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 ›
Comcast has officially taken its Xfinity Stream app for Fire TV devices out of beta. The app first arrived on Fire TV devices in December 2020 with the title “Xfinity Stream Beta” and an app icon containing a “Beta” flag to indicate the app could be unstable at times. At some point over the last day or two, a new version 6.19.1.001 of the app was uploaded to Amazon’s Appstore and with it, the “Beta” portion of the name was dropped and a new non-Beta icon was swapped in. The app interface itself is the same as the older Beta version, which is to be expected, but if you’ve ever had issues with the app in the past, hopefully, its official release from beta is a sign that most of the app’s issues have been worked out.
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 ›
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 ›
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 ›
YouTube has announced a new feature that allows the YouTube app on your phone to sync up with what you’re watching on your TV’s YouTube app, via TechCrunch. If while watching YouTube on a device like a Fire TV, you can then open the YouTube app on your phone and you’ll see a prompt to connect the mobile app to the TV app. This “reverse-casting” will then allow you to view comments and other YouTube aspects for the YouTube video being played on your TV. Read more ›
Crackle has announced the release of its revamped app on Amazon Fire TV devices. The new Crackle app is apparently rebuilt to be faster than the old one, along with having new content and video playback interface screens. The new app will now autoplay the next episode in a series and provide content recommendations personalized to you. If you’re unaware, Crackle is a free ad-supported streaming service similar to Pluto, Tubi, and Xumo. It was originally launched and owned by Sony but was sold to Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, Inc. a few years ago. I believe this is the first big update to the app since the new owners aquired it, so if you’re looking for a new free app to try, give Crackle a concideration.
Amazon has launched a new app called IMDb What to Watch to help you find new movies and TV shows to watch. It does this through three different game-like interaction methods to make flipping through recommendations a bit more fun than the usual endless lists that you usually scroll through when trying to figure out what to watch. Read more ›
Amazon has contacted Fire TV app developers to inform them that paid apps and apps with any in-app purchasing options will be temporarily unavailable in the Netherlands, Poland, and Sweden. This means that many apps, including my own Downloader app, will not be installable on Fire TV Sticks in those regions. Read more ›
The puzzle-adventure game Machinarium is on sale for $0.99. This is easily my favorite puzzle game for Fire TV devices and one of my favorite Fire TV games overall. The game normally costs $4.99 and this sale matches the lowest it has ever been. Machinarium is similar to “escape” games, where you need to figure out the correct combination of items to find and tasks to complete in a given space to progress to the next area of the game. It’s perfect for casual players and even those that have never tried a Fire TV game before because it moves at your own pace with simple controls. Those basic controls allow it to work with the Fire TV remote, so you don’t need to have a game controller to play. The game is compatible with every Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, Fire TV Cube, and Fire TV Smart TV model. Other Fire TV games that are currently on sale include all Jackbox party games, all Final Fantasy games, and the Monster RPG games.
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