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Old 29-11-2015, 02:49
Loobster
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Hi guys

Looking to replace my ageing WD TV Live boxes (two).

The Fire TV looks like it might do everything I need, and is on offer this week in the US (where I've lived for a while) for $75.

I wondered if anyone could offer their experiences with this device. I understand that the new [2015] model supposedly supports 4K and is based on Android 5.x.

My must haves:

Reliable Netflix playback
Playback over my ethernet network from my Synology NAS of Xvid/DivX, MKV, MP4 files

I understand that VLC is available as an app for this device so if that supports playback of media over the local network this may be all I need to play all my video files.

Another option appears to be to sideload Kodi and use that.

Feedback from anyone who has used the 2015 Fire TV (not the stick, the "box") for network playback of video would be gratefully received.
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Old 30-11-2015, 01:40
Loobster
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200+ views, no replies.

I guess these aren't a popular device in the UK then!
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Old 30-11-2015, 07:16
Peter the Great
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I guess these aren't a popular device in the UK then!
Or most contribute to the threads that already exist about Fire TV in the online services section of the forum?
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Old 30-11-2015, 13:16
Philip Wales
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Something I have discovered about the New Fire TV. If you use a pass thru amp it has to have HDCP or you won't get 4k on your set.
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Old 30-11-2015, 22:46
Loobster
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Or most contribute to the threads that already exist about Fire TV in the online services section of the forum?
Thanks for the post.

But since I was asking about the capabilities of the device, outside of any online service, I put it here.

I'll see if I can find anything relevant in the other forum areas.
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Old 13-12-2015, 22:49
Loobster
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I guess I'll answer this myself, in case anyone else searches for the same question.

The Fire TV no longer supports Kodi installation from the Amazon store, but it can be easily sideloaded (without root/hack) either by putting the APK on an SD card and putting it in the slot, or by using ES File Explorer to browse the mobile site at kodi.tv. Either way is a bit fiddly.

ES File Explorer is very functional and a favourite among androiders but with the remote-only control I found that it was quite difficult to see what screen object was highlighted or the subject of focus. Once I figured that out I was able to sideload Kodi 15.2.

If you don't subscribe to Amazon Prime for their video stuff then the regular Fire TV interface is a bit annoying. It foists prime content on you at every turn. The FireStarter app is your friend here. It's just an alternative launcher for FireTV just like you can download alternative launchers for other android devices.

Once FireStarter is sideloaded you can use that as your home screen and move around app shortcuts as needed on that screen. Of course there's a way to get back to the default Fire TV home screen too.

Kodi is GREAT. It plays every file I've tried so far, MPEG2, AVI (Xvid/DivX), MKV, MP4. No issues, great interface.

I did initially have a struggle getting Kodi to connect to the share on my Synology NAS. Apparently Kodi doesn't like the way Synology serves up SMB. So after some research, I found that it works perfectly fine once you enable NFS on the share on the NAS, and use Kodi to connect via NFS instead of SMB.

Useful link for Kodi + Synology devices:

http://trendblog.net/how-to-connect-...y-nas-to-kodi/

Fire TV performance in general? Phenomenal. It is a VERY fast device. Netflix buffers in under a second, and TV shows playing from file across the network load just as quick.

I recommend this setup highly.
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