Amazon Fire TV stick

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4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1167383 3-Nov-2014 10:52

Is the Fire TV stick a stand alone unit (like the amazon Fire tv) or does it need a tablet to stream the video? How are NZ'ers able to buy these as Amazon will not ship this unit to NZ?

jonathan18

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#1167421 3-Nov-2014 11:03

shuttle15: Is the Fire TV stick a stand alone unit (like the amazon Fire tv) or does it need a tablet to stream the video? How are NZ'ers able to buy these as Amazon will not ship this unit to NZ?

I think it's very much the equivalent of a Chromecast (but with a supplied remote, so unlike the Chromecast it doesn't need another device to control it), so it can play video directly, as per a Fire TV (noting that it won't have ethernet so is reliant on wireless).

Check out the thread on the Fire TV (not stick) which has heaps of information on ordering. Most of us have used a service like NZ Post's You Shop to get a Fire TV to NZ; can't imagine this stick would cost too much to ship ($15?).

robjg63

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#1167473 3-Nov-2014 11:39

shuttle15: Is the Fire TV stick a stand alone unit (like the amazon Fire tv) or does it need a tablet to stream the video? How are NZ'ers able to buy these as Amazon will not ship this unit to NZ?

NZpost now provide a service to get around Amazon (and other online shops) not allowing shipping outside the States.
If you go to to the youshop link at the top of the NZpost web page, you can sign up for a free youshop account.
This gives you a personal UK/USA/Chinese address that you can ship an order to.
The address is an NZ post facility in the local country. When they receive the item they send you a quote on how much it will cost to send to your NZ address.
Best to check out before ordering using their calculators that the shipping isnt going to make it not worth buying the item and that the value of the item (including shipping) doesnt make it get hit by GST here once it lands in NZ.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

AshB1304

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#1198050 15-Dec-2014 20:15

I'm just back from the USA and purchased a Firestick for $39.99 at Best Buy - one day late to get it for $24.99! Typical.

To answer a couple of questions from this forum, first up the Firestick is hardcoded so it's not possible to change the DNS settings on the stick itself. The Firestick does allow casting from Amazon devices ( I can't cast from my iPad mini), but there is so much more here than Chromecast, casting is not that much of an issue in my opinion.

I hooked up a Dlink N 150 home router through my VFDSL router, adjusted the DNS per Un-BlockUS settings and I was immediately in action. Creating a second wifi network at home dedicated to Unblock-us routing makes sense for me. Going through the Firestick setup is a breeze and directing it toward the DNS adjusted network provided access to all Amazon prime content as well as Netflix once I downloaded the app available within the Firestick interface.

Pretty stoked with all this. Setup took about 20 minutes in all. Watched a bunch of season 2 Vikings just made available on Prime. Great stuff.

richms

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#1198054 15-Dec-2014 20:24

You can change the DNS on the fire tv's, you choose advanced when you choose the wifi network and put them in there. No need for router or second network changes, and it seems the apps on it are happy to run without blocking googles dns on the router.

Richard rich.ms

AshB1304

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#1198074 15-Dec-2014 20:53

richms: You can change the DNS on the fire tv's, you choose advanced when you choose the wifi network and put them in there. No need for router or second network changes, and it seems the apps on it are happy to run without blocking googles dns on the router.

Yes...but we're not talking about FireTV. This thread is about the Amazon Firestick.

richms

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#1198076 15-Dec-2014 20:56

Same thing. I have 2 here.

Richard rich.ms

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AshB1304

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#1198079 15-Dec-2014 21:02

richms: Same thing. I have 2 here.

Two what? Fire TVs or Firesticks? They look a lot different to me and the HDMI Firestick I plugged directly in to my TV is a whole different thing to a HDMI cable running from a FireTV box to the tele.

Using the Firestick remote there was certainly no way to change the DNS. Love to hear how managed to do that.

richms

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#1198085 15-Dec-2014 21:14

By choosing advanced on the screen where I put in the wireless network details as already mentioned.

Richard rich.ms

AshB1304

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#1198101 15-Dec-2014 21:29

richms: By choosing advanced on the screen where I put in the wireless network details as already mentioned.

Well you've got me confused my friend. I just ran through every screen on the Firesticks settings menu and there's no 'advanced' option to change any wifi network settings. Going to the system screen gives you options to view your settings but I can't change anything here. I understand this is different on FireTV and that you can make these changes; as you can on AppleTV.

Seems to me we are talking about different isystems. But as you are an Uber Geek you will obviously understand the difference between FireTV and the newer Firestick. I don't have the access you are speaking of on my Firestick. What I do know is that it works just fine with how I set it up. Guess that's all that matters really. If that helps someone, all the better.

richms

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#1198106 15-Dec-2014 21:37

https://vine.co/v/OgBji6Zvg7d/embed

Richard rich.ms

AshB1304

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#1198116 15-Dec-2014 21:55

richms: https://vine.co/v/OgBji6Zvg7d/embed

Tried. The Firestick I have doesn't give me the same options your video shows are available on the existing network. So I changed the network and voila...there are the options you speak of. I hadn't tried changing to a different network since I added in the additional router so was not seeing these options. Thanks for the guidance.