PuTTY riot posted:

There weren't always ads on the home screen, right? Or am I crazy?

phosdex posted:

What kind of ads are you seeing?

PuTTY riot posted:

quote:

The Prime Photos app on the Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick has been updated with a new option that allows customers to disable the app altogether. As you would expect, disabling the app prevents it from being launched. More importantly though, and likely the main reason for adding this new option, disabling the app also prevents it from storing photos and videos from your Amazon Drive onto the Fire TV or Fire TV Sticks internal storage. This allows customers who don’t use the Photos app to reclaim the precious internal storage space that the app normally uses.

The new Prime Photos app is being released through a system app update. This means only the one app is being updated and not the entire operating system of the Fire TV and Fire TV Stick. There will be no indication that the update arrives, other than the new option to disable the app appearing in the Fire TV’s settings menu. You can check if you have the new version by going to Settings > Applications and scrolling down to see if you have version FOS-5 801027110 of the Prime Photos app. It appears only 2nd-gen devices with the new user interface are currently receiving the updated photos app, but it will likely come to older 1st-gen devices later this year when those devices eventually receive the new interface.

Strangely, Amazon has updated the Fire TV’s Software Update page to indicate that a new operating system version has been released for 2nd-gen devices. While the true latest software version seems to still be 5.2.4.0, the page now indicates the latest software version to be 5.3.2.0 with a build number of 801027110. I think this is a mistake because the new alleged operating system build number is actually the version number of the new Prime Photos app. I expect the software update page will be reverted back once someone at Amazon realises the mistake … or reads this post ;-).

As for the new option to disable the Prime Photos app, you can find it by going to Settings > Applications > Prime Photos. When you select the new option, you’ll have to confirm you want to disable the app; first by selecting “Disable Prime Photos” and second by selecting “Disable” to confirm. With the app disabled, it will still appear in your list of apps in the Fire TV’s interface, but selecting the Prime Photos app will display a message telling you the app is disabled and that you need to go into settings and enable it before you can launch the app.

As soon as you disable the app, it automatically deletes all of the photos and videos that it was storing locally on your device, which were previously downloaded from your Amazon Drive. For me, disabling the app freed up 1.48 GB of internal storage. Even if it’s disabled, the photos app will still use around 400MB of internal storage due to various interface images that it must store, like the default screen saver images.

While it would be better to be given the option within the photos app to select which photos and videos it stores locally, or better yet, the option to cap how much internal storage it uses, the new option to disable the app altogether is a welcomed addition. Hopefully a completely new Prime Photos app, that both better matches the new interface and has more advanced storage management options, is in the works, and that this updated app is just a temporary stopgap.

PuTTY riot posted:

Call Me Charlie posted:

This is what it use to look like.

Hadlock posted:

Is there a way to re-enable this skin on my AFTV?

Actually I think my ideal skin would be 4 equally sized tiles, Prime Video, Netflix, HBO Go/Now, Prime music

I loving hate design people, companies hire them full time, they do their primary job and make a good ui, then rather than quit, to look productive they start redesigning it over and over again, each iteration worse than the last because it can't look like the previous designs

big money big clit posted:

You hate people who don't quit their job to avoid inconveniencing you?

thebushcommander posted:

Posted this elsewhere a few days ago, but so far no replies...

My first gen FireTV is being weird with Prime Video. When I pull up a show and select and episode it will play no problem. When I pause the video it pauses no problem, when I press play again, however, the video will begin playing, but all audio is gone. At first I thought it was just trying to reopen the stream so I let it sit for a little while, that turned into 15+ minutes of an episode playing and no sound coming back. If I hit the back button and return to the episode select screen, choose the same episode and then hit "resume" from there it begins to play back with audio no problem. So it's only when I pause something I am currently watching and it' only Amazon Prime video that does it. HBO Go, Netflix both work as intended as well as everything else video/audio related on the box. It's been happening for a couple weeks now and I can't figure out what the problem is. I've replaced the HDMI cable, moved to a different port tried optical audio direct to the receiver rather than tunneling the tv, messed with audio settings on the box nothing seems to fix the issue. It's getting pretty annoying. I have 3 other FireStick's in the house and none of them have any problems. Short of resetting the firetv tp factory is there anything else I can do? Just seems weird it's literally only prime video.

quote:

If you’re still experiencing the issue, you should go into your device’s settings and clear the data and cache of the Amazon video app under the Manage Applications menu.

GOOD TIMES ON METH posted:

My Roku 3 is starting to feel pretty old so I was thinking about picking one up the full Fire TV box and noticed it isn't available to ship until March. Is there an updated version coming out then? Or does it just occasionally go out of stock?

GOOD TIMES ON METH posted:

but I don't want to have to buy a new box in a year or two when OLEDs start dropping into a more normal price

Call Me Charlie posted:

Could this be your problem?

http://www.aftvnews.com/surround-sound-issues-with-amazon-video-on-fire-tv-resolved/

It's worth a try before you factory reset.

quote:

I am very excited to announce the latest version of my Downloader app for the Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick. The big new feature of this 1.1.1 version is a built-in web browser. The browser allows you to easily navigate websites using the Fire TV remote without needing a mouse or keyboard. Downloading files is available through the browser so you no longer need to know the direct download URL to the file you want to download or the APK you want to install. You can just navigate to any website and click a download link to get the file you want.

withak posted:

Has anyone else been getting frequent "Home is Currently Unavailable" errors lately? The network settings thing says that it can connect to wifi but not to the internet, but I can use the internet (including reaching amazon.com) on other devices over the same wifi connection so that isn't actually the problem.

quote:

The app requires you to login to a Facebook account, and once you do, you’ll be able to watch videos your friends have shared, top videos, recommended videos, as well as videos you’ve uploaded yourself to the social network.

Craptacular! posted:

OTA support would require some hardware deinterlacing, which only the first-gen stick seems to have. Bought a 2nd gen to run Kodi and a DVR plugin and was disappointed with 1080i channels. HDHomeRun forums say the boxes are the same way, which seems like a glaring oversight.

quote:

With the new Fire TV user interface, Amazon added the ability for any app you have installed to recommend content for you to watch. These recommendations will appear in their own row on the Fire TV’s home screen. This new functionality was likely added in part to address criticism that Amazon only highlights their own Prime Video content on the Fire TV’s interface. Amazon just updated their developer documentation for this feature, giving us a better idea of how it works. Here’s a breakdown of the feature and what to expect when apps begin adopting it.

Recommendations from apps will appear in a row on the Fire TV and Fire TV Stick’s home screen called “RECOMMENDED BY YOUR APPS.” It appears that certain services, like Netflix and HBO, get special privileges that give them their own dedicated row of recommendations, while all other apps must share a single generic recommendations row.

Amazon has no control over what is displayed in the recommended content row. The apps themselves select the content based on your viewing history within the app and new content available. This means only content from apps you have installed will appear in the recommended content row. Additionally, Amazon is requiring that you’ve launched the app at least once before it can recommend content.

The title, description, and image in the recommended content row is controlled by the 3rd-party app. Additionally, the app can control what options appear when you press the menu button on the Fire TV remote while highlighting a piece of recommended content.

An option to launch the app making the recommendation will always be present, but the app can also choose to include the following options: Watch, Resume, Switch Profile, Change Settings, View, Play, Listen, and Open. So if the app is recommending that you continue watching an episode or movie that it knows you already started, it can choose to display a resume button that starts playback where you left off.

The Fire TV’s support for recommended content from apps is actually compatible with Android TV’s implementation of a similar feature. This means that if an app developer ports their app over from Android TV, the recommendations the app displays in the Android TV interface will also appear in the Fire TV interface. Amazon has added extra enhancements on top of Android TV’s implementation of recommendations, like marking content as live and setting the content’s maturity rating for parental control reasons, but these are optional for developers. Compatibility with Android TV means more developers will be likely to use the new recommended content feature.

Amazon has laid out best practices for app developers when it comes to recommending content. For starters, they suggest that each app only recommend 5 items at a time, so that a single app does not flood the recommendations row. When you select a piece of recommended content, the app is supposed to remove that item from the list of recommendations. Amazon also suggests that apps display free content in the recommendation row and not use it to hard sell premium content.

While Amazon is giving 3rd-party developers a lot of control over the recommended content row, they will blacklist apps that abuse the privilege. Amazon says apps that “harass, hard sell, or recommend inappropriate content” may be blacklisted from the recommendations row.

ShaneB posted:

I am having inconsistent issues related to audio/video syncing between different applications on my FireTV. Netflix is great. Hulu is not great, and has very noticable issues. SlingTV seems mostly OK but maybe off?

I've cleared cache/data from Hulu, and rebooted entirely to test things. I am clueless, and have googled for solutions but nothing concrete has come up at all.

thebushcommander posted:

Do you use optical audio output from your FireTV or are you using a FireStick into the tv or a receiver? The reason I ask if source audio type is different between all of those so output conversion might be your issue causing sync/delay. I'd go into the system menu and change output around, perhap put on auto if it's not already or force output to basic dolby digital over hdmi or whatever.

quote:

Exclusive: Amazon to release new mid-tier Fire TV model with 4K, HDR, and Android 7

Amazon will be releasing a new Fire TV model which falls in between their current 2nd generation Fire TV Stick and 2nd generation Fire TV. This information is based on a benchmark I’ve discovered and other information I’ve acquired. The new model will support 4K UHD playback at 60 fps and high dynamic range (HDR) video, which is superior to all existing Fire TV models, although I expect the new model to be sold alongside both existing Fire TV models. This will be Amazon’s first HDR capable streaming device and is meant to be an entry-level model for 4K HDR streaming, to compete with the Chromecast Ultra. The new device will run a version of Fire OS that is based on Google’s latest Android 7 Nougat operating system, which is a significant upgrade from their current Fire TV lineup that runs Fire OS 5 based on Android 5.1 Lollipop.

The new Fire TV carries a build model value of “AFTN” which indicates its codename starts with an N. This could be a reference to Android 7 Nougat, since this will be the first Fire TV to ship with the new OS version, but it likely doesn’t exactly share a codename with Google’s latest version of Android.

The system-on-a-chip (SoC) in the new Fire TV model is from Amlogic’s S905 line of chips, which are the same chips used in the Xiaomi Mi Box streaming device. The CPU is a quad-core capable of running at 2 GHz, but is limited to 1.5 GHz, either by Amazon for heat reasons or by the SoC kernel. The GPU is a Mali-450 MP, which is the same one in the latest Fire TV Stick.

Gaming benchmark scores for the new Fire TV model fall in between the current 2nd-gen Fire TV Stick and the original 1st-gen Fire TV. While the new model scores about 28% better than the Fire TV Stick, thanks mostly to its more powerful CPU, it is clearly not meant to be a gaming device or a replacement for the 2nd-gen Fire TV set-top box.

System memory for the new Fire TV model is reported as 1.5 GB by the benchmark utility, but there’s a good chance it actually has 2 GB of total memory. Depending on the SoC, some devices don’t report the memory allocated to the GPU when queried. The 2nd-gen Fire TV is such a device. It has 2 GB of RAM, but only reports 1.5 GB when queried by the same benchmark utility because 512 MB is allocated to the GPU. Internal storage of the new Fire TV model likely comes in at 8GB, which matches all other Fire TV models, past and present.

Based on the new Fire TV model’s specs and capabilities, I strongly suspect it will have a dongle form factor with a built in HDMI plug. Like the Fire TV Stick, this new model will plug directly into the back of a TV, instead of being a set-top box. That would place it most directly in competition with Google’s 4K and HDR capable Chromecast Ultra.

Pricing and a release date for the new Fire TV model are unknown. Based on Amazon’s history of aggressively pricing hardware with the expectation of making most of their profit on content sales, and the pricing of its closest competitors, the Chromecast Ultra and the Mi Box, which both retail for $69, I expect the new Fire TV model to be priced at $59 or less.

Apart from the first Fire TV, which was released in April, Amazon has released all subsequent Fire TV models around October, so I expect the new Fire TV model to be released around that time later this year. I don’t expect the new model to replace either of the existing Fire TV models. The 2nd-gen Fire TV Stick still has a place as the budget friendly entry-level device for those who don’t yet own a 4K TV, and the 2nd-gen Fire TV set-top box will continue to have superior gaming capabilities and port selection until it is replaced by a new flagship model.

While the new 4K@60fps and HDR capable Fire TV model has superior video playback capabilities than the existing 2nd-gen Fire TV, which does 4K@30fps and does not support HDR, it is sure to disappoint those who have been eagerly waiting for the arrival of a 3rd-gen Fire TV set-top box. Amazon’s Fire TV Stick outsells the Fire TV set-top box, so its understandable the company would first focus on a new product that appeals to Fire TV Stick buyers, before updating their flagship set-top box. Those wanting the improved video capabilities of the new Fire TV model without sacrificing the gaming capabilities and port selection of the 2nd-gen Fire TV are going to have to hold out a little bit longer.

Hadlock posted:

Is the existing non stick AFTV mid tier or upper tier? All I want is 4K HDR playback. Seems odd that they would slot in a better model with HDR support below their existing 4K unit without an update to the high end model to support HDR

quote:

It doesn’t necessarily have to be a stick to not be a box. It could be Chromecast-like with a short HDMI cable permanently attached. That would differentiate it enough from the Fire TV Stick to alleviate any confusion. I just don’t think this thing will sit on a shelf and require a detachable HDMI cable. But again, that’s all just my guess, so we’ll have to wait and see.

bull3964 posted:

They need a hook and I'm not really sure what that would be right now.

bull3964 posted:

Well, I was mainly talking about being competitive with Roku.

Under $60 would make it the cheapest way to get Amazon 4k HDR, that much is true.

However, if you only care about Amazon and you have a TV that can display HDR, chances are you have an Amazon app on your TV that can do 4k HDR.

If you don't only care about Amazon, the extra $30 for the Roku is going to make a lot more sense (especially when Vudu starts supporting HDR10.)

They are really hamstring by app omissions. Amazon becoming a UV partner would really make a ton of sense in the long run since they could directly compete with Walmart, but they wouldn't like giving up that control. It is the missing piece though to keep people within the Amazon ecosystem for the majority of their streaming, but it also allows people to be portable with their content and go elsewhere with it.