Netflix has finally added support for Frame Rate Matching on Amazon Fire TV devices. See here for a thorough explanation of the feature but, in short, this change now allows Fire TVs to change the refresh rate of your TV to exactly match the frame rate of the video being played through Netflix. The result is a perfectly smooth one-to-one correlation between the frames of a video and the frames being shown on the TV, which eliminates video judder artifacts. Read more ›
Amazon’s current flagship Fire TV model, the 2nd-gen Fire TV Cube, was released in late 2019. While it’s still the best-performing Fire TV model and is holding its own among other premium streaming devices, at nearly 3 years old, it’s due for an update. It’ll probably come as no surprise, but I’ve found solid evidence that Amazon is currently working on a 3rd-generation Fire TV Cube under the code name Gazelle. Read more ›
If you have a Fire TV devices running Fire OS 7, like the 3rd-gen Fire TV Stick or Fire TV Stick 4K Max, and you sideload many apps, you’ve probably experienced the annoying bug where the icons of some sideloaded apps appear as grayed out missing icons. This bug has been present since at least early 2020 and is a result of the Fire TV home screen launcher not checking all possible locations for an app to store its icon image file. After over 2 years of Fire TV owners living with this bug, Amazon has finally addressed it in a recent update where all sideloaded app icons are now being correctly displayed. Read more ›
Amazon Fire TV devices never really turn off. Even when they go to sleep after not being used for a while, or when they are manually put to sleep, they actually just black out the display but remain powered on. This is so that they can instantly be ready to use and so they can perform software updates while idle. For Fire TV remotes with a power button, pressing it just turns the TV off and does nothing to the Fire TV itself. Anyone that wants to actually power down their Fire TV must pull the power cable. However, the one exception to all of this is the Fire TV Cube, which is the only Fire TV model that can truly be turned off without needing to unplug anything. Read more ›
Plex has added a new feature that can sync watch state and user ratings between multiple Plex servers. So, if you have multiple Plex servers with the same content, the content will be marked as watched (or unwatched) on all of them when the state of one server changes. This also means that content you watch on a friend’s server will also be marked as watched on your own server, if you both have the same content. The same syncing occurs for user star ratings for content. Read more ›
After rumors swirled a couple of months ago, the National Football League has now officially launched its new NFL+ streaming service in the US. Subscribers will be able to watch live local and primetime regular season and postseason games, as well as live out-of-market preseason games. For all other games, a live audio-only feed is provided. The service also includes ad-free on-demand content. One huge catch is that live regular season and postseason games can only be viewed on phones and tablets, so you won’t be able to watch those through streamers like Fire TVs or on a computer. There are also several blackout conditions. NFL+ costs $4.99 per month or $39.99 annually, but there is a discount on the annual plan right now that drops it to $29.99. There is also an NFL+ Premium subscription for $9.99 per month or $79.99 per year that adds ad-free full game replays and condensed game replays on any device, as well as coaches film.
Amazon is giving its Prime Video app a full redesign. A newly overhauled app is starting to roll out now to Fire TV devices, as well as other streaming platforms like Roku, Apple TV, Android TV, and game consoles. The new design closely resembles other streaming apps, such as Netflix, with the navigation menu changed from being a horizontal menu across the top, so a slim vertical menu across the left side. Read more ›
Amazon always boasts about how successful Prime Day was after the big sale event ends, and this year was no different. Amazon says this year’s event was “the biggest Prime Day” ever with “more than 300 million items” purchased and more Amazon devices sold than any other Prime Day. What was different, however, was not mentioning the top-selling item in Amazon’s US press release, as has been the case most years. Thankfully, the UK press release does mention the top-selling item as the 3rd-gen Fire TV Stick, so it’s probably safe to assume it was the top-selling item in the US and other regions as well. Read more ›
Amazon has a lot of great deals on its devices during Prime Day this year, many of which are at all-time low prices, but none were better than the 50″ Amazon Fire TV 4-Series 4K Smart TV for $99.99. At an impressive 78% off its regular price of $469.99, it was certainly the deal to get. However, as a lightning deal with limited stock allocated for the rock bottom price, it was pretty obvious that the deal would sell out fast. The sale went live at 6:00 am PT today, as expected, and within 3 minutes the real-time purchase tally indicated that 50% of the TVs were accounted for. Around 6:05 am, just 5 minutes after the deal went live, the purchase count indicated 100% and the deal was sold out. Read more ›
Whether you’re new to the world of Fire TV, looking to upgrade from an older model, or wanting to add an additional Fire TV, choosing among the five different models in Amazon’s current lineup can be a daunting task. You can’t just choose the newest model because there are advantages to the older models. You also can’t just choose the most expensive model because there are advantages to the cheaper models. If you’re on a tight budget you might be missing out on a lot by not spending a little bit more for the next Firestick model up. Here is a comparison of the Fire TV Stick Lite, the Fire TV Stick, the Fire TV Stick 4K, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, and the Fire TV Cube to help you flesh out each ones pros and cons. Read more ›
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