Yesterday Amazon announced another box for you to connect to your TV as Amazon take on the pleather of box vying for your attention. Amazon’s device is a $99 set top box that connects to your TV via HDMI and can stream Amazon Instant Video, WatchESPN and of course Netflix. Fire TV has voice control as well as a remote which Amazon say does not require line of site. The specs include a quad core processor, GPU, 2GB of RAM and built in WiFi (MIMO). It does have optical audio output which is something that the Apple TV has but the Chromecast doesn’t have. As well as media streaming you can also play games on it with Amazon’s separate game controller.
I am really not sure we need another devices for streaming but Amazon must feel they want to control their own platform. There are no details on when the device will be coming to the UK.
Fire TV is a tiny box that plugs into your HDTV. It’s the easiest way to enjoy Netflix, Prime Instant Video, Hulu Plus, WatchESPN, low-cost video rentals, and more. With instant access to over 200,000 TV episodes and movies, plus all your favorite subscriptions and streaming services, you can watch what you want, when you want. If you’re a Prime member, you get unlimited access to thousands of popular movies and TV shows, including exclusives like Downton Abbey, The Americans, Alpha House, and Under the Dome.
Fire TV has voice search that actually works. The old way of searching with a TV remote—scrolling and clicking one letter at a time on an alphabet grid—is painful. With Fire TV you simply speak the title, actor, or genre into the remote and you’re done.
Fire TV may be tiny on the outside, but it has huge hardware specs on the inside. It has a powerful quad-core processor, dedicated GPU, 2 GB of memory, and dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi. With a fast, fluid interface, high definition 1080p video, and Dolby Digital Plus surround sound, Fire TV looks—and sounds—amazing. We also added an exclusive new feature called ASAP that predicts what movies and TV episodes you’ll want to watch and gets them ready to stream instantly. No one likes waiting for videos to buffer.
As a bonus, we also added games. With Fire TV you can play blockbuster titles like Minecraft, The Walking Dead, Monsters University, the Amazon exclusive Sev Zero, plus great free games. There are over a hundred titles to explore, with thousands more coming soon. These games are a great value—the average price of paid games is only $1.85.
2 thoughts on “Amazon announce the Amazon fireTV, another box for your TV!”
“a remote which Amazon say does not require line of site” means it uses bluetooth instead of IR – i.e. not compatible with most universal remotes. Bad move in my opinion.
Also, this is surely the nail in the coffin of any hope of seeing Amazon Instant Video via chromecast. That’s a shame – I wish Amazon approached things more like Netflix and didn’t try to be so monopolistic.
Just spotted your comment (I need to setup alerts!)
I hate line of sight remotes as I have a a cupboard where I put my devices but I see you point.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Instant Video on Chromecast and they have shown with the Kinde app they will support multiple platforms.
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“a remote which Amazon say does not require line of site” means it uses bluetooth instead of IR – i.e. not compatible with most universal remotes. Bad move in my opinion.
Also, this is surely the nail in the coffin of any hope of seeing Amazon Instant Video via chromecast. That’s a shame – I wish Amazon approached things more like Netflix and didn’t try to be so monopolistic.
Just spotted your comment (I need to setup alerts!)
I hate line of sight remotes as I have a a cupboard where I put my devices but I see you point.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Instant Video on Chromecast and they have shown with the Kinde app they will support multiple platforms.