Matching the Black Friday price from a couple weeks ago, the FLIRC USB attachment that adds IR remote support and functionality to the Fire TV is back on sale for $14.95. FLIRC allows you to use any IR remote control you own to control your Fire TV. You plug it into a PC or Mac and select Fire TV on its simple configuration interface (shown above). You then set a button on your TV remote to perform each Fire TV remote action. Then just plug FLIRC into the Fire TV’s USB port, and your IR remote will be able to control your Fire TV. You’ll want to pick up a USB extension cable if you don’t already have one since the Fire TV’s USB port is in the back and FLIRC will need to be pointed towards the front.
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To bad they only have a simple configuration but no way of mapping some mouse options…
Picked up some K400’s for $10 each.. And even those seem to need remapping to work correctly on the FireTV as a mouse.
Flirc works well with Android apps. IT DOES NOT WORK WITH XBMC!!! Time for fellow XBMC users to look elsewhere. And do not expect any help from the Flirc developer.
It is working fine for me with XBMC. A little better than the Fire remote since I was able to add a few more extra functions than the Fire remote alone was able to support.
Sounds like with need a AFTV FLIRC XBMC guide!
I can concur- Flirc works flawlessly with XBMC on the FireTV – you have to configure it as a keyboard – but then you can map extra buttons (like info and pvr)
I can see XBMC woking if you were to use it exclusively and not utilize the Android apps (Netflix, Amazon, PBS..) side of things along with it. The biggest problem is the Return key can not be mapped to work with both Escape (Android apps) and Backspace (XBMC) like the way the Fire TV remote works. Below is what I experienced trying to set up Flirc on the Fire TV.
Escape works fine for Android apps when going back to the previous menu and when stopping a video. Using Escape to go back to a previous menu does not work properly with XBMC/Kodi. Selecting Escape here takes you directly to the home screen thus bypassing the ability to go back to the previous menu. The Escape key is a total mess when exiting a video in XBMC/Kodi as it takes you to the home screen and does not stop the video. It continues to play in the background.
Backspace is what is needed in XBMC/Kodi to properly go back to a previous menu and to properly stop a video to return to the previous menu. I was not able to reconcile the escape and backspace keys to act as the Return key like it does on the Fire TV remote through any keymaps available. I did try adding seperate Escape and Backpace keys and that did not work either. Back to Amazon the Flirc goes.
Interesting. I couldn’t use the Fire TV/Kodi *without* a Flirc.