Will Amazon's Fire TV Win Over the Masses?

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metalman420

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Why does no one mention in ANY of these articles that Amazon's video streaming SUCKS. EVERY tv show or movies always freezes up EVERY time. This is why I cancelled my prime AND it has gone up 20 dollars a year.
 

lpedraja2002

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metalman420. I have prime and though I do not use it much the last movies I saw which was Amelie and some Spongebob episodes all streamed fine. I have a Roku 2 (1080p) and sometimes I can make the apps crash but I think its Roku's fault.
 

sykozis

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I have no issues streaming movies or TV shows from Amazon. Most of the movies I watch are streamed from Amazon to a Roku HD, a Samsung smart media player (GX-SM530CF) or on the rare occassion, a Sony blu-ray player. The Samsung smart media player has issues from time to time, but that's the fault of the cable box itself and not Amazon. Last time I talked to Samsung's tech support, they refused to acknowledge any of the issues with their cable box. I was told on 3 separate occasions that an engineer would contact me to discuss the issues but so far nothing.Quite honestly, I find it hard to consider a Roku, AppleTV or Chromecast to be a "set-top box". They're streaming media players, sure....but they lack the primary feature of a true "set-top box". That primary feature being support for cable. I'd spend the $140 for another Samsung smart media player GX-SM530CF before I'd pay for another Roku...or even the $35 for a Chromecast (which is actually a good deal when you consider what the Chromecast is really capable of). At $99, the Amazon Fire TV is overpriced for what it offers. For an additional $40 I can get a "set-top box" that also supports cable.....
 

spdragoo

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We watch both Netflix & Amazon Prime at the house through a Wii (living room) & a Roku 2 (bedroom).In terms of ease of search & navigation, Netflix has a slight edge over Prime, although Amazon compensates for it with the "Customers Also Watched" option. The "Watch Trailer" feature is also nice...provided that it actually shows a "trailer" (note to Amazon: showing me a random 2-minute excerpt from within the movie itself, especially in the middle of the opening credits, is NOT showing me a trailer that gives me the basic plot of the movie & helps me decide to watch it or not).There are 2 major areas, though, where Amazon's video streaming is truly lacking compared to Netflix:1. *Rating the movie/TV show*. Netflix shows the average rating that other users have given a movie, but then lets you give it your own rating. Not only does it give their recommendation algorithm extra data to work with, it helps remind you if you've seen a movie before (especially if it hasn't been in your queue for months, or if it's one of those movie selections that was available for a while, was withdrawn from their library for a time, & is now back in). Amazon, however, doesn't let you rate a movie after you watch it. Not sure if they only allow those customers that actually buy the movie to rate it or not, but it would be a really nice feature to have.2. *Load & streaming times*. Yes, occasionally Netflix will have a "buffering" issue... but it's extremely few & far between. Amazon, however, has been very glitchy for the past month -- on both my Wii & my Roku, & at different times of the day -- where it will say it "can't connect"... even though it just did to show me the description of the movie itself (!!!) &/or the list of all the available episodes for that show. And even when it's not being "glitchy", it takes significantly longer to queue up a show than Netflix (usually about twice as long), on both devices.
 
The only feature that would get me to switch from my Roku would be high quality Plex support. I'd like something that can run high bitrate, 20+mbps 1080p, content stored on my server. Without my server having to transcode content and lower the bitrate. Also support of all video and audio codecs supported by Plex.All the speed and RAM mean nothing. If my Roku 2 XS can already handle all the content provided by Amazon Prime and Netflix at the highest bitrates they offer.Right now I have my server connected directly to my TV for my video library.
 

FlyTexas

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I don't see FreeTime mentioned...The single feature missing in our pair of Roku 3 boxes that we own are proper parent controls.I have 3 kids, I already own a pair of PS3s, a pair of Roku 3s (they are much faster for streaming video than the PS3s), and I just purchased an Amazon Fire TV yesterday.Why? Because of access to FreeTime, Amazon's Kid safe parent control system that lets me sandbox the kids and keep all the crap away from them.They'll sell millions of these if they can focus on that point. Everything else is more or less the same than the other boxes (other than the gaming and CPU power, but that won't be enough to sell them, I don't think).Parent and kid friendly FreeTime? Totally... that is the one feature that I'm happy to spend money on.
 

gggplaya

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I would buy it in a heartbeat if it could watch Movies on my NAS through SMB share directly. ANd i could connect a usb bluetooth keyboard.
 

catswold

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The best thing about this is that it will put pressure on the others to improve their products. None of them are truly "ready for prime-time."Mass appeal will only occur once the content providers allow people to stream their live streams, including advertising, over their internet service. Technology is such today that it should be simple to target such advertising more specifically than local broadcasts. Google does it all the time when you surf.Until people can watch their FNC, CNN, CNBC, etc through their boxes, this will continue to be a niche market.The gold standard would be to have all of it available through one simple to use service.
 

ctann

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Yup, SMB (or NFS) support and DVD .ISO playback are a must as far as I am concerned - although of course I probably don't qualify for "the masses" category... :)
 

kittle

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I have both amazon and netflix to watch on my PC. I too see the amazon glitchyness when trying to watch stuff where netflix has been smooth. From a usability point of view..the amazon prime web player seems to be targeted towards a smartphone user.. and not a PC or set top. Where the netflix player looks identical on my PC or laptop or android tablet.Other things I run into.. "amazon search sucks" when im looking for something specific. but for general browsing its pretty good. netflix search works good overall.The only thing I like more about Amazon is the instant rental feature. With netflix, you can stream or have the dvd sent. And if the movie you want to watch is ONLY available on dvd... well there goes your plans for the evening.
 

seancaptain

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Hi. I haven't had trouble streaming Amazon either. I wonder if the app for your particular device is buggy. - Sean
Why does no one mention in ANY of these articles that Amazon's video streaming SUCKS. EVERY tv show or movies always freezes up EVERY time. This is why I cancelled my prime AND it has gone up 20 dollars a year.
Why does no one mention in ANY of these articles that Amazon's video streaming SUCKS. EVERY tv show or movies always freezes up EVERY time. This is why I cancelled my prime AND it has gone up 20 dollars a year.
Why does no one mention in ANY of these articles that Amazon's video streaming SUCKS. EVERY tv show or movies always freezes up EVERY time. This is why I cancelled my prime AND it has gone up 20 dollars a year.
Why does no one mention in ANY of these articles that Amazon's video streaming SUCKS. EVERY tv show or movies always freezes up EVERY time. This is why I cancelled my prime AND it has gone up 20 dollars a year.
 

seancaptain

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I don't see FreeTime mentioned...The single feature missing in our pair of Roku 3 boxes that we own are proper parent controls.I have 3 kids, I already own a pair of PS3s, a pair of Roku 3s (they are much faster for streaming video than the PS3s), and I just purchased an Amazon Fire TV yesterday.Why? Because of access to FreeTime, Amazon's Kid safe parent control system that lets me sandbox the kids and keep all the crap away from them.They'll sell millions of these if they can focus on that point. Everything else is more or less the same than the other boxes (other than the gaming and CPU power, but that won't be enough to sell them, I don't think).Parent and kid friendly FreeTime? Totally... that is the one feature that I'm happy to spend money on.
 
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