I’ll be live streaming another episode of the AFTVnewscast tomorrow at 1:30pm PT. Post your questions or topics in the comments below for me to answer and discuss during the episode. It’s been a crazy week of Fire TV news so let’s hear it. Anything goes, whether it’s about the new Fire TV or not. Even if you can’t watch live, ask your question now and catch the episode on YouTube later.
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Will there be exclusives for the new fire tv? I just hope to see that Power put to use
What is the future of the higher level tablets at Amazon?
Like the hdx 7 inch, HDX 8.9?
They disappeared from some of the Amazon pages showing their family of tablets Thursday morning but then started to reappear after a few hours. The $50 discount which was scheduled to run into October for the 8.9 also disappeared for a few hours with the price showing as 479.00, only to be reinstated late in the day.
Marketer gone wild?
Seems the new positioning is that tablets are a commodity, they don’t care to compete on power and performance any longer, and these are the cheap pieces of plastic to stream your Amazon stuff on or buy your toddler since it can be replaced for next to nothing if it breaks. Was hoping to replace my Fire tablet that’s a few years old now with the best of the new generation once released, yet it has better specs than these. Disappointing.
Being that the new FTV has equal RAM as the original and is running a MediaTek SoC instead of a newer Qualcomm… is it really worth the upgrade?? MediaTek doesn’t perform as good as Qualcomm SoC’s (I know from mobile phones) and the FTV1 is the best Android box I’ve had (had various Minix and other brands running MediaTek, AllWinner, etc), specially for Kodi and at the end of the day, I recon 90% of FTV owners use Kodi for ALL their viewing needs… So I ask: Is the upgrade really worth while?? If so, why??
+1
+1
I am a little surprise the new remote doesn’t have personal listening like Roku. It looks like personal listening is available on the game controller. Do you this feature being added? Is it possible with the app based remote.
What about HDMI 2.0a and HDR support?
Second the question on HDX tablets. Would love a 10″ HDX.
Is there a way for FireTv to not turn off the screen?
I tried turning on the screen saver but the screen still eventually goes black.
It causes my family to forget to turn off the TV since there isn’t a picture on the screen.
Thanks
This was going to be my question as well. Kinda glad I’m not the only one.
It’s weird as it only seems to happen on one of my sticks, both same firmware and setups.
It goes black even when loading an app, but comes right back w/button press. I have screensaver set at 5 min. Goes black in ~10sec.
Voice control with Echo?
I have the same question. Because now I have to move my Echo away from my Fire TV if I want to use Alexa on the Fire TV. I really don’t want to change the wake word to “Amazon”. Any thoughts on Amazon having a solution?
How did you find out that the remotes for the Fire TV stick and Fire TV are different?
Do you think Amazon will start selling the new remotes separately soon? I feel like they don’t have enough so they didn’t include them in the gaming edition.
Will remotes be interchangeable among differing versions types (old vs. new / stick vs. box)
Any reason to believe audio pass through on the new box will pass through HD audio (dtsma/ truehd) or PCM?
Does the change in main chip type have implications for apps like SPMC? Or is it just a matter of packing for android rather than for a given chip type?
Thanks!
Does the new fire TV supports 4K60p?
I am not sure honestly if it does.
Also, the game bundle comes with a hand remote as well?
Thanks
It does not, no 30fps for 4K.
10/100 Ethernet Port listed for the new Fire TV why not a Gigabit Ethernet Port?
Do you plan to add any other shopping options, such as B&H, besides Amazon?
Will the Harmony Smart Hub have the ability to control the new Fire TV?
Great question!!!
the new box will likely still support Bluetooth remote is my guess. Also, harmony should be able to do network control, but it doesn’t do that with FTV now.
Since the standard remote doesn’t appear to be included with the “game bundle” the game bundle may not be that great of a deal. I am now thinking about canceling my “game bundle” order and placing an order for the new Fire TV with remote and a separate order for the game controller. While this will cost me $10 more than the bundle, at least I get the standard remote. My only loss will be 1 game and a micro SD.
no discount for Prime subscribers on FireTV2 here in Germany. What do you think why?
Sorry for the name. That’s what they call me. For a person that doesn’t own a 4K TV and uses Kodi for home library streaming, is the 1st generation FTV the way to go?
Where can a 1st gen be purchased? I can’t find an affordable one anywhere.
When will Amazon TV get a good Twitch app (which is owned by AMZN) or a Periscope viewing app? It seems that they always fall short in terms of app availability and app design.
One more question: with an AFTV, would you prefer wifi around 150-300 Mbps or Ethernet at 100 Mbps?
Ethernet, always :)
i love the roku because it has both micro sd slot as well as usb. the sd slot to expand storage and the usb for viewing personal content or hooking up an external hard drive. i see new fire tv has both slots but am not clear if i can watch personal content using the usb slot. thank you
In general, I think tge remote is my biggest disappointment.
-larger
-not rechargeable
-no personal listening
-no IR universal/programable remote capability
Hopefully Amazon or aftermarket offers an alternative that addresses these shortcomings. Apple seems to have addressed these same issues.
i think you can use bluetooth headphones for fire tv.
Thanks. Always are solutions, but simple head phone jack makes sense as a feature
Your thoughts on FTV2 vs. nVidia Shield TV. Latter is double the price, but seems the better box. nVidia’s upcoming 2.0 update is expected to add 23.976 support, HD audio and additional video codecs.
I’ve tried the shield. I am not a gamer, but was disappointed. The cost of the simple remote in addition to game remote is crazy. The simple remote is missing a menue button. I also saw no improvent in playback of mpeg2 1080i from my HD Homerun prime.
Why they didn’t put inPrivate listening on the regular remote is beyond me.
Any chance that can be added on the IOS remote app ?
Agreed!
Will there be a $50 discount for prime members kind of like there was a discount on the fire TV stick? Your initial post about amazon officially announcing it claimed there was a $50 discount but then you quickly removed it…
Here’s another though on the remote:
Offer the $50 6″ fire tablet instead of the standard remote for $125?
I am really looking forward to your forum (I will be fan #1). To my questions.
1. I having used Fire OS5 beta do you really think it is ready for Fire TV 2 its very buggy on Fire TV 1?
2. Do you think Amazon will offer Fire TV 2 Owners a large discount on the SD Cards we have to purchase after relocking the USB port for storage? In my case 128 GB for my games. It is going to cost me half the price of the console?
Sorry one more question. Do you feel there is currently any SOC on the market now that can one up NVidia Shields X1 for raw power?
Hi Elias,
You reporting on the AFTV2 has been amazing and spot on. Yesterday must have been quite a crazy day. Thanks for all the great and hard work. I will be watching live tonight again :)
Alexa will be available in the AFTV1 as well, correct? Do you know as from when?
This means I can talk to my AFTV1 via the remote and ask all kind of things. And if I get the right smart plugs/lamps/etc. I can tell him to switch things on/off. Is that right?
Doesn’t make this the Amazon Echo a bit less attractive? Looks like you can do the same now with the Fire TV as the Echo. Or am I missing something? How will it talk back to me? Via my connected TV/AV?
All the best,
Lodewijk
Can you speculate on whether or not the Fire TV Stick will maintain the “Private Listening” feature that is currently working in the Fire OS 5 developer preview? I tested it last night and it’s awesome! Would hate for it to vanish in the final public release.
1. Will the first generation Fire TV box and/or Stick get Alexa via a software update or is Alexa exclusive to the new Fire TVs?
2. Does the exclusion of expandable storage via USB necessarily mean that users with the new Fire TV will experience slower read/write speeds? I’m guessing Micro SD cards are generally slower than USB as well as being very expensive for 128GB of storage when compared to their USB counterpart?
Thanks. And thank you for your amazing, resourceful and helpful website.
1) Will new Fire TV support Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio?
2) Will new Fire TV support 3D (such as playing 3D iso file from Kodi)?
3) Does FireOS 5 has Google Cast native support similar to Nexus Player?
+1
DTS support
Also, does FTV2 comes with a player and support for native content, I mean, Can I plug a USB HDD with some MKV files (h264 + DTS).
+1 for audio true hd and dts MA
Yeah, what Batman bin Emdad asked — Will the first gen Fire TV box get Alexa via a software update?
Thanks for the fine reporting yesterday! Exciting stuff.
Any chance amazon makes Kodi an official app like google did?
Any chance anazon produces its own TVs with FireTV built in or dumb TVs designed for use with FireTV?
I know it’s probably too early, and Stagefright has been patched even on FireOS 4, but any thoughts on rootability on the new Fire TV running FireOS 5?
I’ve got a meeting going until 2:00 PST. I’ll hop onto the feed as soon as i’m done. If you can hold off to discuss this till after 2 :)
Thanks, elias, for keeping us so informed on everything AFTV and AndroidTV related!
I’ve just noticed that Amazon’s Developer page states that the 2nd Gen Fire TV’s USB 2.0 Type A port supports both Accessories AND media storage meaning that the new Fire TV CAN support storage expansion via USB and your previous article may need updating. Hopefully this is true :D Your comments will be appreciated.
Thanks!
Source:
https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/devices/fire-tv/docs/device-and-platform-specifications
Your article:
http://www.aftvnews.com/usb-port-on-new-fire-tv-for-accessories-only-external-storage-only-through-microsd/
Note that Amazon US currently ship fire TVs 2 device to Australia so you wont need to purchase via a US shipping agent anymore. its a win for aussie. and thanks Elias luv the aftv site!
I see that Amazon has added Alexa to Fire TV, but what about those of us who already own an Echo? Will I be able to use my Echo (via Alexa) to control a Fire TV stick? No need for me to buy a voice command remote, if I can just ask Alexa to control my Fire TV via Echo. Any thoughts?
Hello Again Elias,
I just want to thank you for this great site, where we always have found everything related to our FireTV !!!!
100Thanks for all your help and for your time.
Although we have had a great week with the release of the new FireTV, I do not want to ask questions, because of your efficient and fast reports, that have answered all my questions…
Thanks again for helping all of us with this excellent site !!!
Thank-you Elias for all the great coverage!
Just set up new apple tv dev kit, I know its a dev kit but its horrible especially the swipe remote, siri sucks, New Fire TV is gonna kill this
Heard anything as to whether Plex will get an update at all? it seems like Plex has been forgotten on the fireTV
Will be seeing any USB Digital TV Tuner on new FireTV like the Hauppauge Digital TV Tuner for Xbox One? Can new hardware support?
I’m sure it has been covered, I just got in. What advantage is there to buy the AFTV2 and ditch the AFTV1? Thanks, great job and site!
Outstanding! Thankyou!
Will Kodi still be able to side Loaded on the new box?