Computers & Electronics

New Amazon FireTV supports 4K

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  • Sep 21st, 2015 12:41 pm
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Deal Fanatic
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Mar 20, 2009
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New Amazon FireTV supports 4K

Amazon has announced a new version of their FireTV media player that supports 4K, voice control, 802.11ac WiFi, improved performance specs etc. for the same price of US$99.
http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/17/4k-fire-tv/

I guess that explains why the FireTV has been out of stock on Amazon US for weeks now.

It's the first of the major media players to offer 4K, since Roku and Apple wimped out on that feature this year. But of course you could already get Android boxes like the NVidia Shield with 4K support - for twice the price.

Still not offered for sale in Canada though, so you'd have to buy it in the U.S.
10 replies
Deal Expert
Aug 26, 2002
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Can it be easily rooted like the old FireTV? I was eyeing the FireTV a few weeks back before the new AppleTV was announced. Is there any way to buy it from Canada without having to go pick it up in the States?
Deal Guru
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Oct 24, 2012
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4K is becoming too prevalent. I will have to redownload my movie and tv-show collection in 4K ASAP.

People laughed at me when I bought 11x 2TB portable drives 2 years ago.
Who's laughing now!?
Deal Addict
Sep 12, 2007
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Good news on the mSD card slot!
-Will we be able to sideload Kodi still??
-Will my working IR blaster still work on the new one?

Looking forward to getting one of these if it's a Yes/Yes! :)
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Aug 19, 2003
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I hope kodi can be side loaded. If so I'm in for 1! Don't have 4k now, but still good for the future. Happy that it's a lot faster then the original. Heard lots of good things for the old one so this one can only be better. Glad I waited to buy one
Deal Addict
Feb 22, 2007
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Toronto
Didn't know about this, was about to purchase one.
Thanks OP
Deal Guru
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Nov 21, 2002
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its a mediatek chipset but kodi played on my lepan mini which uses a mediatek. All the fire devices are getting fireos 5.0(refresh rate change hello 24p) in october with the same alexa voice assistant as amazon echo. Plus all the new firetv being released will use wifi direct vs bluetooth remotes. I think the new batch of firesticks will come with these remotes too
Deal Expert
Jan 17, 2009
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ONTARIO
They need to incorporate Google Cast into these things.
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Mar 20, 2009
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Apparently the Nexus player has a cast receiver built in, and you can get apps for Android that emulate a Chromecast. But don't expect Amazon Fire TV to be too enthusiastic about supporting that - they see Google as a rival.

The original Chromecast implemented a pretty standard version of the open DIAL protocol. A number of other smart TVs and media player boxes also implemented DIAL (like Roku), and some cast-enabled apps still work with plain old DIAL protocol (like Youtube). But naturally Google soon decided that wasn't good enough, and the evolved Chromecast protocol is now significantly different from DIAL. Most Chromecast-compatible apps using the Google API can no longer see or cast to DIAL receivers.
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Mar 15, 2007
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I have a few FireTV's, including a rootable, and a few sticks I was going to sell. Would it be wise to unload them now, or wait and see if Kodi can be used on these new boxes?
Deal Expert
Aug 26, 2002
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mjjrules wrote: I have a few FireTV's, including a rootable, and a few sticks I was going to sell. Would it be wise to unload them now, or wait and see if Kodi can be used on these new boxes?
Yes, if the AppleTV is any indication, if the new generation isn't jailbreakable/rootable/sideloadable, then the previous generation's value would skyrocket.

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