Amazon Fire TV Stick, HD, sharp picture quality, fast streaming, free & live TV, Alexa Voice Remote with TV controls

Great for streaming
I have had Firesticks for several years now and they are a very good option for streaming. The first few sticks I had didn’t last as long as the newer versions but that is likely due to advances in technology. It comes with all the things you need to get it up and running immediately, even batteries for the remote.The OS is user friendly and works very well. It makes sense how its laid out is easy to navigate. Something else I like about it is that it is an android based OS so there are developer options which allow you more opportunity for customizing your experience.In the past the most common issues Ive had with it are the OS slowing down. There is 5gb of internal storage on it and it can get bogged down if you have a lot going on. Over time I notice there is a delay in the responsiveness to remote commands. Resetting the device does improve the lagging for a short period of time but it isn’t a permanent fix and it never goes back to how it ran when it was brand new…just a little less lag.In my experience these devices will last several years before needing to be replaced. In my opinion, that is a great bang for your buck. Something else great about them is that you can find them on sale all throughout the year on amazon. There are also numerous areas for support on the amazon site as well as live customer service to help if you need it. I have used other streaming devices before but keep coming back to these.One side note….we have phillps hue ecosystem for our lights and use the hue sync box to control the lights to match the colors on the screen. We bought the 4k stick and it wasn’t compatible with the hue sync box. Our sync box is several years old so perhaps the newer ones have a patch that fixes the issue but we weren’t able to use the 4k stick with our hue sync box. The HD stick works just fine with our setup. I will say that there was a noticeable picture and audio quality difference with the 4k stick, but not being able to work with our lights was a deal breaker for me.Overall I would recommend this device for anyone. It’s affordable and works great for all of our needs.

Who don’t love a fire stick?
With five TV’s i’m not paying a whole lot for subscriptions. What fire sticks?You can stream a whole lot of pictures, it’s easy to install.It lasts forever, the quality is great. You have a variety of apps selections. The picture quality is clear. This item doesn’t overheat. I love the variety of entertainment without spending a lot of money.

We have switched from Roku to FireTV for all of our devices
While the device works great for streaming, it still has room for improvement.We first started with Roku devices. Over time though, Roku devices basically stop working. They stop being supported, and even though they may have worked fine for years, you can no longer update them or install software, even old versions, so you have to throw them away.So, we tried firetv sticks. The first generation was rough, but they have come along way. For media streaming and app coverage, they really can’t be beat….. but….We love that they are tied into Amazon, but also hate that they are tied into Amazon. It never lets you forget that its primary job is to let Amazon sell stuff to you and its secondary job is to be your streaming device. What do I mean by this? Well, it really likes to put you back on Amazon’s homescreen as much as possible, and when you are in Amazon’s homescreen, you are presented with the content you have paid for, but also a lot of content Amazon would like to sell to you. I really only want to see the content I have already paid for. For example, if you are watching something on MAX, or Netflix, and you pause the program, if you unpause it quick enough, it will just pick up where you left off. However, if you wait to long, you will find yourself back at Amazon’s homescreen asking you to tell it which user profile to use. Well, unless I tell it otherwise, shouldn’t I be the same person I was when I hit pause? Shouldn’t I want to continue watch what I was watching when I hit pause? Once you select a profile, you are back to Amazon’s homescreen where the show you ads for services they want to sell you, when all you really wanted to do was resume what you were watching when you hit pause.So then, you have to remember… what was I watching again? And what service was it I was watching it on? And then you have to navigate back to wherever it was you were and then and only then can you resume.So other than that, the device is great. I wish there was a way I could just pay a fee like you can on the kindle, to alter this behavior so its primary function is to be my streaming device, instead of to show me ads.This also becomes a problem if you have guests or visitors that don’t understand this is how an Amazon device works. We didn’t have a password set on the device and we had an older house guest that unknowingly subscribed to all sorts of streaming services and pay per view not realizing what they saw on the TV was not in our services, even though we already subscribe to more services than you could ever possibly watch.Lastly, the stick periodically has little flukes. Like we have the remote set to turn on the tv. One time, it wouldn’t turn on the tv anymore. It turned out, it seemed to be turning it on, but then turning it right back off. Like when you hit the button once, it was sending the on off signal more than once. Unplugging the stick and plugging it back in seemed to fix it and then we could turn the tv on again. It happened in the opposite direction too. One time, we couldn’t turn the tv off. We would press the button and it would turn off and then it would turn right back on again. Same as before, a reboot seemed to fix it. This doesn’t happen often, but it is annoying when it does.As for Alexa integration, it usually works well, but sometimes, it just stops working. All of a sudden telling Alex to pause just doesn’t work anymore. It just doesn’t do anything. Doesn’t tell you there is a problem or anything, so you have to go find the remote, even though you have paused it that way 100 times before.The wanting to take you through the advertising screens is a problem with the Alexa integration as well. You can’t say “Alexa watch some movie on some service” and get taken to that movie. No, no, it is first going to want to know who you are, so you get to the profile selection screen. I should be the same person I was last time, unless I have logged out for some reason. Selecting a profile still doesn’t get you to where you asked to go, it gets you to the Amazon advertising center. So then, you have to repeat yourself “Alexa watch some movie on some service”, and then, and only then, will it do what you asked it to do in the first place.So the device, is great. But it is my device, and should focus on my needs more than Amazon’s, but it doesn’t. That is its only flaw.