. You've got full built in Play Services without a side load and the recent update to include Google Assistant is amazing. The contextual searching that GA does vs. Alexa is not even comparable.

 

[pcslookout]

It's been as low as $150. And compared to my Fire stick. Yeah. It's worth it. The fire stick is infuriatingly slow. You've got full built in Play Services without a side load and the recent update to include Google Assistant is amazing. The contextual searching that GA does vs. Alexa is not even comparable.

Is it much faster than a Roku ? I have a Roku 3.

 

[vi edit]

Don't have a Roku so can't compare.

 

[vi edit]

I own a Fire Stick, Fire Tv, and Shield.

On a scale of 1-10 of usefulness, I'd rank them the following....

Stick - 3
TV - 7
Shield - 9

 

[pcslookout]

Don't have a Roku so can't compare.

Thanks np.

I don't know if it is worth it for me to spend $150 to $200 on a nvidia shield sense I rarely use the Roku 3 I got.

It sounds nice though! I was hearing about problems with the Nvidia Shield are they true ?

 

[John Connor]

Word, but might be a little too complicated for older folks that also don't know anything about tech.

Yep. And need a separate router with a good VPN. https://restoreprivacy.com/vpn-router-setup/

 

[DesiPower]

Kodi = yay

It's as if like people are discussing about if one should buy a corvette and someone goes... you can fvck a goat for fun!

 

[pcslookout]

So does anyone know if the Nvidia Shield still has problems ?

 

[WaTaGuMp]

Yep. And need a separate router with a good VPN. https://restoreprivacy.com/vpn-router-setup/

I have not been using a VPN, I have had Kodi for a couple years now.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

It's as if like people are discussing about if one should buy a corvette and someone goes... you can fuck a goat for fun!

Kodi is a service, not a device. So it's more like "Should I buy a Corvette?" and "Yes. Mine has plenty of room in the backseat for goat fucking."

 

[pcslookout]

It is funny people are talking about illegal streaming in this thread. Yes I download plenty of linux isos.