account since the early naughties and do most of my online purchases there. This was brought home to me this week when I signed in to Amazon Music for the first time and found that it populated itself with all of the CDs I'd purchased over the past 15 years. In all that time, however, I've only been dipping my toes into the Amazon world. I recently acquired an Echo Dot and signed up for a developer account in order to write skills for it. For some reason, this has magically indoctrinated me into the Amazon way and I'm turning into the biggest fanboy.
Over roughly the same period, I've been trying to find the ideal whole-house entertainment system. I've built more HTPCs than you could shake a stick at and have tried all the back-ends there are from SageTV to my current fav., a TVHeadEnd/EMBY combo. However, there's always been at least one shortcoming in anything I've tried.
With my new Prime account, I thought I'd try an Amazon FireTV device - just to see, I ordred a FireTV and plugged it in to the living room set, replacing a Gigabyte Brix HTPC. I installed Kodi and a FLIRC for IR control and started playing.
Nirvana!
It just works and gives me a smooth user experience with simple remote control of all the regular apps we use; Kodi and Netflix, with the addition of access to the Amazon video library. Even the family commented on how easy it is to use. It just works. I've had pleas not to change it back.
So I'm sold. I've ordered a couple of FireTV Sticks for secondary TVs. I got to set one up at the weekend, replacing another HTPC (a virtual one). The stick is HD and WiFi only, with less processing power than the FireTV which has 4K and wired networking. The experience is not as good in that I found that the stream from TVHeadEnd to Kodi suffered a lot of breakup. I think I can resolve it by upgrading my WiFi router (another purchase from Amazon looms) and tweaking the TvHeadEnd settings. If I can, the stick will be fine for non-critical viewing.
Overall, however, it's a fantastic experience. And niggles? Well, it's a bit of a pain to load Kodi which I use for TV Front End but once it's on, it works. Also, having a bluetooth remote means that my IR based harmonys don't work (except with the aforementioned FLIRC on the FireTV box). But as my son pointed out yesterday, the little amazon remote does everything we need, except for volume.
So in the last month, I've gone from a standard Amazon consumer to having Prime Membership, 3x Echo Dots, a FireTV, 2x FireTV Sticks, an amazon music account and a developer account. (who says Black Friday doesn't work!).
Come on in, the water's lovely.
1 comment:
I'm with you. I am certainly drinking the Amazon Kool-Aide now. I was using Raspberry Pis with Kodi but no one in the family liked using their phone and no Netflix. Along comes the first Fire Stick with Prime and I am hooked. A good remote that everyone can use, easy interface, Netflix, Prime, Kodi, and we are set. If my daughter could get Vudu, then it would be total Nirvana.
Next came the Dots. To sit in my office and play / pause / resume music, check weather, order more Amazon stuff, is just incredible. I went out black Friday looking for more Fire Sticks and came home late (around 2:00 am) with only one Stick and said "Alexa can you order me a FireStick?" "Would you like that delivered between 8 and 10 this morning?" Yes I am sold.
So now the Fire Sticks have replaced the Pis at the lake the office, family room, bedroom and a couple for Christmas gifts. Also giving Dots to several family members for Christmas. And yes I too have a new router from Amazon on its way.
Your LMS integration will lead to absolute total bliss! Looks like even more Dots then. :)
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