Amazon enters the game!!! Amazon Fire TV now on sale!

[kong76]

1080p+ real world performance of Tegra 4 vs S4Pro has proven to be noticeably in favor of T4 performancewise though power consumption on Tegra devices generally leaves a lot to be desired (except for ONE tablet). Not saying S4Pro is bad by any means, but it is not enough for what I want.

I notice most of you see these devices as media machines, which is its "intended" purpose. I agree this device is good for that, no argument there. I am looking for a ultra low power desktop replacement, however.

I do not expect Android to be viable for that before summer 2015 due to both software and hardware issues, but is getting so close it is taunting me already. I prefer media consumption apps on Android but I miss productivity software.

Wine for Android is coming. Still in early stages, but it is coming. Even for ARM devices via slow x86 emulation (useful for basic tools I guess).
Wayland on Android is slowly coming. Wayland + Linux chroot + Intel = SteamOS games on Android.

Intel (Atom) BayTrail windows devices can play some desktop games at 720p. CherryTrail due by christmass will allow most windows games from 2012 and earlier to play smoothly at 720p with aceptable quality (no AA or anything fancy). I am not talking about desktop parts (Haswell) but actual mobile (Atom) chips.

I am cautiously optimistic about late Tegra K1 too, even non Denver version.

The obstacles for set top boxes to take that convergent role currently are:
- We need a minimum of 4GB of RAM. It is coming with android 64bits. Xperia Z2 and Note series have 3GB already.
- Android devs need to embrace existing mouse APIs and develop a desktop mode for their apps, kinda like Windows Universal Apps (anounced yesterday at Build 2014). Android needs to provide an API to hide the mouse cursor for FPS games too.
- Better NAND speeds, which will only happen if people start to overly benchmark and make a big deal about it (thank god for Anandtech). At least ASUS learned their lesson with the Transformer series.
- RAM bandwidth, slowly improving, with BayTrail being the leader here for now.

Google is rumoured to release its own console this year and if it turns out to be true that will be great. In the meantime we have these (frak Ouya):
- Fire TV with Snapdragon S4Pro. Seems to have momentum.
- MadCatz MOJO with Tegra 4. Largely ignored.
- ZTE FunBox with Tegra 4. Release on April 10. We will see.

I really hope you guys are right and the FireTV is the revulsive we need.

[looklikefrost]

Is it worth for the money?

[alwaysbless]

Mine will be here tomorrow, imma side load every video playing apk I can think of and see what the results are. if anyone has any requests right now im thinking, XBMC Frodo and Gotham/Archos/MX/HBO Go/TWC and then maybe a few others like Chrome/Firefox/Skype/Dropbox

[Regulus99]

I found a thread on xbmchub by a poster named travisnj who sideloaded ATV2 Gotham 13 Beta 4 on his FTV and ran into problems with a green screen which he attributes to driver/codec problems with the Amazon ROM. His review comments start around page 4.

http://www.xbmchub.com/forums/threads/21254-Amazon-Fire-TV

[Pluto]

iFixit Teardown - Amazon Fire TV

That was fast

[soshowme]

@alwaysbless, after reading a lot of threads I don't think any of the current repos for XBMC work OK on the FTV do to codec problems.

May I recommend you sideload MX Player and then the XAF XBMC version (for external player support)? I haven't seen anyone using this one so maybe the external player will take care of codecs and HW acceleration.

@kong76, you are right, I'm viewing the FTV as just a Media Center box. I have a lot of interest like you on having a box that can be a Media Center but that can do other stuff too. I really don't have any hopes for ARM 32 bit based chips for that, but hopefully Linaro really becomes successful when implementing x64 architectures.

The Haswells (including the new Chromboxes) are still lacking in the Android arena. Hopefully there will be more advances besides the announcement yesterday of the new version for x64 that only work for Intel and NUCs. I will love to have an x64 Android bases box with 8Gb memory that is not a full blown desktop

[Bruisedquasar012]

Of course Fire is GOOGLE Android & it is locked as always. I have the Fire HDX. I'm not locked to Amazon apps. Just go into settings > security > click allow unofficial apps. Get a APK installer & file explorer from the Amazon App store and you are all set to use other App stores. I use 1Mobile for apps not on Amazon Apps. I also downloaded XBMC for Neon devices and installed Fusion Repository. No problem. XBMC runs very well (so does Navi-X) on the Fire.

I would be surprised if you cannot do the same with Fire TV! I think I'll stick with my Matricom MX2 Player. It has full Android and comes unlocked and needs no rooting. The installed XMBC works well and Fusion Repository's Hub Wizard now has a "Matricom" choice which improves on the MX2 special Enhanced version of XMBC, which runs full 1080p. The MX2 is pogrammed (by a special group of XBMC members) to do hardware decoding. I've tried many mini-pcs, Linux and Windows PCs & can tell you MX2 runs XBMC best -- out of the box. I decided last year mini-pcs are toys, largely due to the shortcuts the makers take. The key issue with the best ones is failure to make custom matched ROMs. Even the wifi issues boil down to ROM script issues (most of them). Each new Mini-PC hardware systems must have a ROM made for that system. Makers whittle away just enough to get some pre-existing ROM to sort of work. Then makers take shortcuts with the AC wall warts & cords and the included USB & HDMI cords and hardware.

The various set top boxes promise a lot but all fall too short. In my opinion, they are faulty toys. With the MX2 I have an Android internet computing device and an excellent XBMC box. Its not perfect but it does what no other box can do for me. As I suspected, quad core chips and the newest CPU or big memory is not what we need. As proven by the superior MX2, what is needed is SYSTEM thinking. ALL computing devices are a system. Few users seem to understand this. You do not (as Clinton wanted to do) resort to a average soldier Medic or Radio man to a Special Opps team (a system) and stll have a Super system. A system is only as good as its slowest, most retro part. Computers are like that. Focus on hardware numbers and ignore the ROM and you have a faulty joke!

As for Amazon Fire, I would buy it before I would consider buying anything Roku. 80% of the 1000 apps are junk apps that provide little quality content & there is a lot of duplication. For five years Roku is dishonest about absence of a YouTube app (they take 3rd party YouTube apps down or block video playback), lack of a web browser, lack of email, etc. Buyers don't get it. Just as magazine customers are not the readers BUT the advertisers, which is why you cannot trust anything recommended by a computing, auto, or for profit consumer magazine. Roku customers are the Pay CONTENT providers who give Roku a cut of the bucks they make off Roku users.

[reddragon72]

XDA is on fire. people testing everything left and right

Looks like this box is going to be a hit as tons is happening already!

Just waiting for the big time devs to get it and start digging in

[alwaysbless]

I have tested this box pretty thoroughly so far and this thing pretty much kicks ass. XBMC 12.3 is playing all of my 720p MKVs without issue. HBO Go, TWC, Archos, MX player and Firefox all work wonderfully. My logitech K400 works but the keyboard layout is all screwy and the onscreen cursor is a big circle (like touch input shows on a phone). It also doesnt work in the main menu (only within apps). One thing thats fersure is we are gonna need root to fix a lot of the issues this box currently has. I tried using the nullinput method app but when the onscreen keyboard is displayed I dont get the option to choose input. Also, the DPI is a bit zoomed so most app dont fit the screen correctly.

Next im gonna do some testing with Sixaxis controller and emulators / Firefox / Flash

P.S. I must just say every app ive been in so far runs 10x smoother then on my RK3188 T428 - I mean no joke this thing is fast.

[peekeesh]

^^ I agree.. i tested mx player and plex and pretty happy with this thing's performance. One thing i like is when browsing all my movies in plex, if I click the down arrow on the remote, it scrolls down really quick and the video thumbnails load instantaneously.

[diverge]

Do any of you guys know of any apps or tricks for interacting with a sideloaded app intended for touch screen devices?

I sideloaded SiliconDust HomeRun View app onto Fire TV, and it works fine... But I can't make the UI show up because it needs touch. I tried a keyboard, mouse, touchpad. Tried adm shell input touchscreen tap x y commands. No luck.

One tap on the screen makes the UI show on a phone/tablet.

[micromod777]

Where's the Finless TV Rom????

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Tapatalk

[dismantler]

Where's the Finless TV Rom????

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Tapatalk

I don't know, but it would be awesome. I'd donate, this thing is a beast so far.

[kong76]

Can any of you sideload AndroBench and post the results please?

I am interested in Sequential and 4k random writes/reads, not so much on sqlite and stuff.


Play Store Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...da.androbench2

[dismantler]

This thing rocks, it plays everything I throw at it over wired network including 10+ gig 1080p mkv files with audio pasthrough.

Best XBMC version to use with it right now, for me so far, is the Ouya xbmc.

Gotham doesn't have pass-through for some reason, however even in software mode this box will decode 1080p mkvs. It's beast. I hope they don't lock it up, because this is the droid I was looking for.