hey maybe this is a dumb que,but i wana know that why are people still buying amazon tv sticks? even tho cheap to cheap tv now comes with an android or an operating system ? are the sticks smooth or bloat free? cuz i had a tv stick in 2021 it was filled with amazons blot and was very laggy after sometime i bought it to convert my old tv to smart. thanks!
For their old tvs.
3 Likes
I love the Portability. I have a few spare 4K TV sticks for when I travel.
Hotels have TVs but not content or need signing in into OTT apps. Bring your TV stick, connect to WiFi (hotel WiFi or hotspot) and boom! You have all OTTs ready.
The TVs I have are LG webos and lack a few apps that the FireTV Supports. They stay up to date, and even though I don’t like the bloat (now it’s muscle memory to just go to the app I want) it’s pretty good for the price. Amazing if you find someone selling used ones.
4 Likes
I haven’t experienced this as my first smart TV is relatively new but Android TVs get laggy and slow after a point which makes them unusable and that’s when Firestick/Chromecast or other external devices are helpful.
2 Likes
The current TV we have is pretty old, about 10ish years. But apart from it being old, it’s serving very well and is large enough, so instead of getting a new TV entirely we just got a firestick to add the smart TV esque functionality, which is working extremely well to have movie nights!
1 Like
The 2nd gen Firestick 4K is very fast. It can run almost all audio and video formats using Plex. If you use only Youtube and Netflix, you wouldn’t notice a difference.
My LG OLED is slow and app compatibility is not that great. Firestick 4K is the only good budget streamer remaining in India as Google seems to have given up on Chromecast.
1 Like
i see ,have you ever tried streamio with torrent add-on on it ? also is it bloated with amazon ads still or not?
+ Ideal for wifi upgrade and even ethernet support in high end models.
1 Like
Yes. But, it also has the apps button on the remote. So, you don’t even have to go to the home screen. Just press the apps button, not the home button. There are no ads on the “apps” page.
Buy the 4K plus model, not the 4K select model because 4K select is Amazon’s own OS not android based like the 4K plus model. 4K plus model is the best to buy in India right now, even better than apple TV 4K if you use plex, etc.
1 Like
You carry your own firetv stick where ever you go I mean any hotel? I didn’t thought about this.
I will also do the same from now on.
3 Likes
Any reason that you wouldn’t just choose to cast content from your phone instead? Unless, of course, it’s a non-smart TV, and you can’t do that.
1 Like
maybe if it is a smart tv why not just watch the content directly ig? login log out ?
Anyone tried, plugging in firestick into an android tv or any smart tv, does firestick override smart tv os?
no actually it acts like an normal hdmi device like any settop box or pc and we just have to switch the input to the hdmi it is connected to
2 Likes
Personally speaking i wouldn’t use fire stick on android tvs unless they have extremely bad specifications.
You can use it on LG and Samsung TVs as they run proprietary operating system.
Fire stick uses a modified version of Android, so it is redundant to use it on android tvs (Eg Sony TVs).
Also note that firesticks specifications are pretty low. (Storage/Ram). Storage is more important of the two.
If you are using fire stick, it doesn’t affect tvs inbuilt operating system in anyway. You just need to switch to hdmi 1/2 etc depending on where you connected and firetv will start.
Remember to enable developer options, install downloader app, enable installation of programs from unknown sources, disable videos/audio autoplaying, enable privacy settings, removing unwanted apps etc if you use fire stick.
Amazon have gotten greedy lately. Injecting ads into prime video and removing lots of movies that it had and adding it “for rent”. Well it is your prerogative if you want to use prime video or not as you can use the stick without it.
Amazons baked in apps like silk browser, music app etc can’t be removed from the fire stick. So even if you aren’t a prime user they will occupy your valuable space in your fire stick
PS: I use fire stick (4k one) in my lg tv.
1 Like
Personally I don’t like connecting my TV to internet.
A decade back I had a smart LG TV that had dvr like record to HDD functionality, an update removed that feature. So, you are always at the mercy of manufacturers. Plus an internet connected TV is sprinkled with ads and has ability to fingerprint the content regardless of source. Also, I’ll have to depend on the manufacturer to provide updates.
I think the freedom and benefits are worth the extra cost.
1 Like
Can’t say anything about Firetv specifically but the OS that comes with most TVs area absolute shit. It lags, full of bloatware, you don’t get good experience from them. They just add the android os so that can call it “AI” and “Smart”
I bought a 1.7L LG TV and the webos that came with it is shit. so I use Google TV with it (and to use Tivimate). I only use the Webos if I have to change any setting on TV once in a while.
Better than a firestick, I think normal Google TV sticks or boxes would fare better since you could side-load apps like Smarttube (YT) and other stuff for an ad-free experience. I hear Amazon’s newest Vega OS version on the Firestick heavily restricts that and is the reason most people are hesitant to buy the newer sticks.
Personally, I’m stuck between either getting a Smart TV stick/box off of EletrokniksIndia or repurposing an old Athlon X2 260 build for the same thing.
For someone looking to upgrade their dumb TVs and are in the Apple Ecosystem. Apple TV is the best and more powerful alternative.
Firetv in the newer OS is getting more restrictive and bloated. You won’t be able to sideload in the future except for ADB i think, unless they remove that option in the developer menu.
repurposing an old Athlon X2 260 build for the same thing.
A PC is overkill for this, plus the power usage will be high in PC, probably more than the TV itself. Power usage of Google TV or Amazon Firetv is not even noticeable.
1 Like