Should I be able to understand the stuff in this thread? I just go to a twc store and beg for my bill to be lower. The savings by going into a local twc store when compared to calling their 1-800 saved me $35.
But kudos to whomever understands this stuff and gets everything they want for a fraction of the cost. Unfortunately ill prob end up paying twc until the end of time.
I recently cut the cord from AT&T Uverse. We currently have Apple TV. So far I haven’t really missed TV and I have come to realize I watch more TV than necessary, I was becoming a slave to the DVR. Way to easy to record a show and watch it later. For sports I use my parent’s email account to access ESPN and NFL network and I can get access to the AMC channel, otherwise I would sign up for Sling TV. I do plan on signing up for Hulu, but so far so good.
[quote=“NinerAdvocate, post:20, topic:28980”]I have a kindle fire box on one TV and my other TV is a 4k smart TV with a built in web browser. Even @ 4k resolution, I don’t like using it as a PC, though it functions fine.
I was gonna buy a PC stck, but I find the Fire box does pretty much everything I need, and its fast.[/quote]
Does the Fire box have a browser?
I think I still prefer a dedicated remote. Plus, trying to convince the wife to use her phone as the remote is even more slim.
Just curious, since I’ve never had one, what made the Windows HTPC difficult to use compared to Chromecast?
[quote=“Normmm, post:23, topic:28980”][quote=“NinerAdvocate, post:20, topic:28980”]I have a kindle fire box on one TV and my other TV is a 4k smart TV with a built in web browser. Even @ 4k resolution, I don’t like using it as a PC, though it functions fine.
I was gonna buy a PC stck, but I find the Fire box does pretty much everything I need, and its fast.[/quote]
Does the Fire box have a browser?[/quote]
Not by default, but you can sideload one:
I haven’t gotten around to it. It doesn’t look hard.
However, if web browsing is that important to you, I’d get a Windows 10 PC stick. Nothings going to compare to it.
NA, so I’m now thinking of abandoning the PC stick/box route. Again, to pass the wife test, she doesn’t like the idea of having it work like a computer, to have to use a browser to get to Netflix, etc. She would prefer an app interface like Roku.
I also looked into the Chrome box option. Apparently you can set shortcuts/favorites to the desktop, to make it function like an App interface. But in the end still seems to similar to a PC interface.
I mostly wanted the browser for sports. It seems we get more and more streaming options for our games. Not to mention Charlotte49ers.tv.
Having said all of that, I am now leaning towards the Fire TV. Is there anything about it you consider as a limitation or that you dislike? I believe a previous issue was that they didn’t have HBO Go. But it appears that they now have both that and Showtime Anytime.
Advantages of the PC and Chrome boxes, besides a browser, is the multiple USB ports and internal memory. But I’m not sure how much I’ll need/miss that. Per Mac’s comments related to Plex, I believe if I utilize that in Fire TV it will eliminate the need for extra ports and storage.
I got a 2nd gen fire tv box for Christmas this year, it’s been pretty great so far. The user interface isn’t bad, but has a lot of things thrown at you at once, but it passed my wife(g/f) test. To make it even “cleaner” sideload an app called Firestarter, it makes for a very simple and clean interface.
I’ve sideloaded Firefox for browsing and Kodi(aka XBMC) for media, it’s worked quite well. The only hangup I had was Firefox would sometimes crash when loading a web page with a bunch of embedded flash animations that all play at once (Adult Swim website).
The g/f and I are looking at “cutting the cord” and picking up a Sling TV subscription, along witha 2nd Fire TV for the living room.
Any one here use Sling TV? I have heard mixed reviews so far…
[quote=“LzeroKI, post:27, topic:28980”]I got a 2nd gen fire tv box for Christmas this year, it’s been pretty great so far. The user interface isn’t bad, but has a lot of things thrown at you at once, but it passed my wife(g/f) test. To make it even “cleaner” sideload an app called Firestarter, it makes for a very simple and clean interface.
I’ve sideloaded Firefox for browsing and Kodi(aka XBMC) for media, it’s worked quite well. The only hangup I had was Firefox would sometimes crash when loading a web page with a bunch of embedded flash animations that all play at once (Adult Swim website).
The g/f and I are looking at “cutting the cord” and picking up a Sling TV subscription, along witha 2nd Fire TV for the living room.
Any one here use Sling TV? I have heard mixed reviews so far…[/quote]I’d be interested on sling reviews too. I’d be using it with Chromecast and XB1.
[quote=“2k, post:28, topic:28980”][quote=“LzeroKI, post:27, topic:28980”]I got a 2nd gen fire tv box for Christmas this year, it’s been pretty great so far. The user interface isn’t bad, but has a lot of things thrown at you at once, but it passed my wife(g/f) test. To make it even “cleaner” sideload an app called Firestarter, it makes for a very simple and clean interface.
I’ve sideloaded Firefox for browsing and Kodi(aka XBMC) for media, it’s worked quite well. The only hangup I had was Firefox would sometimes crash when loading a web page with a bunch of embedded flash animations that all play at once (Adult Swim website).
The g/f and I are looking at “cutting the cord” and picking up a Sling TV subscription, along witha 2nd Fire TV for the living room.
Any one here use Sling TV? I have heard mixed reviews so far…[/quote]I’d be interested on sling reviews too. I’d be using it with Chromecast and XB1.[/quote]
I had Sling for a month. The app never worked properly on my phone, as in, it would open, crash, reboot… Kinda tough to use it with Chromecast.
The only show I got it for, Walking Dead, never streamed properly, even on the laptop. My tech gear is solid, relatively new, I have 50mb internet down (THANKS PB!) and no problems with any other streaming services.
Considering the limited use I had in mind for it, and the (relatively compared to other streaming services) astronomical costs associated with it, I think it’s a COMPLETE waste of money. I also have a friends login for Watch ESPN app, so my ESPN needs are fulfilled via that and Chromecast.
I’ll add that we cut the cord two years ago this month, and I don’t miss cable really ever. The ridiculous prices we used to pay to have 250 CRAP channels is just mindblowing. Now we watch TV with a purpose, series start to finish. It’s like reading a book or watching a movie, it’s linear, smooth, entertaining. We make a conscious decision about what shows we want to watch when rather than slogging through the channel guide 5 times.
We still get all the local news stations over the air, which means most NFL games as well. Unless you are just an absolute TV fiend who loves to channel surf, if you have particular wants for shows, those needs can usually be met with a specific option at a vastly cheaper price than what cable would offer.
[quote=“Ninercentral, post:29, topic:28980”][quote=“2k, post:28, topic:28980”][quote=“LzeroKI, post:27, topic:28980”]I got a 2nd gen fire tv box for Christmas this year, it’s been pretty great so far. The user interface isn’t bad, but has a lot of things thrown at you at once, but it passed my wife(g/f) test. To make it even “cleaner” sideload an app called Firestarter, it makes for a very simple and clean interface.
I’ve sideloaded Firefox for browsing and Kodi(aka XBMC) for media, it’s worked quite well. The only hangup I had was Firefox would sometimes crash when loading a web page with a bunch of embedded flash animations that all play at once (Adult Swim website).
The g/f and I are looking at “cutting the cord” and picking up a Sling TV subscription, along witha 2nd Fire TV for the living room.
Any one here use Sling TV? I have heard mixed reviews so far…[/quote]I’d be interested on sling reviews too. I’d be using it with Chromecast and XB1.[/quote]
I had Sling for a month. The app never worked properly on my phone, as in, it would open, crash, reboot… Kinda tough to use it with Chromecast.
The only show I got it for, Walking Dead, never streamed properly, even on the laptop. My tech gear is solid, relatively new, I have 50mb internet down (THANKS PB!) and no problems with any other streaming services.
Considering the limited use I had in mind for it, and the (relatively compared to other streaming services) astronomical costs associated with it, I think it’s a COMPLETE waste of money. I also have a friends login for Watch ESPN app, so my ESPN needs are fulfilled via that and Chromecast.
I’ll add that we cut the cord two years ago this month, and I don’t miss cable really ever. The ridiculous prices we used to pay to have 250 CRAP channels is just mindblowing. Now we watch TV with a purpose, series start to finish. It’s like reading a book or watching a movie, it’s linear, smooth, entertaining. We make a conscious decision about what shows we want to watch when rather than slogging through the channel guide 5 times.
We still get all the local news stations over the air, which means most NFL games as well. Unless you are just an absolute TV fiend who loves to channel surf, if you have particular wants for shows, those needs can usually be met with a specific option at a vastly cheaper price than what cable would offer.[/quote]
We had similar sling experience. HBO never worked well. After a few months we dropped it. I just use my parents login for espn
I’ve been meaning to put a browser or two on my FireTV.
I end up having to use Puffin on my phone for flash support. It works, but its a pain having multiple browsers, and sideloading on an amazon platform can be a pain. Where are you getting your apjs, and are you using anything to load them?
I’m gonna check out firestarter as well.
The box passes my wife test. She’s pretty unwilling to mess with tech, but she uses it for YouTube and Spotify on the TV. She doesn’t grasp how to put it in sleep mode though.
[quote=“Ninercentral, post:29, topic:28980”]I had Sling for a month. The app never worked properly on my phone, as in, it would open, crash, reboot… Kinda tough to use it with Chromecast.
The only show I got it for, Walking Dead, never streamed properly, even on the laptop. My tech gear is solid, relatively new, I have 50mb internet down (THANKS PB!) and no problems with any other streaming services.
Considering the limited use I had in mind for it, and the (relatively compared to other streaming services) astronomical costs associated with it, I think it’s a COMPLETE waste of money. I also have a friends login for Watch ESPN app, so my ESPN needs are fulfilled via that and Chromecast.
I’ll add that we cut the cord two years ago this month, and I don’t miss cable really ever. The ridiculous prices we used to pay to have 250 CRAP channels is just mindblowing. Now we watch TV with a purpose, series start to finish. It’s like reading a book or watching a movie, it’s linear, smooth, entertaining. We make a conscious decision about what shows we want to watch when rather than slogging through the channel guide 5 times.
We still get all the local news stations over the air, which means most NFL games as well. Unless you are just an absolute TV fiend who loves to channel surf, if you have particular wants for shows, those needs can usually be met with a specific option at a vastly cheaper price than what cable would offer.[/quote]
That’s half of what I hear, seems to be people either have all kinds of problems like yours, or no problems at all. Maybe we’ll try our the free tial first. We’d really only be using it for TBS mostly, and a little Food/HGTV for my g/f. And I’d use the credentials for WatchESPN app.
Id like to cut it all out and just go towards the less-than-legal stream/torrent path, but I’m not sure how girlfriend compatible that would be.
[quote=“NinerAdvocate, post:31, topic:28980”]I’ve been meaning to put a browser or two on my FireTV.
I end up having to use Puffin on my phone for flash support. It works, but its a pain having multiple browsers, and sideloading on an amazon platform can be a pain. Where are you getting your apjs, and are you using anything to load them?
I’m gonna check out firestarter as well.
The box passes my wife test. She’s pretty unwilling to mess with tech, but she uses it for YouTube and Spotify on the TV. She doesn’t grasp how to put it in sleep mode though.[/quote]
I got Kodi from the Kodi website. I might be wrong, but I THINK I got Firefox from the Mozilla website. Sideloaded them with ABD Fire, a PC program created specifically for sideloading apps/pushing files to the Fire tv.
Check out the following url (can’t get it to embed via the NN.N mobile site) for tutorial on sideloading with ABD Fire. It uses Kodi as the example app you want to sideload, but the process is the same for any .apk file you have.
[quote=“LzeroKI, post:32, topic:28980”][quote=“Ninercentral, post:29, topic:28980”]I had Sling for a month. The app never worked properly on my phone, as in, it would open, crash, reboot… Kinda tough to use it with Chromecast.
The only show I got it for, Walking Dead, never streamed properly, even on the laptop. My tech gear is solid, relatively new, I have 50mb internet down (THANKS PB!) and no problems with any other streaming services.
Considering the limited use I had in mind for it, and the (relatively compared to other streaming services) astronomical costs associated with it, I think it’s a COMPLETE waste of money. I also have a friends login for Watch ESPN app, so my ESPN needs are fulfilled via that and Chromecast.
I’ll add that we cut the cord two years ago this month, and I don’t miss cable really ever. The ridiculous prices we used to pay to have 250 CRAP channels is just mindblowing. Now we watch TV with a purpose, series start to finish. It’s like reading a book or watching a movie, it’s linear, smooth, entertaining. We make a conscious decision about what shows we want to watch when rather than slogging through the channel guide 5 times.
We still get all the local news stations over the air, which means most NFL games as well. Unless you are just an absolute TV fiend who loves to channel surf, if you have particular wants for shows, those needs can usually be met with a specific option at a vastly cheaper price than what cable would offer.[/quote]
That’s half of what I hear, seems to be people either have all kinds of problems like yours, or no problems at all. Maybe we’ll try our the free tial first. We’d really only be using it for TBS mostly, and a little Food/HGTV for my g/f. And I’d use the credentials for WatchESPN app.
Id like to cut it all out and just go towards the less-than-legal stream/torrent path, but I’m not sure how girlfriend compatible that would be.
[quote=“NinerAdvocate, post:31, topic:28980”]I’ve been meaning to put a browser or two on my FireTV.
I end up having to use Puffin on my phone for flash support. It works, but its a pain having multiple browsers, and sideloading on an amazon platform can be a pain. Where are you getting your apjs, and are you using anything to load them?
I’m gonna check out firestarter as well.
The box passes my wife test. She’s pretty unwilling to mess with tech, but she uses it for YouTube and Spotify on the TV. She doesn’t grasp how to put it in sleep mode though.[/quote]
I got Kodi from the Kodi website. I might be wrong, but I THINK I got Firefox from the Mozilla website. Sideloaded them with ABD Fire, a PC program created specifically for sideloading apps/pushing files to the Fire tv.
Check out the following url (can’t get it to embed via the NN.N mobile site) for tutorial on sideloading with ABD Fire. It uses Kodi as the example app you want to sideload, but the process is the same for any .apk file you have.
http://www.htpcbeginner.com/install-kodi-on-amazon-fire-tv/[/quote]
I’ll say that before, when we had to laptop HDMI to the TV, the wife didn’t love it for the two or so shows we did this with, but with Chromecast, I now watch Walking Dead on Mondays instead of Sundays, and the streaming is usually pretty decent quality and easy to get going from Coke and Popcorn. Audio is probably my biggest complaint, but for 12 episodes a year, I can’t justify the price of cable to have higher quality audio, plus I can alway rewarch on Netflix the following season.
I have Sling TV. They did an “upgrade” probably a month or two ago and ours has worked near flawless since then. Before it was hit or miss. I mostly have it for ESPN which I can always watch the ESPN app…but I really enjoy Sling TV. It cost like 75 cents a day. Hard to beat I believe.
clt wants to add tv to this:
clt took a screenshot. does clt need a new cd?
I’m curious, what device do you use to watch Sling TV?
I’m curious, what device do you use to watch Sling TV?[/quote]
Roku 2 (Times 2). We also have a Roku streaming stick which it worked fine on.
I’m curious, what device do you use to watch Sling TV?[/quote]
Roku 2 (Times 2). We also have a Roku streaming stick which it worked fine on.[/quote]
Ah, a Roku (2 or 3) seems to be the most common device that delivers no complaints from SlingTV users, from what I can tell. I’m not completely against getting a Roku instead of a Fire TV, but that fact that no extra (non-Roku) apps can be added bothers me. Is there an internet browser available for the Roku?