Bought Me An Amazon Firestick 4K: What An Amazing Little Gadget!

[mawnansmiff]

I had toyed with the idea about buying a Firestick a few times over the last few years but always gave up on the idea due to my reluctance to pay for a subscription service I was likely to use only rarely.

However, a few weeks ago I looked into what the Firestick 4K was capable of delivering for free and was quite surprised to see what was available. I was also pleased to see that I could watch YouTube videos on my 32" TV rather than my Kindle Fire 10 or my PC.

Three weeks ago and £50 poorer I couldn't be more pleased! After the initial issue of my (11 year old) TV only having two HDMI sockets, (both taken by DVD recorders, now solved by buying an HDMI splitter) I am truly delighted!

I've watched everything from documentaries on American pocket watch manufacturers, great engineering feats around the world, some awesome rock concerts (ZZ Top, Santana, Jethro Tull etc etc), and some great interviews from such folks as Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and the likes.....all for free! I've visited almost every bourbon distillery, several Scotch distilleries and Peterson's Pipes in Dublin.

About the size of a large memory stick, this thing is amazing.

I can even talk to the thing via the inbuilt Alexa thing. I'm sure there's other stuff that I'm not aware of but I'm learning all the time.

So pleased I took the plunge ?

Regards,

Jay.?

 

[BROBS]

I had toyed with the idea about buying a Firestick a few times over the last few years but always gave up on the idea due to my reluctance to pay for a subscription service I was likely to use only rarely.

However, a few weeks ago I looked into what the Firestick 4K was capable of delivering for free and was quite surprised to see what was available. I was also pleased to see that I could watch YouTube videos on my 32" TV rather than my Kindle Fire 10 or my PC.

Three weeks ago and £50 poorer I couldn't be more pleased! After the initial issue of my (11 year old) TV only having two HDMI sockets, (both taken by DVD recorders, now solved by buying an HDMI splitter) I am truly delighted!

I've watched everything from documentaries on American pocket watch manufacturers, great engineering feats around the world, some awesome rock concerts (ZZ Top, Santana, Jethro Tull etc etc), and some great interviews from such folks as Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and the likes.....all for free! I've visited almost every bourbon distillery, several Scotch distilleries and Peterson's Pipes in Dublin.

About the size of a large memory stick, this thing is amazing.

I can even talk to the thing via the inbuilt Alexa thing. I'm sure there's other stuff that I'm not aware of but I'm learning all the time.

So pleased I took the plunge ?

Regards,

Jay.?

I’ve been looking into these or Hulu etc. we have “smart” TVs with these features but the tv doesn’t always seem very “smart” and I wonder if a “stick” would work better. Does the firestick have access to Netflix?

 

[mawnansmiff]

Hi Brobs, the Firestick 4K makes any regular TV (such as mine) into a 'smart TV'. To answer your question, yes, Netflix is pre installed on the device plus a plethora of other providers. Internet access is pre installed too!

Go to Amazon and look up Firestick 4K, you will get a much better idea of what it's capable of, far better than I can tell you.

Regards,

Jay.?

 

[greeneyes]

I bought a Google Chromecast, mostly so I could play my son's Mickey Mouse cartoons from the laptop without bizarre advertisements popping up. I'm not quite sure what else it does and I'll have to look into it, but for the time being I'm using it as a wireless "cable" between the computer and the TV.

 

[tradition]

We've had Apple TVs throughout the house for many years. Love em.

 

[shanez]

I have both Roku and Amazon Firestick. Both are great and work very similar. Both have Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Sling, YouTube, etc.

There's really no difference in performance/capability between the two unless you put Kodi on the Firestick, which Roku does not support.

 

[didimauw]

We love ours. We have Roku sticks and Amazon fire sticks. We ditched our cable and just use those now. We'll never live without them!

 

[Country Bladesmith]

I’ve been looking into these or Hulu etc. we have “smart” TVs with these features but the tv doesn’t always seem very “smart” and I wonder if a “stick” would work better. Does the firestick have access to Netflix?

I haven’t tried the newer Firesticks, but a smart TV does everything the old one did, with one less remote. If you have a Prime account, there’s no difference. You’re accessing the same videos. Again, haven’t played with the 4K one, so maybe things have changed.

 

[BROBS]

I haven’t tried the newer Firesticks, but a smart TV does everything the old one did, with one less remote. If you have a Prime account, there’s no difference. You’re accessing the same videos. Again, haven’t played with the 4K one, so maybe things have changed.

What I mean is that our smart tv sometimes has issues with the internal programming and won't work properly. I just mean that maybe a stick like this would be more issue-free. These Samsung smart TVs are notorious for having issues with running Netflix and others. They are great TV's picture and quality-wise.. just not very "smart".

 

[BROBS]

We love ours. We have Roku sticks and Amazon fire sticks. We ditched our cable and just use those now. We'll never live without them!

do you have hulu? sling?
are you able to see all the new programming from TV/Cable still?

 

[shanez]

do you have hulu? sling?
are you able to see all the new programming from TV/Cable still?

Yes:

I have both Roku and Amazon Firestick. Both are great and work very similar. Both have Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Sling, YouTube, etc.

There's really no difference in performance/capability between the two unless you put Kodi on the Firestick, which Roku does not support.

They plug into an HDMI port so you can still change your source to antenna, cable, DVD, etc.

 

[BROBS]

Yes:



They plug into an HDMI port so you can still change your source to antenna, cable, DVD, etc.

I meant to ditch cable..
like on sling or hulu.. can you still get all the new programming? Or only certain things?

 

[Country Bladesmith]

What I mean is that our smart tv sometimes has issues with the internal programming and won't work properly. I just mean that maybe a stick like this would be more issue-free. These Samsung smart TVs are notorious for having issues with running Netflix and others. They are great TV's picture and quality-wise.. just not very "smart".

Our Samsung will run everything pretty well except Disney+. Always has issues with that app for some reason. I’d say the stick should work well for you in your situation, then.

 

[BROBS]

Our Samsung will run everything pretty well except Disney+. Always has issues with that app for some reason. I’d say the stick should work well for you in your situation, then.

and it's really only one TV. The newer 4K Samsung we have always seems to work properly.
Definitely don't have to worry about Disney+ lol

 

[Country Bladesmith]

and it's really only one TV. The newer 4K Samsung we have always seems to work properly.
Definitely don't have to worry about Disney+ lol

I’m guessing you don’t have kids! ?

 

[BROBS]

I’m guessing you don’t have kids! ?

no sir!

 

[shanez]

I meant to ditch cable..
like on sling or hulu.. can you still get all the new programming? Or only certain things?

If by programming you mean new/added shows, movies,etc then I believe so. I haven't noticed any issues. Every so often I get new episodes of Bob's Burgers (love that show) which I prefer to watch on Hulu instead of open air antenna which is sometimes spotty.

Essentially they are just a device that connects to your wifi, runs the app for the service like Hulu, and streams the content to your TV. You log into your existing accounts like Hulu to watch what you want. Things like Sling work for their free content without an account.

The only differences between the two I noticed are subtle things like how you access a specific episode of something or organize stuff. Think like the difference between apple's default web browser and internet explorer. They produce the same result but interface slightly differently.

As I noted, the only capability difference that I've noticed is Roku does not support Kodi. The Firestick is based on Linux so it does support it.

I think I can also customize the screen saver function in the Firestick with my own pictures. I haven't tried with the Roku so I don't know if can customize it.

 

[didimauw]

do you have hulu? sling?
are you able to see all the new programming from TV/Cable still?

Yeah we have Netflix, Hulu, Disney plus and Amazon movies. And then we have antennas for basic cable for free.

 

[mawnansmiff]

Just watched two, yes two amazing documentaries on the building of the Boulder/Hoover Dam. The work involved was mind numbing?

Will be seeking out something on Yellowstone Park tomorrow!

Regards,

Jay.?

 

[mikethompson]

Jay, sounds pretty interesting. We have an Android box, which sounds like a similar setup. I'm in the group of people with no cable. We just have the android box with Netflix and Disney+, as well as our digital antenna for local channels (we get about 30 I think).