[Fire TV Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] harlekinwashere:
Millenials Guide to Tech, Firmware edition.

1. WOW! Found out something crazy, you all should learn about!

2. So I bought this on saturday, and I thought, and then I went there,,,

3. And then a buddy told me...

5. But then I read on the internet...

6. So I'm wondering...

7. What do you guys think?

8. HELP ME!!1!!

Ok - how about we do this for real?

1. Fire TV (/Stick) has to be online to first register it (set it up with a username/pwd), or you would not have access to the main interface, which basically is something you cant work without.

2. Best way to do this is to be fast, and unplug your wireless router, as soon as the login goes through and you see the main home page.

3. Using an underpowered usb connection can delay it, but it wont delay downloading the next new firmware. I guess if you really knew what you were doing, and could root the Stick (because this is not, or less applicable to Fire TV boxes?) always staying on underpowered usb (edit: Or can you? Because su has to be written to the system partition, and actually I don't know how the "do not update check" works (does it prevent stuff like dalvik cache being reinitialized...) - but for now I am guessing, that staying on underpowered USB might be a valid solution...), you could then delete the already downloaded firmware, effectively withou ever updating the firmware once. (Having stayed online long enough for the next firmware to be downloaded... - throttling your routers DL speed is a real solution independent of all this, If you know how to do that.)

4. Fire TV (/Stick) updates are incremental. This information already is in the adventure report in the OP, but to summarize, what that means is, that the devices (as of now) will update to the next firmware update in row, and only then to the next one (downloads the next update, installs it on reboot or promt, ...), and so on and so forth...

5. Fire TV (/Sticks) that come directly from Amazon have a higher chance to be on a newer firmware, because Amazon has a process to preload your account information on there, if you don't buy the device as a gift. So they already power up the device, before shipping it out to you. Which means, that they also can lift it to a more recent firmware without much hazzle. We can't look into this process - or when it changes and how (which means, that at least I don't know if you have a better chance of receiving an older firmware version one, if you order it as a gift for example (username doesnt get set up by Amazon) - but I actually doubt it...).

6. Which means, that your best bet to get a device that actually can be rooted, is actually to go into a box store that doesn't sell through those devices quickly and grab a boxed unit that has been sitting on shelves for months.

7- Which of course means that you have to forego, those GREAT DEALS (wow, so GOODZ) on Amazons refurb path or discount windows.

Now you could crowdsource this out to get more information, if you actually had a community of buyers that was interested in this, and at least somewhat tech savvy, but as with any Fire device, you don't have that. (Generally speaking).

Also - as for the incremental updates - it isn't set in stone, that it will always be this way. Amazon could flip a switch and change that serverside. Its not especially likely that they do (because it requires having someone in charge of the firmware team, that actually knows what they are doing), but it is something that could change eventually, even over night.