yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Fire TV General] spyder3:
Check your Genesis settings. Make sure that you have HD sources enabled, and are listed as the top priorities. Not that what you are saying isn't true, just as a thought to make sure that all is equal. Also try different hardware/software acceleration settings. I'll play around with it in the next couple of days.

Has this been confirmed on other devices?

Only reason that I ask is that this is the first time I have seen it.
[Fire TV General] Y314K:
Has been verify to work on AFTV's & AFTVS's... http://xdaforums.com/fire-tv/general/easy-to-access-apps-t2921479

You will have to uninstall the new apk to be able to install from the Amazon store. And then reinstall the apk to get the grid menu. Also not sure if app updates will work with the grid apk.
[Fire TV General] danknasty:
I am running full hd content i just tried the gotham build it also does this. I also tried watching some free show on amazon prime that was in whatever their hd format is and it seemed to scale down the quality frequently. I think it may be the device itself doing this to increase speed. Also installing amazon store apk does make all your apps visible in the apps section on the main screen.
[Fire TV General] goatmale:
I'm beginning to think that the stick has some differences with what can be paired. I can't get a damn thing to pair with it. I have tried my PS4 controller and an OUYA remote and both just don't seem to want to pair although people using the original fire tvs seem to have had luck. I am using the setting apk. I wonder if it's because I'm on the latest firmware :(
[Fire TV General] Roger W:
I just tried snesoid and supergnes - both seem to work at normal speed, but button mapping was a mess in both. The UI isn't designed to be navigated with only external controllers that it captures keypresses from :) If you get past that though, I don't notice any hitching. MAME playing neo geo still gets a little laggy but the onscreen framerate stays at 60/60 the whole time. I trust my observations though that the whole sim slows down by 50% or so when a big effect is going off.

I'd installed xbmc-13.2-Gotham-armeabi-v7a.apk and saw the blurriness in it.
[Fire TV General] ytsejam1138:
My Ouya controller paired fine with my Fire Stick. I'm also on the latest firmware.
[Fire TV General] lattiboy:
MX Player + ES File explorer = awesome picture

So, I sideloaded ES File Explorer and MX Player. I set MX player as the default video player and I watched a few 4-9GB BR Rips (720p, x264). They played flawlessly!

On the remote, ES File Explorer is clunky, but it sees my NAS and I got it to work, so it's my current (annoying) solution.

Video issues are definitely something with my kodi build, as this little stick is incredibly impressive with regard to video quality.
[Fire TV General] Montisaquadeis:
Should be impressive since it uses the same media chip as the Raspberry Pi but has a much better CPU
[Fire TV General] danknasty:
Have you tried playing the same local content on xbmc?
[Fire TV General] PMac10000:
Got mine yesterday. I also upgraded to latest firmware. Sideloaded Settings.apk to try some bluetooth pairings with a BT mouse and keyboard. For whatever reason, yesterday was no-go. Stick saw the devices, but wouldn't pair.

Today for some reason was different. Stick discovered the BT keyboard (Ipazzport) and gave me the key to pair it with. Works great! Stick also discovered my Macbook Pro and gave me a key to pair it with successfully... not sure what good that's going to do me though. Oddly, it wouldn't discover or pair with the BT mouse (HP x400b). Which sucks, because I need a mouse to fully interact with some of these third party apps (like FiOS mobile, for example). My mini-BT-keyboard has a touchpad on it, but it seems barely able to move the cursor on apps that need mouse or touch input. Will keep trying though...

---------- Post added at 07:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:15 PM ----------

Guess I went a little too far and tried to BT pair my Galaxy S4 with the Stick... which it did, successfully. The only problem is... now when I launch "Settings.apk", and I select the "Bluetooth" option, the app immediately crashes. Any ideas how to get back to normal?
[Fire TV General] ToddlerTN:
You can reset the entire stick to get back to normal, but you probably don't want to do that.

Desperately looking for a Bluetooth solution to input for sideloaded apps which don't work with the remote. A Bluetooth keyboard/trackpad combo would be ideal.
[Fire TV General] swicago:
Can anyone confirm if the firestick can playback standard dvd iso images via xbmc/kodi?
[Fire TV General] pokey9000:
Got one today on a whim. Good news is the remote shows up as BT HIDP class. Works with my Linux box as arrow keys at the least. Haven't looked at the keycodes for all the keys, but out-of-the-box it's a decent presentation remote.

Bad news is the posted sources have the wrong kernel tree (FireTv "Bueller", but not "Montoya") and don't include U-Boot, which can be found in the 54.1.0.1 update file.

Not sure what I'll use it for yet, but $25 is not bad for a BT remote and a 1A USB charger if nothing else pans out.
[Fire TV General] rp201:
or just re-install over existing app with "adb install -r AmazonApps-release.apk" does not leave you a backup of original but if you have one already you should be good to go.

---------- Post added at 10:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:33 AM ----------

download the new firetv app from the play store for firmware version 1. could not get the app to find any devices. I tried an otg adapter with a powered hub with no luck. Could not get native miracast to discover device. kinda flopping even at $25 bucks cause I have a firetv.

oh well.
[Fire TV General] Roger W:
update on the blurriness in xbmc -

In xbmc (xbmc-13.2-Gotham-armeabi-v7a.apk), I went to Settings - Video, and at the bottom of the left column of categories, there's a toggle for Advanced which I set. Then a new section called Acceleration appeared and I went there. There are toggles for hardware/software and a couple codecs. Turning off libstagefright was the only way I could fix the blurriness, however the video now stutters too badly to watch. Setting Software mode with Threading plays without stuttering, but had the same blurriness we started with.

So on the bright side, we're not crazy because there's a setting that controls this, but unfortunately it appears that this app isn't currently compiled with a high-quality hardware decoder for this chip. MX Player, on the other hand, supports its ARM7 NEON codec add-on and goes into HW+ decoding mode which is great.
[Fire TV General] danknasty:
Yea I just tried it as well it is when it is using hardware decoding that you get blurriness the software encoding gives you the full quality. I was able to watch a full hd movie in genesis with no stuttering... have you tried just switching over to software decoding instead of only turning off libstagefright? The only difference for me in this mode is that the program itself acts more sluggish and it takes much longer for movies to load which I guess is to be expected since it is harder on the processor. I don't have my full sized fire tv right now but i would be curious to know which option is selected by in xbmc on those or does it get full hd in either hardware or software decoding.
[Fire TV General] NxtGenCowboy:
After having the FireTV Stick for a few days.. I have to say for the price its not bad but I wouldn't be pay full price for one. I'd rather spend the extra and get a FireTV. I do have to say that Amazon really dropped the ball on the Disney apps(or Disney did). Crashes constantly, have to keep logging out and then back in. This is one major regret with ditching the AppleTV. Having 3 kids that watch pretty much only Disney channels.. Is anyone else experiencing this?
[Fire TV General] Y314K:
Yeah.. I will definitely first backup the original AmazonApps before switching over the first time... Will try to use Super Backup to get the APK.

Is there a way to tell XBMC to use an external coder like MX Player instead of it's own ??
[Fire TV General] rp201:
Here is how I got miracast to work

Settings, Display and sound, Enable mirroring device.

I stand corrected. it works fantastic. $25, that feature pays for itself since it is doing real miracast with wifi-direct. (for those of you who don't understand what this is, The adapter and your phone disconnect from your normal wifi network and use their own direct wifi connection at 5ghz. the lag was the slowest I have seen on any device) 3 thumbs up on this product!
[Fire TV General] danknasty:
I think the use of external players is controlled by the specific addon but switching to software decoding instead of hardware decoding fixed the issue for me. I still however am not able to play most links on navi x which probably has something to do with the fire sticks hardware.
[Fire TV General] rp201:
myedit: to backup the orginal amazon apps.apk from adb do the following

" adb pull /system/app/AmazonApps_420007410.apk ." (no quotes)

to restore the original file back do a

"adb install -r -d AmazonApps_420007410.apk" (no quotes)

"adb reboot"

I have tested and it works.

I got the latest amazon apps from here. http://www.amazon.com/gp/mas/get-appstore/android/ref=mas_rw_ldg

cheers
[Fire TV General] Y314K:
Is the period after .apk but before " correct in the pull quote ? NOTE: . is not needed at all. Must be a typo

Tried it both ways & it just keeps telling me it does not exist.. Had to move it to the SDCard to try to pull it... (Well still trying.. It worked for another app but the AmazonApp is still not pulling over from either location)

Weird.. Had to Pull the whole folder where the APK was in to get it pull at all... :laugh: The version of the APK on my FTV is 7710 not 7410. No wonder it was not pulling it.. Pulls from System fine now that I inputed the correct name for the APK.
[Fire TV General] AFTVStickKodi:
720p 60fps Drops Frames

My Amazon Fire TV Stick with XBMC/Kodi side loaded will not play 720p 60fps videos without dropping frames all over the place. I tried TVMC, SPMC, and Kodi beta. I tried turning off hardware acceleration in TVMC as suggested, as well as tweaking every other possible setting, but 720p TV captures will not play properly at 60 frames per second. I have to reencode to 30fps to play on Fire TV Stick using XBMC/Kodi.
[Fire TV General] rp201:
I used a period and it work just fine. maybe differences in adb setups.

adb pull [remote] [local]

---------- Post added at 02:41 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:37 AM ----------

Has anybody been unable to get the firetv stick app in the play store to connect to the stick at all. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.amazon.storm.lightning.client.aosp

I'm using it with the non-upgraded original firmware. It seems to be incompatible with it. was there an early version of the app? if so can someone upload it.
[Fire TV General] rp201:
I just reread that and I'm still on original firmware, perhaps you took firmware version2 update and the app updated that's why it has a different filename. or possible you updated the app via the appstore.
[Fire TV General] Ark1406:
I bought the stick for $15, comes Friday. Should I let it update to the latest then block future OTA updates, or stick with the out of back version?
[Fire TV General] danknasty:
Where did you find it for 15 bucks lol? I personally just let it update as there doesn't seem to be any root coming soon plus it's so cheap I could get another.

---------- Post added at 10:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:22 PM ----------

Are you selecting software deciding in the acceleration options? Also I would recommend spmc with software decoding as it solved my video quality issues.
[Fire TV General] Ark1406:
No clue, when I purchased it, I guess there were two promotions. I was expecting to pay $20. I attempted to find out why I got a $5 discount, but it gave no details.
[Fire TV General] Y314K:
Right.. Had updated to the first preRooted 51.1.4.0 FW. Some folks are on even newer apk's since they updated to latest FW...
[Fire TV General] z31fanatic:
I am starting to think the this stick is not worth more than the $25 sale price. You can tell that it has half the power of the FTV. Everything is slower than the FTV.

It's good for streaming Amazon Prime videos, Netflix and other video streaming services, but for bluray rips with Kodi, it is not great.
[Fire TV General] BonezMontana:
Have you used a Roku stick? This stick dominates a Roku stick in every way possible. It's not supposed to have as much power as FTV. I watched some movies on XBMC last night, using the stick in my son's room, and I didn't havbe any problems at all.
[Fire TV General] KidJoe:
I use BD-Rebuilder to back up my blurays to MKV files. Using SPMC (side loaded) on my FTV Stick works pretty well to play them back. Initially I had problems with audio in some files, but after a few tries it seems to be working and I don't have any real issues with playback. Now I just have to figure out why the external subs in SRT files don't always show up.

XBMC Gotham did give me other issues too so I gave up on it.

Plex works well, except I have to rename a few files so it pulls the info/poster in properly. And I have to figure subtitles out there too.

Netflix doesn't look as sharp as using the Netflix client build into my old LG BD390 bluray player, or my Sony KDL40W5100 TV.

But I haven't done much else.

When it goes back to "regular price" of $39.99 its going to be a harder sell.
[Fire TV General] calidude209:
ISO

Fire tv stick play DVD ISO or 720p mkv ?
[Fire TV General] z31fanatic:
No, I have never used a Roku stick so I can't compare.

I don't know, maybe I need a better router. My bluray rips are not full rips. I have shrunk them with Handbrake to about 40% of the original size (now between 7-10GB for a movie) and I am getting buffering every 30 seconds.

DVD rips work fine.
[Fire TV General] hqbui:
Sideloaded Vudu and Google Movies. Vudu launches but the remote only allows you to so searches. Can't scroll to part to login or anything else. Google movies installed but won't launch.
[Fire TV General] german_psycho:
Anyone here from Germany or UK who already got a Fire TV Stick??

Does it already work in your country with your local amazon account?
[Fire TV General] killerz298:
So I have been doing some soul searching on this product. I have 2 scheduled to ship but am second guessing. I am pretty computer literate. Is there a comparable product similarly priced that can do more than this with a little effort? Perhaps something that can also run video game emulators or something? I do like the remote and the $20 price tag though.What do you guys think? I am new to these types of devices.
[Fire TV General] Elysian893:
It's the best value out there.

Drove to Dallas to visit my mom, turns out she has one too, so I showed my brother how to sideload apps and got XBMC all set up. We even installed the Settings.apk and connected a Bluetooth mouse to it. We sideloaded the Verizon FIOS app to it and now she can stream live TV on it! And the NHL GameCenter add on in XBMC works perfectly!
[Fire TV General] capitansky:
Which setting.apk are you using
[Fire TV General] swicago:
Now that more people actually have a fire stick, can anyone please confirm if the firestick can play back DVD iso images via xmbc...???????

I have hundreds of DvDs ripped as iso images and regular fire tv works fine. If fire stick can play it great, if not I will cancel my order. Thanks
[Fire TV General] Elysian893:
It can. XBMC has the libraries built in to handle that.
[Fire TV General] 4MUSKRAT:
Sparkup.tv Down=APK Needed

Do either of you guys or anyone else have the apk for Spark? sparkup.tv is not working still so if someone would share it with me I can upload it somewhere & put a link up if need be. TIA,

Muskrat
[Fire TV General] NoteGarner2020:
I did tried with APK given by spyder3 but its not working. I end up using AirPlay/DLNA Receiver (PRO) app to air play my mac on stick which is working without any lag or issues. I am not sure for windows.
[Fire TV General] underworld1234:
MX player version

What version of MX Player works on the FTV Stick? I am having the same blurriness issue on Kodi RC1 and want to try MX Player. Thanks!
[Fire TV General] blackwrx02:
I tried to load MXPlayer and though I was successful at loading the app, I couldn't get the codec working for some reason. The codec install succeeded via adb, but every time I started MXPlayer it wanted to download a codec and would close because the Amazon Appstore couldn't find it. I made sure version numbers were correct with the codec that I installed via adb, but still no luck.

I did a little digging and ended up with BSPlayer after trying just about every other player I could find. They all worked with 1080p video, but I had no sound with MKV's that had DTS audio. BSPlayer worked out of the box, no stuttering and works very well with DTS audio. Watched an episode of Game of Thrones without issue in 1080.

I tried VLC, ES Player (built into ES File manager/explorer...which is what I use to browse to the files I want to play on my network), DicePlayer, MXPlayer, and a few others. None of them would handle DTS (even though they claimed to) until I found BSplayer. Hope that helps someone else out. I know everyone seems to have a different experience.

I did use SPMC and while it worked with 1080p and DTS, it was SUPER slow and continually buffered. I wish it had worked better since it would be a one-stop shop for all my media but it was a no-go for me.
[Fire TV General] cazar:
NEON version from sites.google.com/site/mxvpen/download and v7-Neon codec from http://xdaforums.com/apps/mx-player/mx-player-custom-codec-dts-support-t2156254
[Fire TV General] 4MUSKRAT:
[MENTION=602365]bhushangahire[/MENTION] ok thanks
[Fire TV General] jhoff80:
Kind of a ridiculous process as you have to manually enable mirroring on the Fire TV Stick and then enable it on your phone/tablet as well.

There's clearly some neat stuff you can do with the Fire TV Stick since it's running Android as a base, but ignoring that for a second... Miracast is ridiculously inconvenient, it doesn't have two really important apps for me (which I knew in advance, but only bought it because it was $20), and the interface is pretty (compared to a Roku) but way too messy.

I still prefer my (slower, but more straightforward) Roku stick by far. The Fire's got better games and is a little snappier, but that doesn't make up for the rest.

If you mess with Android on the Fire TV Stick though, it becomes more fun to tinker around with. But as my go-to streaming device it'll be the... well to be honest it's an Xbox. :D But as my travel device (which is what the Roku is for and what I considered the Fire TV for) I'll stick to Roku.
[Fire TV General] rowarta:
my Fire Stick arrived from the US yesterday. It appears to be locked to Amazon.com as my UK amazon id was not recognised. I already had a US Amazon id so was able to enable the stick, the issue is that non of the pre-loaded Stick menus work as they look to be accessing the US servers.

This is not a problem if you want to sideload APK apps, SPMC etc. I have a number of sideloaded apps and SPMC working no problem and performance is good so far, the only downside is the standard Fire menu comes up with error messages with it failing to access the Amazon US server.

Hope this helps.
[Fire TV General] swicago:
Thanks for responding. In know XBMC has libraries to handle iso images, I have been using XBMC for years.

My question was more if the hardware is fast enough to playback smoothly without glitching. I would really appreciate it if someone can confirm if it playsback iso images smoothly. I am worried the hardware is not powerful enough.
[Fire TV General] killerz298:
Someone here or elsewhere said that it plays back DVD iso without issues.
[Fire TV General] Roger W:
Yep, just tried one and it works fine.

the free MXPlayer and codec work fine for me, but I bought the paid Pro (ad-free) version for my other devices. I assume it's not possible to get that running here without the Google Play Store? I know there are cracked Pro downloads out there, but that's not what I'm after.
[Fire TV General] liemydude:
Netflix App Not Working on Fire Stick

Netflix will load a few frames and then freeze on a picture. I hear sound in the background and the people sound like "chipmunks."

3 questions:

1. Does Netflix work for you?

2. If yes, what firmware are you on?

3. Did you block the OTA updates following this thread (http://www.aftvnews.com/how-to-block-software-updates-on-the-fire-tv-stick/)

Can't figure out why netflix doesn't work and it's driving me nuts
[Fire TV General] swicago:
Thanks, I appreciate it. Mine should arrive on Dec.14th and I would have cancelled it if it couldn't do it. I plan to use a fireTV as an AP with HDD and use the firestick as a client in my RV. Basically a mini firetv network ;)
[Fire TV General] Elysian893:
Install the update. I just discovered this on a brand new stick with updates blocked, once I installed the update Netflix worked perfectly.
[Fire TV General] dony71:
i update latest software 54.1.0.1_user_101016220 and netflix is not installed by default

so i install netflix version 1.1.1 build 125 from the store

but netflix crash as soon i fill in the login and password

anybody experience this?
[Fire TV General] mr3p:
Could you elaborate on this? Which settings.apk did you sideload to be able to use a Bluetooth mouse with your Fire TV stick and was anything else required? Thanks.
[Fire TV General] spyder3:
My Spark App mysteriously stopped working. Not really sure why, since it was working flawlessly before. Now it just says that it can't find my Fire TV.
[Fire TV General] uncola:
when I try to cast netflix to my tv, the firetv stick asks me which user profile for netflix I want to use, and I have to use the physical firetv stick remote to choose before I can cast to netlfix.. any way to fix that?
[Fire TV General] Refot_Sirk:
I was wondering too. I found it in this post
[Fire TV General] mr3p:
Thank you, that worked perfectly.
[Fire TV General] desztan:
May I know how to go to settings from AFTV stick?
[Fire TV General] killerz298:
My stick unfortunately shipped with the 54.1.0.1_user_101016220 update already installed. I blocked further Amazon updates through my router but then I stupidly hooked the stick up at my parent's house where the block is not in place. The stick downloaded the update and now it keeps telling me it will update when not in use. I pulled the power and left it. Is there a way to delete what it downloaded or to prevent the update from installing at this point?
[Fire TV General] ECEXCURSION:
Is it already rooted?
[Fire TV General] killerz298:
No, I thought hardware hack was only way to root currently? Was trying not to update software as to preserve software root opportunity in future.
[Fire TV General] Y314K:
See if this will work. Put it back on u'r network that blocks the update IP's. Then quickly go into Settings / System / About / Check for System Updates. And see if there is a button to hit cancel. That might stop/clear the update. Reboot to test if it still wants to nag you about finishing the update when idle. Don't let it go idle until you confirm it is not trying to update.
[Fire TV General] rdmrocha:
if you happen to have developer settings enabled, connect via ADB and to a factory reset on your device using the following command:

recovery --wipe_data

I don't own a firetv stick but this works for every android device I ever came across.
[Fire TV General] Elysian893:
What's the point of blocking the update at this point? It's not like there's an exploit on an older firmware...

Both my Sticks block updates right now, and are only on the 1st update, but I wouldn't be bothered if I got the newest update...
[Fire TV General] blackwrx02:
Finally got up and running better. Was having some wireless issues, but it was because my router was too far away from the stick apparently. Now that I've moved it I can stream 1080p through SPMC with no issues and it looks amazing. I was about to give up on it, but moving some equipment around seems to have helped.