Amazon FireTV Stick [Review]

[cr6]

I got my new toy in the mail Wednesday but didn't have a chance to set it up and really spend some time with it until today.

First impressions: Awesome!
I hadn't jumped on the "media stick" craze simply because I didn't feel it was something I would really use. Since my Samsung BluRay player has a number of streaming features such as Netflix, Pandora, YouTube, VuDu and a few others, I figured I would hold off . And I didn't want one of the "box" systems cluttering up my current home theatre setup.
When the Amazon FireTV stick came out it peaked my interest, and since I've been a Prime member for a few years now, I've been wanting an easier way to view Prime shows on my TV without the hassle of using my phone & an MHL cable or AllCast. (which haven't been the quickest or most reliable methods in my experience)
And with the 1 day/ $19 dollar promotion that came out, I knew I had to jump on board.

Setup: less than 5 minutes from plug in to sign on & watch. There is a very short "download period" when initially clicking on each app, after that it's instantaneous.
Picture & sound quality: Excellent
Of course, a lot of this has to do with the overall quality of your home theatre, so your mileage may vary on this one.

Speed: Excellent
Your overall WiFi connection will come into play here, but moving around within the app is super fast and responsive.
It also has a great built in screen saver that activates after a minute or two with a nice variety of stock nature photos.

(or you can use your own photos that stream from Amazon's cloud)

Update:
as with most cloud storage services the first 5 gigs are free, but I just found out that Prime members get free unlimited photo storage, so that's pretty cool.

Overall: I'm very impressed. It's a feature packed streaming stick that's fast and simple to use. After testing Prime, Netflix, Crackle, iHeart Radio, RedBull TV, & YouTube I didn't have a single streaming or buffering problem and the overall quality is excellent.
The one app that would have made this dongle perfect is HBO Go, but I've survived this long without it.
So if you don't have one of these devices yet and you're currently a Prime member, I'd say pick one up. It's definitely a great device.

 

[Wilsondrake]

I got my new toy in the mail Wednesday but didn't have a chance to set it up and really spend some time with it until today.

First impressions: Awesome!
I hadn't jumped on the "media stick" craze simply because I didn't feel it was something I would really use. Since my Samsung BluRay player has a number of streaming features such as Netflix, Pandora, YouTube, VuDu and a few others, I figured I would hold off . And I didn't want one of the "box" systems cluttering up my current home theatre setup.
When the Amazon FireTV stick came out it peaked my interest, and since I've been a Prime member for a few years now, I've been wanting an easier way to view Prime shows on my TV without the hassle of using my phone & an MHL cable or AllCast. (which haven't been the quickest or most reliable methods in my experience)
And with the 1 day/ $19 dollar promotion that came out, I knew I had to jump on board.

Setup: less than 5 minutes from plug in to sign on & watch. There is a very short "download period" when initially clicking on each app, after that it's instantaneous.
Picture & sound quality: Excellent
Of course, a lot of this has to do with the overall quality of your home theatre, so your mileage may vary on this one.

Speed: Excellent
Your overall WiFi connection will come into play here, but moving around within the app is super fast and responsive.
It also has a great built in screen saver that activates after a minute or two with a nice variety of stock nature photos.

(or you can use your own photos that stream from Amazon's cloud)

Update:
as with most cloud storage services the first 5 gigs are free, but I just found out that Prime members get free unlimited photo storage, so that's pretty cool.

Overall: I'm very impressed. It's a feature packed streaming stick that's fast and simple to use. After testing Prime, Netflix, Crackle, iHeart Radio, RedBull TV, & YouTube I didn't have a single streaming or buffering problem and the overall quality is excellent.
The one app that would have made this dongle perfect is HBO Go, but I've survived this long without it.
So if you don't have one of these devices yet and you're currently a Prime member, I'd say pick one up. It's definitely a great device.

How about installing different media players like Plex, Popcorn Time or Kodi on this ? Have you give it a try what is the performance then.