LL
London Lite
Founding member
I've purchased a Fire Stick, the standard version rather than the voice activated version.
For a £35 stick, the performance is on a par, if not slightly better than the Chromecast 2 and helps that I don't need to download apps to cast from. Frustrating that Demand 5 is publicised on the box (and I think when I watched the start up video?) but isn't in the appstore.
This may be old hat to existing Fire users.
Advantages: Can change settings to a whole range of picture settings, including 720/1080p and 50/60Hz, TV Player along with PLUS channels (except the UKTV channels due to licensing issues), is reasonably easy to sideload apps from Android using .APK along with the infamous Kodi player. Ensuring you have the correct picture/aspect ratio is a ridiculously simple task of ensuring you can see the arrows on the tv set, which saves you from fiddling with the tv settings. Amazon Video obviously streams a lot better than through the LG app, this despite the TV connected via Ethernet.
Disadvantages: If using a VPN/Smart DNS, you need different Amazon accounts for the US, UK and Germany. While you can download Zattoo from .de, if you use it while signed into your UK account, it will stop working as the apps require authorisation, so will need to regularly de register to switch between apps from other countries. However Netflix will work regardless if you've downloaded the app from the UK signed into your UK account and watching American content for example.
There is no NOW TV, although you can sideload the Android app, however NOW TV don't endorse this and quality is nowhere as good as a tv app.
For a £35 stick, the performance is on a par, if not slightly better than the Chromecast 2 and helps that I don't need to download apps to cast from. Frustrating that Demand 5 is publicised on the box (and I think when I watched the start up video?) but isn't in the appstore.
This may be old hat to existing Fire users.
Advantages: Can change settings to a whole range of picture settings, including 720/1080p and 50/60Hz, TV Player along with PLUS channels (except the UKTV channels due to licensing issues), is reasonably easy to sideload apps from Android using .APK along with the infamous Kodi player. Ensuring you have the correct picture/aspect ratio is a ridiculously simple task of ensuring you can see the arrows on the tv set, which saves you from fiddling with the tv settings. Amazon Video obviously streams a lot better than through the LG app, this despite the TV connected via Ethernet.
Disadvantages: If using a VPN/Smart DNS, you need different Amazon accounts for the US, UK and Germany. While you can download Zattoo from .de, if you use it while signed into your UK account, it will stop working as the apps require authorisation, so will need to regularly de register to switch between apps from other countries. However Netflix will work regardless if you've downloaded the app from the UK signed into your UK account and watching American content for example.
There is no NOW TV, although you can sideload the Android app, however NOW TV don't endorse this and quality is nowhere as good as a tv app.