Amazon Fire TV Gaming Edition | Hacker News Reader

Amazon Fire TV Gaming Edition

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37 pointsskrowl56 comments

I thought for a moment they were giving away a 4K display for $140 ... (knowing Amazon they could have probably done it using some nasty proprietary connectors and software so that you couldn't use it with anything but their services)

considering that a 55" 4K television is the same price as an iPhone 6+, it would make sense for content providers to create financing bundles in the same way mobile carriers do...

I have a Fire TV Stick and it's fine except the wifi reception is awful (laptops and smartphones and tablets work just fine in the same room, while the Fire TV Stick buffers like crazy half the time). Which means it isn't really all that fine.

When the first Amazon Fire TV was launched one of the big features was the voice search. It was originally stated that Netflix voice search would be coming by the end of 2014:

“We expect to support [Fire TV] voice search later this year.” -Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO

That time came and went and the Fire TV never had its voice search expanded to include Netflix. I wonder if this was due to Amazon and Netflix not being able to come to terms over this feature? It seems that the new Apple TV allows you to voice search Netflix. I'd really like to be able to voice search Amazon and Netflix's catalog at the same time.

Good on Amazon for continuing to improve! FireTV launched April 2014 New FireTV to ship October 2015

versus Google Chromecast which was amazing when launched in July 2013. But absolutely ZERO improvements in OVER 2 years. :(

> Good on Amazon for continuing to improve! FireTV launched April 2014 New FireTV to ship October 2015 Sure, a year and a half later they release a more featureful, more expensive, variant on the product they initially released. Good for them, but...

> versus Google Chromecast which was amazing when launched in July 2013. But absolutely ZERO improvements in OVER 2 years. :(

Chromecast launched July 2013, true; it was (and is) a ~$35 media stick. And November 2014 -- a little under a year and a half later -- Google released a more featureful product that subsumed the basic functions of the Chromecast, had more onboard capability for apps, etc., and included a game controller, the $99 (now $79), Android TV based Nexus Player.

So, I don't think its really fair to say Google hasn't done anything here. Amazon's path isn't all that different from Google's.

Chromecast is pretty much a dumb terminal, though. Almost all improvements come from apps supporting it, and on that front Chromecast has done very well.

Also, for $35 you can't really beat what you get from a Chromecast even today.

Sounds great. Exactly what I hoped the new Apple TV would be... Does anyone know whether Fire TV has a VPN client build in?

Edit:

Found this with a quick search https://vpntips.com/fire-tv-vpn-install. To bad it's so complicated given that Fire TV runs Android. But this little device looks very promising. I enjoy 4K TV a lot through the Netflix app on my Sony TV.

I own a FTV, and I love it. You can side-load anything you want, as long as you can find the .apk file.

I really like the new Apple remote but I would have liked 4K. Now I am undecided but perhaps with a preference towards Fire.

Exactly, it seemed like Apple has really held back on the Apple Tv. I think their original plan hasn't panned out yet with the "replace your cable" deals, but they also had to release the hardware now.

Maybe future software upgrades will bring something more enticing?

I was sort of put off by the no 4k support. I will most likely have a 4k tv within the year and much more content will be in 4k.

Note: the version without the gaming controller is $99.

What kind of bandwidth do you need to stream 4k?

Netflix requires 20mbit

http://blog.netflix.com/2014/05/netflix-now-streaming-in-ult...

Netflix says [EDIT: "recommends"] 25mbps: https://help.netflix.com/en/node/306

Supporting 4k would also be a lot more demanding on the graphics "card" as well.

On the other hand, many of us don't really care about 4K -- there's no benefit unless you sit somewhere less than about 6 feet away (which is not normal for most homes). Most people will not notice a difference between 4k and 1080p in normal viewing conditions.

Serious question: What does this have that the new Apple TV doesn't? Other than coming with a games controller by default, rather than having to buy one separately.

Also, assuming that amazon will make an app for the new Apple TV (which they seem to have done for all iOS so far) the new apple tv will play EVERYTHING - Plex, Amazon, Netflix etc, and iTunes content.

I know it's apples fault for not making iTunes-playing apps for other devices, but that doesn't change the fact that with AppleTV I only need one device, versus every other solution. It's just plain more convenient. Of course, this only applies if you are in the apple ecosystem to begin with, which is maybe not who these are aimed at...

> What does this have that the new Apple TV doesn't?

I'm all in the Apple ecosystem. But:

- No 4K

- No VPN

- No default game controller (so you never know whether games support it or not)

No thanks for me and my requirements.

That last remark isn’t quite right — the app store requires that all games are playable with that new touchpad apple remote.

I believe that Apple also requires tvOS games to be operable with the remote in order to be published. In other words, one can't make a tvOS game that requires an actual game controller to play. Most likely this will severely hinder the platform in terms of gaming support because that remote is way too simple to support games of any real complexity.

Operable. Nowhere have I seen that it requires it to be pleasant.

$50 bucks cheaper...but yes if you are completely in Apple ecosystem then probably not great device for you. The only thing you mention above that Amazon won't play is iTunes content (Apples fault not Amazons...no way Apple will ever make an Android iTunes app).

> $50 bucks cheaper...

OTOH, on the value side, Nexus Player is another $60 cheaper than this.

This will be really sweet as soon as Cyanogenmod runs on it. :-) That'll also fix your VPN problems.

Is there a plan for that?

4K TV without the 4K TV

I was also expecting a display from the headline, but not the price.

Why can't I get Amazon and Netflix in 4k on my more than capable laptop? Until that situation changes, investing in such boxes just supports the idea that customers cannot be trusted with high-definition streams or any content, an idea the MPAA (and RIAA etc.) has been pushing now for many decades despite it continuously being proven wrong. No, I don't want to support the MPAA by bowing down to their demands that I use a stupid, crippled box to view movies. Once again, they've failed to provide an alternative to things like Popcorn time and they deserve to suffer for it.

Keep in mind, this is the Gaming Bundle. It does not come with the standard remote, just the game controller.

They also sell the Fire TV, with the normal voice remote for $99.

The standard voice remote is included in the gaming bundle.

I don't think so. It says "Optional" for the voice remote.

The new gaming remote DOES have a voice button also, though. So you may not need the regular remote.

Unfortunately, with the size of my Steam library, I would probably go with this instead: http://store.steampowered.com/app/353380

If you've got the network wired, the in-home streaming actually does work pretty well, in my experience (I do have a fairly beefy, though 4 year old desktop for work/gaming).

Does the Game Controller support http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/InputDev... ?

Could be cool as a dev platform for games. I take it all you do is compile to Android and it should work out of the box? Granted, resolution issues are dealt with.

If you want a TV-connected console for testing in-development Android games, Google's Nexus Player is already available, cheaper, and probably a more typical Android experience.

Thanks!

Another cool feature of the existing Fire TV is that you can start a music app, hit the home button, and then play a game, while listening to the music app. Just make sure to turn off in game music.

The tech specs say that it's compatible with TVs "capable of 2160p at 24/25/30/50/60 Hz." I hope that means it can output a native 24p signal for movies filmed at 24 fps. That would make it a serious contender for being the media center in my living room, because 24p seems to be neglected by all the major manufacturers.

It certainly can't output a quality signal 2160p@60Hz as that's out of specification for HDMI1.

Likely HDMI 1.4, 24fps @ 4k, 30fps @ UHD. Interestingly the new Apple TVs hardware is capable of 4k even though it does not currently "support it" (HDMI 1.4, and A8 with can play 4k)

Where does it say HDMI1? The only versioned thing I see in reference to the video stream is HDCP 2.2.

I would actually prefer 1080p@24Hz over 2160p@60Hz. 4K (2160p) is beyond human visual acuity at regular viewing distances, and 60Hz requires 3:2 pullup on the video signal that I find distracting at times.

Dear Google: catch up. No, Android TV doesn't count - just put a thin layer on stock Android and throw it onto a stick.

Also, give up on the voice-control thing, everybody's accepted that all your apps are touch-based so make a pointing-device that can simulate swipes for scrolling like everybody else.

Title is misleading, please fix it.

Curious, i have an echo which is in my kitchen... but i can control it from my living room, which is also where my tv is. When there are two of these devices close together how well does it handle responding to the instruction?

Does the gaming version really have much of a market, considering that the PlayStation 4, XBox One and PC have far better hardware and game library, and that one can already run Android games on their tables/smartphone?

The original Wii shows that yes, they do. The Wii was SD when HD was the hot thing and yet still sold like hotcakes (at the time) because it was casual (non gamer) friendly.

The Wii had an innovative controller and an exclusive game library, though.

The Fire TV instead copies the controller from the XBox and the game library from Android devices.

It seems far more similar to the Ouya console that recently got discontinued.

You just got to love this sentence: "Watch high-definition 1080p streams on Amazon Video, Netflix, Hulu and more, even without a 4K TV."

OMG, this is so great!

If only they had included HDMI2 or Displayport...

Looks like competition for the Nvidia Shield TV.

Cell phone class hardware. Probably an ARM SOC with very little I/O bandwidth. The SD card as a main store . . .

Ugh.

"More Games than Apple TV."

That claim will probably need to be removed in 2 months.

So Android TV...

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