• Welcome to BookAndReader!

    We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!

    Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.

Amazon Pokes Roku

Sneezy

Sneezy

Well-Known Member
So I go to Amazon this morning (because pontalba thread) and see this:

Dear Customers,

Today we are unveiling Amazon Fire TV.

KB-Jeff-Letter-CenterGraphic-v2._V340657479_.jpg

Fire TV is a tiny box that plugs into your HDTV. It's the easiest way to enjoy Netflix, Prime Instant Video, Hulu Plus, WatchESPN, low-cost video rentals, and more. With instant access to over 200,000 TV episodes and movies, plus all your favorite subscriptions and streaming services, you can watch what you want, when you want. If you're a Prime member, you get unlimited access to thousands of popular movies and TV shows, including exclusives like Downton Abbey, The Americans, Alpha House, and Under the Dome.

So, is the mighty Titan vying to crush the upstart? Will this be yet another miserable attempt to copy the brilliance that is Roku?

No, really, I am asking. I have no idea. So far none of the competitors have impressed me at all. Even the Google offering falls short as far as user experience.
 
I don't understand how anyone who reads and has perhaps one or two other hobbies [like myself] can find the time to watch even the stations offered by free view. To buy more on top of these, the viewer would have to be in front of the plasma for hours on end!
Imagine just watching the soaps, or just the nature programmes, or any other topic, there is more than can be seen for two hours a night. I find the plasma a distraction when I am too tired to do anything else, but even that starts to wear after about 120minutes, but that's just me I suppose.
 
Right, blame me! :D
Yup, I saw an article on their Fire TV yesterday, maybe on Yahoo.
Of course they are really promoting their own television shows.....Bosch, etc. We've watched a couple of their attempts, and Bosch is the best. Streamed free for Amazon Prime.

Gerwinnen Flecklecks said:
I don't understand how anyone who reads and has perhaps one or two other hobbies [like myself] can find the time to watch even the stations offered by free view. To buy more on top of these, the viewer would have to be in front of the plasma for hours on end!
Imagine just watching the soaps, or just the nature programmes, or any other topic, there is more than can be seen for two hours a night. I find the plasma a distraction when I am too tired to do anything else, but even that starts to wear after about 120minutes, but that's just me I suppose.
Click to expand...

Of course you are right. That is why we don't have TV coming in from outside. We are out in the country, so the antennas are not very reliable. Cable is way to expensive, and as you say, loads of junk. So we either stream from Amazon, or purchase DVDs. It works for us. We can pick and chose to our taste.
 
I am definitely interested in this. i have been looking for a replacement for my Boxee Box for some time.
 
pontalba said:
Right, blame me! :D
Yup, I saw an article on their Fire TV yesterday, maybe on Yahoo.
Of course they are really promoting their own television shows.....Bosch, etc. We've watched a couple of their attempts, and Bosch is the best. Streamed free for Amazon Prime.



Of course you are right. That is why we don't have TV coming in from outside. We are out in the country, so the antennas are not very reliable. Cable is way to expensive, and as you say, loads of junk. So we either stream from Amazon, or purchase DVDs. It works for us. We can pick and chose to our taste.
Click to expand...


I have some friends in Powys and they like Free-Sat.
 
Reception[edit]
There have been complaints regarding the Boxee Box by D-Link in several aspects. [17] As of the current version it does not provide support for Hulu or Hulu Plus subscription.
Another issue is the Boxee Box's software/firmware is not production-ready, but, rather behaves like an Alpha or Beta version.
This issue is more apparent when compared to the older desktop version of Boxee, which can be freely downloaded and installed on commodity PCs.
This viewpoint is furthered by the user interface development changes which took place between the beta version and the version 1.0 software shipped with the Boxee Box, with very little public user testing or input.


I would add also that Samsung is a rather unreliable manufacturer.
Compared to Panasonic it has an alarmingly high failure rate according to a friend who works in the field.
 
pontalba said:
I'll be interested in hearing how it works out.
Click to expand...

Playing with it now. WiFi connection is just as easy as Roku. Waiting for what must be a massive software update to complete. One of the things that made me decide to give it a try is the near certainty that Amazon will support it in class leading style. Mind you, I have no complaints about Roku support. I am guessing this will end up a draw to be honest.
 
Initial impression is not quite ready to replace Roku. The Netflix app is a little glitchy. The login screen cursor would not highlight the letters as you input them which led to me resorting to space counts and hoping I had chosen correctly (Think: Woohoo! I achieved M, now I need to go down one and across three.). I see this as a minor glitch and would bet that it is fixed within days. It had difficulty with Hulu at first, but then all was well. It kept telling me it could not connect to the Hulu site and I suppose this could have been on the Hulu side, but that seems unlikely. Available apps are a little on the lean side as compared to Roku, but I suspect that will change rapidly as the developers and providers follow the money trail.

The menus are quick and scrolling is smoother than a PC. The memory and storage native to the box is on par with many tablets (and some laptops for that matter) on the market, so no surprise there. The voice search feature works, I mean actually works. This surprised me since my accent makes any voice recognition software work overtime but I tried a dozen or so different searches and it failed to produce accurate results on none of them. The downside is it only searches Amazon content, so even if you are perusing the Netflix application and initiate a voice search it will take you to an Amazon result. Not surprising, but a wee bit disappointing. It has an optical out for those that like to pipe through a receiver, which is a feature that I do not believe any other like device offers.

All in all, I think it will probably be the better of the Roku3 in short order, and since I am already so deeply in bed with Amazon it will provide for a lot of convenience. If you are wise enough to not allow yourself to be a subject of Emperor Bezos and want to buy one of these devices RIGHT NOW I'd say go Roku. If you are one of the minions and understand the fact that the product is less than a week old then I'd suggest going this route.

I hate the name. Not as silly as Boxee Box, but still...FireTV? I do not want my TV to be on fire. Oh, wait, maybe they are saying with this product you can fire your subscription TV provider? Thin, guys. Very thin.

I hate doing reviews, so that is all you get.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top