dunno if they are still on sale at staples for $24, but I ordered one from them last week and signed up for text alerts which gives you a $5 off $25 purchase. Ended up being 19$ for the fire stick, had to add an item to get to 25, obv.

Looks like they are $39 again :/ bummer

12/5/2014 6:42:33 AM

Also 5x as expensive.

12/5/2014 11:26:38 AM

Just played with mine for about 15 minutes. Thing is awesome. Almost no delay and good quality from what I can tell. I hooked it into the receiver as I don't have audio going from my TV to receiver. Dolby Digital + worked right away. Pretty impressed so far. Have yet to play with the Fire App on my phone. Will give it a shot shortly.

12/5/2014 6:50:50 PM

someone install plex, plex's pbs channel, and report back

I need you to check certain videos to see if they will stream

there are particular videos that won't stream to my fucking ps3 but load fine on a remote pc

just curious if the fire stick will do MORE BETTER

well, apparently there's a god damn pbs app for the fire stick - i wonder if it has everything the site does

[Edited on December 5, 2014 at 7:38 PM. Reason : ]

12/5/2014 7:37:36 PM

Tried the Android app. Not bad but it doesn't really let you search within the app then start that show on the Fire Stick. Would be nice if it could do that. I guess that's what a Chromecast does.

^Tried out the Plex app. Works alright but Plex on the Amazon Fire TV/Stick doesn't support 5.1 DTS/Dolby from .mvk files. Kind of a bummer.

12/5/2014 8:39:03 PM

^ thanks!

yea, it's a bummer about the mkv, but I suppose if I want 5.1 I can boot up the ps3 - I've gotten to the point lately where I tell netflix to play stereo and set the receiver accordingly so I can have dialogue through all channels...I swear, I'm going deaf, because if I don't blast the hell out of it, I can't hear dialogue out of the center channel...and I've turned that single channel way up.

12/5/2014 9:44:18 PM

Quote :

"Almost no delay and good quality from what I can tell."

I've experienced just the opposite. My Roku is smooth as butter, and the Firestick is laggy and has to buffer pretty frequently. At first I just thought it was due to room locations and that maybe the WiFi signal was weaker with a bit more distance from the router, but I switched the devices to test it in different rooms, and NOPE. Oh well. You get what you pay for.

[Edited on December 6, 2014 at 11:41 AM. Reason : .]

12/6/2014 11:40:38 AM

I've experienced a couple sub second spinning arrows in loading videos but hardly noticeable. As all the reviews state it's much faster and less laggy than the Roku stick or Chromecast.

Or are you comparing a streaming stick to a $100 Roku 3 box? Then yes of course the Roku box is probably less laggy. At this point it seems like we're talking milliseconds. There's barely any lag from what I can tell. Maybe you got a dud?

--Also buffering? Like in the middle of the video? We've probably watched 4 hours of various TV shows and one movie in the last 24 hours and had zero buffering. It didn't even have to buffer when I skipped forward to the middle of a tv show. Fairly impressed with that. Then again it is over 5.0 ghz and 3 feet from the router so that might have something to do with it.

[Edited on December 6, 2014 at 1:36 PM. Reason : s]

12/6/2014 1:26:07 PM

I been play Flappy Bird on this thing and its pretty fun lol.

12/6/2014 10:04:45 PM

I only have a few days experience with mine, but ive not had any lag or buffering issues.

12/8/2014 1:07:43 PM

3rd day reporting in. Still no buffering or lag. We did have one episode that started as non-hd (HD wasn't lit up) but it corrected itself after 3-4 minutes. Much preferred to actually waiting on the HD buffer. Fairly impressed with it. Don't see how performance could be that much better with a normal Fire TV (although I haven't used one) outside of games.

Also tried flappy bird or whatever. That shit is hard.

12/8/2014 9:52:22 PM

That's great that you have no lag/buffering issues. Mine does. It's not constant, but it happens frequently enough to be annoying/irritating. I'm not a Roku fanboy or anti-Amazon by any means, but the Firestick is pretty mediocre imo and deserves its $29 price point. I'd gladly pay $100 for another Roku 3 over the Firestick. In fact, I'd never buy another Firestick again, based on the experience I have with this one.

[Edited on December 8, 2014 at 10:52 PM. Reason : .]

12/8/2014 10:51:17 PM

With all the positive reviews and everyone ITT commenting on the lack of buffering or lag issues it sounds like you might have issues with your wifi throughput. Are you trying to run it over 2.4ghz?

12/8/2014 11:04:50 PM

5ghz

Maybe it's just a dud.

12/8/2014 11:06:33 PM

Yeah I don't know. That sucks. Then again you might be biased because you've been using a Roku 3. Truthfully I haven't had any experience with the Fire TV or Roku 3 so I don't have a lot to compare it to. I may end up getting one of those and using the Fire Stick for travel as it's a little easier to carry around.

12/8/2014 11:28:36 PM

I just want to say that amazon has the worst customer service in the world. We're talking time warner cable customer service bad. For two weeks I've been trying to get my prime membership to go through and all I've gotten is a load of shit from eight different reps in India that won't give you their ID number or the number of the phantom ticket they have supposedly opened up.

12/8/2014 11:59:35 PM

^why are you having so much trouble with Prime?



my Fire Stick delivery got pushed up to Dec. 11th. Will report in once i've played around with it?

12/9/2014 8:23:52 AM

my experience with Amazon CS has led me to believe they are among the very best in the world. I love their CS.

[Edited on December 9, 2014 at 1:20 PM. Reason : ^mine too]

12/9/2014 1:20:14 PM

Yeah I've had great experience with their CSRs. They've all been in the US. Probably the best experience I've had at any company.

12/9/2014 1:36:32 PM

So far so good. Not a single complaint except I wish it was free!

12/9/2014 3:01:12 PM

Ffffffffffffff. So my brother just decided yesterday he wants a fire stick for christmas & I immediately told SIL I'd get that for him - thinking they're still $24. Of course now they're all $39 again it looks like. Does anybody know if there are any planned sales again soon?

Well fuck. Now I'm noticing they're sold out everywhere. Damn it.

[Edited on December 10, 2014 at 8:44 AM. Reason : ]

12/10/2014 8:40:42 AM

^ Saw some at staples in fuquay about 3 days ago... maybe worth a call.

12/10/2014 11:19:08 AM

^I'm in Rocky Mount

12/10/2014 11:42:29 AM

I got the Roku stick for the same price, and I love it. It's an option if you can't find him a fire stick.

It does everything the amazon one does.

12/10/2014 3:42:35 PM

How much are you willing to spend? Ebay is churning out a good amount each day since they are sold out.

12/10/2014 5:34:58 PM

I'll sell mine for $40

12/10/2014 7:31:08 PM

holy hell i'm really impressed with this thing. It's netflix and prime video apps are so much faster than the apps built into my Smart TV. even with my TV being connected via cable to my router the FireTV stick is so much faster to browse and stream over wifi.

we all know Smart TV apps are usually pretty crappy, but I wasn't really aware of how bad until now. Also, I can use my regular remote to control FireTV as well so i don't necessary have to worry about losing the small remote in the couch cushions

i'll be the first one to ask this... how can i stream porn on this thing!?

12/12/2014 8:47:19 AM

it needs a built-in broswer.

12/12/2014 11:30:43 AM

The Fire Stick supports Miracast or AllCast Android app. Not sure how reliable they are but couldn't you just cast a browser to it?

I have a HTPC hooked up I use for XBMC and browsing. The Fire Stick was mainly so I didn't have to use a browser on my HTPC for Netflix and Amazon Prime.

12/12/2014 12:24:03 PM

How is this any different/better than chromecast?

12/12/2014 1:51:13 PM

It's apples and oranges. Chromecast casts from a phone. The Fire Stick is a completely independent device with a remote like an Apple TV. It's also a much smoother experience and doesn't require a user to have a phone.

Also out of the box Chromecast doesn't support Amazon Instant Video. Nor does it support the higher bitrate Dolby Digital + sound. (I think).

12/12/2014 2:01:11 PM

i'm reading that it doesn't actually support miracast, laptops and most phones dont work

12/12/2014 2:26:04 PM

Quote :

"Chromecast casts from a phone."

I use my chromecast from my laptop almost exclusively. There's a chromecast app launcher with everything you need including native file support so I can download .mkv torrents and watch in full HD on my set.

[Edited on December 12, 2014 at 4:31 PM. Reason : Videostream is the app im referring to]

12/12/2014 4:30:50 PM

Yeah that works too but I'm an adult now and we like to sit down on the couch, pick up a small remote and hit a button without having to be on our phones or laptops. It's a streamlined interface with a big menu and easy to scroll through tv shows / movies. Not saying the end result isn't the same. The experience is just different.

12/12/2014 5:40:11 PM

Picked one up the other day.

Twice this afternoon it's decided to stop connecting to the internet and not start working again without a reboot. It's about 4 ft from the router. sigh

12/12/2014 7:07:12 PM

Quote :

"I'm an adult now and we like to sit down on the couch, pick up a small remote and hit a button without having to be on our phones or laptops."

I hope you know how incredibly lame this sounds

12/13/2014 10:37:02 AM

if i can't get my downloaded .mkv file to play on my tv then it isn't better than chromecast

12/13/2014 1:11:07 PM

^^Partially trolling there. My main point was I don't always have my phone or laptop when I'm sitting on my couch. It's a much simpler device to use.

^It's primary purpose is to use streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. It does that very well.

12/13/2014 1:14:13 PM

Tons of problems with Netflix not loading this weekend

12/14/2014 7:25:03 PM

Quote :

"if i can't get my downloaded .mkv file to play on my tv then it isn't better than chromecast "

FireTV/FireStick has a Plex app.

12/14/2014 8:24:32 PM

Quote :

"FireTV/FireStick has a Plex app."

Yeah but Plex on both those don't support surround sound from .mkv files. I still use my HTPC with XBMC for all my other shows then the Fire Stick for Netflix/Amazon Instant. Works great.

12/14/2014 9:23:40 PM

Quote :

"How much are you willing to spend? Ebay is churning out a good amount each day since they are sold out."

Lol definitely not more than $39. I bought him something else on his list.

12/14/2014 9:50:55 PM

Quote :

"FireTV/FireStick has a Plex app."

if i knew how to setup Plex I would just have an HTPC

12/15/2014 9:44:13 AM

There's no set up involved with Plex. It's essentially install and then you log in on a browser or another device and streaming is good to go.

12/15/2014 10:14:46 AM

If installing and setting up Plex is too much for you then you probably shouldn't ever try to cross a street.

12/15/2014 11:24:06 AM

Yeah I mean XBMC is one thing (although the latest versions require almost zero set up). Plex is for the general population. You install it and you might have to point it to where your media is but after that you're good to go.

--And on that note if you don't have a surround sound set up then Plex on the Fire Stick worked fine for me. Didn't have a problem playing the entire file locally. There's even an option not to trans code it and just stream it on the fly.

[Edited on December 15, 2014 at 11:56 AM. Reason : s]

12/15/2014 11:55:08 AM

dur, i was thinking of XBMC

i need to re-install PLEX now that it's on Xbox One anyways (I stopped using it before because I was having trouble with my NAS device, maybe it will work now)

12/15/2014 1:35:50 PM

Quote :

"--And on that note if you don't have a surround sound set up then Plex on the Fire Stick worked fine for me. Didn't have a problem playing the entire file locally. There's even an option not to trans code it and just stream it on the fly."

why does having a surround sound setup change whether this works correctly or not? Just curious because I think i'll be getting a soundbar for Christmas.

12/15/2014 2:08:48 PM

As previously mentioned the Plex app on the Amazon Fire Stick and TV doesn't support playing DTS/Dolby surround sound from .mkv files. It will only output in stereo. If you don't have a surround set up it obviously doesn't matter.

Sound bars usually have at the least 3.1 (left, center, right, sub). So if you tried playing it through that you'd only get right and left.

Alternatively you could side load XBMC on the Fire TV/Stick and get .mkvs working with surround. I haven't done this but heard it's possible.

12/15/2014 2:43:58 PM

ah ok, I didn't pick up that you were speaking about .mkv files specifically.

12/15/2014 7:24:59 PM