Amazon has announced the next-generation Fire TV. It is now available for pre-order in the US, the UK, and Germany. It will retail for $99.99 and will begin arriving on customer’s doorsteps on October 5th.
While the new Fire TV looks the same on the outside, it’s entirely different on the inside. As expected, the new device is capable of 4K UHD video and comes with Alexa voice assistant built-in. It features a quad-core 2.0 Ghz MediaTek 8173C CPU, a dedicated PowerVR GX6250 GPU, and 2GB of RAM under the hood. It connects to the internet through either an ethernet port or 802.11ac wireless. The new Fire TV has 8GB of internal storage which can be expanded via the new microSD card slot or via a USB drive connected to its USB port. It has an HDMI port and still includes an optical audio port.
The new Fire TV comes with a new revised voice remote that no longer uses bluetooth, but instead connects via wifi direct which reduces latency and greatly improves battery life. There is also a new much improved Fire TV Game Controller available separately for $49.99 which also uses wifi direct for improved latency and battery life. The new game controller now features a microphone for voice commands and a headphone jack for private listening. If you’re planning to buy the game controller, you’re much better off buying the new Fire TV Gaming Bundle for $139.99. Not only do you save $10 compared to buying the new Fire TV and new Fire TV Game Controller separately, but you also get a 32GB MicroSD card and two free games. Do realize though that the gaming bundle does not come with the standard voice remote.
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I am not seeing the discount :-(
Damn… no toslink. Time to upgrade the TV or the receiver.
Same here. :-(
There is also mention of a ‘new Fire TV Stick’ (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZVJAF9G/ref=ods_fs_ftvsv) which now comes with the Voice Remote but the actual specs look the same.
I’m guessing that the rest is based on the new OS upgrade
No UK release?
Found it :-)
Correct me if I’m wrong but unfortunately I don’t see an optical audio out…
There is no optical audio out :-(
The first question that occurs to me is will I be able to store video content such as mkv files on the sdcard. If so will Kodi be able to play that content.
Considering you can play different file types in Kodi from a USB drive now, I would think that wouldn’t be any different using an SD card.
I’m wondering if they’ve upgraded the USB capabilities so you can use an NTFS drive instead of just FAT32. That would be a major improvement.
See: https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/devices/fire-tv/docs/device-and-platform-specifications.
USB only supports accessories now.
So with no digital optical out will this only support DD+?
It claims that it still supports regular ol AC3 (DD) as well as eAC3 (DD+)
Doesnt the HDMI port only send eithe DD+ or Stereo though?
Is there also the Gamer Edition in Germany? Can’t find it.
Pre-ordered. Looking forward to giving this a crack
no discount for Prime subscribers :( :( :(
Thew gamers bundle does not include a voice remote. You use the game controller for voice. The remote would have to be purchased separately.
That’s pretty bad for just the $10 savings. Better to buy the controller separately then.
Basically it a wash. With the gamers bundle you also get a $20 SD card which is a total savings of $30. A controller cost $30. However when you checkout with a gamers bundle the separate controller is not available.
the game option doesn’t come with a TV remote though.
There is a hands-on video over on The Verge
http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/17/9340431/new-amazon-fire-tv-update-price-release-date#ooid=NrZ2ZrdzpoZtI_EL9svYv1VCSojU0Kx9
Awesome! Preordered the gamers bundle using the link on this site! Thanks!
Well, for me the big news is that Shovel Knight is coming to Fire TV… Didn’t see that coming :)
new Fire TV added to specs page:
Device and Platform Specifications
https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/devices/fire-tv/docs/device-and-platform-specifications
no separate listing on the Media Specifications page:
https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/devices/fire-tv/docs/media-specifications
so same media format support as older models.
Since they have a new processor and GPU do we know for sure that kodi will be compatible or will we just have to get it and try it out ourselves?
Just pre-ordered gaming edition through the site link. Looking forward to it coming in! I’ve enjoyed all the content here so I wanted to show my support! Thanks for all the hard work you put into this site!
They removed the optical out…. WTF….
Replaced with the MicroSD slot.
Keeping the box the same size probably kept the costs down.
i cant find the uk gaming bundle version, anyone found it in the uk ?
Pretty sure the SOC in the new Fire TV is the 64bit Mediatek MT8173 which has two ARM Cortex A72 cores and two ARM Cortex A53 cores and PowerVR GX6250 GPU
Only 100mbit ethernet and USB 2.0… :(
i’d like to think (in this day and age) that the ethernet description is just missing a \1000 – not sure about the USB2 though.
The images certainly look like USB2 rather than USB3
Being as though it still only has 8 gigs of storage. The question now becomes, can we transfer apps and all of its data to an sd card or usb stick? That would help out a lot with all the new games being added weekly, not to mention the large data games.
Hmm, Only supports 4K output at 30fps
Nowhere on the specs page does it mention what HDMI version its using, which since the output is 4k 30fps, leads me to believe its HDMI 1.4
It could very well be a limitation of the SoC.
Will the old remotes work on the new box? I bought one of the voice remotes about a month back on sale, that I still have not opened. Not sure if I should try to dump it on ebay, or if it will work on the new boxes.
Looks like you don’t get a Remote with the Gaming Edition Fire TV
Pretty underwhelming. Removing the optical connection is an awful choice seeing as many people don’t have AV receivers that support DD+ and instead add a microSD slot which in itself is a substandard addition. Rather than adding more internal memory which would be a real boost they have done it the cheap way which has performance issues with it and can’t only offload part of the any apps onto it so you are still likely to find yourself running out of space.
4K might be nice for a handful but I’m fairly sure most people don’t have a 4K TV yet and you have to wonder of Amazon will still be using the same 4K standards they are now a year down the line so we might find that while it supports 4K in theory there is no content that can be played in 4K on it. And the CPU and even the GPU boosts may be nice in making it snappier but it’s already really fast compared to most of the other devices so I’m not sure that’s a killer improvement.
It’s not hard to add a new video codec to the OS. They aren’t just doing to leave a large number of owners high and dry due to incompatibility. I’m sure they didn’t pick their 4k codec arbitrarily, regardless. Netflix is already doing 4k, as well, so.
Yes the software side can be upgraded with new codecs but not everything is codec based, some of it needs hardware support top. For example the reports I’ve seen suggest it’s only using HDMI 1.4. It’s possible they are jumping to conclusions based on 30fps being listed as the max output for 4K but that would be a limiting factor.
And you say they aren’t going to leave customers high and dry but UltraHD is in a format war at the moment, it’s not as obvious as the format wars of things like VHS/Betamax or Bluray/HDDVD but there are a lot of different parties pushing different things and what will end up being the UHD standard everyone eventually ends up using is anyone guess and they may have little choice but to go with the masses
My other question will be WHAT apps support 4k. If it is only Amazon Prime, I already have that supported via SmartApps on my 4k TV as well as for Netflix.
If that is it, then it is just a souped up FireTV to me.
“still includes an optical audio port.”
Need to change description
If I had a 4K TV I’d be all over this, but I don’t, so I won’t.
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Are existing FireTVs getting Alexis with FireOS 5?
If so, 4K is the only reason to have this. And I don’t have a compatible TV yet, so I am perfectly happy where I am at.
FTV OS5 yes, Alexa not sure. By “end of the year” is what I read.
I thought we will all get Alexa with 5.0 no?
I’m certain we’ll get Alexa with 5.0 on first gen box in October when new box gets released. They’re advertising the “new” Stick with Alexa, and we all know it isn’t new at all, same hardware but with OS update to add Alexa.
Very disappointed. After a whole yr they’ve just bumped the specs up and added Alexa. I’m pretty sure it’ll be un-rootable, the UI will remain the same (I hate it and currently using Square home launcher). Amazon could’ve done better.
If it’s unrootable I’ll keep my current gen
So the US customers get the best deal re the gaming bundle, leaving the rest of us in the UK to fork out extra money for the game controller. I suppose we’ll just have to be happy with the fact that at least Amazon have released it over here at the same time, not 6 months later as with the first Fire TV. Not happy though!!!!
No optical output?!?!?!
How will I connect it to my DAC?!
Disappointment.
It does say that there’s an optical out so what are people complaining?
“It has an HDMI port and still includes an optical audio port”
That’s the description on this website, not Amazon.
Look at it on Amazon and you’ll see it’s missing.
AFTV news needs to update the article.
Ah my bad. I didn’t check
Pre-ordered with your link here. Thanks for all that you do. I check this site daily.
Does usb storage still work? I see mentions of the microsd being used to expand storage but no mention of usb support for that. Having both options may be cool but I wouldn’t like switching from usb to microsd. They also should have added usb 3.0 instead of 2.0.
Very disappointed that they didn’t add bigger storage 8gb is too small
Yep. That’s very disappointing. 16 gigs minimum and I’m satisfied. I’d like to store kodi thumbs on the sdcard. It would’ve been an inexpensive upgrade for amazon.
I like the faster processor. One more gig of ram would’ve been nice as well.
If gen 1 gets Alexa then I really have no reason to upgrade right now. I feel like amazon makes some great moves that are unexpected then will stay the same in areas you’d think they’d change. $99 is fair I think but this isn’t the typical (practically giving it away release for amazon.)
Ask me again when gen 1 gets OS 5 and I’ll know whether to buy or not. Who knows…if these things don’t hit the sales mark maybe we’ll get that prime discount in a month or so…
If Amazon really wants to make a must-have device, they should add an OTA receiver with DVR software. Just add your own antenna and external storage for the all-in-one cord-cutting solution.
Agree. While this is a nice bump to beat out the Apple TV at a better price point, it is not differentiating enough. We know that Apple will have a TV service coming soon. There is so much market potential out there to put in an OTA antenna and DVR with guide. Couple that with SlingTV (which I didn’t hear is coming to ATV), Amazon Prime video and Alexa to navigate the whole thing, and you have an awesome package. My parents want to cut the cord but could never figure out HDHomerun + Kodi/WMC. If you gave the masses an easy solution, it would sell. Cordcutting is all the buzz right now. When I see articles about it in my local print newspaper, you know the timing is right to grab the masses.
Expect a slightly larger unit that includes an OTA receiver, 16GB internal storage and USB Type-C in the Gen 3 version…
With different OTA broadcasting standards across the world it makes it less appealing for Amazon to add this service IMHO as it would need a different device per region. At the moment it’s just needs a regionalised OS where as this may needs different versions of hardware
“HDMI audio pass through up to 7.1…..”
its for truehd and dtsma??? anyone??
When will they offer voice search on Netflix app? This what I really need and Im sure alot of other people out there really want this feature too. I use Netflix more than I use any other streaming app on my FireTv. This was promised from time the FireTv was released and they still haven’t gotten it working. Come on man universal searching needs to be fully intergrated and mandated for all channel apps like this.
I am considering buying a nvidia shield. This update is blah
No optical out is a deal breaker for me. My receiver is older and has no hdmi ports. Not going to spend money on a new receiver just to support the fire tv. A shame, I was all set to pre-order.
Side load Kodi to the new Apple TV please, fire TV is great, but I’m really looking forward to the new Apple TV and its capabilities. I really fell out of touch with the Apple TV as the third generation never got a jailbreak. The second generation became a slug compared to more efficient faster ways to watch Xbmc/kodi- pc- ras/pi, fire TV, etc. when I first booted the fire TV, I fell in love. Still use daily. It is still one of the best ways to watch Kodi on a TV. This new fire TV- seems a disappointment, not much to offer me here. Hopefully older fire TV go refurbished for $70 on Amazon. Hopefully Apple TV 4 gets a way to side load Kodi. Thanks for spreading the news AFTV- you do a great job.
With the new app store, theoretically you wouldn’t need to sideload it, you could just load an app. Now whether Apple will allow Kodi is another story.
Plex has already announced that they are working on an app for the AppleTV.
As per comments above, people seem to be certain that we’ll be able to sideload Kodi (or any apps for that matter). Is that for sure? I’ve heard rumors that sideloading may not be possible?
After much soul searching, I have decided to cancel my pre-orders. Loss of Optical Out and loss of USB storage was probably 70-80% of the reason for me. But without knowing for sure if we can load KODI, I just can’t take the plunge. The “savings” on the bundle just isn’t worth it, because I still want my remote. *Sigh*…was hoping for an update without losing valuable functionality.
I’m just shocked they didn’t bump the memory to at least 16 GB. As Wakey points out, apps run best from the internal drive and don’t perform nearly as well from an SD card.
There is just not enough here to incentivize an existing owner to buy an upgraded version.
Very disappointed.