Amazon Fire TV: The Decision

It has been two weeks since I accepted Amazon's offer for a Fire TV, free for thirty days, and I know at this point that I will not need the additional two weeks to make my decision. If you do not have a streaming device already in your entertainment center I believe a Fire TV could be a welcome addition, but I do not see it replacing a single thing already in your collection. I personally have a PS3 and a Wii collecting dust as of right now, the Wii never made it past novelty while I filled up the PS3's hard drive and it got moved to the back burner. If you are looking for a gaming device the Fire TV is not your answer, you would have to pay extra for their gaming controller on top of purchasing the device and that will put you in the range of buying a new Xbox 360 which does everything a Fire TV does but better. While using my Fire TV I noticed that the Amazon content streamed without issue, the Netflix application on the other hand played like it was in a constant state of buffering. I previously addressed the voice command which did a great job of finding what I was looking for with the exception of "Flight of the Conchords". Again, at $99 if you are currently in the market for a streaming device then the Fire TV is a viable option but in my opinion that is where its worth lies.

Xbox's Revamped Games With Gold Goes Live

Last call for free Saints Row The Third. Xbox has extended its Games With Gold feature to the Xbox One, meaning a single Xbox Live Gold account will get you free games on your Xbox 360 and Xbox One. This month Xbox 360 gamers will receive a third free game, June's free games are as follows:

• Halo: Spartan Assault and Max: The Curse of Brotherhood for Xbox One
• Dark Souls, Charlie Murder and Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition

Games are available the first and 16th of each month. The Xbox One Games With Gold program operates a bit differently than the Xbox 360 version. The Xbox 360 Games With Gold program allows any Xbox Live Gold member to download a game and keep it essentially forever. The Xbox One Games With Gold offers games on a subscription basis, if your Gold membership lapses than you cannot play games that you already downloaded. Xbox One owners will also have access to “Deals With Gold” sales starting with Forza 5 and Ryse: Son of Rome.

Microsoft is planning a huge update for June, where the console will receive support for external storage, a Real Names feature for easily identifying your real-world friends, auto-sign-in, major updates to SmartGlass, and an expansion of TV and OneGuide capabilities to more regions. June will also see an end to the need for an Xbox Live Gold account to access popular apps such as Netflix, HBO Go and ESPN among others. Once the Xbox One and Xbox 360 system updates become available in June, Xbox Live Gold members who purchased a paid membership before that day can cancel and receive a pro-rata refund of any unused remaining days between the date of cancellation and the date their paid Gold membership ends. Cancellation and pro-rated refund requests must be made by August 31, 2014 and require six to eight weeks for processing. Free or trial Gold memberships are not eligible for a refund. To request your pro-rated refund, please click http://support.xbox.com/contact-us after the system updates become available.

My First Week With an Amazon Fire TV

I was wanting to update my prior Unboxing and Day One Impressions post that I made regarding The Amazon Fire TV. After my inability to find The Simpsons: Tapped Out on the Fire TV as well as the need for a game controller, not included, to play Minecraft, I made it a goal to find a game that I could play on the Fire TV.

My third attempt at playing a game on the device was Sonic the Hedgehog, I already owned the game and when I clicked to play it I was met with a familiar error message.







I was now 0-3 in playing games for the Fire TV, I decided that I was going to pay for a game that was not only Fire TV compatible but also one that I knew the controls would not be more difficult than the included controller. I downloaded Plants vs Zombies and when I did not receive the additional controller needed error message when I started it up I was optimistic. At the menu screen for the game I could not do anything, literally nothing. I decided I was done with trying to play a game on the Fire TV, I resigned myself to the fact that all new devices have issues and one of the Fire TV's issues was that it would not play games. I made a plan to contact Amazon the next day regarding Plants vs Zombies but before I could, they e-mailed me.

• We're contacting you about order # for "Plants vs. Zombies." We recently learned that this app isn't compatible with Amazon Fire TV. As a result, we've issued a refund to your account without revoking access to it. The app will therefore no longer be available in your Amazon Fire TV app library.
  
  This refund will be applied to the payment method used for the original purchase and should complete within the next 2-3 business days.
  
  We're very sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.
  
  We hope to see you again soon.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  Customer Service
  Amazon.com

So I can't play it on my Fire TV but they refunded me the purchase amount plus it is still accessible on my tablet and smartphone, good looking out Amazon. Still it would be nice to actually be able to play a game, I turned to a title that I own but haven't played in almost a year, Quell. Quell is a simple puzzle game where you can only move in any of the basic four directions (up, down, left right), the game looked the same as it does on my Kindle Fire tablet, then again I don't know what I was expecting given that Quell's graphics, like its controls, are very simple.

Now that I have managed to play a game on the Fire TV I can focus on some of its other features. The voice controls work for Amazon's digital library which is a good thing but when I am watching Netflix and I voice command a show it kicks me out of Netflix and moves me to Amazon's library. Keeping on the subject of Netflix, the video quality is noticeably inferior to that of Amazon's Digital library, I regularly notice that Netflix's video quality can vary from good to bad yet Amazon's featured content is always good. It also takes a while, for me at least, to get the next video to load on Netflix after the countdown ends while watching a TV series.

I did finally get voice command to work for Flight of the Conchords but searching only for "Flight of The", it was the fifth title listed. I still see no reason that the Fire TV will replace anything currently in my media center, I would say without question that my Xbox 360 does everything the Fire TV does and more, plus it does it better. I could also be a little harsh on the Fire TV because when I was watching the Mad Men midseason finale on my desktop I accidentally touched a button on the Fire TV controller and it automatically changed the video source off of my PC. This could be considered a nice feature if you don't want to have to find the TV remote to change the video source but understand, there was nothing nice about it when it happened unintentionally. I do not dislike the Fire TV but I am confident that it is not for me and I doubt that I will keep it much longer before I return it to Amazon.

Amazon Fire TV Unboxing and Day One Impressions

First impression: "This looks tiny"

Confirmed, it's smaller than a Nintendo DS game case

The contents inside of the box were the Fire TV, a remote control, batteries for the control, power cord and the instructions. The only thing missing for me to set it up was an HDMI cable which I had laying around the house.

Shot of the main screen.

The setup was as simple as plug the power cord into an electrical outlet and the back of the Fire TV, then plug an HDMI cable into the Fire TV as well as your television. After powering on the Fire TV you are directed to connect the device to a  network and then you are shown a tutorial video.

Voice command seemed to work really well except for the one show I was trying to watch, I used the control to manually navigate and found the show easily.

I again tried the voice navigation to search for the one mobile game I waste a decent amount of time on, The Simpsons Tapped Out...points for trying?

So they don't have the game I was really wanting to play, at least I can try Minecraft...or not. Though I could not play Minecraft I should note that it downloaded rather quickly.








So, after one night I am not overly convinced that this will replace anything currently in my entertainment center but my mind could be changed over the next month. I will update at the end of this week.

Amazon Fire TV Free for 30 Days

Amazon sent me an e-mail telling me that I could get a Fire TV free for 30 days, I figured why not give it a try. I do not consider myself to be an Amazon fanboy in any sense but I do have an Amazon store card; own two Kindle Fire HD's; buy most if not all of my electronics from them. With that being said, I don't know if it was my status with them or mere coincidence that got me this offer and I'm not sure that everyone didn't get this exact same offer extended to them. The Fire TV is currently priced at $99 with free shipping, the offer gave you 30 days to decide if you wanted to keep it before you are charged.

I already have a setup where I don't feel that I'm in need of a standalone streaming device as I already own an Xbox 360, Xbox One and a PS3 all of which do what the Fire TV does. I do however recognize that not everybody wants video games as the centerpiece of their device and for them a Fire HD may be able to help cut the cable cord. I am set to receive the device tomorrow and I will post my experiences with the Fire TV starting with its unboxing.

How I Cut Cable, Without Using Torrents or International Streaming Sites.

There are plenty of free sites that you can use to keep up with your favorite shows, start with the actual network sites. Content will most likely be limited to a few most recent episodes and they are usually available the same night that they air, if not the next morning.

• ABC
• CBS
• FOX
• NBC
• CW
• Nickelodeon
• Comedy Central
• MTV

Keeping with free options we should add:

• Free Movie Database - Not Hollywood blockbuster's but free nonetheless.
• South Park - Every episode
• Whose Line Is It Anyway - Every episode
• Crackle - Movies and television with some original content.
• Combat Sports - MMA, K-1 and Boxing, highlights and full fights
• NBC Sports LIVE Stream NBC Sports.

Now on to pay services:

• Netflix - I pay around $8 a month for Netflix and I think they are they best bargain for pay services. Netflix has a large library of TV shows and Movies and have their own original content not available elsewhere like House of Cards, Arrested Development and Orange Is The New Black. Netflix e-mailed me the other day letting me know their price would be going up but since I was an existing customer my increase would not take effect for two years.
• Hulu + - Hulu offers a free and pay version, neither is overly impressive. I have been sent a free month of Hulu + at least three times in the past year and I never extend the service, I cannot get on board with paying them to watch commercials. Most options on Hulu can be watched elsewhere.
• Amazon - Amazon offers streaming when you subscribe to their Amazon Prime which was recently raised to around $100 a year, or around $8.33 a month. Amazon has a decent library including some content not available on Netflix and they are moving towards creating more of the own exclusive shows. Amazon has officially partnered with HBO bringing more content not available with Hulu or Netflix.

Finally don't forget Youtube and other popular video sharing sites.