Amazon released its Fire TV (2017 update) Streaming Media Player. Coming in a new dongle design, the new Fire TV (2017) is packed with a 1.5GHz (4 x Cortex A53) Amlogic quad-core processor, a Mali450... Amazon Fire TV (2017) Streaming Media Player
You know, holding back surround sound channels on a paid service, claiming they don't offer it as some browsers do not support it, is a pretty low way to try and sell more of these. You do not even get surround sound on movies you buy lol Especially when Netflix allow surround sound without having to buy some dongle... I Really hope they soon support surround sound through the browser.
Get a Roku. I think they've always supported surround sound since their first release (definitely the 2nd release supported it anyway). Their smartphone app is also pretty handy, and if you get a new enough model you can use it as a wireless display for your PC.
Wait. Does this thing have no USB ports I can attach an external device to it so I can play my favorite movies?? Also, does it support MKV, with AC3 and DTS soundtracks? Which device compares better than this? Thanks!
No - most devices like these don't. These are meant to receive media streams. That being said, if you've got a PC with a movie on it, you should be able to use a DLNA service (such as Plex) and this ought to work fine for that. I personally use MiniDLNA/ReadyMedia, since it is very light-weight and its free, but, you're stuck with whatever your receiving device is compatible with. For me personally, I'm fine with spending a few minutes converting my videos. I would be really surprised if it didn't support MKV, but again, that depends on what you use to stream your data. My Roku's built-in app supports only MKV and MP4, so, I'm left needing to manually convert some videos. As for AC3 or DTS, I don't see why it wouldn't - there is surround sound support, so not supporting those would be kind of weird. But again, something like Plex ought to make up for anything the Fire TV doesn't support. The only direct competitors I know of are Roku, Google Chromecast (which hardly counts), Apple TV, and modern game consoles. If you're the type of person who likes to make things yourself, there are plenty of ARM boards you can get that have XBMC/Kodi that you can install on them. Otherwise, you're better off just building an x86 HTPC.
I have the original Fire TV in my bedroom with Kodi installed on it and it supports all of those. I believe it has 1 USB port but honestly I've never used it since all my movies are on a network drive. It's not a bad box but I prefer the Nvidia Shield with Kodi installed.
Where are you getting that information? It supports just about everything in terms of audio. "Dolby Audio, 5.1 surround sound, 2ch stereo, and HDMI audio pass through up to 7.1" and this:
-the FireTV stick doesn't have an optical port, like this one it just sends it through HDMI so it still has DD and all that. Every TV has a digital out nowadays. -it absolutely destroys the Roku as its a full android experience (you can sideload anything within reason). -supports OTG cables which means you have to spend 1.00ish on a charging OTG cable and can hook a peripheral or a hub and several peripherals at once. -plays x265 video\5ghz Wifi\usbhost The only downside is this one seems to hang from the port, Fire stick 2 is just as capable as FireTV and is roughly the same size as the much inferior Chromecast. PS: The only devices that compare are Android boxes. I use it with Kodi, Xfinity Stream (Comcast official TV app), Netflix and dozens of emulators. I never need to change inputs on my tv and ditched my comcast set top box. PS2: If you are thinking of getting one get one now and disable updates. All of the cool stuff works out of the box but it seems Amazon might start limiting functionality of these soon.
Thank you for your reply and useful information, but you seem to have missread my post. I am at least glad it is as cheap as it is for what it is really, but I will not buy one on principal, might consider one in the future if they fix browser surround sound support as such a device does have its uses.
I use mine 24/7. When my TV isn't on its a torrent client. PS: You can buy something to separate the digital audio from HDMI... Ive never had a single issue with 5.1 surround not working so idk what the problem is.
I was considering one of these for the bedroom for my wife as it would also be reasonably future proof, but ended up getting the new Fire Stick instead as I doubt we will have 4k in the bedroom anytime soon. It does look like a nice bit of hardware though, will be interesting to see how well it supports 24hz though. The Fire Stick does, but when using Plex it's a stutter mess, and while Kodi seems better I've not done enough testing so far. Unsure what the browser 5.1 is about.....i was unaware we could get 5.1 when using a browser for Netflix or Prime Video.
