[MediaPi]

By Dan Grabham on 03 Sep 2014 at 6:43PM

Amazon just announced Fire TV in the UK for £79. This is great news, as it's a super little player. If you have Amazon Prime already, it's THE media box for you as for you it will cost just £49.

If you don't have Prime, Fire TV comes with a 30 day trial.

The Full HD 1080p streaming media player predicts what you're going to watch so you can watch it instantly (this is called ASAP) and has a dedicated GPU and quad-core processor in addition to 2GB of memory. Amazon says it has three times the power of Apple TV.

As well as access to Prime Instant Video (if you have Prime) there's a bunch of additional services available from others such as Sky News and Demand 5 but unfortunately there is no sign of BBC iPlayer , 4oD or ITV Player at the moment. This is the first andoird device that will hit UK, pretty excited

PRE-ORDER link
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Amazon-CL1130-Fi...ds=fire+tv

For music, the device supports TuneIn and Spotify as well as Amazon Music while Amazon FreeTime enables you to limit screen time and create personalized profiles just for children.

http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2014/09/amazon-...uk-for-79/

QUESTION:
This is android but since Amazon is such a big company, do you think they have modified the code so it plays well with refresh rate. The Raspberry Pi is going to take a hit now that this is out.

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"Compatible with high-definition TVs with HDMI capable of 1080p or 720p at 60/50Hz" it says 50Hz, does that mean its not limited now?

[noggin]

QUESTION:
This is android but since Amazon is such a big company, do you think they have modified the code so it plays well with refresh rate. The Raspberry Pi is going to take a hit now that this is out.

---

"Compatible with high-definition TVs with HDMI capable of 1080p or 720p at 60/50Hz" it says 50Hz, does that mean its not limited now?

Fingers crossed. All the European streaming media sites are 25p (with occasional 50p) so 50Hz is pretty much a must-have requirement for anything that will be used for iPlayer, 4oD, ITVPlayer, SVT Play, NRK Nett TV, ARD/ZDF Mediatek etc.

I don't think we'll get automatic refresh rate switching though - as current Android doesn't allow it - though hopefully the next generation will.

£49 if you have Amazon Prime is a pretty good price.

(Interesting that Apple TV is currently £79 but with a £25 iTunes store voucher...)

[MediaPi]

This is really a game changer, im really surprised they didn't just go the $99 to £99 conversion like most technologys do. They are very aggressive with this and a clever way to get people signed up on their prime membership. Amazon are really building an ecosystem, but whereas google they are a distributor company and not just a software company. They're a big threat to google tv.

very interesting to see who will win, on one side you have a mature linux OS but cost is an issue. On the other side is android but quality is an issue, prices for boxes like the NUC are falling, but Android is maturing....

[Hedda]

I think that would now rather take a chance with a new Rockchip RK3288 SoC based Android media players

See general discussion about RK3288 here http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=202924

RK3288 is brand new so firmware are not mature yet but hardware-wise it kicks Fire TV ass for the price.


Fire TV had a good price verses performance ratio when it first came out but the Android world moves fast!

[MediaPi]

very very interesting Hedda, thanks for sharing. I would like to add that your not comparing like for like. I've read abit and that new SoC is amazing! especially once it matures and it seems like they are actively trying to get XBMC to work on their boxes, so the experience of running xbmc on here in the future would be great.

but for the vast majority 1080p and true hd sound is more than good enough, which is already provided with amazon. but what amazon have over any other android hardware is ecosystem, official apps like 5demand and in the future iplayer, itv, netflix .... the list goes on. When you buy an amazon fire tv you've got that ecosystem. yes you haven't got the fastest box but you got the box that does alot more than just xbmc. and also you got dedicated games platform for the amazon tv with a dedicated controller.

so at one side amazon and their eco system and on the other sheer raw performance. take your pic. also amazon have warrenty in the UK. anything goes wrong (DOA) you can sort it out. thanks for sharing though that tickles my geek side

[Hedda]

Well the price for RK3288 boxes is same or similar to that of a Fire TV, and you can can install Amazon AppStore on any non-Amazon android device

http://www.amazon.com/gp/mas/get/android full step-by-step guide https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?i...63093842_2

So you only loose the Amazon's launcher with its GUI and integrations, but if you are buying hardware for XBMC do you really care about that?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie...1000645111

I mean isn't the whole point with XBMC to use it as your main launcher, so if you want to start any Android app, just launch that directly from XBMC.

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=And...ithin_XBMC

[jjd-uk]

Personally I'd avoid buying any new Android based hardware until Android TV boxes are released as this will likely see more remote friendly apps being released that may not be compatible with the bog standard Android these boxes run, or at least wait for any confirmation that there'll be an Android L update.

[Apothis]

but for the vast majority 1080p and true hd sound is more than good enough, which is already provided with amazon.

Oh really? and how does it provide this true hd sound over android's 2 LPCM channel sink?

[hdmkv]

Personally I'd avoid buying any new Android based hardware until Android TV boxes are released...

+1. Amazon FTV is a great device, but its key Achilles' heel is the paltry 8GB storage (really 5GB+ usable). And this may not matter to some, but 1080p/60 camcorder files choke. The Amazon UI/Prime ecosystem is both a blessing and a curse. Don't get me wrong as I have 4x FTV's around the house, but if I were buying today, I'd hold off until later this year.

[Ned Scott]

Well the price for RK3288 boxes is same or similar to that of a Fire TV, and you can can install Amazon AppStore on any non-Amazon android device

http://www.amazon.com/gp/mas/get/android full step-by-step guide https://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?i...63093842_2

So you only loose the Amazon's launcher with its GUI and integrations, but if you are buying hardware for XBMC do you really care about that?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie...1000645111

I mean isn't the whole point with XBMC to use it as your main launcher, so if you want to start any Android app, just launch that directly from XBMC.

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=And...ithin_XBMC

What makes the Fire TV nice is the vastly improved version of Netflix and Android Prime clients that it has installed. I do not believe those are installable on other devices even with the Amazon store installed.

[noggin]

but for the vast majority 1080p and true hd sound is more than good enough, which is already provided with amazon.

Eh? Since when has the Fire TV supported HD sound? Does it even do multichannel PCM (like the PI does?)

[Apothis]

but for the vast majority 1080p and true hd sound is more than good enough, which is already provided with amazon.

Eh? Since when has the Fire TV supported HD sound? Does it even do multichannel PCM (like the PI does?)

That was the point I made earlier, it doesnt. It has the standard android 2 channel LPCM sink.

[ZertMA]

Hello everybody,

one question, is it possible to stream LIVE TV (SAT) with the Box if we use the XBMC and the VU+ Addon.
That Vu+ works in a different room but the same network.
For me, this is the most important reason to buy.

Thanks for answering

[hdmkv]

Not sure, but I'm streaming live TV via ServerWMC running on a Windows machine in a different room.

[ZertMA]

Ok, but does Fire TV allow the same?
I hope anybody here can maybe test it...