Amazon Fire TV

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#1310684 24-May-2015 10:03

Kiwifruta:
Wills1:
corksta:
Wills1: Got my Fire TV. Have to say I'm dissapointed with my experience. The picture never gets into HD. I do have a slow connection {5Mbps} which will be the culprit, although my Apple tv will get into HD on Netflix or Hulu Plus in less than one minute. Wonder why the Apple TV has no problems?

Have unplugged the Fire TV and put it away until my area gets UFB.

Do you use a DNS unblocker and which one?

I have UFB (200/20) and a Getflix subscription and until recently watching Amazon content wouldn't go to HD either (other stuff would); switched back to Unotelly and it works perfectly.

Yes I use UnblockUS

I believe UnblockUS doesn't not officially support the FireTV.
DNS4ME and UnoTelly do and both give discounts with a geekzone discount code at sign up.

I have a FireTV, and can vouch that both dns4me and UnoTelly give HD Netflix on the FireTV. I'm on a ADSL plan.

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Wills1

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#1310780 24-May-2015 13:20

corksta:
Wills1:
corksta:
Wills1:
corksta:
Wills1: Got my Fire TV. Have to say I'm dissapointed with my experience. The picture never gets into HD. I do have a slow connection {5Mbps} which will be the culprit, although my Apple tv will get into HD on Netflix or Hulu Plus in less than one minute. Wonder why the Apple TV has no problems?

Have unplugged the Fire TV and put it away until my area gets UFB.

Do you use a DNS unblocker and which one?

I have UFB (200/20) and a Getflix subscription and until recently watching Amazon content wouldn't go to HD either (other stuff would); switched back to Unotelly and it works perfectly.

Yes I use UnblockUS

Can you not get anything in HD on the Amazon box?

I only tried Netflix, movies that were listed as HD but the quality was bad, although it improved a bit with time it never got into HD.

Try a different DNS unblocker. Are the settings on your router or on the devices?

DNS settings are on the devices. The DNS service must be working otherwise I wouldn't be able to watch US Netflix. For now I'm happy with the Apple TV. My street is being dug up at the moment for UFB so I will try the Fire TV again when UFB is available in my street. Thanks for the help though :)

rb99

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#1344827 15-Jul-2015 15:48

I see FireTV stick is 19 pounds and FireTV 59 pounds in the UK today only for Prime Day. Also FireTV stick is going to be $24 when Prime Day starts in US, and hopefully FireTV will be reduced too.

So are there any differences between US and UK models, re PAL vs NTSC and 240V vs 110V or anything else ? Has anyone tried Youshopping from the UK or is it easier just to use US Amazon ?

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” -John Kenneth Galbraith

rb99

richms

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#1345673 16-Jul-2015 18:31

The UK one comes preset to 60Hz on the HDMI output and still doesnt change down to 50 when the source material needs it. Both US and UK versions allow you to change it, unlike the chromecast which is fixed at 60Hz everywhere in the world.

PAL and NTSC are not at play here, as they are dirty old analog video formats which have thankfully become extinct. But the holdover of their framerates still exists in the digital formats.

Richard rich.ms

freitasm

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#1345689 16-Jul-2015 18:44

I've just found there's an official Amazon Fire TV remote control app for Android. It's brilliant.

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aumouth

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#1345752 16-Jul-2015 20:20

freitasm: I've just found there's an official Amazon Fire TV remote control app for Android. It's brilliant.

Both Android and iOS have one

richms

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#1345771 16-Jul-2015 20:43

Yeah, its good for when the black firetv remote is lost among everything else dark.

Im still waiting on an answer from them if they will sell the magnetic holder that the echo comes with seperatly, because that would minimize remotes falling between cushions etc.

Richard rich.ms

rb99

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#1345786 16-Jul-2015 20:57

richms: The UK one comes preset to 60Hz on the HDMI output and still doesnt change down to 50 when the source material needs it. Both US and UK versions allow you to change it, unlike the chromecast which is fixed at 60Hz everywhere in the world.

PAL and NTSC are not at play here, as they are dirty old analog video formats which have thankfully become extinct. But the holdover of their framerates still exists in the digital formats.

Thanks for the reply, but if I can please display my ignorance of such matters, how would this 60 vs 50 HZ thing affect things when I'm streaming Netflix and/or iPlayer and hopefully using Emby to stream NZ/UK DVD and Blu-ray files to a standard 42" Sony TV ?

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” -John Kenneth Galbraith

rb99

richms

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#1345791 16-Jul-2015 21:07

If you have a 50Hz source, like BBC programs, and output it at 60Hz, then 10 of those frames are duplicates. This means that you get some images on screen for twice as long as others, making panning shots and things moving very jumpy.

Things like samsung smart DVD players will change the HDMI output to match the source, so you will see the screen blank out for half a second when playback starts if its at a different rate, that means each frame is shown only once (or twice for 25FPS stuff etc) and the TV doesnt have a problem with duplicate frames screwing up its motion interpolation making things skip and jump all around the place.

You can convert things on a proper converter which is what the broadcasters do when they get things from the US at 60Hz, to make them fit to the 50Hz they have chosen to broadcast everything at, those do a better job than just duplicating or discarding frames which is what you have when the HDMI output doesnt match the source material.

Go and watch top gear and the nice pans over cars, some of the flying camerawork etc set to both 50 and 60 hz output on the player and you will see a signifigant difference in how it looks.

Richard rich.ms

rb99

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#1345807 16-Jul-2015 21:37

That's interesting, will try swapping between 50 and 60 Hz when my UK FireTV arrives, which will take a while. Sounds though, if I understand you correctly, that most of the time it should be left on 50Hz, if I'm going to be mostly using it for UK/NZ sourced material anyway.

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” -John Kenneth Galbraith

rb99

jonathan18

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#1348316 21-Jul-2015 12:20

Today I tried sideloading the TVNZ On Demand app onto the Fire TV, and it installed fine. However, it then wouldn't output video as it's not authorised to do so over HDMI. Has anyone found a way around this HDMI output blocking? Thanks in advance.

rb99

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#1354388 29-Jul-2015 13:28

Apologies if this has been asked before, but -

Is it possible to have US Amazon Prime, iPlayer, UK Netflix running on the Fire TV. I have Unotelly set to some non-Dynamo servers on the Fire TV and at the moment and get US Amazon Prime, iPlayer and US Netflix - maybe I should just use a normal Dynamo server ?

Also, I can only download Fire TV apps from the US site (not UK), even though I have my Primary address set to a UK address and in the Amazon' Manage your Content and Devices' section, under the 'Settings' tab, the Country is set to UK. Is there a way to change this and preferably flip between the two countries ?

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” -John Kenneth Galbraith

rb99

Kiwifruta

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#1354411 29-Jul-2015 13:45

rb99: Apologies if this has been asked before, but -

Is it possible to have US Amazon Prime, iPlayer, UK Netflix running on the Fire TV. I have Unotelly set to some non-Dynamo servers on the Fire TV and at the moment and get US Amazon Prime, iPlayer and US Netflix - maybe I should just use a normal Dynamo server ?

Also, I can only download Fire TV apps from the US site (not UK), even though I have my Primary address set to a UK address and in the Amazon' Manage your Content and Devices' section, under the 'Settings' tab, the Country is set to UK. Is there a way to change this and preferably flip between the two countries ?

I use UnoTelly, and have had both US Amazon Prime and UK Netflix at the same time. I use the dynamo servers from Auckland and Sydney and on the unotelly website set Amazon Prime and Netflix to US and UK respectively. All my Amazon contact details are set to US addresses, including an Entropay card with a US address.

Haven't tried downloading UK apps so cannot comment there.

rb99

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#1354441 29-Jul-2015 14:33

Guess the first thing is to try using the local Dynamo servers then and see what develops...

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” -John Kenneth Galbraith

rb99

kiwifidget

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#1358474 4-Aug-2015 11:10

Hi, I am new to this thread (at least I cant recall being here before) and I apologise for not reading the entire 56 page thread.
I think I would like to buy a FireTV box, to run Netflix and Kodi(XBMC).
I already use an Apple TV2 but at 720p output it is falling behind my video requirements, and it wont run the new version of Kodi(15).
Though I like the simple interface and remote.
I have tried a Pivos and was disappointed, also an Intel Tiny Stick left me cold.

I clicked the link up the top for buying a FireTV but it says it does not ship to NZ.
How are you able to buy one? And are they really any good?

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