Joeboo
Molten Core Raider
- 8,157
- 140
Has this happened to anyone here?
Amazon Quietly Bricked Jailbroken FireTV & Kindle Devices Last Year | Techdirt
Amazon Quietly Bricked Jailbroken FireTV & Kindle Devices Last Year | Techdirt
FireTV Stick
- Thread starter Araxen
- Start date
Ronaan
Molten Core Raider
- 1,092
- 436
I was too slow on the initial ?19 offer, but ordered today for ?29 (regular price ?39 here).
The TV in the main living room is connected to a PS3 so initially I was pretty meh about the whole Fire TV thing, but then there's the other TV in the dining room that has no network connection (cheap line 40" Samsung).
The TV in the main living room is connected to a PS3 so initially I was pretty meh about the whole Fire TV thing, but then there's the other TV in the dining room that has no network connection (cheap line 40" Samsung).
ShakyJake
<Donor>
- 7,626
- 19,250
I picked up a Firestick during PrimeDay. I already own a Chromecast and that pretty much worked right out of the box. I use Plex as my mediaserver.
However, the Firestick video quality looks like absolute shit - close to a VHS tape. I've tried setting the Plex App video quality option to "Original" but I swear it makes no difference - although for some files I get a nice black screen as if the device locked up.
Am I missing some hidden setting somewhere?
However, the Firestick video quality looks like absolute shit - close to a VHS tape. I've tried setting the Plex App video quality option to "Original" but I swear it makes no difference - although for some files I get a nice black screen as if the device locked up.
Am I missing some hidden setting somewhere?
Xexx
Vyemm Raider
- 7,427
- 1,622
ShakyJake
<Donor>
- 7,626
- 19,250
Yeah, I can tell the bit-rate is being set way too low. For example, you know the HBO snowy-TV screen intro? It's super blocky during that sequence. I can't find any setting that controls the bit-rate other than the Plex setting. The Firestick network settings claim that the network quality is great.
EDIT: bleh. I need to learn to read reviews first. Bunch of users writing how awful Plex is on this thing. Sucks because I had to buy it [Plex] again since it's not part of the GooglePlay ecosystem. 30 bucks down the drain.
Vaclav
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
- 12,650
- 877
I have not had your issue with the FireStick, however I did ages ago with my PS3 - I played with my Plex server bitrates though a while back as I had to for streaming wirelessly to the PS3. I think it chunks up like that because instead of having the server scale things back to a bitrate the wireless can handle.
Try running some low definitionish stuff and see what runs perfectly then dial it in - i.e. torrent some 30 min shows that are 189 mb in size, some that are 600 mb in size and a few that are 1 gig ish - and see what is the sweet spot, then force plex to output at around that bitrate.
[Also keep in mind, you can EASILY get interference on the WiFi antennae if you don't use the extender it comes with to get around the TV itself - gigantic hunks of metal with a wall right behind them are hardly ideal for a solid WiFi connenction]
ShakyJake
<Donor>
- 7,626
- 19,250
Yeah that's not the problem. The Firestick is literally 5 feet away from the wireless router. I have zero problems with Plex streaming to the Chromecast and a WDTV Live which is on the other side of the house.
Not sure how others aren't experiences quality issues unless they're either blind or streaming to 13" CRTs. I don'tthinkI have an unusual setup. Plex is running on a Linux box which has an 8-core AMD 8350FX CPU. No comprende.
Vaclav
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
- 12,650
- 877
I had the issue with the same devices literally ON TOP OF the router - literally in case of the PS3 - the FireStick is maybe 18 inches. (And note, when I hardwired the PS3 the problem didn't exist - it was absolutely a WiFi issue)
ShakyJake
<Donor>
- 7,626
- 19,250
Okay, found this post on Reddit:
EDIT: Okay, I think I'm good now. I guess I can't do "Direct Play" since I obviously don't have a DTS receiver. I changed the media profile to "Google TV" instead and quality looks about the same as Direct Play and audio works fine.
This fixed my issue. Video now looks great. HOWEVER, now I have no audio for some files. I'm noticing some media's audio is listed as "Unknown (AC3 5.1)" and these are the ones I'm getting zilch. I do not have a receiver, just using the TV's stereo speakers.
EDIT: Okay, I think I'm good now. I guess I can't do "Direct Play" since I obviously don't have a DTS receiver. I changed the media profile to "Google TV" instead and quality looks about the same as Direct Play and audio works fine.
Cinge
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
- 7,009
- 2,077
Odd bump. But curious if anyone here has opinions. Went to sisters house for a birthday BBQ and they had a rooted/hacked firestick. In a sense it brought up a whole different UI with bunch of different sections, including movies still in theatres. I assume they do this by hosting servers where studios can't touch them.
My father fell in love with it and wants to get one for his new TV and cancel his DirectTv(which he said is just getting absurd with pricing). My questions being, how safe is something like this. IE connecting to unknown servers and then the rooted stick using your wifi to stream the signals. Also could there ever be a threat to the actual TV or even the firestick device itself? IE something happening that causes both to stop working(intentionally or unintentionally). I was reading about firmware updates to FireTV boxes that bricked them if they were rooted(and you couldn't roll back the firmware).
I understand you will never be able to get Customer service for something like the above, but more curious on the other aspects. I rarely watch TV and when I do its something like netfflix, a blu-ray or some other stream service, so a little out of my depth on something like this and want to make sure he wont be screwed over later.
My father fell in love with it and wants to get one for his new TV and cancel his DirectTv(which he said is just getting absurd with pricing). My questions being, how safe is something like this. IE connecting to unknown servers and then the rooted stick using your wifi to stream the signals. Also could there ever be a threat to the actual TV or even the firestick device itself? IE something happening that causes both to stop working(intentionally or unintentionally). I was reading about firmware updates to FireTV boxes that bricked them if they were rooted(and you couldn't roll back the firmware).
I understand you will never be able to get Customer service for something like the above, but more curious on the other aspects. I rarely watch TV and when I do its something like netfflix, a blu-ray or some other stream service, so a little out of my depth on something like this and want to make sure he wont be screwed over later.
Void
Experiencer
- 9,413
- 11,079
I don't know all of the technical aspects, but at the price of a Fire Stick I'd think if it lasts a couple of months before getting bricked, it is still vastly cheaper than any cable/satellite provider.
That being said, I probably wouldn't want to hinge my entire viewing habit on connecting to those pirate servers like that. They WILL get brought down from time to time, no matter where they are located. Now, if your sister or whomever is hacking the sticks at her house has easy access to the various server info required, and has no problem locating new ones when others go down, then maybe it is worth it. As long as they or you don't mind running over to your dad's house every time it happens and he can't watch TV until it gets fixed, of course. Or every time he has to buy a new one because it got bricked. Asking the person that maintains them how often they have to update the server info would probably be an important question. If it happens every week, fuck that. Every six months, maybe worth looking into.
As for the wifi part of it, I sort of doubt that's an issue as long as his wifi is secured. If the government is hacking his wifi he probably has more to worry about than this. To the rooting part, there is always a risk that someone puts something malicious in them, but if it were on a "reputable" site or produced by someone with a legitimate name like Cyanogen, you can probably be fairly sure it isn't going to hack your TV and start sending your info to Russia. But nothing is 100% either.
Honestly it seems like too much work for me, but maybe I'm wrong and it is a piece of cake once you know what you're doing and where to get the server info.
That being said, I probably wouldn't want to hinge my entire viewing habit on connecting to those pirate servers like that. They WILL get brought down from time to time, no matter where they are located. Now, if your sister or whomever is hacking the sticks at her house has easy access to the various server info required, and has no problem locating new ones when others go down, then maybe it is worth it. As long as they or you don't mind running over to your dad's house every time it happens and he can't watch TV until it gets fixed, of course. Or every time he has to buy a new one because it got bricked. Asking the person that maintains them how often they have to update the server info would probably be an important question. If it happens every week, fuck that. Every six months, maybe worth looking into.
As for the wifi part of it, I sort of doubt that's an issue as long as his wifi is secured. If the government is hacking his wifi he probably has more to worry about than this. To the rooting part, there is always a risk that someone puts something malicious in them, but if it were on a "reputable" site or produced by someone with a legitimate name like Cyanogen, you can probably be fairly sure it isn't going to hack your TV and start sending your info to Russia. But nothing is 100% either.
Honestly it seems like too much work for me, but maybe I'm wrong and it is a piece of cake once you know what you're doing and where to get the server info.
meStevo
I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.
- 6,371
- 4,648
Kodi is pretty awesome, all I can say about it being new to using it myself. Quality of things can be hit or miss, but for the most part it works as you'd expect it to IMO.
HOW-TO:Install Kodi on Fire TV - Kodi
You'd need Kodi, then the Genesis add-on for movies and tv, then Sportsdevil for live events. All they do is hit sources you can find in Google already, just without the hassle of trying to close ads, etc.
HOW-TO:Install Kodi on Fire TV - Kodi
You'd need Kodi, then the Genesis add-on for movies and tv, then Sportsdevil for live events. All they do is hit sources you can find in Google already, just without the hassle of trying to close ads, etc.