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Amazon Fire TV for XBMC
#91
I'm very interested in hands-on reviews from people on this forum. If DTS isn't supported then it's a total non-starter for me. The same would go for 1080i MPEG2 (PVR). If there's no Netflix HD then it's hard to take this seriously even just as a media streamer, at least as it relates my family's requirements. Seems like there are quite a few unknowns.
#92
(2014-04-03, 15:39)ilovemymac Wrote:
(2014-04-03, 14:37)skrowl Wrote: My Fire TV gets here tomorrow. To celebrate, I just closed my Roku account:

Image

My understanding is roku has several channels that you can't get other places like the B&W channel and others that you won't find on the firetv. But then fire gets you amazon prime. Of course even Xbmc has lots of stuff missing from it so I guess if you truly wanted everything you'd have several boxes

(2014-04-03, 12:43)tdw197 Wrote:
(2014-04-03, 09:19)Koying Wrote: Don't expect miracles, the Fire, from an Xbmc perspective, looks just like another Droid box.
I see no reason it will run better or worse than any other boxes, with the benefit of good support in general but xbmc in particular will probably be frowned upon or just ignored.

It might be a good Droid reference device, though, as I assume it will become quite well spread.

xbmc on android (ouya in particular) is pretty good for me.

My interest in this is the apps which form the amazon ecosystem - assuming this plays netflix hd and xbmc can be installed then this is a box which will run xbmc well enough for me and also have a decent netflix and amazon app for streaming - at the moment there is nothing which does this (ouya netflix app quality is not good enough for me)

There is no Netflix HD for any android box. I think only a few tablets have it. Which is why I hate androids broken ecosystem. My Apple TV 2 has had HD Netflix for years. Had Hulu for quite awhile before android. I had Netflix on my iPad long before it was available on droid.
Be nice it one or these boxes could do it all amazon Netflix HD and hulu and Xbmc.

Someone once said, and I agreed with him hundred percent, that you cant think of XBMC as a do it all media center for proprietary and paid apps. Because they keep changing and XBMC is of course an open sourced platform. It is best to not try and comingle the two.

XBMC's attraction lies in the fact you can get all these other addons and free content to give you more options than a lot of these paid apps do.

But at the end of the day its personal preference. I would also love to have native Netflix and Hulu Plus integration but quite honestly you get more options and variety for free in XBMC.
#93
All XBMC needs to do for me is have a quick launcher link to open Netflix/Hulu. Google TV got it best so far with their primetime app and collated searches. Shame Google doesn't care about the platform.
#94
(2014-04-03, 16:57)ozkhan1 Wrote:
(2014-04-03, 15:39)ilovemymac Wrote:
(2014-04-03, 14:37)skrowl Wrote: My Fire TV gets here tomorrow. To celebrate, I just closed my Roku account:

Image

My understanding is roku has several channels that you can't get other places like the B&W channel and others that you won't find on the firetv. But then fire gets you amazon prime. Of course even Xbmc has lots of stuff missing from it so I guess if you truly wanted everything you'd have several boxes

(2014-04-03, 12:43)tdw197 Wrote: xbmc on android (ouya in particular) is pretty good for me.

My interest in this is the apps which form the amazon ecosystem - assuming this plays netflix hd and xbmc can be installed then this is a box which will run xbmc well enough for me and also have a decent netflix and amazon app for streaming - at the moment there is nothing which does this (ouya netflix app quality is not good enough for me)

There is no Netflix HD for any android box. I think only a few tablets have it. Which is why I hate androids broken ecosystem. My Apple TV 2 has had HD Netflix for years. Had Hulu for quite awhile before android. I had Netflix on my iPad long before it was available on droid.
Be nice it one or these boxes could do it all amazon Netflix HD and hulu and Xbmc.

Someone once said, and I agreed with him hundred percent, that you cant think of XBMC as a do it all media center for proprietary and paid apps. Because they keep changing and XBMC is of course an open sourced platform. It is best to not try and comingle the two.

XBMC's attraction lies in the fact you can get all these other addons and free content to give you more options than a lot of these paid apps do.

But at the end of the day its personal preference. I would also love to have native Netflix and Hulu Plus integration but quite honestly you get more options and variety for free in XBMC.

Its changed for me as I got older, i'm not keen on using the 'other' apps now.

I'd love to have a really great xbmc box which can launch other official apps (netflix, iplayer, sky go, amazon etc). Ouya is almost that platform, but lack of netflix HD lets it down.

If amazon box can run xbmc then i'll be getting one for any secondary tv i have (the main tv will always have an htpc).

lack of mpeg-2 could be a killer for live tv though
#95
Other then supporting amazon this doesn't really do anything any other android box doesn't. I have pass through on my x7 mini and I have Xbmc. Don't have Netflix in HD though.
#96
On the amazon page for the fire tv netflix app http://www.amazon.com/Netflix/dp/B00FLJ1CFM/

It says:

Browse titles right from your Amazon Fire TV -- many in Full HD.

So here is hoping it is HD and not just a canned description. I'll be getting mine today and will check it out tonight.
#97
If this can actually play 1080p/720p MPEG-2 then I'll buy 3 of them, but I'm not optimistic. For me that was the one hitch with the Ouya, it made a great XBMC box except that I couldn't use it to play my non-animated PVR content at an acceptable quality.I really need a new dedicated HTPC since right now I'm using my server as my main client as well, and I would greatly prefer some separation between those very different functions. If the fire TV can't handle the PVR stuff then I guess I'll try to order one of the new Celeron NUCs.
#98
(2014-04-03, 17:15)tdw197 Wrote:
(2014-04-03, 16:57)ozkhan1 Wrote:
(2014-04-03, 15:39)ilovemymac Wrote: My understanding is roku has several channels that you can't get other places like the B&W channel and others that you won't find on the firetv. But then fire gets you amazon prime. Of course even Xbmc has lots of stuff missing from it so I guess if you truly wanted everything you'd have several boxes


There is no Netflix HD for any android box. I think only a few tablets have it. Which is why I hate androids broken ecosystem. My Apple TV 2 has had HD Netflix for years. Had Hulu for quite awhile before android. I had Netflix on my iPad long before it was available on droid.
Be nice it one or these boxes could do it all amazon Netflix HD and hulu and Xbmc.

Someone once said, and I agreed with him hundred percent, that you cant think of XBMC as a do it all media center for proprietary and paid apps. Because they keep changing and XBMC is of course an open sourced platform. It is best to not try and comingle the two.

XBMC's attraction lies in the fact you can get all these other addons and free content to give you more options than a lot of these paid apps do.

But at the end of the day its personal preference. I would also love to have native Netflix and Hulu Plus integration but quite honestly you get more options and variety for free in XBMC.

Its changed for me as I got older, i'm not keen on using the 'other' apps now.

I'd love to have a really great xbmc box which can launch other official apps (netflix, iplayer, sky go, amazon etc). Ouya is almost that platform, but lack of netflix HD lets it down.

If amazon box can run xbmc then i'll be getting one for any secondary tv i have (the main tv will always have an htpc).

lack of mpeg-2 could be a killer for live tv though

I understand.

May not be a perfect solution but there is an android app out there that streams directly from your HD Homerun device if you have one of the newer ones with DLNA.

There is also another third party app Tune n View, I believe is the name and that streams from 2nd generation HD Homerun (I just have an ATSC/QAM one so dont know if it works with Cablecard though).

I believe its a good compromise for live tv on android outside of XBMC. No PVR or timeshifting though, and no EPG.
#99
What I need to fully give my atv 2 to my daughter is android Netflix HD and amazon prime
Be nice of Xbmc ran as good in android as my atv2 but it will I think in time.
Hey folks. I am a longtime XBMC user in fairly basic usage scenarios (PC based, and lately an AT2 jailbreak install that isn't working that great). I know basically zero about android or android devices, but I have a Fire TV in front of me now (I got overnight). Let me know if there are any basic questions I can answer.


EDIT...when it's done with the lengthy intro video which I can't listen to since I'm at work, and can't seem to skip.
(2014-04-03, 18:36)thess Wrote: Hey folks. I am a longtime XBMC user in fairly basic usage scenarios (PC based, and lately an AT2 jailbreak install that isn't working that great). I know basically zero about android or android devices, but I have a Fire TV in front of me now (I got overnight). Let me know if there are any basic questions I can answer.

Does it do Netflix in HD? As in do any titles have HD beside them?
Can you install Xbmc or any 3rd party aps
(2014-04-03, 18:24)ozkhan1 Wrote: I understand.

May not be a perfect solution but there is an android app out there that streams directly from your HD Homerun device if you have one of the newer ones with DLNA.

There is also another third party app Tune n View, I believe is the name and that streams from 2nd generation HD Homerun (I just have an ATSC/QAM one so dont know if it works with Cablecard though).

I believe its a good compromise for live tv on android outside of XBMC. No PVR or timeshifting though, and no EPG.

I don't think any of these apps get around the MPEG2 problem. Tune n View requires Google TV (which supports MPEG2). Read the reviews of the other HDHomerun app and it becomes apparent that most people's Android devices can't play high definition streams, which confirms that the stream is MPEG2.
(2014-04-03, 17:01)drhill Wrote: All XBMC needs to do for me is have a quick launcher link to open Netflix/Hulu.

Totally possible in Gotham. I have a Video "addon" that all it does is call the command to launch the Netflix app. I have that addon on my XBMC home screen so I don't need to go through Programs>Android Apps.
Could easily modify that to launch any app.
Problem is we still don't have HD in Netflix although I'm going to try the market helper app from quick shot and spoof the minix as a nexus and see if that gives me Netflix in HD since I know it is available for that. Or just airplay from my MacBook Air I guess but then no surround sound
(2014-04-03, 18:36)thess Wrote: Hey folks. I am a longtime XBMC user in fairly basic usage scenarios (PC based, and lately an AT2 jailbreak install that isn't working that great). I know basically zero about android or android devices, but I have a Fire TV in front of me now (I got overnight). Let me know if there are any basic questions I can answer.


EDIT...when it's done with the lengthy intro video which I can't listen to since I'm at work, and can't seem to skip.

Cool! Well, if you're technically inclined and feeling adventurous then you could attempt to sideload one of the Android XBMC builds. Looks like you do it through ADB:
https://developer.amazon.com/sdk/asb/app-install.html

But if you're not comfortable with this kind of stuff then it may be more trouble than it's worth. I'm sure others will be trying this within a day or so.

I would also echo the question that someone previous mentioned: Can it play Netflix HD content?
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