[ronbaby]

It's my understanding that Amazon Fire TV boxes allow the use of alternative remote controls, and maybe even keyboards. Can anybody comment on their experiences with such things, and, in particular, how well (or poorly) alternative remotes work with Kodi for the Fire TV2 box?

I have clunky old Adesso ARC-1100 (aka Ortek VRC-1100) that I've been using for a long time with Kodi, and I love it because its got a mouse wheel the middle which allows moving the mouse cursor in random directions under Kodi, which sometimes seems helpful. So I'm wondering if this will work with FTV2, or what others might work which have some similar capability.

Also, I have a Logitech K400 wireless keyboard. Any chance that that will work with FTV2?

P.S. I also have a Harmony 600 lying around collecting duct that I've been too lazy to reprogram properly. Will that work with FTV2? It lacks a mouse wheel, but other than that, it's pretty sweet.

[Ned Scott]

Any standard USB keyboard will work on the Fire TV boxes (gen 1 and 2). Most of the "android" remotes out there that have a USB dongle are basically seen as USB keyboards as well, and will also work. Same with most of the Bluetooth media center remotes that I've seen.

[ronbaby]

Just in case anybody is interested in this topic, and just in case anybody finds this thread via googling for related terms, I just want to say that I now have my Fire TV box, which, for the time being at least, is sitting next to my trusty old Foxconn HTPC in the living room next to the TV. (I'll soon try side-loading Kodi onto the Fire TV, and if that works out well enough, then I'll be able to ditch my old Foxconn HTPC. But I'm not ready for that just yet.)

So anyway, the interesting part is that I plugged all of the peripherials that I was using with the HTPC into the Fire TV box, specifically my trusty old Ortek VRC-1100 remote, my Logitech M305 wireless mouse, and my Logitech K400 wireless keyboard, and I'm pleased to report that they all just (mostly) work. (In certain contexts it seems like the Enter key on the keyboard isn't recognized, but a mouse click worked instead in these cases. And the Fire TV YouTube app apparently isn't smart enough to grok the existance of *any* keyboard. But other than those two very small and insignificant issues, all else seems to be working well.)

Because I wanted to use all three of these peripherials on *both* the Fire TV *and* on the HTPC (running straight OpenELEC) I also went and bough a fancy USB switch (called an IOGear GUS402) and that is successfully allowing me to switch the Ortek remote, the Logitech mouse and the Logitech keyboard between the HTPC and the Fire TV, which is pretty cool, I think. (I'll be able to throw this switch away, along with my old HTPC, of course, if Kodi is reasonably glitch free when I get it loaded onto the Fire TV.)

Last but not least, I spent most of today programming the Logitech Harmony 600 remote that I've had on the shelf collecting dust for some time now, so as to get it to take the place of the Ortek VRC-1100. And I'm pleased to report that that's working perfectly now too.

I may not be in heaven just yet, but I'm getting pretty damn close. :-)