Amazon Fire TV Stick

Any of u fellows use one of these units? I know very little about them and how they so enlighten me, please.

 

We have one; my wife understands it better than I do. You get a lot of cool programming on your TV with it, though. Worth the cost.
Patrick

 

We use ours all the time...........we also run our Netflix through it......as long as you have wifi its great

 

All 3 TV's in my house are powered by them. It's all we've used since we "cut the cord" a few years ago. We access prime, Hulu, Netflix, and all sorts of other content providers with them. In general we've been very pleased with them, especially for as inexpensive as they are.

I will add to what Ben said about the wifi. You need to have a good signal and decent speeds or they will buffer. I had a so-so router and last year upgraded to a mesh network, it's been outstanding since.

 

I went a ton of what the heck is its. this helped.
https://www.geek.com/tech/the-best-streaming-media-device-roku-chromecast-or-amazon-fire-1586865/

I went with roku. I just picked up at the local Best Buy. 40$ maybe... Picture is WoW compared to Comcast. Volume is a hell of a lot fuller.. Not I did not buy a new boob tube or speaker.. When I go back to local tv (Comcast) same crappy pic a& tone

 

We have a fire stick on family room TV and ROKU on the other. We like Roku much more

 

We have three Roku units on our TVs. Love them.

 

We cut the cable about a month ago and just went through this. We now have two Roku Streaming Stick +s. You will need a strong WiFi as discussed. We have all of the same channels as cable with Youtube TV, Philo and HBO Now at roughly $100 less per moth then our previous internet and cable cost. We added Epix to Youtube for $6 a month and they also use your area code to give you your local NBC, ABC. Fox and CBS affiliates. You will have to compare providers to see what is best for you. We have no issues and are happily saving over the cost increase the cable company was going to hit us with.

 

...there are a number of different "streaming services" available. Some are built-into devices like TVs and even DVD players (downside, they can become dated and cease to work when services update), others are "sticks" that plug into your TV HDMI port. They all need the internet, usually wi-fi, but some can be wire. What you have access to depends on which you choose and what you "$ubScribe" to...

 

Amazon Fire stick + $16/month Philo streaming service gives me major cable channels. I mostly watch Motortrend TV, AMC and BBC news. Still subscribe to Amazon Prime, so lots of content avail there too.
I get local stations via rooftop antenna.

 

We are running Roku with our wifi, it works great, also have roof antenna for the locals!

Bob H.

 

Our Amazon Fire stick has Alexa built in to the remote control. I don't like that

 

We cut the cord about a year ago and Fire Stick, we like it.
If you don’t want Alexa, have your dog chew the remote, that will kill Alexa

 

Roku is a similar device. In addition to adding apps, it has it's own lineup of several hundred stations.

 

I think the button on the firestick remote has to be held for Alexa to start listening. If it's listening when that button is not being pushed, it's not responding to my demands...when I say "what's the $#@! weather like" with the button pushed, it gives me the lowdown. Without the button pushed, nothing happens.

To make sure they aren't compiling your data, go to Settings/Preferences and check the statuses in Privacy Settings and Data Usage Monitoring.

 

I’m ditching DirecTV at 11:59 PM tonight. Using Roku and YouTube TV going forward. And saving $100 a month.

 

Don’t know which 5 channels you prefer, but check out Philo TV. $25 a month.

 

I've been a Firestick user for well over 6 years. I have six (I had to count) Amazon Firesticks on my TVs because they are cheap and they work. I catch them on sale for $20 a pop. I throw one at every TV I have except the garage TV, which is my YouTube How-To one. I have Prime, Hulu and NetFlix with the occasional other service for a month to binge a show, like Obi-Wan or The Mandalorian.

We also have an Amazon FireTV Recast hooked up to an antenna. It is basically a TIVO for over the air (OTA) and we get our network channels from it and can record many hours of HD with no cable subscription. Every FireStick can access it. Mine will record 4 channels simultaneously and you can watch 2 streams simultaneously.

The Alexa feature only works when you press the button and it is the remote that is listening, not your TV (unless your TV has its own microphone). I like the Alexa remotes because they control the TV without needing an additional remote. I can turn the TV on and off with the Firestick remote as well as adjust the volume.

Your Internet service needs to be at least 100MB/s download speed to support a trouble-free stream. Your WiFi to the back of your TV needs to be reliable as well. I have an Asus AI-Mesh setup with 4 nodes. No Firestick is more than 20 feet away from a node. We have no issues with our setup.

I had YouTube TV but they kept raising the price just like cable so I ditched them as well. I don't give a Chrysler slant six about sports so I don't miss anything on that account. Everyone seems to want to market the ball games and season passes which I wouldn't know if they never aired on again.

In the end, I say use whatever you like. You are the only one that has to use it.

On another note, I had some stuff done that required utility location. The cable guy (I still have their Internet since it is my only terrestrial option) said they were getting read to ditch all the set top boxes and DVRs in favor of a Youtube TV type arrangement a the head office. Everything will stream over the Internet.