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meatrack

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CWNashvegas

I see Amazon pushed out of the market the same way Barnes and Nobles Nook line was eventually discarded. Amazon needs to stick to content and package delivery its strong points. Making hardware they will soon pull a Sega and over estimate their marketshare. Why does amazon need "free app of the day"? Because they already know their system has failed. The way you add value to customers knowing they are now trapped. Give them the first few "hits" for free. Amazon was a drug dealer in a past life whoever designed that idea for their appstore. ;)

 

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Amazon has been in the hardware game for over 6 years, and with their version of Android for nearly 3 years. They are pros at selling hardware at cost to drive content sales. They make the hardware serve the ecosystem while also making the content available outside the ecosystem. The STB is only the latest component in the system. They are sticking to content - the Fire TV is just one more outlet for it.

 

Most importantly, they can run on margins so thin, it would make most companies crap their pants. The Fire TV doesn't have to go gangbusters to do its job.

 

But the biggest question I have is, who do you think is going to push them out? Love 'em or hate 'em, they've been pretty successful at giving a lot of people what they want. One could say the same about Apple, perhaps, but there's a hurdle I don't think Apple could / would overcome - Amazon sells devices to people who buy their content, while Apple sells content to people who buy their devices. Very important difference. I own Amazon ebooks, videos, music, and apps... and I don't have a single Amazon device. 

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Irrelevance will. The majority of society believes everything on the internet should be free. Because its almost easier sometimes to pirate perhaps than suffer DRM with limited device support. FireTV is a step backwards to this philosophy. How many that use mediabrowser paid for all their TV shows and movies legitimately? Be honest..(I saw how popular that nzbdrone thread is, and it mentions couch potato). So, I would bet its a very low percentage. To pretend this "HUGE" market of people who think this way doesn't exist is fooling yourself. Therefore with such a diminished market share it has to fail. Any phone/tablet with HDMI out and Bluetooth support for controllers did what firetv is doing 2 years ago. They did it better as well being open devices. I love my nexus. :)

 

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Edited by speechles
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mediacowboy

True but at the same time you can side load on amazon tv and make it run xbmc. So buy the cheaper hardware with more power and side load. Why pay for a mobile device and then adapters and extra chargers to make it a permanent device.

Edited by mediacowboy
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Then thing is a cord from your wallet to Amazon's pocket. I'd rather stay where the grass is greener.

 

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CWNashvegas

Irrelevance will. The majority of society believes everything on the internet should be free. Because its almost easier sometimes to pirate perhaps than suffer DRM with limited device support. FireTV is a step backwards to this philosophy. How many that use mediabrowser paid for all their TV shows and movies legitimately? Be honest.. I would bet its a very low percentage. To pretend this "HUGE" market of people who think this way doesn't exist is fooling yourself. Therefore with such a diminished market share it has to fail. Any phone/tablet with HDMI out and Bluetooth support for controllers did what firetv is doing 2 years ago. They did it better as well being open devices. I love my nexus. :)

 

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I'm not sure why you would use MB users with downloaded collections as an example. Those people never were and never will be Amazon's target market. Amazon content is largely marketed to people who like the convenience of their system, not to mention those that wouldn't have a clue about downloading (ie, my mom). All those people who have Amazon Prime? That is the primary group that the Fire TV is aimed at.

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http://m.fastcompany.com/3006836/where-are-they-now/amazons-attempt-register-book-related-domain-names-draws-ire-authors-publ

 

Their user base is dwindling hence these narrow price margins so thin its almost to the bone. So to corner a market underhandedly registers new domain TLDs. Which causes....

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/charleyblaine/2014/04/25/jeff-bezos-loses-2-8-billion-in-a-day/

 

So while sure, amazon won't die off. My point was its much more successful having a hardware partner rather than go about this itself..just ask Google, remember the nexus-Q?

 

And CWNashVegas, I admire your conviction and resolve. Indeed, to every season..turn turn turn..

 

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Koleckai Silvestri

Doesn't really matter if Amazon is a market leader. Android tablets and set top boxes are commodities that require little real investment to market. Even if they only sell a couple million Fire TV devices a year they are doing well and much better than many no name providers. Roku boasts a market of 8 million units and is considered successful. Apple has only sold 20 million Apple TV units since they went on the market. Others? Mere thousands to a few hundred thousand.

 

I foresee Amazon being around for a long time. Especially since they only sell hardware as a means to sell content and items out of their warehouses. Not that it is really relevant to this discussion though. It would benefit MediaBrowser to have a client on Amazon hardware.

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meatrack

Their user base is dwindling hence these narrow price margins so thin its almost to the bone. So to corner a market underhandedly registers new domain TLDs. Which causes....

 

Their user base is dwindling? On what planet? Amazon is the biggest online retailer in the world.

 

http://www.ibtimes.com/amazon-sets-record-sales-holiday-season-2013-here-glimpse-what-customers-bought-most-1521076

 

You're so far off base that I can't help but wonder if you're trolling. Amazon has always used narrow margins. That's a huge part of their business strategy. They became the biggest bookseller ever by selling books at a loss.

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Their market capital is down 25%, that's 50 billion gone from their credit line. Their stock is down $70 from where it was 6 months ago, roughly 15% gone. Amazon better bust its ass to break even. Pushing inventory at a loss, aka the firetv, is praying people use it to purchase digital content. Not just using your prime subscription. This is all or nothing for Amazon. There is no way to show profit this quarter or next. Pray that firetv catches on...

 

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Edited by speechles
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Irrelevance will. The majority of society believes everything on the internet should be free. Because its almost easier sometimes to pirate perhaps than suffer DRM with limited device support. FireTV is a step backwards to this philosophy. How many that use mediabrowser paid for all their TV shows and movies legitimately? Be honest..(I saw how popular that nzbdrone thread is, and it mentions couch potato). So, I would bet its a very low percentage. To pretend this "HUGE" market of people who think this way doesn't exist is fooling yourself. Therefore with such a diminished market share it has to fail. Any phone/tablet with HDMI out and Bluetooth support for controllers did what firetv is doing 2 years ago. They did it better as well being open devices. I love my nexus. :)

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

That market is not "HUGE".  In Amazon terms it is irrelevant.  The people who use MB are a tiny subset of the market Amazon cares about and the people on internet forums talking about this stuff are a subset of those people.  The market Amazon cares about you will never see out here.

 

That is the reason Microsoft dropped WMC like a dead cat.

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Koleckai Silvestri

I guess relevance is all a state of mind. Most industry pundits predict that streaming services like Amazon Instant Video, Netflix, Hulu, iTunes and Google Play will outpace Cineplex income growth by 2017 and overtake it in the years to follow. It is a hot growth market today with Digital Streaming and Downloads carving out an exclusive 30 day sales niche before OnDemand and Disc sales. Some movies are even available same day as their Theatrical release. With the Fire TV, it appears Amazon is looking to the future instead of their current stock prices, which are still rated a strong buy by most investment firms. Digital Streaming is slated to be a $10 Billion dollar per year industry in 4-5 years. Amazon is already one of the top players in this industry. Makes sense with broadband speeds increasing and 4K video monitors becoming cheaper while movie tickets continue to grow. In the long term, it is less expensive for a family of 5 to invest $2000-$3000 in a 4K television and sound system than to spend $100+ going to the cinema for 2 hours. They can pay back their investment in as few as 21 movie rentals.

 

http://www.thestreet.com/story/12734638/1/streaming-movie-revenues-forecast-to-surass-box-office-totals.html

 

For someone like Media Browser where growth is numbered in hundreds or maybe thousands of new users per year, making sure they work on as many devices as possible regardless of the parent company's financial strength is a good idea. Since the custom programming needed for the Fire TV, an Android powered box, is probably not significantly heavy, why not support it. Even if it only brings in 500 supporting users, that is a bit of income for the developer. It will probably bring in more over the long term as the work can be used on other Android boxes as well.

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  • 3 weeks later...
madhatr

Has anyone tried "Casting" from the MediaBrowser Android app or the MediaBrowser web portal? If it works does it stream the video from the MediaBrowser server? If so do you still have control over the video (play/pause/etc)? Lastly what is the quality like? Can it stream it without re-encoding it, or is the fire able to handle something along the lines of a 18GB 1080p mkv that has DTS and possibly even multiple audio tracks and multiple subtitle tracks?

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  • 2 weeks later...

I got my FTV and XBMC installed last night along with ServerWMC.  Live TV through XBMC looks and sounds great, the EPG is a little slow.  I had a Pi/Raspbmc before and the FTV hardware is much faster.  I installed MBS on my media server and I love the functionality and interfaces.  I understand the native MB for FTV app is in the works and would love to get my hands on it.  

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breezytm

Live TV on XBMC in my Fire TV constantly crashing. This is my last resort else I will have to get rid of the device. No pressure.  :D

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Not crashing for me....however to get rid of the interlace issue I have turned on software acceleration, that way I can turn de-interlace mode to 'auto' and the image looks way better when viewing Live TV.  (Note: ensure you turn off both the filters on the hardware profiles before changing to software decoding)

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breezytm

Not crashing for me....however to get rid of the interlace issue I have turned on software acceleration, that way I can turn de-interlace mode to 'auto' and the image looks way better when viewing Live TV.  (Note: ensure you turn off both the filters on the hardware profiles before changing to software decoding)

 

Making the changes you suggest as we speak. What I do notice and expected is constant buffering and sluggish play back. My best guest would be the network settings in advancedsettings.xml file. Do you mind sharing what you have in yours in regards to networking. I am currently adding the following lines to mine and see if there is any improvements. 

 

     <network>
     <alwaysforcebuffer>1</alwaysforcebuffer>
          <cachemembuffersize>0</cachemembuffersize>
          <readbufferfactor>2.0</readbufferfactor>
     </network>
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I've not changed my network settings at all....using WiFi N to a Apple Time Capsule...my MediaBrower server is installed on a i7 (3 Gen) which is plugged in directly via Ethernet to the Apple Time Capsule.

 

I would suggest you either have an issue with your WiFi, not enough grunt on your backed or might need to fiddle with transcoding options...for example in my settings - "Advanced - Transcoding" I have "Max" quality selected...not sure if that would make a difference or not...

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breezytm

We were talking about XBMC not mediabrowser. Issue with fire TV and xbmc crashing. I did what you mentioned and there aren't any more crashing but I am having deinterlace issue and slow streaming with hardware acceleration off and software acceleration on.

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deinterlacing is an issue at the moment in the hardware implementation therefore I've just used software...al of the programs I've been streaming from Plex Media Server/MediaBrowser Server are 720P therefore maybe that is why I am not having issues? Certainly having no crashing or stuttering...I'll try out a few 1080P's tonight and see how it goes, will report back later...

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Hi Luke, will it have LiveTV and official (as in not required to be 'rooted')?

 

If the answer is yes and you can achieve audio with DD, DTS, HD etc. you'd have the best 'client' on the market....

 

-SM

 

(Oh and have de-interlacing ability setting of 'auto'....and 1080p/24 would be nice  ;) ....guess we'll be waiting on Android/Google for that one though...)

Edited by Scot
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Deihmos

The fire tv does not have any support for an IR remote unlike the Roku. I was contemplating buying one but I think I will get the roku instead.

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