Jump to content

Amazon firestick and fire tv


tdiguy

Recommended Posts

Only drawback now, assuming the DTS issue is actually fixed, is the lack of Prime Video.

I am just fine without that. with how long amazon now takes just to ship to non prime customers walmart and newegg are going to get more of my money.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This annoying experience with amazon might just end up being a blessing in disguise. With the whole amazon / google pissing match its been very annoying the things that are no longer on amazon. Like youtube, kodi ( i liked it but i prefer embys interface ) the adult swim app and probably several more that i just never used. 

Since this box is likely to replace the living room box i am going to keep it on "stable" release cycles. 

 

BTW anyone looking to buy a fire tv? the one i have is the good one with usb, wired, micro sd card slot and the alexa remote :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest asrequested

I really like my MiBox. So much so, that it's replaed my Comcast box. The big thing I'm waiting for is having mpv as the player. VLC for live TV is ok, but it's a bit tweaky, not seamless.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

mastrmind11

I really like my MiBox. So much so, that it's replaed my Comcast box. The big thing I'm waiting for is having mpv as the player. VLC for live TV is ok, but it's a bit tweaky, not seamless.

Why do you prefer an external player?  Curious because lately my Live TV feed has been pausing like mad using the internal player.

Edited by mastrmind11
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why do you prefer an external player?  Curious because lately my Live TV feed has been pausing like mad using the internal player.

VLC handles interlaced better than emby. For example i think its disney ( or nick lol ) is interlaced, if i use just emby its a picture with like 4 or 5 inch boarders all around. If i have emby use an external player and i select vlc it fills the screen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest asrequested

Without enabling VLC for Live TV it takes 11 seconds to start. It's really bad. With VLC enabled it takes about 1.5 seconds and plays very well. But transitioning between shows or commercials, it cuts off the last second or two, or picture freezes until the next commercial/show starts. Not a big deal, it's just clunky. I think mpv handles it, better. And can play just about anything.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

With how much a comcast box costs per month it makes a lot of sense to have a home media server like emby. Emby with a hdhr and some of these streaming players and the setup slowly pays for itself if you use more than 1 cable box and or 1 dvr box.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

mastrmind11

yep.  got a cable card for $6/month, removed 4/5 cable boxes, downgraded to a-la-carte, saving $80/month.  Unfortunately with my wife's love for crap television from Bravo/etc I don't know that I'll ever be able to ditch cable entirely unless I wanted to go the obviously more questionable route.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For me 1 device / box is included so getting 3 tuners from 1 card is a good deal. If SD makes a 6 tuner version i am all over it. I would say the only down side is not being able to watch showtime, but there is an app for that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The interface for android tv / mi box is a bit less than polished its kinda like aosp roms or the nexus phones. That aside so far its doing a great job, i dont think i have any media that it will have to transcode. I also found a openvpn client for it. Still have a lot of poking around to do but i think this will be replacing my bedroom and livingroom amazon devices. I have a roku for 1 kids room and i think i will keep that device since the roku was so easy to get her to use and she uses it almost exclusively for movies. Maybe if she starts using it a lot for tv i will change it out.

Still a shame amazon did this with their devices, i really liked the fire tv i was actually searching ebay to try and get one of the previous gen ones but man people are selling them for above retail used. Lol guess i might join them.

 

****

 

Honestly if my rpi3 had a gig ethernet port i think i would switch to using it and a nas enclosure for storage, with hardware acceleration for the pi it can convert recordings without maxing out the cpu. But only having a 10/100 nic sucks.

Edited by tdiguy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The interface for android tv / mi box is a bit less than polished its kinda like aosp roms or the nexus phones.

 

Wait til you see the new 8.0 home screen - it is really ugly :).

 

By comparison, the current UI is much nicer looking but I do admit that I think the Fire one is much better - aesthetically anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wait til you see the new 8.0 home screen - it is really ugly :).

 

By comparison, the current UI is much nicer looking but I do admit that I think the Fire one is much better - aesthetically anyway.

Yea, so far my wife isnt thrilled about this as the possible replacement. I hope she warms up to it its easy enough to use i think. The primary concern will be if it plays better than the fire tv. She is happy to have youtube back so thats a plus. I found a usb +rj45 adapter so i will see how that works but i live that idea.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I mean, c'mon man... Google... really?  This is your improvement?

 

5a8ee8541d345_newdevicehome.png

 

 

Current/Old home:

 

5a8ee86f05d3d_deviceoldhome.png

 

And Fire:

 

5a8ee88a2c83b_firedevicehome.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, that's pretty horrible. No options to customize?

You can hide some rows and re-order apps. By re-order you can change where the app is in the row. No real customization. Even AOSP roms for phones have considerbally more customization to the home screen.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Any of you guys have experience with any of the other android tv boxes on the market? There are so many of them even on amazon. Also curious, i was able to find the droid 7 firmware for the mi box is there any real difference or just the dts sound that was fixed?

Also very curious, some apps are not compatable on the mi, like i heart radio on droid 6 any idea if being on 7 makes a difference?

Edited by tdiguy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
tdiguy

I have 2 mi boxes now in the house, because i kept having weird issues with the firestick and it was annoying the daylights out of me. One thing that is odd is that it seems like one of my mi boxes freezes up playing live tv. It is as if its having an issue with connectivity the whole picture stays on the same scene for a few seconds and audio stops then it picks right back up. This mi box is connected to a wifi ac AP that is about 10 inches maybe a foot from it. Its a really nice AP with more settings to play with than i am used to. What should i start looking at to get smooth playback? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...