Amazon Firestick TV review

Started by oldbirchy, August 23, 2015, 19:21:21 PM

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Onagap

sent a pm yesterday, did you receive it ?


pannica

greetings highlander


oldbirchy

Hi Pannica
It's the same as for all XBMC/Kodi devices and really depends on what you watch. You really need 4 Meg minimum. With that you can watch live TV and HD movies/TV series. If it falls below that it will start to buffer on slower streams and live streams under pressure. If you have 8 Meg you will be fine even for some 1080p, (blu ray) streams.
With faster speeds, you may still get buffering if the source is under pressure.
This applies to all Kodi devices. The firestick is no better or worse, just smaller.

Regards Andy

oldbirchy

Hi Monchit
Really don't know about hola etc on firestick. But knowing your love of the soaps here is what I have found for Kodi/XBMC.

Corrie
Available on genesis
EastEnders
Available on genesis
Emmerdale
Search the YouTube add-on in XBMC/Kodi and it is there.
Also if you have the metalkettle repo installed try looking for we love soaps add-on. ( I think that it is Called that) apparently it has all of the popular soaps in one place.

Regards Andy


pannica

can anyone tell me what is the minimum download speed an amazon firestick needs to work well to watch itv
greetings highlander


monchit

hi Andy, i was just wondering if its possible to install Hola or another shield on the firestick, in order to watch itv and BBC player?

alanjune

hi Andy,
   both of my boxes are minix, so not possible.

                                            Alan


oldbirchy

Hi Alan if it a MINIX, you can't! You described the box as m8 and that is not a MINIX so you can. An M8 is not the same as a MINIX neo x8.

Regards Andy


alanjune

Hi Andy,
  Don't know if you received pm....but how easy would it be for me to convert one of my minix boxes to the openelec...linux system.
                                     Alan,,,,,,los palatones.

oldbirchy

Hi Alansue
The advantage of openelec is that it is a pure Linux operating system. Android is based on Linux but has tons more stuff in it so it therefore a "heavier system. Therefore if you just have A Kodi based Linux system, all the processor poweris concentrated on kodi as it doesn't have many other things to do.
Therefore the box runs very fast indeed. It does not affect the speed of the streams coming into it of course but does speed up changing channels and addons.
The disadvantage is that you lose all the other android bits like browser, Google play etc.
If you only use your box for kodi, it makes life loads simpler as it just boots to kodi.

Hope this helps.

Regards Andy


alanjune

Hi Andy,
            What would be the advantages of putting openolec on my m8 box .

Onagap


pannica

Quote from: oldbirchy on September 28, 2015, 18:18:08 PM
Kodi can now be side loaded to a firestick directly through es file explorer so no need to mess about with adb fire etc.
Got to have decent internet though.

Regards Andy

my one came fully loaded with kodi and other stuff i might get to see it all soon
greetings highlander

oldbirchy

Kodi can now be side loaded to a firestick directly through es file explorer so no need to mess about with adb fire etc.
Got to have decent internet though.

Regards Andy

pannica

just got one of these sent from old ebay jailbroken it will take me a while to work out which station to watch as there is so many all i need now is my internet sorted as it is as slow as me in the morning
greetings highlander

terryharris


Hi Andy(Old Birchy),
Just to let you know that the Amazon TV Firestick is working fine.
Many thanks for your patience and expertise in setting up the stick for us,now the laptop has been freedup Gillian has snaffled it so that she can play on Facebook!!!
Thanks Again,
Terry.

oldbirchy

Jason, have you tried putting openelec on your m8? It makes Kodi fly cos the pure Linux operating system is so light.

Regards Andy

figaros4sale

Hi Andy
I bought it from argos and cost £40 selling them at £60 so €80 I only brought 4 over and have one left
Like you say they perform well better I find than the m8 and some other quad core androids
They are pretty good
Sent you a link also via PM
Thx
Jason

oldbirchy

Well done fig!
Good device for anyone to buy and very best as it fits behind your TV and cannot be seen. As the excellent remote works on Bluetooth it does not need line of sight like they more usual ir remotes do.
How much are the sticks for sales at?

Regards Andy

figaros4sale

Excellent review
The only thing I would add is to side load kodi I've found ADB fire to be the best option compared to the amazon fire utility
This program also has the option to replace the Ikono tv ikon on the recently used home  screen with the kodi ikon
I also brought you one over birchy to play with but it looks like you have had fun already.
I have a couple for sale if anyone is interested fully loaded with a auto update custom image

Hope this helps

alanjune

Cheers Andy for a good report :handshake

oldbirchy

Hi All
Thanks to terryharris on this forum for the opportunity to set up and play with the diminutive firestick TV. I thought that I would leave a review in case anyone else is thinking of getting one.
Firstly the firestick is very small. Literally the size of a USB memory stick. It plugs into an HDMI socket on the back of your TV but does need a USB power supply via a, (supplied) USB power supply and cable. The remote is small, neat and works over Bluetooth extremely well.
Please note that you cannot currently buy one from Amazon to be delivered to Spain. I have tried Amazon UK, es, and de and they will not process the order. The reason for this is, ( I believe) that the stick is essentially for subscription TV only in its basic state so in the right location, you can get Amazon prime TV and Netflix etc. These are not yet available in Spain so therefore, they. Would be selling a piece of kit that cannot be used here.

So, the good news is that the firestick is based on the android operating system and therefore can be "hacked" to run Kodi/XBMC just like an android box.
The stick has no external storage connection such as an SD card or USB slot so any transfers of data and programs to the stick have to be achieved over your WiFi network. This is a bit tricky but you basically can install Kodi onto the stick by transferring the Kodi program file from your oc to the stick using a utility called adb fire. Once Kodi is installed then I believe that you can restore a Kodi backup to it using the same software but I just installed all the best add-ons direct to the stick from their internet repositories.

Once set up, the stick worked extremely well. It played 1080p blu ray movies with no problem.

They only thing that I found was that at times it would eat up bandwidth on my internet rendering any other devices dead. So watching a movie on the stick was fine but I could not make a skype call at the same time. I tracked this over a couple of days and found that this did not happen all the time and as time went on, became less and less of a problem. U can only assume that Amazon were pushing stuff out to it?

Would I get one?
Mmmmm. Probably, yes. A pain to set up compared to a normal android box but at only £39 very cheap. As I said though, it is primarily designed to sell subscription TV services and I do worry a bit about "big brother Amazon" keeping a track of what you are doing.
Sometimes Amazon put these on special offer for about £20. Well worth getting at that price.

You can also buy these sticks off eBay, "fully loaded" with Kodi and add-ons. No real support of course but you pays your money and takes your choice.

If anyone wants more info or help, send me a pm.

Regards Andy