Amazon Fire TV & FTStick - It's like a modern Roku you can sideload apps on

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Amazon Fire TV & FTStick - It's like a modern Roku you can sideload apps on

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bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

I still think it's hilarious that right now TiVo has a better amazon instant video client than their own hardware platform.

# ? Nov 5, 2015 18:35

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# ? Jun 10, 2024 15:56

Vykk.Draygo: Jan 17, 2004; I say salesmen and women of the world unite!

What's wrong with Amazon Instant Video on the FTV?

# ? Nov 5, 2015 19:40

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Lack of native 24fps output. TiVo can natively do that which results in smoother motion.

# ? Nov 5, 2015 19:47

Tantalus: Feb 11, 2004

Falco posted:

Yup like a charm. Good luck with yours, I hope it's just as simple.

Well.... I tried what you'd mentioned and couldn't get it to work. Mounted the tv to the wall and connected everything back up and it works. :shrug:

# ? Nov 6, 2015 21:18

The Gunslinger: Jul 24, 2004; Do not forget the face of your father.; Fun Shoe

With Kodi disabling libstagefright soon I decided to switch back to MediaCodec and see how it is now. So far so good with must of the h264 stuff I've tried on a gen 1 FireTV.

# ? Nov 7, 2015 16:21

slave to my cravings: Mar 1, 2007; Got my mind on doritos and doritos on my mind.

Has anyone had trouble using the "music" section on the fire tv? Whenever I try to play a playlist it will play one song then get stuck at "Loading" for the next song. It's a real pain in the rear end and makes the music section pretty much worthless.

# ? Nov 11, 2015 00:52

PBCrunch: Jun 17, 2002; Lawrence Phillips Always #1 to Me

I understand you can connect a BT keyboard and mouse to a Fire TV stick with some work. It seems that you can sideload Android apps, as well.

Has anyone tried combining these abilities to make a Fire TV stick into a tiny, cheap RDP thin client? I want something like that to have computer access in my garage without having a power-sucking computer full of moving parts in that environment.

# ? Nov 12, 2015 03:24

Call Me Charlie: Dec 3, 2005; by Smythe

PBCrunch posted:

I understand you can connect a BT keyboard and mouse to a Fire TV stick with some work. It seems that you can sideload Android apps, as well.

Has anyone tried combining these abilities to make a Fire TV stick into a tiny, cheap RDP thin client? I want something like that to have computer access in my garage without having a power-sucking computer full of moving parts in that environment.

I tried the Microsoft Remote Desktop app on my FTV1 like a year ago. It worked but there was an issue with everything having teeny tiny text which made it nearly unusable on my 32" 720p screen. Maybe it's been fixed by now?

But there's an issue with connecting bluetooth keyboards to devices running Fire OS 5.

# ? Nov 12, 2015 05:10

Call Me Charlie: Dec 3, 2005; by Smythe

Looks like Fire TV 2 has been rooted.

quote:

This root method works by rebooting the device and halting the boot process at the MediaTek preloader. Once halted at the preloader we can use the preloader binary API to send a series of MMC commands to the flash chip which allows 512 byte blocks to be read and written using a simple FIFO. Since we have both the original and modified system images we can generate a list of blocks that are different between the two images and only patch those blocks. This means we need to write less than 10 MB instead of 1.2 GB. If we had to send the entire system image at the speeds the preloader is limited to it would take about 2 weeks. If for some reason the system partition becomes unbootable that would be your only option to recover right now. By sending just the differences the patching only takes about 2 hours. There are ways to speed this up (about 5-10 minutes instead), but you'd need to obtain limited root access first using a much more complicated procedure. I choose to provide instead a slower but much simpler series of commands.

The MT preloader is a process that runs before the regular bootloader (lk/fastboot) and of course before the kernel boots. It only shows up for about 3 seconds. As far as I know the preloader is stored in a ROM so I don't think it can be changed. This is good because hopefully this will allow even the newest AFTV2 devices to be rooted. The bad news is that we may not have much hope of unlocking the regular bootloader unless there is a bug like the signing bug in the AFTV1. The entire boot chain is cryptographically signed from what I've been able to inspect. An unlocked bootloader would most likely be needed to flash a custom kernel (no kexec of course, but modules/device drivers can be loaded) and create ROMs not based on stock. So in conclusion the tools here allow you to modify the flash contents and using these facilities we have add SuperSU binaries to the system partition.

(not for the faint of heart) http://forum.xda-developers.com/fire-tv/general/root-amazon-fire-tv-gen-2-4k-t3245407

# ? Nov 14, 2015 02:29

Vykk.Draygo: Jan 17, 2004; I say salesmen and women of the world unite!

What types of things require root?

# ? Nov 14, 2015 02:54

Call Me Charlie: Dec 3, 2005; by Smythe

Vykk.Draygo posted:

What types of things require root?

Installing Google Play, mounting NTFS hard drives, adblocking...that's about it.

Call Me Charlie fucked around with this message at 03:34 on Nov 14, 2015

# ? Nov 14, 2015 03:31

JainDoh: Nov 5, 2002

Call Me Charlie posted:

Installing Google Play, mounting NTFS hard drives, adblocking...that's about it.

Hmm, I don't want to mount a NTFS HDD, but was looking at one of these . I want to hook it to a TV, connect it to my router, and use Kodi(?) to play media files that's on my networked PC's NTFS HDD. Will it do this, particularly with a wide range of codecs a la VLC? Minimal impact on said PC's resources is the goal.

I'm assuming I will need a Fire 2.0 box for HD. I am willing to also get a SD card if it's necessary to do this -- I am to understand there are WiFi SD cards, which is very appealing should they be necessary.

JainDoh fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Nov 14, 2015

# ? Nov 14, 2015 20:26

Call Me Charlie: Dec 3, 2005; by Smythe

Jon Do posted:

Hmm, I don't want to mount a NTFS HDD, but was looking at one of these . I want to hook it to a TV, connect it to my router, and use Kodi(?) to play media files that's on my networked PC's NTFS HDD. Will it do this, particularly with a wide range of codecs a la VLC? Minimal impact on said PC's resources is the goal.

I'm assuming I will need a Fire 2.0 box for HD. I am willing to also get a SD card if it's necessary to do this -- I am to understand there are WiFi SD cards, which is very appealing should they be necessary.

Yeah, you'll be able to do that without root. Check the OP for more information on how to sideload Kodi and Firestarter from your PC. Kodi doesn't do transcoding so it should take nothing PC resources wise to play local files in multiple parts of your house.

Honestly, you could do that with a Fire TV Stick but they get hot after awhile and you won't be able to adjust the cache as much as you can with a big Fire TV, which has 2 GB of RAM.

Either the Fire TV 1 or Fire TV 2 will work for you. There's no real need for external storage unless you plan to install a ton of apps/games. My suggestion would be to turn off actor thumbnails and, in certain add-ons, fan art if you're trying to keep your Kodi install from bloating up.

You can currently get the Fire TV 2 for $75 from Staples. http://www.aftvnews.com/fire-tv-fire-tv-gaming-edition-are-25-off-at-staples-with-printable-in-store-coupon/

Call Me Charlie fucked around with this message at 22:14 on Nov 14, 2015

# ? Nov 14, 2015 22:10

Vykk.Draygo: Jan 17, 2004; I say salesmen and women of the world unite!

Got a Fire TV 2 last night and it runs Kodi soooo much better than the Fire TV Stick does. Well worth the price IMO.

# ? Nov 14, 2015 23:01

JainDoh: Nov 5, 2002

Call Me Charlie posted:

You can currently get the Fire TV 2 for $75 from Staples. http://www.aftvnews.com/fire-tv-fire-tv-gaming-edition-are-25-off-at-staples-with-printable-in-store-coupon/

e: found one, scored it for 80 after tax, which was around my target price! time to get it set up!
e2: got kodi running. FLAC playback over wifi is trash, odd since it chews up and spits out high res multimedia. Doing great so far, bout to set up firestarter.

JainDoh fucked around with this message at 03:29 on Nov 16, 2015

# ? Nov 15, 2015 20:23

JainDoh: Nov 5, 2002

Okay, I've been having some issues with Kodi not wanting to play certain videos, haven't tracked down their codec info to see if it's a specific kind. Either way, all videos, particularly hi-res ones, had quite a bit of stuttering. I applied this fix:

Hadlock posted:

http://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Modify_the_video_cache
this is the contents of my advancedsettings.xml

code:

<advancedsettings>
  <network>
    <!--- The three settings will go in this space, between the two network tags. --->
	<buffermode>1</buffermode>
	<cachemembuffersize>354857600</cachemembuffersize>
	<readbufferfactor>5</readbufferfactor>
  </network>
</advancedsettings>

I also disabled hardware acceleration for media-whatever, but left stagefright on.

Playback is now noticably smoother, but still has a bit of jerkiness in some scenes. I'm also trying to track down why it appears to give a lower quality image than the source on my PC (appears to be compression artifacts in some cases). FLAC seems to be fine so far.

Most worryingly, it crashed while feeding an hour-long video last night and crashed the whole FireTV. I'm still trying to iron that stuff out. What's the best/highest values I can set a FireTV2's Kodi advancedsettings to? Higher than that? Are there any other issues/fixes I should look up?

# ? Nov 18, 2015 20:55

Call Me Charlie: Dec 3, 2005; by Smythe

You really shouldn't be messing with those settings if you don't know what you're doing. Use Amazon Fire TV Utility App and push v4 from their preset. That should be enough for smooth playback.

MediaCodec is working now and they're going to remove libstagefright with the next Kodi release so you might as well use it now.

And I can't stress this next part enough, the source PC serving the media has to be plugged into Ethernet for smooth playback. (It also helps if you close your torrent client if it's on the same machine)

Jon Do posted:

I'm also trying to track down why it appears to give a lower quality image than the source on my PC (appears to be compression artifacts in some cases)

This could be your TV. Some TVs default all the post processing bullshit off for the PC input while leaving it on for every other input.

Call Me Charlie fucked around with this message at 21:09 on Nov 18, 2015

# ? Nov 18, 2015 21:04

JainDoh: Nov 5, 2002

Source PC is connected to router via ethernet; Fire is connected via wi-fi, which was next on the list for testing. I don't usually use wifi, but figured our router must be handling it well enough.

Hopefully the Kodi add-on for missing files will play some of these it's not listing. Time to move the TV and Fire. Will report back after fully-wired testing in a bit.

e: Until Black Friday, the TV it's on is a $100 32" Seiki from last Black Friday. I thought that might be it for the image quality as well, but was confused because sometimes it looks better. Connected via HDMI, it's odd.

At least your answers make me feel like I don't need to return the FireTV and put that money toward a HTPC, which I was afraid was necessary.

JainDoh fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Nov 18, 2015

# ? Nov 18, 2015 21:15

Call Me Charlie: Dec 3, 2005; by Smythe

Jon Do posted:

Source PC is connected to router via ethernet; Fire is connected via wi-fi, which was next on the list for testing. I don't usually use wifi, but figured our router must be handling it well enough.

The Fire TV should be to play files from an Ethernet connected computer while connected to wifi. My bedroom Fire TV is like that and it's extremely solid. Not as fast as my ethernet/ethernet one in the living room but fast enough where it gets smooth playback once it takes a few seconds to buffer when I first select the file.

I hope you're able to figure it out. It's a great system once you get everything set-up.

(And I guess I should ask. You're using Kodi, right? Not one of the forks like SPMC or TVMC.)

Call Me Charlie fucked around with this message at 22:12 on Nov 18, 2015

# ? Nov 18, 2015 22:07

The Gunslinger: Jul 24, 2004; Do not forget the face of your father.; Fun Shoe

I had weird buffering issues with MediaCodec on Wifi until I pushed this:

code:

<advancedsettings>
  <network>
	<buffermode>1</buffermode>
	<cachemembuffersize>157286400</cachemembuffersize>
	<readbufferfactor>20</readbufferfactor>
  </network>
</advancedsettings>

Now it works fine without issue.

# ? Nov 19, 2015 15:05

Call Me Charlie: Dec 3, 2005; by Smythe

CBS All Access launched for the Fire TV and Fire TV Stick.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017250D16

After messing around with the free trial, I wouldn't recommend it unless you can't get CBS OTA. The live stream is extremely solid and close to the same quality you get with OTA. The VOD library has giant holes in it and some of the content seems to have limited commercials sprinkled throughout (like season 7 of The Good Wife)

# ? Nov 24, 2015 02:49

Vykk.Draygo: Jan 17, 2004; I say salesmen and women of the world unite!

Is that $6 even if you have a cable package? I can't imagine paying $6 a month for CBS even without cable.

# ? Nov 24, 2015 04:09

bull3964: Nov 18, 2000; DO YOU HEAR THAT? THAT'S THE SOUND OF ME PATTING MYSELF ON THE BACK.

Yes, it's a very ill conceived service (and also apparently going to be the exclusive home of the new Star Trek series.)

# ? Nov 24, 2015 04:11

the littlest prince: Sep 23, 2006

Says it's not compatible with my stick. I'll be losing sleep over this.

# ? Nov 24, 2015 04:12

CygnusTM: Oct 11, 2002

the littlest prince posted:

Says it's not compatible with my stick. I'll be losing sleep over this.

I'll bet it requires Fire OS 5. So, only Fire TV 2 for now.

# ? Nov 24, 2015 05:45

Call Me Charlie: Dec 3, 2005; by Smythe

CygnusTM posted:

I'll bet it requires Fire OS 5. So, only Fire TV 2 for now.

Looks like you're right (but it also includes Fire Stick w/ Voice Remote since they shipped with OS 5)

quote:

CBS Corporation today announced the launch of CBS All Access, the CBS Television Network�s digital subscription video on demand and live streaming service, on the new Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote.

http://www.cbspressexpress.com/cbs-interactive/releases/view?id=44012

# ? Nov 24, 2015 05:57

Vykk.Draygo: Jan 17, 2004; I say salesmen and women of the world unite!

I was never able to figure this out: is the new FTV Stick (w/ remote) the same as the original Stick, just with the voice remote, or did they upgrade it?

# ? Nov 24, 2015 13:22

wormil: Sep 12, 2002; Hulk will smoke you!

tldr; How is youtube app performance on the Fire Stick? How about Stick vs Fire TV youtube?

Longer version. I watch Netflix, Youtube, and Amazon Prime, and of those it seems the Youtube app uses the most resources on all my devices. I also watch a poo poo ton of Youtube so it would be nice to have a device that isn't slow as hell. I'm thinking of grabbing a Fire Stick for streaming sources instead of using my Sony BR player.

# ? Nov 28, 2015 17:47

Call Me Charlie: Dec 3, 2005; by Smythe

Alexa got an update on the Fire TV. Now it can control smart home devices and query local business information.

wormil posted:

tldr; How is youtube app performance on the Fire Stick? How about Stick vs Fire TV youtube?

Longer version. I watch Netflix, Youtube, and Amazon Prime, and of those it seems the Youtube app uses the most resources on all my devices. I also watch a poo poo ton of Youtube so it would be nice to have a device that isn't slow as hell. I'm thinking of grabbing a Fire Stick for streaming sources instead of using my Sony BR player.

Faster on the big Fire TV. Not dire on the Stick.

It's the same web app that's on every other streaming box. ~~Kodi also has a YouTube add-on that allows you to watch live broadcasts.~~ Oh hey, they finally added the ability to watch live streams through the official app.

Call Me Charlie fucked around with this message at 06:36 on Nov 29, 2015

# ? Nov 28, 2015 22:11

CovfefeCatCafe: Apr 11, 2006; A fresh attitude
brewed daily!

If I bought this new Amazon Fire TV, what are my options to be able to connect to a VPN? I'm not in the US and want to be able to access Netflix and the like.

# ? Dec 1, 2015 17:29

Elston Gunn: Apr 15, 2005

YF19pilot posted:

If I bought this new Amazon Fire TV, what are my options to be able to connect to a VPN? I'm not in the US and want to be able to access Netflix and the like.

Use one of the DNS region unlocking services like https://adfreetime.com and you don't have to worry about a VPN.

# ? Dec 1, 2015 18:20

The Gunslinger: Jul 24, 2004; Do not forget the face of your father.; Fun Shoe

Elston Gunn posted:

Use one of the DNS region unlocking services like https://adfreetime.com and you don't have to worry about a VPN.

For some reason adfreetime causes Netflix to randomly crash on my FireTV (1st gen). Not sure why or whats up, can't seem to resolve it either. Found a bunch of people on reddit with the same problem but no solution.

# ? Dec 1, 2015 20:42

Call Me Charlie: Dec 3, 2005; by Smythe

YF19pilot posted:

If I bought this new Amazon Fire TV, what are my options to be able to connect to a VPN? I'm not in the US and want to be able to access Netflix and the like.

I heard alot of people on reddit talk about Smart DNS Proxy

http://support.smartdnsproxy.com/customer/portal/articles/1600122-amazon-fire-tv-dns-setup-for-smart-dns-proxy

# ? Dec 1, 2015 20:56

Looten Plunder: Jul 11, 2006; Grimey Drawer

I swear I saw the FTV on Amazon for $75 yesterday? Did I miss the boat or will that deal return?

# ? Dec 2, 2015 01:08

slave to my cravings: Mar 1, 2007; Got my mind on doritos and doritos on my mind.

xcore posted:

I swear I saw the FTV on Amazon for $75 yesterday? Did I miss the boat or will that deal return?

Was part of the black friday deals. My guess is that it will probably be back again sometime between now and Christmas.

# ? Dec 2, 2015 02:03

CovfefeCatCafe: Apr 11, 2006; A fresh attitude
brewed daily!

Elston Gunn posted:

Use one of the DNS region unlocking services like https://adfreetime.com and you don't have to worry about a VPN.

To set this up, would it be just setting a router to point to the DNS, or does the Amazon TV have advanced DNS settings built in like the Apple TV?

# ? Dec 2, 2015 15:18

Elston Gunn: Apr 15, 2005

YF19pilot posted:

To set this up, would it be just setting a router to point to the DNS, or does the Amazon TV have advanced DNS settings built in like the Apple TV?

I'm pretty sure you can set DNS on a Fire TV.

# ? Dec 2, 2015 17:57

signalnoise: Mar 7, 2008; i was told my old av was distracting

Anyone got any ideas why I can't bluetooth pair my fire TV with my harmony remote hub?

# ? Dec 6, 2015 16:27

TraderStav: May 19, 2006; It feels like I was standing my entire life and I just sat down

signalnoise posted:

Anyone got any ideas why I can't bluetooth pair my fire TV with my harmony remote hub?

I've tried a half dozen times and never got it to work right. I would love to do it as it's the only remote not on the harmony hub.

# ? Dec 7, 2015 15:37

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# ? Jun 10, 2024 15:56

The Gunslinger: Jul 24, 2004; Do not forget the face of your father.; Fun Shoe

signalnoise posted:

Anyone got any ideas why I can't bluetooth pair my fire TV with my harmony remote hub?

Need more to go on. What is happening when you try to pair them? Are you using the phone app to initiate it? Is the hub firmware fully updated?

# ? Dec 7, 2015 15:56

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Amazon Fire TV & FTStick - It's like a modern Roku you can sideload apps on

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