[heehee62]

I would watch up to 1080p video including .mts files. No 3D. I will use miracast to project my android/pc devices onto the screen as well. Will watch both movies and home videos/pictures.

Is it going to buffer and crash on me all the time or will it run smooth?

Is there a better alternative for the same price? I want to stick to devices that will get regular updates and do not want to work with Linux as I don't want to have to learn another OS. I'd rather spend more money if the stick doesn't work well but if it does, I'd prefer the stick. Thanks.

[underworld123]

For the price point, FTV stick is one of the best devices to run Kodi. It comes with a remote, plays 1080p videos perfectly, and in general works very well.

[averylinden]

As with anything wireless, it depends.

It's going to depend a lot on the bitrate of your video and the strength of your wireless signal.

[wrxtasy]

So long as your WIFI router has Dual Band (MIMO) your issues should be mitigated.

[zebraitis]

You know, I would SO like to buy a Amazon firestick, but as it doesn't support DTS-HD MA, then I would be losing audio from a lot of various films.

Plus, if I look at my Userdata subdirectory, I've got about 14 GB of graphics for various films & tv shows...

Looks like I stick with the KODI on a PC for a while.


I read the following when I was reviewing info for buying a used amplifier: Making a choice is always balancing the features that you NEED, against the LIMITATIONS, with the $$$ you wish to spend.

Amps, Cars, Homes, KODI... sigh.

[Lukanite]

So far, I've had a pretty great video experience with the Stick. With a RT-N66U (Asus wireless N router) about 40 feet away, I get about 45mbps over 5 Ghz, enough to stream my uncompressed Blu-rays from my NAS to the TV stick without any issues. DVD-quality videos haven't been a problem, either. I haven't gotten passthrough audio working on it yet, though, something Amazon TV owners seem to have had success with, so I'm pretty much stuck with stereo PCM for now.

[wizziwig]

Be aware that this device runs at some strange refresh rates. 60.14 Hz. Some irregular frame repeats every 5 seconds that may not be noticeable to everyone since it's always doing 3:2 judder anyway.
50.0 Hz is also not supported correctly.

[wrxtasy]

Anyone tested 1080i video on a big screen TV ?

[heehee62]

Thanks guys. The stereo PCM is ok with me since I'm putting this on a tv without surround speakers. But I am worried the limited memory may be an issue (and the refresh rate might be too if I noticed it). Boy, tough decisions.

Is there a way to get xbmc to autostart on the firestick? That's all I'd be using the stick for.

[lespaul]

Right now I am disappointed in my Fire Stick. I have had it since before Thanksgiving. In fact, I bought two. I picked up one for $40 and then a few days later they had the Black Friday sell for $20 so I grabbed one for a friend.
Kodi is beautiful on it. The interface is very smooth and responsive. It did not play 720p videos well, but I mainly watch SD quality so I wasn't too concerned about that. It worked OK for about 3 weeks and then it started having problems staying connected.
Nothing in my network changed so I was pretty sure it was the stick. I visited an online forum on Amazon and many, many people were having the same problem. I did an online support chat with an Amazon rep and they sent me a new one right out. It got there in 2 days.
This one did not have the connection problems and about a week later, a new firmware update came out. The update corrected the earlier video problems and I haven't had it drop network connection since. Life should be beautiful, right?
My problem is it doesn't stream all that well. Amazon Prime will pause several times when watching a program. Netflix and Showtime Anytime seem to work much better than Amazon Prime itself, or maybe I have just been lucky...
I mention this because I am addressing the hardware, not Kodi specifically. I can usually watch one or two episodes of something in SD quality using Kodi from my network and then it will start to pause often or even abort playback. This never happens with my WDTV Live.
When the Fire Stick starts having problems, I switch over to the WD TV live and everything is smooth and sharp.
This is such a disappointment because I really wanted to like the Fire Stick. If it can not reliably stream then, what's it good for

[Ned Scott]

I haven't had such buffering in mine. *shrug*

[awp0]

I've been really happy with this thing. My usage is primarily HD MKV videos through XBMC (streaming from a Windows box), Live TV through XBMC (via WMC plugin with HDHomerun tuner), and Netflix. All three of these have been working flawlessly. I can't comment on things like uncompressed Bluray rips or Amazon Prime streaming, but for my usage it's a no-brainer, especially for the $19 that I paid.

[lespaul]

Yeah... mine worked great too... until it didn't.

[Jacksmyname]

I bought mine the day before Thanksgiving. I missed the sale for Prime Members for $19, but Best Buy had it for $25, so I grabbed it there. I bought it to use primarily with Amazon Prime. So far it's working perfectly with Prime movies, TV shows and music. I'm also using Crackle, the 30 day free trial of Netflix, the trial version of AllCast. So far everything works perfectly except for Netflix. For some reason, most movies will freeze on video but audio keeps playing. I have to backout and restart, and then the movie will play to the end. Only takes a few seconds but it's annoying. Netflix is the only one that does this, all the others are fine. I have it connected to my A/V receiver (Yamaha). Next up is Kodi, but I have a lot of reading to do so I know how to set it up, etc.
As I mentioned above, I bought it to use with Amazon Prime. So far I haven't had a dropped connection, freeze up (except for Netflix), or any other problems. Picture quality is outstanding. Played through my audio system (7.2) is also terrific. If all it did was play Amazon Prime, I'd still buy it. For my needs, the stick is a great add-on to my theater, even at the regular $39 price. I'll be buying another one for a second TV.

[lespaul]

If Netflix is the only app you are having problems with, you could try uninstalling it and reinstalling it. I am having the opposite problem. Netflix works well but Amazon Prime is constantly rebuffering.
Kodi is really easy to install and it's well worth the effort. I am glad it's working for you.