I’ll be live streaming this week’s episode of the AFTVnewscast, at this link here, tomorrow at 1:30pm PT, as I do every Friday. Post your questions or topics in the comments below for me to answer and discuss during the episode. Anything goes for questions, whether it’s about the Fire TV, AFTVnews, or tech in general. Let’s hear them! Even if you can’t watch live, ask your question now and catch the episode on YouTube later.
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AFTVnews
Late May…
RBox, pre-rooted 1st gen rom, custom recovery, stick root and rooted update posts are comming lol
Yes please, I’d like an update on this ;), plus ETA of community forum on AFTVNews :)
I would be all over that as well!
With Google IO going, How much do you think the announcement of Android N is going to have on the future development of AFTV?
I enjoy listening to Prime Music on the Fire TV in the bedroom when I’m falling asleep because the bedroom TV has the best speakers in that room. I set the TV to time out after an hour or so and the streaming music stops when that happens. But while the music is playing, the TV screen bothers me. I use an app to turn the screen black, but the TV adapts and turns up the picture even brighter. Is there an Android TV app or setting that will turn off the video signal entirely and just let audio come through? I’ll sideload one if I need to.
Good afternoon AFTVnews :
A couple weeks back i made a post that wasn’t clear or was misunderstood.
I purchased 4 AFTV’s from BestBuy back in November during black friday when they were on sale for $75.00.
When i broke the seal on these AFTV’s i connected them via ethernet to my home network that has the update servers blocked in my router.
While going through the initial setup i noticed that the AFTV only scanned for a network for only about 5-10 seconds and then went right into the registration screen without pulling the ethernet cable at anytime.
The only thing i did different was to use a remote from another AFTV to get through the initial setup. I know it makes no sense, but brand new right out of the box and never disconnecting the ethernet cable it only scanned for networks for 5-10 seconds and then moved onto the registration screen.
Thanks,
David
On another note i would like to ask if you created your site with web design software or if you manually added all the HTML code.
If you use web design software i would like to know which product you use.
Hi
Just following up on the is0-mick voice search hack video tutorial within Kodi.
I would really like to test it out however need some guidance to prevent bricking.
Thanks
Questions:
1. Do you think the Echo will ever control AFTV? That way I don’t have to find the voice remote.
2. Do you think Amazon will ever create a version of AFTV that has HDMI inputs so that I can use the AFTV for all my video sources?
Thanks.
Greetings Elias, happy tidings, as always.
I was wondering if you might have some insight into a problem I’ve had with The Fire TV’s implementation of 4k.
I first noticed it when watching the 4k version of Orphan Black (candidly, a show watched mostly because it was 4k programming) The series played 4k, and looked great, until the last two episodes of the first season. No matter what I did, these episodes would only play in 1080p. Previous episodes still played in 4k, but not the last two. Under any circumstances, ever. I wrote it off as a fluke, even though I saw someone kind of dancing around asking about it on Amazon’s product forum.
But now its also happened on Netflix with the… fifth episode I think, of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (great show BTW, Elly Klemper is an unrealized national treasure, IMO) Again, nothing I do, reboot, reload Netflix app, clear cache, etc, has any effect, this episode plays 1080p. Meanwhile, earlier episodes, and entire other seasons (What About Saul) play 4k no problem, which eliminates temporary network congestion as a cause.
Like I said, I initially wrote off the Orphan Black incident as an Amazon related fluke, but the fact that Netflix is now also displaying this phenomenon leads me to suspect something in the FireTV itself.
Any thoughts?
Thanks, again, as always.
Try going through a VPN (perhaps configured on your router). Good chance it is your ISP throttling.
I’m having a problem with Netflix as well. Every few days I get error code UI-800-3. I call and they tell me to delete and reinstall the app! It’s getting old!
HI
ELIAS GREAT SHOW I LOVE IT. WATCH IT EVERY WEEK .RECENTLY I UNPLUGGED MY AFTV OVER THE WEEKEND WHEN I WENT AWAY .WHEN I PLUGGED IT BACK IN MY REMOTE AND GAME CONTROLER DIDNOT WORK .I THOUGHT PAIRING BOTH AGAIN WOULD FIX THE PROBLEM.NO GOOD.SO I TRIED A FACTORY RESTART AND PAIRING AGAIN.STILL NO GOOD.THE ONLY CONTROL THAT’S WORKING IS MY PHONE APP.I HAVE UNPLUGGED BEFORE WITH NO PROBLEM.ANY IDEAS??? THANKS AGAIN PETE V
I have unrooted stock two gen 1 boxes with updates enabled. Both were enrolled in the fireOS 5 developer preview. They were slow to get the 5.0.5(537174420) up. The were updated early march. Neither have updated to 5.0.5.1. This is still baffling to me that the dev preview boxes are behind a release.
Apparently 5.2.1 is beginning its roll out (reddit). Are any of your boxes that were on the FireOS preview still behind on the releases and on 5.0.5?
Hi Elias,
Happy 2nd birthday!
My FireTV gen 1 updated to OS 5.2.1.0 last night. I haven’t blocked updated on the gen1 because I’m hoping that Amazon will fix the frame dropping issue on the gen1 with an update (this update hasn’t). Any idea what this update does? I know you will give us a great break-down of the changes in due course, but just curious what the main reason behind this update was. I won’t update my Gen2 until I know what’s changed.
2nd question: Almost every day when I come to use my FireTVs (both gen 1 and gen 2), when I wake them up I get a “Network Connection Lost” error message. It says “Network connection is lost. Please check your Internet connection.” Obviously, there is nothing wrong with my connection and the only way to get it working again is restarting the FireTV. This only started happening after the update to OS5.0.x.
Keep up the good work!
Wonko.
Great show. I’m new but like it so much that I will definitely hang around. I have been in the Android world since the original droid phone. I have rooted many phones over the years. My latest is the Galaxy Note 5 and with all of the advancements that have been made with Android OS, I haven’t found the desire / need to root it. So this brings me to my first question. What exactly will I be gaining if I root my fire stick ?
Also, I have successfully installed a VPN on my unrooted firestick. I used Link VPN and side loaded it using an app called “Apps2fire” from my Galaxy Note 5. When using the VPN the App says its connected and working, but how can I be certain ?
Regarding VPN, you can download ES File Explorer and use the basic built-in browser to go to iplocation.net and check the IP address BEFORE running the VPN (make note of the IP address) and run the VPN and recheck iplocation.net and confirm it’s connected to a different IP than your non-VPN IP.
Hey David S,
Thanks for sharing your setup. As someone who is interested in installing OpenVPN for Android on my unrooted AFTV 2 box, I had one quick question:
What VPN provider are you with? Additionally, are you merely using an iteration of OpenVPN with the VPN’s certificates imported or were you required to install a proprietary VPN program alongside OpenVPN for it to work (E.g. Some users on reddit report having their PIA VPN work only if PIA’s Android app is installed alongside OpenVPN).
Thanks!
Just thought of this while watching the news cast LOL
2 part question:
1. This new move pro/con Kodi on behalf of Amazon… if it happens to be “Pro-Kodi”, do you think they may consider adding Alexa/Voice search to Kodi enabled FTV’s? I think it would be smart on their behalf.
2. Do happen to know if the Echo or Dot is able to read/play podcasts from an externar source?? I have a Podcast I follow weekly and have to use my phone + BT speaker (for decent sounf quality) to listen to it at night. If the Dot or Echo could do this, it would be worth the investment for me as if using the Android Alexa App I could set alarms or stuff, that would also be cool… could put phone in my drawer instead of risking it hitting the wall at 7a.m. LOL
Thanks in advance Elias ;)
If you can get the podcasts on mp3 format, you can just upload them to your Amazon Music Library with the Amazon Music app. Then have the echo/dot play them from your library.
If I updated the os for a unrooted ftv2 then will kodi still be there?
Also for my rooted ftv2 it is being blocked internally from using adb commands but my asus router doesnt have the ability to block them so should I use a different router like a d-link instead? It seems really easy to just copy and paste the commands into the router software than to use something like open ds.
Last question. I have a ftv2 unplugged (used before) and I am going to root it today but if I plug it in to power then I need the ip address of the device to root it right? But I will have to be QUICK to access the ip address and then disconnect from the internet and… when Im ready with adb using method 2 to block updates then after that, I can root it then using method 1 to block updates? What i am worried is that it might update really fast after I plug it in.
Sorry for the long question, above. That was a great answer, and yeah, it makes sense. As always, you da man.
Elias,
What is your personal opinion on the motivations for Amazon’s latest survey in regards to users’ use of Kodi?
I am conflicted as I see this survey serving one of two very different purposes:
1.) If a rather large sub-population of Fire TV users list Kodi as a primary factoring for using the Fire TV Amazon may be reluctant to block Kodi in future updates so as not to alienate their user base.
2.) If Amazon perceives Kodi to be cutting into it’s streaming media revenue stream (despite Kodi having many legitimate uses) it will use the results of this survey to justify blocking Kodi in future updates (if a significant portion of people say they use Kodi with non-legitimate addons).