Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote (includes TV controls) | HD streaming device | 2020 release

So worth the money. Basically it's virtually free cable tv. Prime video is awesome for on demand movies but the free plutotv and Tubi apps quadruple it's value. The tiny remote is perfect, it only has the buttons you need. It learned to control the tv no problem. Here is where we noticed possibly the only down side. So say you wanted to turn on the tv and play, say a workout video from your DVD player. When you hit power on your tv remote it also turns on the fire stick. Granted this is perfect for most people. Unless you've got a monthly cap on your internet. Unless you cycled through your tv inputs to see that the fire stick was on, you'd never know. So we plugged in the fire stick to a switched power strip. So we can just depower it if we wanted to play video games or DVDs and such. The hook up is as quick as you can unbox the thing and connect the wires. Type in your wifi password then log into your Amazon account and you're all good. I really can't recommend this enough. It works perfectly and it's about as user friendly as anything I've ever tried. It will honestly take you longer to figure out your wifi and amazon passwords. Oh, and we had the apps already installed in the tv but they work and work and grind to buffer or play anything. The fire stick must have a much bigger memory in it that eliminates the painful buffering / loading process that chokes the tv down to unwatchable. The fire stick does all this effortlessly.

It works well, and provides a decent picture (improved somewhat when I supplied it a wired connection to my router). It is fairly easy to set up initially, recognizing your tv for the remote, etc. I may be missing something but I have another fire TV device in the house, with all of the passwords for the various streaming suppliers, and you still have to go through and set up each service individually. So far operation has been fairly flawless and any glitches has been in my data connection, not the stick. Only issue is so many of the Alexa enabled devices can only connect on a 2.4 Ghz connection, and this you want to set up on a 5.0 ghz (for speed of signal) Since I have this on my primary router, and all of my Alexa devices on a separate 2.4 ghz router, not all of the Alexa enabled devices are as integrated as they could be. This has become more of a problem, as most modems/routers use a combined signal system, automatically switching between 2.4 and 5 ghz depending on signal strength and such, where most Alexa enabled devices require a specific 2.4 channel. (this is changing as more of the accessories are becoming 5.0 capable) I fixed this by adding a second older router as a hub, that has separate addresses for each network speed. Maybe a dedicated hub might work better with integration.

I don't usually write reviews but I had to for this one. First off I seen a lot of one-star reviews and I wanted to touch base on those the back of the remote cover took me less than a second to take off it was easy no problem anybody that had a problem has difficulties with electronics period second it is mostly for subscription services it has some or very little free services YouTube Tubi TV etc. TV/cable is not free. Third it advertises if you actually read it it does not support 4K it says that in the description and fourth the person who had it in Spanish and couldn't switch it to English must have been inpatient and was just pressing buttons rapidly at the startup it gives you a language option and it does come with 2 AAA batteries in the description it says batteries sold separately but two AAA batteries came in the box so now that I got that out of the way my own review it works very well I have a smart Vizo TV for my room and we have a regular HDTV for the living room I have to say the fire stick works better and faster than my smart TV loads instantly within 2-3 seconds and there is no buffering of the Video quality the voice command is a cool feature and you can control your TV power on/off and turn the volume up/down with the fire stick remote and the cool part is I didn't have to put in any code for the TV I just had to select my brand of TV 😁 I can't find any downside to it if I do I'll be back to edit my review but so far it is a great product five stars out of five!

Set up was extremely easy: 1) I plugged the Fire stick into my TV and put the batteries into the remote control, 2) the Fire stick started itself, asked which WiFi network is mine, then asked me to enter the WiFi password using the remote control. It then said it was connected to the internet, 3) the Fire stick downloaded updates and restarted itself, which took 10 minutes, 4) to log in to my Amazon account, the Fire stick asked me to go to the amazon.com/code website on my computer and enter the code that it displayed on my TV, which was very easy. Now the Fire Stick was logged into my Amazon account, 5) Lastly, it played music and asked me to check that the volume control on the remote control worked, and it did. Done. I was playing a TV show with this device less than 20 minutes after opening the package. The TV image and audio are very clear and it loaded the show quickly. Also, the remote control is small and has exactly what you need, without all the unnecessary buttons on my TV remote. The buttons turn the TV on/off, adjust volume up/down (including a mute button), fast-forward/rewind, and holding down the speaker button lets you provide verbal commands to Alexa. This is an excellent device at an affordable price.

03/04/2021: Note: I use my Echo devices for Alexa, so cannot offer info on the Voice Recognition or Alexa integration on this device. I've had a number of Amazon Fire devices. I've been using Amazon Fire TV devices for my TVs (4 of them), and they've been excellent performers overall. The sole reason I got this one is because one of my TVs is old enough that it doesn't have HDMI passthru, which meant I had to keep two remotes handy - one for the TV, one for the Fire. So when I saw this upgraded Fire Stick's remote had IR TV controls, I decided to try it out. (I also have an Alexa-enabled IR device which works well, but I generally want to turn up/down the volume several notches at a time, and get tired of saying "Alexa TV volume down, Alexa TV volume down, Alexa TV volume down, Alexa TV volume down, " Buttons are just faster/easier. And while I can (and have) "programmed' the device to do five "volume down" commands, it puts a 2 second delay between each, which is also sub-optimal. When a commercial comes on at 2am and blasts my ears out, ten seconds is too long to wait!) I've had it and have been using it for a while now, and it's performed very well. The TV remote portion was very easy to set up, and I love having "one remote to rule them all..." On the other hand, it appears to be somewhat weaker on processing video. I have a number of TV shows ripped from my purchased DVDs that I play via Plex. Some of these are jerky on the new device but played smoothly on the Fire TV device. This is usually not noticeable during regular scenes where people and things move around a lot. But on some videos where there are long, slower-moving "glide" videos segments, it's very video. An example would be on Star Trek TNG, when they show the ship moving smoothly across the screen, this shows smooth-jerk-smooth-jerk, which is pretty annoying. It was that way on the original Fire Stick I had as well, but not on the Fire TV. And no, it's not just those videos, it's obvious on ALL videos where there's a smooth flowing shot for a second or more. And it's not just Plex, it happens on other local-file video players - tho not on streaming apps like Netflix or Amazon Prime. So I suspect it may be that it's the CPU not the GPU. Aside from that one HUGE flaw, the device works well, and I do appreciate the redesign of the home screen as well as the Remote.

I had no problem getting the Fire TV Stick loaded and operational. Was able to successfully upload all streaming apps. Minor issues with YouTube TV As a beginner in the streaming arena, it was confusing sometimes setting up profiles and keeping track if I was in the Amazon Fire TV or YouTube TV profile. There is also a "Live" guide for Amazon and for YouTube TV that may take awhile to figure out which one you are currently using. It may take some playing around with the remote to figure how to be more efficient in moving from app to app, channel to channel, and configuring the settings to your preference. The Alexa voice integration worked great and was my "go to" option when I didn't know how to maneuver as well with the remote. I had no problem setting up the Fire TV remote to interface with my TV (on/off, volume up/down). In fact this was done without me having to tell Fire TV remote what type of TV I had. My goal was to get rid of all my Verizon boxes and the products associated with the bundle (except the Internet). To ease into this streaming configuration, I set up first the TV I mainly watched while using YouTube TV free trial offer. Once I was fairly familiar with the setup, I configured the TV in the kitchen. My thought was to ease my wife into this new environment, while she could still go to her main TV with the Verizon box, if necessary. Her TV was the last to come off the Verizon bottle. By then she was fairly comfortable operating the Fire TV remote and on the positive side realized she had more TV shows/movies than she had with Verizon. On the plus side, prior to going streaming, we had Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, but now with the integration of those Apps with Fire TV Stick, we tend to watch more of this programming because it's easier to see what's available and quickly move to view it. I admit I'm still learning more each day, but I'm happy with my purchase and the money it saved me saying goodbye to the Verizon bundle.

This thing is so easy to install and use that my 88-year old, admittedly technically challenged mom can now easily access Netflix, Amazon Prime and You Tube on her TV. We tried the google thing, but couldn't get past the technical issues. And forget the lack of search capabilities on it! The Amazon stick basically installs itself! She can switch the TV on and off, turn the volume up and down, and watch what she wants easily and quickly. For someone with arthritic fingers and mobility issues, this stick is a godsend! LOVE IT! If I had the power to make two changes, one would be to have some kind of finger indent to ensure the user has the stick pointing the right way. The other is to make it more transparent or "not-so-easy" when she accidentally adds a premium channel or service. She accidentally signed up for Starz and a couple of other channels without realizing that there was a cost involved. It was rather difficult to find the charges on her Amazon account, and I didn't like the extra step it took to undo what she accidentally did. Other than that, however, I'm ecstatic that she can enjoy The Crown, Mrs. Maisel and all the other great programming on Amazon and NetFlix, especially while she's stuck at home under the COVID restrictions. HOORAH FOR AMAZON!!!

If you're like me, you had a rude awakening to the new tricks TV makers are pulling now. The smart TV you bought three or more years ago is no longer getting app updates. So if you want to get content from newer services like Disney Plus or HBO Max, you are out of luck if you stick with your old TV, which might otherwise be a perfectly good TV still and still has a nice picture. I suppose with TVs becoming computers, I shouldn't be surprised by the fact that the makers are treating them as such, and expecting you to upgrade every few years. But when you spend a big bucks on a big TV, it's a bummer to know that in a couple years it is no longer supported. Amazon to the rescue. These handy HDMI sticks will revitalize an old TV. I had recently repaired an old LG a friend donated to me. It's a big beautiful TV and I just couldn't throw it out even though it wasn't showing a picture anymore. So I fixed it, but being from 2013, it didn't have built-in Wi-Fi, the apps were old, and you couldn't get newer apps for it. The Fire TV Stick 2020 for standard HD was the perfect solution for every single issue I just mentioned. First, it provides Wi-Fi connectivity. And it works pretty well. My comparisons from experience are the Boxee Box (a failure: the developers abandoned everyone after taking their money), and the Tivo 4K Stream. The Tivo is actually really nice, when it works. It has problems with consistent performance and buffers a lot (possibly my Wi-Fi's fault) and its apps crash a LOT (not my fault). So far the Amazon Fire TV Stick blows them all away. I have to admit the Boxee remote with the integrated keyboard on back was nice, but in every other respect Fire TV blows the others away. It's super affordable, compact, performs well, has a great remote, gets plenty of the apps, has voice support, and you can find lots of useful accessories for it. My Fire TV Stick is running on the same Wi-Fi as the Tivo 4K Stream and rarely buffers and I've not had app crashes. Since the TV I have it on is regular HD, it's a perfect match. Amazon does have a 4K Fire TV Stick if your TV supports the higher resolution. I really want to support competition, but so far the Amazon competitors aren't being competitive! If you have an older TV like mine with an HDMI port, but doesn't have Wi-Fi or can't get the newer apps, this is the answer.