Amazon's new Fire TV box

Started by Joe, April 02, 2014, 10:50:37 AM

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Farabomb

Hmmm... Wonder if the old AMD multiplier unlock method would bridge the efuse. Way back when you could use a steady hand and some car window defroster repair paint to bridge a jumper on the cpu. This would allow you to change the clock multiplier allowing you set it lower and get higher fsb speeds.

The shit I used to do just to make hardware go just a little bit faster for benchmark bragging rights was a bit silly. What happened to all that free time I had.

Oh yea, GF,  racecars, dog, only prepress guy, house and all that crap. Damn I need a house with a garage.
Speed doesn't kill, rapidly becoming stationary is the problem

I'd rather have stories told than be telling stories of what I could have done.

Quote from: Ear on April 06, 2016, 11:54:16 AM
Quote from: Farabomb on April 06, 2016, 11:39:41 AMIt's more like grip, grip, grip, noise, then spin and 2 feet in and feel shame.
I once knew a plus-sized girl and this pretty much describes teh secks. :rotf:
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
         —Benjamin Franklin

My other job

Farabomb

Joe, did you get the game controler too? Seems you need that to play any of the games.

Damn thing costs twice what I paid for the stick.

Still have the Android on a stick too. Should start playing with that again.
Speed doesn't kill, rapidly becoming stationary is the problem

I'd rather have stories told than be telling stories of what I could have done.

Quote from: Ear on April 06, 2016, 11:54:16 AM
Quote from: Farabomb on April 06, 2016, 11:39:41 AMIt's more like grip, grip, grip, noise, then spin and 2 feet in and feel shame.
I once knew a plus-sized girl and this pretty much describes teh secks. :rotf:
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
         —Benjamin Franklin

My other job

Joe

No I didn't get the game controller. I can play games though using the remote but I would guess it would be much better for gaming if I had the controller.

I still am not thrilled with the Amazon video store. I thought with Prime you could basically watch anything in their library for free but that isn't the case and the prices are not clearly marked on things. And since your device is tied to your account which has your CC info if you blindly click through things you might be buying shit you didn't want.
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

Farabomb

That's why I was considering putting on the parental controls. I can easily see clicking accidentally and getting a paid program.

So far I like it. The interface could be a lot better but maybe it's just the newness of it.

The stick comes with a different remote so I can't play games unless I get the controller that;s 2x the price I paid for the stick.
Speed doesn't kill, rapidly becoming stationary is the problem

I'd rather have stories told than be telling stories of what I could have done.

Quote from: Ear on April 06, 2016, 11:54:16 AM
Quote from: Farabomb on April 06, 2016, 11:39:41 AMIt's more like grip, grip, grip, noise, then spin and 2 feet in and feel shame.
I once knew a plus-sized girl and this pretty much describes teh secks. :rotf:
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
         —Benjamin Franklin

My other job

Joe

Yeah the parental controls may be a good thing to use. Save me from myself. :rotf:
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

DigiCorn

I think the Roku 2s had some issues. My cousin's died, and mine went wonky. The 3 is rock solid, as is the LT.

I have the Chromecast, but rarely use it. Roku is my goto, and now I have Plex dialed in, so I can do what I want. If I play with any new device, it'll be this one: Raspberry Pi
"There's been a lot of research recently on how hard it is to dislodge an impression once it's been implanted in someone's mind. (This is why political attack ads don't have to be true to be effective. The other side can point out their inaccuracies, but the voter's mind privileges the memory of the original accusation, which was juicier than any counterargument ever could be.)"
― Johnny Carson

"Selling my soul would be a lot easier if I could just find it."
– Nikki Sixx

"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut."
― Ernest Hemingway

andyfest

So if I simply want to stream movies from my Macbook Pro (OS X 10.10.1) to my HDTV, what's the best method or device in your opinion? I'm not streaming any other services like Netflix etc - just wanting to stream movies that are on my laptop. BTW, Amazon Fire Stick is not available in Canada.
Retired - CS6 on my 2012 gen MacBook Pro

StudioMonkey

We just bought a new TV and (in the spirit of always buying the latest tech if possible) went for a Smart HDTV.  Only 32" so it was cheap - £240 or around $360.  It connects to the house WiFi and has YouTube + Netflix etc built in but we can also get websites up for catchup TV, stream movies etc.  We can also run movies, music etc. off any device in our WiFi zone. 

I had wondered about getting a ChromeCast or similar but this is a better solution.  The missus loves it since she found 10hr videos of log fires on YouTube.
Time flies like an arrow - fruit flies like a banana

Joe

Quote from: andyfest on January 19, 2015, 07:14:26 AMSo if I simply want to stream movies from my Macbook Pro (OS X 10.10.1) to my HDTV, what's the best method or device in your opinion? I'm not streaming any other services like Netflix etc - just wanting to stream movies that are on my laptop. BTW, Amazon Fire Stick is not available in Canada.

A cable to connect the two. Not sure if the MBP has an HDMI port so you may need an adapter (Display port > HDMI or Thunderbolt > HDMI) Once connected you would set up your Mac Book Pro as having two monitors and then just play the movies on your MBP via something like VLC and assign it to the 2nd display (TV). If you have to get an adapter make sure it will carry both sound and video. The cheaper adapters might not do sound.
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

andyfest

SM - Yeah, my Panasonic plasma dates from 2008 so connecting via wireless without a liason isn't possible. I'm thinking of hard wiring my late-08 Macbook Pro to the tv when needed using an HDMI cable adapter for now as per Joe, but I'd like to come up with a relatively inexpensive wireless solution so I can stream different file formats using VLC on my laptop and broadcast to the tv. Not sure if Chromecast, Roku, Apple TV or WD player fit the bill best. I think the new Apple TV 3 is locked to mp4s and cannot be jailbroken, so it's low on the list.
Retired - CS6 on my 2012 gen MacBook Pro

Joe

I think your easiest option would be the Roku. You can plug an external USB drive or thumb drive into the Roku and watch movies directly from it. No network, wired or wireless required but it does have network capabilities. Cheaper models only have wireless but the higher end Roku have both wired and wireless. The Amazon Fire Box does have a USB port but it can't access and external or thumb hard drive. It can only be used for keyboard/mouse dongle or to access the Fire TV via a PC.

Also does your TV have a USB port? Some of them that do will allow you to watch movies directly from a thumb drive or USB external drive hooked directly to the TV. Our LG 55" allows this. Our 47" Philips does not so YMMV.
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

mattbeals

I got mine for $20 when they were announced. Underwhelming, but functional. Not YET like an AppleTV. But then again, the AppleTV and Roku are mature products. For what this is though, it works well.
Matt Beals

Everything I say is my own personal opinion and has nothing to do with my employer or their views.

David

I see they have refurbished Roku 3 boxes for $79.99.
Do you think these would be worth checking into?
Not sure what you would need to "refurbish" on these guys.
any other ideas that I may want to check into?
Prepress guy - Retired - Working from home
Livin' la Vida Loca

Joe

Quote from: david on January 19, 2015, 02:56:48 PMI see they have refurbished Roku 3 boxes for $79.99.
Do you think these would be worth checking into?
Not sure what you would need to "refurbish" on these guys.
any other ideas that I may want to check into?

Depends on what you want to do. If you have a large Media Library and want to get media artwork and IMDB date for each show and movie you need to get a little fancier. For something like this on Roku you would need to run Plex on it but doing that will require you to be running Plex server somewhere else on your network and let it feed the Plex client in Roku.

I use a full blown Windows 8 PC with the family room TV running XBMC while I have an Amazon Fire TV box running XBMC on the TV in the living room. Both work well and I prefer XBMC because you do not have to have both a client and server with XBMC while you do have to with Plex. Right now I have the two XBMC installs working separately. They do not automatically sync my media library from my NAS. You can use a PC and set up a MySQL database and connect each install of XBMC and they will auto sync. You can start watching from one room and stop and go to another room and have it pick up form the point where you stopped in the other room. And if you watch a show or movie in one room it will show up in the other room as watched which has bot it's good points and bad points.

There is a lot of info here scattered about for what everyone uses. The synced XBMC from multiple locations kicks ass but takes some work to set it up. On the simplest side you plug a thumb drive into the TV and hit play and a movie/TV Show will play. You won't get any descriptions or artwork though. Just depends on how fancy you want to get.
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

David

I don't have a library, I just want to watch anything free on the tv.
I think I'm cheaper than you Joe, if it ain't free, it ain't worth watchin'.  LOL
Currently using my homemade antenna to get all the local tv channels (free over the airwaves). Just recently got a HDMI cable and tried the Hulu Plus trial. That works great over my slow ass DSL, just wondering what other "cheap" options are out there.
I've read through the other threads previously, really don't have the time, energy or money to do anything like what you describe, and neither of us (me and the wifey) watch that many movies. My life is boring.
Prepress guy - Retired - Working from home
Livin' la Vida Loca