{"id":21823,"date":"2015-10-26T14:14:16","date_gmt":"2015-10-26T21:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/?p=21823"},"modified":"2015-10-26T14:17:34","modified_gmt":"2015-10-26T21:17:34","slug":"amazon-fire-tv-2015-review-dont-buy-4k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/reviews\/amazon-fire-tv-2015-review-dont-buy-4k\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon Fire TV (2015) Review: Don’t Buy it for the 4K"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

This fall, Amazon introduced the 2nd generation Fire TV<\/a> ($100) amidst a slew of hardware updates for other big-name streaming devices from Roku, Apple and Google (and to a lesser extent, Nvidia).\u00a0Two new features headline the second Fire TV: 4K streaming video support and Alexa, the “Siri-like” voice assistant that’s currently found on Amazon’s Echo “smart” speaker.<\/p>\n

The Fire TV is identical in form factor to the first version, measuring a compact 4.53″ x 4.53″ x 0.69″. \u00a0The optical audio output is gone, in favor of\u00a0a microSD slot to expand your storage up to 128GB. (It has 8GB onboard storage.) I think this change will be welcome to most\u00a0users, especially for gamers.<\/p>\n

Speaking of gamers, Amazon has also released a $140 Fire TV Gaming Edition<\/a> with\u00a0a 32GB microSD card, game controller and two games.<\/p>\n

T<\/span>he internals of Fire TV 2 now boast\u00a0a 64-bit quad-core processor and dedicated GPU for “75% more processing power” over the 1st generation Fire TVs. While the interface and loading of content\u00a0seemed snappy, I didn’t notice any huge difference, but the potential for gaming is there\u2014should the current anemic selection improve.<\/p>\n

Connectivity has been boosted\u00a0this year. You get\u00a0HDMI 2.0 with HDCP 2.2 and dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi over last year’s 802.11n. Much needed when it comes to\u00a0the bigger bandwidth required for 4K streaming.<\/p>\n

\"Fire-TV-unboxing\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Let’s Get to the 4K!<\/h3>\n

I was very anxious to test\u00a0the 4K capabilities of the Fire TV 2. TL;DR<\/em>: it’s disappointing. And that’s not<\/em>\u00a0because of the limited 4K content out there, which has been well-documented. Read on for the long version.<\/p>\n

W<\/span>hile you already know you need an Ultra HDTV to play 4K material from the Fire TV 2, you may not know that you need an HDMI input that’s\u00a0HDCP 2.2 -compliant (aka\u00a0the\u00a0copy protection). Most major brand 4K TVs produced since 2014 have at least one HDMI input with HDCP 2.2, but definitely check your 4K TV to make sure.<\/p>\n

You’ve probably also guessed you need\u00a0pretty fast internet to handle Ultra HD resolution (3840 x 2160). Amazon says you need at least 15Mbps, but that’s the bare minimum and real world speeds never match the listed speeds that your cable company tells you.<\/p>\n

The Fire TV offers 3840 x 2160 content at up to 30fps, although the new Roku 4 will do 60fps. Since most content is not even there yet (e.g. Netflix Ultra \u00a0HD is 24 fps), that’s not a deal breaker.<\/p>\n

\"Fire-TV-2-gui\"<\/a>

Fire TV 2 GUI Looks the Same<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

My first disappointment with 4K on the Fire TV came in the user interface. The new Fire TV sports the same platform as the previous Fire TVs, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s a good platform, albeit\u00a0Amazon Prime-centric, as we already knew going in from last year’s version. No, the main problem is Ultra HD (4K)\u00a0content\u2014the whole reason for this unit’s existence\u2014is buried 4 or 5 rows from the top, after\u00a0Recent, Featured Apps, Prime Originals, etc. I wanted to dig into 4K stuff right away, and it wasn’t easy to find.<\/p>\n

Granted, there isn’t much 4K content to begin with, but actually with Amazon Instant Video alone, there are at least\u00a012 Prime shows available in Ultra HD, including the new alternate history series\u00a0The Man in the High Castle<\/em> (which is pretty cool). These 4K shows should be plastered all over\u00a0the new Fire TV. Instead you’re more likely to stumble upon the 1080p versions first. Boo! (Also if you start watching the 1080p version and switch to Ultra HD, it won’t remember your place. 1080p and Ultra HD (“UHD”) versions are\u00a0displayed as two separate programs.)<\/p>\n

A Bag of Hurt<\/h3>\n

First off, 4K in general looks great, although the “wow” factor is\u00a0dependent on the content itself and what kind of cameras it was shot in. I found new 4K content\u00a0on Netflix, Amazon Video and YouTube to watch.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A shot from Amazon’s Sneaky Pete in Ultra HD. Good luck seeing it on the Fire TV.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

B<\/span>ut I ran into two major \u2014very serious\u2014problems. One is speed. I tried all sorts of 4K content on Amazon Instant Video, and it would frequently take several minutes (if ever) to start streaming in 4K. At first the video\u00a0would be HD (720p), then switch to 1080p HD, and after a few minutes\u2014if I was lucky\u2014finally become Ultra HD. Sometimes the transition didn’t happen at all and would stay stuck at 1080p after 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

I thought maybe something was wrong with my internet (although it’s 150Mps on a 5GHz wireless network). But when I switched over to the built-in Amazon Instant Video app on the 4K test TV (a Vizio), Ultra HD content streamed within seconds.<\/p>\n

Then\u00a0I tried Netflix 4K content on the Fire TV 2, and lo and behold, it was streaming in Ultra HD\u00a0within seconds. Ruh-roh!<\/p>\n

The second\u00a0major problem began occurring after a few days of testing. Once again, it was Amazon Instant Video. After a minute of playing Ultra HD video, the screen turned to black and returned\u00a0 to the menu screen, which possibly indicated an issue with the input or HDMI cable… except that other 4K content through other channels (Netflix, YouTube) was still working fine.<\/p>\n

So there are serious issues with 4K on Amazon Instant Video, and it looks like a software issue. It better get fixed fast.<\/p>\n

It’s not the only software issue – people are having problems<\/a> with Dolby Surround everywhere else but Amazon Instant Video. I wasn’t able to test this bug, but as you can see, there are definitely issues with 4K streaming, particularly with Amazon’s own service.<\/p>\n

Alexa,\u00a0Your Digital Voice Assistant and Other Goodies<\/h3>\n

Alexa is the cloud-based digital voice assistant found in Amazon’s Echo smart Bluetooth speaker. It’s an evolution\u00a0of last year’s Gary Busey-endorsed voice search, so it will tell you the weather (it works) and trivia like who the Prime Minister of Canada is (currently Stephen Harper but didn’t mention the new PM-designate) or when World War II started (it went with Sept 1, 1939). Alexa works pretty fast when she can deliver what you’re asking.<\/p>\n

W<\/span>hile weather and trivia\u00a0are nice additions, content search is the most essential and practical\u00a0aspect, and I’d like to see more improvements, beginning with search that goes outside of Amazon Instant Video. Roku’s been doing for years, and the new Apple TV promises this feature, as well.<\/p>\n

I’d also like to see improved filtering of results. For example, “Show all movies with Tom Cruise” came\u00a0up with a nice list of Cruise movies, but “Show all Amazon Prime Movies with Tom Cruise” or “Show all Oscar-Winning Dramas” \u00a0got nothing.<\/p>\n

X-Ray was\u00a0added to the 1st Gen model earlier this year, but it’s worth mentioning this fun feature that lets you pull up\u00a0actor\/IMDB info on command, like on the Google Chromecast. ASAP (Advanced Streaming and Prediction) is another cool feature which pre-buffers Amazon Instant Video shows based on viewing habits. But it’s also not new\u00a0to the 2nd Gen Fire TV.<\/p>\n

Games<\/h3>\n
\"The<\/a>

The new micro SD slot (up to 128GB) is good for gaming… if the games were there.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

I tried out a couple free games like the popular Crossy Road<\/em> and Table Top Racing<\/em>, and these Android\u00a0games worked perfectly well, but with the Amazon Fire TV’s specs, there should be\u00a0more interesting games made for this platform. There are rumors that Amazon is working on a game, but right now gaming on the Fire TV just feels like untapped potential.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n

Before I started reviewing and using the 2015\u00a0Fire TV, I was not aware of just how many problems people were already having with it. If you go to to customer reviews on Amazon<\/a> or Best Buy<\/a>, you will see many legit reports of buggy performance all over the map.<\/p>\n

AFTVnews.com (the unofficial Amazon Fire news site) reported that\u00a0nearly 500 Amazon employees have been doing internal testing<\/a> on the 2nd gen Fire TV. Due to Fire OS 5\u00a0issues, the 2nd Gen Fire TV orders are now delayed to November 7, and the new voice-activated\u00a0Fire TV stick orders are\u00a0delayed to November 13th on Amazon.<\/p>\n

No doubt the pressure of today’s expected annual release cycle for tech products has something to do with it. And while firmware updates may (and will) fix some of the glitches, consumers have other choices to throw their money at in the meantime.<\/p>\n

If you’re buying the Amazon Fire TV specifically for its 4K capabilities, I cannot recommend it. If you just want a regular HD streaming box, there are too many options out there, especially cheaper ones\u2014including Amazon’s own Fire Stick\u2014that do the job just as well or better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This fall, Amazon introduced the 2nd generation Fire TV ($100) amidst a slew of hardware updates for other big-name streaming devices from Roku, Apple and Google (and to a lesser extent, Nvidia).\u00a0Two new features headline the second Fire TV: 4K streaming video support and Alexa, the “Siri-like” voice assistant that’s currently found on Amazon’s Echo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[866,537,1064,102,1407],"class_list":["post-21823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","tag-4k-hdtv","tag-amazon","tag-fire-tv","tag-splendiferous","tag-ultra-hd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21823"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21873,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21823\/revisions\/21873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}