I’ll be live streaming this week’s episode of the AFTVnewscast tomorrow at 11am PT / 2pm ET. 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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Opinion on if an antivirus app (and which ones in the Amazon app store)is needed for the FireTV; FireStick; MiBox3.
As long as you aren’t installing side loaded apps from non-reputable sites then an anti-virus app (don’t know if such an animal even exists for Fire TV’s) should not be necessary. If you are, then you are inviting trouble.
If you use Apps2fire to sideload to the FireTV Stick 2nd generation… An app already present on the device is called TvUnsupportedintent/
(com.Amazon.tv.intentsupport)
What is this app/what does it do?
Option to turn the “SLEEP” function to “OFF!!!
Yes to that. As sleep mode causes my display to go “No signal”. I turned it off on every one of my other devices.
How often is the Hulu app updated for the Fire TV? Hulu has added support for multiple profiles, and I’d like to have an estimate on how long it will be before they are supported in the Fire TV app.
Same here.
Hello Elias since you are planning to get the Nvidia shield tv 2, I am wondering if the Nvidia shield tv 1st gen Google Play Store update to 7.0 includes the tnt and Nbc sports app since the current play store with OS 6.0 does not.
2nd question:
Why are some apps in the Google Play store like tnt and Nbc sports app for Android devices not compatible to the Shield tv? It is not as simple as Apple apps where you can get the app for both ios and Apple tv? It seems the Google Play store on the Shield tv is very limited even the FTV2 has both apps! Are there apk’s for the tnt and Nbc sports app?
I agree I got the shield and many apps are not available at all on the Play store. I refuse to sideload as it causes stability issues.
Any way to get side loaded apps to work in free time on a fire HD tablet
I have the fire tablet but what you mean free time? I have the downloader app and you can get apk’s to side load.
What are your favorite & most recommended game controllers to use with the firetv 2 and latest ftv stick? I was especially wondering if a Sony Dual Shock 4 controller would work good without any lag, and is it better to use Bluetooth or wired for DS4 controller?
On a rooted Firetv2 I paired a newer 2016 Dual Shock 4 (cuh-zct2u), and there was input lag and key mapping was also wrong. The “square” button acted like the A button on xbox controller, while “cross” acts like B button (back button), and triangle and circle don’t seem to work.
I also paired the same Dual Shock 4 to an old rooted os3 FireTV1, and there was no lag, but key mapping was also wrong. I was unable to fix key mapping with the button mapping KL file fix posted in your old 2014 guide. Do you think the newer 2016 DS4 controller is incompatible with the old KL file fix? (Otherwise the DS4 controller was able to do something on the old FTV1 but not so well on the FTV2.)
Thanks for any ideas on this.
I have an Xbox 360 controller connected to my FTV 2 box and it has worked perfectly with the few games I have played on it.
Hello, Elias!
This week you posted an article how to create an own Alexa Skill adding Google Voice Search.
First I want to say many thanks! It worked great, even in Germany.
Just one thing you might add in your article or mention in your AFTVnewscast:
When in Germany it is still necessary to select region/country “EU (Ireland/London)” and not “EU (Frankfurt)”, because “Alexa Skills Kit” is otherwise not available when creating the Lambda function.
But I have one or two questions which bother me:
Following your guide it is necessary to create one AWS account and one Amazon Developer account.
The first one seems to be free when support plan is set to “Basic”.
But examining the AWS information, it seems as if only the first 12 months are really free or Trial. After 12 months AWS will charge for the services actually used.
Now my questions:
Will using Google Search with Alexa start to cost something after 12 months?
Which Amazon Web services are really used to which extent and will this still be covered by the free contingent?
Is it possible to close the AWS account and still use the Google skill after it has now been created and enabled in my Alexa App?
Thank you very much in advance?
Hi Elias,
I have automatic updates and in-app purchases both set to off on my two ftv’s. Both seem to randomly turn on from time to time for no apparent reason. Any idea what might trigger this? Thanks!
How are people mounting external USB HDDs formatted as HFS+ in Fire OS 5?
In theory, should general mounting of the usual drive formats work the same on either generation stick or box on Fire OS 5?
Am I the only one who cares about future roots/exploits for devices that aren’t rooted? Any news about 5.2.4.0 developments? It’s lonely on the other side…
Question re the Xiaomi Mi Box. On the last podcast, I believe you referred to the box as being “crummy,” or something similar, but didn’t say why? Care to elaborate?
I’ve been using a Mi Box along with a Fire TV 2nd gen box the past few months, and the Mi Box has been working just fine for streaming 1080P content via various apps. (I don’t have a 4K TV, so I can’t speak to that content).
In my view, it’s better than the Fire TV 2nd gen in that it will support HDR video, whereas the Fire TV 2nd gen will NOT, and it also has a less cluttered UI. The downsides for me have been fewer apps than the Fire TV and of course no Amazon Video as yet.
I haven’t heard much news on the new fire tv UI update lately…I know a couple of weeks ago it began arriving on some gen 1 boxes but then stopped hearing news.
All my boxes are rooted, TWRP, updates blocked so I rely on the forums and AFTV News for updates.
That being said Im very confident if it were available to flash I’d have read about it here.
Hi elias,
My voice remote with 2nd gen fire stick keeps giving an on screen error as soon as I push the microphone button.
I have to un marry it remove my game controller reboot stick re marry remote and it works for a couple days.
any ideas?
DJ
oh yea…..forums???
Elias,
You had mentioned in a previous episode that you don’t care for Xiaomi Mi Box. To be fair should should Xiaomi not be given time to address it’s initial out of the box issues. I owned a first gen Fire TV within a few days of it hitting the market. It took Amazon the better part of a year for Gen 1 to come into it’s own.
Hi big E what exactly are you planing to do with your new Shield tv?
Btw my 1st gen restarted while using kodi a few times but would the recent update cure the random restart? I have a ext hdd with kodi in it. Thanks
Will amazon ever make a widget for the fire TV remote app? Would be great to be able to use the remote app without unlocking my phone.
Is there a setting somewhere that will stop ads for other shows playing before a show starts? I can hit the back button and the play button again to stop them, but this is very annoying.
Does anyone know when Fox News GO will be available on AFTV? I understand that Fox News app is available but the live streaming part of it (Fox News GO) is not yet on there.