Amazon To Start Selling Actual FireTV TVs

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Would you buy an Amazon FireTV TV? I don't know about you but I am pretty picky about what brand of TV I will buy. I guess it all depends on pricing and warranty.

The “FireTV Edition” sets range from 43″ to 65″ and all come with the Amazon FireTV interface — including Alexa voice control — pre-installed. And of course, customers are encouraged to be Amazon Prime members, with all the streaming content and add-on channel access that includes.
 
Eh, FireTV stuff is good, but some of the 3rd party app integration and QA needs to be improved. Plex for example has been plagued with sound issues on the FireTV.
 
No. I'd rather buy a separate box so i can toss it out when it's replaced by something better.

If they were sort of smart, they would create a tv that had a pcie slot that you could plug in a universal form factor board that would be upgradable.
 
Hypergreatthing said:
No. I'd rather buy a separate box so i can toss it out when it's replaced by something better.

If they were sort of smart, they would create a tv that had a pcie slot that you could plug in a universal form factor board that would be upgradable.
Click to expand...

In a way they are smart. They're trying to make that same sort of throwaway to upgrade culture apply to TVs.
 
This would be a big NO from me since FireWhatevers run Android.
 
Nolan7689 said:
In a way they are smart. They're trying to make that same sort of throwaway to upgrade culture apply to TVs.
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Just like buying an all-in-one desktop computers. You will either pay big $$ to get it fixed, or big $$ to replace.
Much cheaper to simply buy a new display, replace a motherboard, or even the entire desktop unit.

My old Sony "Smart" TV is not even plugged into the internet any more. It crashes occasionally during TV guide updates, a guide we couldn't even use any more since the cable company decided to scramble all the channels. No way to disable the updates, so I just unplugged it from the network.

I now use it as a non-smart-TV.
At least it has enough inputs for all the devices I have connected.
 
Not likely something I would buy directly, (locked into a media processor is not a real good idea)

the ~$40 firesticks are pretty decent, (even the $100 fireTV boxes, are decent) but its the 3rd party addons that are spiking sales.
 
This will fail, then Apple will do the same thing and we'll hear about how they have revolutionized television...
 
you do have to consider that the audience this would likely target... our parents. people like us on a hardware based forum dont give a shit to give up modular control, but if you give this to old people who can magically talk to their TV and not touch anything but a power button, it might actually catch on.

most technology follows this pattern. difficult to use, but rewarding enough for techies to love it -> dumbed down versions come out for the masses.
 
People prefer an all-in-one solution, hate to deal with changing video inputs for STBs, disc players or game consoles. I'm clearly not part of that demographic.

Big fan of Fire TV, but not a fan of integration into TVs; Prefer set top boxes. Netflix and Amazon Video were integrated into the Blu-Ray player I bought five years ago- and those integrated apps ain't working so hot now.
 
Hypergreatthing said:
No. I'd rather buy a separate box so i can toss it out when it's replaced by something better.

If they were sort of smart, they would create a tv that had a pcie slot that you could plug in a universal form factor board that would be upgradable.
Click to expand...

So something like a HDMI port where you could upgrade the device attached to it? :ROFLMAO:
 
Gweenz said:
Hell no. A television's job is to be a dumb device that displays the content you choose.
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Actually, that would be a monitor. TV's have always had an internal device for content even to the point of channel tuners that were specific to world regions. I do like the idea of a external box, but after getting my vizio smart tv and now I don't need to power another device to watch netflix, it is kind of nice and with the optical output i can get 5.1 on my receiver from it. Honestly if all tv's went this route it would be nice, and they will always just display content from hdmi so there really is no 'loss' by this move.
 
Saturn_V said:
People prefer an all-in-one solution, hate to deal with changing video inputs for STBs, disc players or game consoles. I'm clearly not part of that demographic.

Big fan of Fire TV, but not a fan of integration into TVs; Prefer set top boxes. Netflix and Amazon Video were integrated into the Blu-Ray player I bought five years ago- and those integrated apps ain't working so hot now.
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yup, this would be perfect for my upstairs living room that my wife and kids use, currently they use a wdtv streaming box that I think is a piece of shit but it streams netflix, youtube and dnla from my media server so they don't care. Downstairs I have my area with consoles, a htpc and an android mediabox that all does this much better but they're not as simple to use as you dont need multiple remotes to use the box upstairs lol. But the family doesn't see the difference, once it works the easiest solution will be the best seller.

Im patiantly waiting for that wdtv box to die so I can atleast buy them a roku box, it would run so much better and also have plex built in so they dont need to navigate folders to access my server lol
 
Hypergreatthing said:
No. I'd rather buy a separate box so i can toss it out when it's replaced by something better.

If they were sort of smart, they would create a tv that had a pcie slot that you could plug in a universal form factor board that would be upgradable.
Click to expand...
I like the idea of pci-e slot, like for a cable card.
 
Hypergreatthing said:
No. I'd rather buy a separate box so i can toss it out when it's replaced by something better.

If they were sort of smart, they would create a tv that had a pcie slot that you could plug in a universal form factor board that would be upgradable.
Click to expand...


if they were smarter, they would create something like an HDMI connector and you could plug in any box that uses a HDMI connector

oh wait...
 
Yeah why not, I have 2 smaller roku TVs, a 40 in the bedroom and 32 in the home gym. Both work fine, and you can still hookup whatever other device you may want to in the future, so anyone thinking they're stuck into a single media processor is not thinking it through. As long as the base TV is of decent quality no reason not to and save yourself an extra piece of hardware, assuming that the combined unit is cheaper than 2 separate units of the same quality.
 
Yeah, I research my TV's visual quality to death before buying and make sure I'm getting the best I can get.

I'll always opt for a separate dumb TV with superior quality, and a separate content box (for me, my HTPC's)

In fact, having "smart" features is a negative for me when shopping.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Yeah, I research my TV's visual quality to death before buying and make sure I'm getting the best I can get.

I'll always opt for a separate dumb TV with superior quality, and a separate content box (for me, my HTPC's)

In fact, having "smart" features is a negative for me when shopping.
Click to expand...

I agree visual quality takes top priority. But side by side and only difference is one has firetv built in and one doesn't and you pick the one that doesn't, why is that? At this point any tv or monitor is running a software os of some level and is not simply an output device anymore (sadly).

I think as a marketing strategy is makes sense because I would bet that the minority of consumers have in home htpc's with 50TB worth of content with home built servers and routers.
 
I might bite if the price is right. I don't really watch a lot of TV. I wouldn't mind a cheap set in the back bedroom - but I can get a cheap TV + FireStick/whatever right now. They'd have to make it compelling.
Doubtful this would be a big seller for Amazon - but what do I know.
 
I don't want to buy a "smart" tv much less a Fire tv. Make the TV have inputs, let me as the consumer decide what third party accessory I plan on hooking to the TV and don't shoe horn me with the expense of your "smart" TV components. Unfortunately good luck finding a TV that isn't "smart" today.
 
bos said:
Yeah why not, I have 2 smaller roku TVs, a 40 in the bedroom and 32 in the home gym.
Click to expand...

Just got the 32" Roku TV (well a Sharp version) and I do agree for casual viewing it's very convenient. Although I was concerned about NO buttons on the TV, so I ended up tethering the remote so it can't be lost. Installed PLEX on it, and everything is right there on the "home" screen.
 
Besides the price and claimed feature set, how long does Amazon guarantee support? Most TVs last years beyond the basic repair warranty, but that isn't a bad thing since they keep working as TVs. 'Smart' or locked in TVs that outlast support or the mothership servers might become e-waste while they still have years of life left. Will Amazon provide a "Revert to dumb TV" mode when they drop support for a model?
 
sfsuphysics said:
I don't want to buy a "smart" tv much less a Fire tv. Make the TV have inputs, let me as the consumer decide what third party accessory I plan on hooking to the TV and don't shoe horn me with the expense of your "smart" TV components. Unfortunately good luck finding a TV that isn't "smart" today.
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I'm thinking that TV's have to have some kind of "smart" feature now-a-days to sell. It may not cost any more for a TV company to let someone like Roku or Amazon give them the software (or charge a small royalty per unit) then developing your own software (and then maintaining it).

I've seen similar things in industrial machinery where it's cheaper to install Windows or Linux and use their time tested device drivers and API, rather then develop your own hardware drivers and interface. You loose some benefits going that way, but you gain a lot as well.
 
Dead Parrot said:
Besides the price and claimed feature set, how long does Amazon guarantee support? Most TVs last years beyond the basic repair warranty, but that isn't a bad thing since they keep working as TVs. 'Smart' or locked in TVs that outlast support or the mothership servers might become e-waste while they still have years of life left. Will Amazon provide a "Revert to dumb TV" mode when they drop support for a model?
Click to expand...

Well, Amazon genuinely wants to be involved in every....single....aspect of your life. So this isn't like Google that starts a project for a year or 2 and then abandons it. Amazon will be, watching your every step, for as long as you let them, and maybe even after that.
 
Darunion said:
I agree visual quality takes top priority. But side by side and only difference is one has firetv built in and one doesn't and you pick the one that doesn't, why is that? At this point any tv or monitor is running a software os of some level and is not simply an output device anymore (sadly).

I think as a marketing strategy is makes sense because I would bet that the minority of consumers have in home htpc's with 50TB worth of content with home built servers and routers.
Click to expand...


Well, this story from the main page a few days ago could be a reason....
 
I hope that most of you realize that this isn't an amazon brand tv. It's just like the roku sets. Fire stick is just integrated.
 
I'd rather swap the $80 box for an upgraded model than have to replace the whole $800 TV.
 
We bought a RokuTV for the kids playroom, which integrates Amazon, Netflix, etc... all pretty well. Plus, it was less than $300 for 42". I'm not sure how Amazon could improve on that formula.
 
I want my Smarts to be separate from the TV. I want my TV to have a long life. If I feel the need to upgrade the main TV, it cascades down to other rooms. I don't want to be anchored to a Fire or Roku when either or might be defunct in 3 years and I expect my TV to last at least twice that.

That being said, I like the Fire TV hardware, I think hardware wise it beat Roku until Roku's recent update. I hate the new FireTV interface. It's like the Netflix Interface. Half the screen is gone to internal advertising of your content. Different kinds of content are jumbled together in categories I wouldn't have picked. You may have a show on the screen but you don't know if its netflix' or amazon's. I'm on a trial offer for Netflix and will probably pay for rounding out the month but cancel after this. I don't want to start watching a show that might go away when I do that. I want things organized so I know where it is coming from.
 
I love my new fire TV stick . I'm sure the TV with the hardware already in will be fine, but like its been said I prefer the TV to be just the display an tuner that's it.
 
I think some here understimate Amazon's IT services.. I find them very polished and very capable. I have now seen merchants use amazon pay too... Flea market type place too.... Don't know why found that curious
 
Hypergreatthing said:
Ohh so hdmi does power and ethernet over the same cable? My devices don't have that ability.
Click to expand...
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI
HDMI Ethernet Channel (HEC)[edit]
HDMI 1.4 introduces a feature called HEC (HDMI Ethernet Channel) among other features.[45][46][54] Like ARC, the HEC feature uses two pins from the connector: a previously unused pin and the hot plug detect pin.[54][55]

HDMI Ethernet Channel technology consolidates video, audio, and data streams into a single HDMI cable, and the HEC feature enables IP-based applications over HDMI and provides a bidirectional Ethernet communication at 100 Mbit/s.[46] The physical layer of the Ethernet implementation uses attenuated 100BASE-TX type signals on a single twisted pair for both transmit and receive.[56][57]

HEC (HDMI Ethernet Channel) and ARC (Audio Return Channel) support combined by one port or cable is also sometimes referred to as "HEAC" (HDMI Ethernet Audio Control).[54]
Click to expand...
 
spugm1r3 said:
We bought a RokuTV for the kids playroom, which integrates Amazon, Netflix, etc... all pretty well. Plus, it was less than $300 for 42". I'm not sure how Amazon could improve on that formula.
Click to expand...

Same here, I've got a TCL Roku 4K set. It was cheap, and TCL is a no name brand, but really, it's a great TV for the price. The built in Roku functionality is nice, this is the first TV I've had where the built in apps are satisfactory and I've not had to add an external device to access the apps I use (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Plex).

Personally, I wouldn't buy a FireTV over a Roku or native android. I don't like the way Amazon's video service is the focal point on Fire devices, with it's competitors an afterthought. It adds a lot of clutter, and given that the only Amazon show I watch is The Grand Tour, I don't need a home screen full of their recommendations.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Well, this story from the main page a few days ago could be a reason....
Click to expand...

Fair point, but is it also just as easy to not connect it to the internet if you want it as just a standalone tv? I mean it will end up going that way just to reduce costs for manufacturers when they start only selling one kind. As long as they don't make them 'require' a connection, then I would be fine with it.
 
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