Amazon Fire TV

Amazon Fire TV

Amazon Fire TV with remote
Developer Amazon.com
Manufacturer Foxconn
Type Digital media player, microconsole
Release date
  • USA: April 12, 2014
  • DE: September 25, 2014[1]
  • UK: October 23, 2014[1]
  • JP: October 28, 2015[2]
Introductory price US$99[3]
Operating system Fire OS 5 "Bellini"[4]
System-on-chip used Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 APQ8064T[5]
MediaTek 8173C (2nd Gen)
CPU Qualcomm Krait 300, quad-core up to 1.7 Ghz (1st Gen)[5]
dual core ARM Cortex A72 up to 2GHz and dual core ARM Cortex A53 up to 1.573 GHz (2nd Gen)
Memory 2 GB LPDDR2 RAM[5]
Storage 8 GB internal[5]
Display 1080p and 4K[5]
Graphics Qualcomm Adreno 320 (1st Gen)[5]
PowerVR GX6250 (2nd Gen)[6]
Sound Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 surround sound[5]
Connectivity HDMI, Bluetooth 4.0, Bluetooth 4.1, USB 2.0, Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n/ac), 10/100 Ethernet, Optical audio, Fire game controller[5]
Power 5.5 mm DC[5] (6.25 V 2.5 A power adapter[7])
Current firmware 5.2.4.1
Dimensions 115 × 115 × 17.5 mm (4.53 × 4.53 × 0.69 in)[5]
Weight 281 g (9.9 oz)[5]
Related articles Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, Ouya
Website Amazon Fire TV

Amazon Fire TV refers to two generations of digital media players and microconsoles developed by Amazon.com.[8][9] It is a small network appliance and entertainment device designed to stream digital audio/video content to a high-definition television. The device also allows users to play video games with the included remote, via a mobile app, or with an optional game controller.

The first-generation device featured 2 GB of RAM, MIMO dual-band Wi-Fi, and a Bluetooth remote control with a microphone for voice search. It supported 1080p streaming and Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 surround sound but was dependent on internet bandwidth of the user. Unveiled on April 2, 2014, the Amazon Fire TV (1st Generation) was made available for purchase in the US the same day for US$99 and was launched with a video game called Sev Zero.[3]

In 2015, the Amazon Fire TV (2nd Generation) was released with improved processor speed and 4K UHD support.[10] Amazon Fire TV is also available in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan.

Design

The developmental code name of the Fire TV was Bueller, named after the eponymous character from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.[11]

Hardware

First generation

The Fire TV offers HDMI and optical audio, with support for Dolby Digital Plus and 7.1 surround sound pass-through, along with an Ethernet port and a USB 2.0 port. According to Amazon, the Fire TV is designed to outpace competitors like the Apple TV and Roku in performance: The 0.7-inch-thick box features a 1.7 GHz quad-core CPU (Qualcomm Snapdragon 8064), 2 GB of RAM and 8 GB of internal storage, along with a dual-band wireless radio for 1080p streaming over 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and a 10/100 ethernet connection. The company said that it does not intend the Fire TV to compete with gaming consoles; instead, its gaming capabilities are geared toward people who do not already own a console but may play games on a smartphone or tablet. It has a dedicated controller accessory.[4]

Second Generation

Amazon released a 2nd-generation Fire TV in late 2015. The 2nd generation features 4K Ultra High Definition support, improved processor performance, and a MediaTek 8173C chipset to support H.265 (HEVC), VP8, and VP9 codecs. Wireless hardware upgrades includes a dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi with 2x2 MIMO and Bluetooth 4.1.[12][13]

Fire TV Stick

First generation Fire-TV Stick with remote (without voice search)
First generation Fire-TV Stick with remote (without voice search)

First generation

On November 19, 2014, Amazon released a smaller version of the Fire TV called the Fire TV Stick. It is an HDMI-port plug-in device that replicates much of the functionality of the larger Fire TV.[14] Its hardware is slightly different, it has 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of storage, weighs 0.9 oz. (25.1 g) and it uses a Broadcom BCM28155 dual-core 1.0 GHz Cortex-A9 processor and a Broadcom VideoCore IV GPU. Wireless hardware includes a dual-band 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi with 2x2 MIMO and Bluetooth 3.0 [13][15] The Fire TV Stick is bundled with a TV remote, a model with voice search on the remote and one without.

Second generation

On October 20, 2016, Amazon released Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote.[16] Other than the new remote, the updates include Mediatek 8127D Quad-core ARM 1.3 GHz processor with a Mali-450 MP4 GPU, and support for the H.265 (HEVC) codec. Wireless hardware upgrades includes a dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi with 2x2 MIMO and Bluetooth 4.1.[13] It retains the 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage and weighs slightly more at 1.1 oz. (32.0 g).[17]

Software

The device initially ran Fire OS 3.0, based on Android Jelly Bean 4.2. According to Amazon, that made it "simple for developers to port their services and games over to Fire TV."[4]

Updates

On March 24, 2015, Amazon announced an update to the Fire TV software to provide the following additional features which address some of the concerns raised in early reviews:[18]

Models

Generation (within Fire TV) 1st generation (2014) 1st generation (2014) 2nd generation (2015) 2nd generation (2016)
Model Fire TV Fire Stick Fire TV Fire TV Stick
Release date April 12, 2014November 19, 2014 September 29, 2015October 20, 2016
Status DiscontinuedCurrent Current
OS Fire OS 5
System Version 5.2.4.1 5.2.4.1 5.2.4.1 5.2.4.1
CPU Maker Qualcomm Broadcom MediaTek MediaTek
Kind Snapdragon 600 Quad-core ARM big.LITTLE
Model APQ8064T BCM28155 MT8173C MT8127D
Cores 4x Krait 300 @ 1.7 GHz 2x ARM Cortex-A9 @ 1.0 GHz 2x ARM Cortex A72 @ 2 GHz and

2x ARM Cortex A53 @1.573 GHz

 4x ARM Cortex-A7 @ 1.3 GHz
Width 32-bit 32-bit 64-bit 32-bit
GPU Designer Qualcomm Broadcom Imagination Technologies ARM
Kind Adreno VideoCore IV PowerVR Mali
Model 320Capri VC4 GX6250 450 MP4
Clock
OpenGL ES 3.0 2.0 3.1 2.0
Vulkan n/a n/a 1.0 n/a
OpenCL 1.1 embedded profile 1.2 n/a
Hardware Decode

Support

 H.264 H.264 H.264, H.265, VP8, VP9 H.264, H.265
RAM 2 GB LPDDR2 1 GB LPDDR2

(512MB system, 512MB video)

 2 GB LPDDR3 1 GB LPDDR3
Storage Internal 8 GB
External USB up to 128GBn/a up to 128 GB microSDXCn/a
Microphone
Wireless Bluetooth Bluetooth 4.0

HID, SPP Profiles

 Bluetooth 3.0

HID, SPP Profiles

 Bluetooth 4.1

HID, HFP, SPP profiles

 Bluetooth 4.1

A2DP, AVRCP, GAVDP, HID, IOPT profiles

Wi-Fi Dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n

2x2 MIMO

Dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n

2x2 MIMO

Dual-band 802.11 b/g/n/ac

2x2 MIMO

 Dual-band 802.11 b/g/n/ac

2x2 MIMO

Dimensions 84.9 mm x 25.0 mm x 11.5 mm 115 mm x 115 mm x 17.8 mm

4.5" x 4.5" x 0.7"

 85.9 mm x 30.0 mm x 12.6 mm

3.4" x 1.2" x 0.5"

Power Supply 6.25V, 2.5A, 16W, DC

Plug: 5.5mm (outer) x 2.5mm (inner)

 5V, 1A, 5W, DC

Micro USB Cable and USB Power Adapter required

 15V, 1.4A, 21W, DC

Plug: 3mm (outer) x 1mm (inner)

 5V, 1A, 5W, DC

Micro USB Cable and USB Power Adapter required

Reception

Dan Seifert from The Verge reviewed Fire TV on April 4, 2014, giving it an 8.8/10 and largely praising its current functionality and future potential.[19] Dave Smith from ReadWrite wrote: "Fire TV aims to be the cure for what ails TV set-top boxes."[20] GeekWire editor Andy Liu's review is headlined "Amazon's Fire TV sets a new bar for streaming boxes."[21] Ars Technica praised the device specs that are better than the competition, the build quality was high, and if you use Amazon content, the microphone works very well. However, the reviewer did not like that media browsing puts Amazon content in the front thus making other apps less convenient, the game selection is limited and many games are unoptimized, and its free space is only 5.16GB, limiting the amount of games that can be installed.[22]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Amazon Fire TV now available for pre-order in the UK and Germany".
  2. ↑ "Amazon Fire TV & Fire TV Stick Coming to Japan".
  3. 1 2 Horn, Leslie (April 2, 2014). "Fire TV: Everything You Need to Know About Amazon's $100 Streaming Box". Gizmodo. Gawker Media. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 "Publish to Fire OS 5". Amazon.com. Retrieved July 24, 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Amazon Fire TV –Streaming Media Player –Shop Now". Amazon.com. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  6. ↑ James, Dave. "Amazon Fire TV review". techradar. Retrieved 25 Jul 2016.
  7. ↑ https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/customerdocumentation/Amazon_Fire_TV_User_Guide.pdf
  8. ↑ Solomon, Kate. "Amazon Fire TV is Amazon's powerful new streaming box". Techradar.com. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  9. ↑ Tam, Donna. "Amazon unveils Amazon Fire TV for streaming video". CNET. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  10. ↑ James, Dave. "Amazon Fire TV review". techradar. Retrieved 17 May 2016.
  11. ↑ "Amazon's Fire TV Piles Into the Living Room". Businessweek. 2014-04-02. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
  12. ↑ James, Dave. "Amazon Fire TV review". techradar. Retrieved 17 May 2016.
  13. 1 2 3 "Fire TV Device Specifications - Amazon Apps & Services Developer Portal". developer.amazon.com. Retrieved 2016-10-20.
  14. ↑ "How Amazon's Fire TV Stick Compares to Other Streaming Dongles - WIRED". WIRED.
  15. ↑ Fire TV Stick - Official Site. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
  16. ↑ Estrada, Maren (2016-10-17). "Amazon’s next-gen Fire TV Stick with Alexa is only $40, and it launches this week". BGR. Retrieved 2016-10-20.
  17. ↑ All-New Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote | Streaming Media Player.
  18. ↑ "Amazon Announces New Features for Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick". Amazon. 2015-03-24. Retrieved 2015-05-27.
  19. ↑ Seifert, Dan (2014-04-04). "Amazon Fire TV review". The Verge. Retrieved 2014-04-21.
  20. ↑ "Review: The Amazon Fire TV Is Kind Of A Mess – ReadWrite".
  21. ↑ Liu, Andy. "Review: Amazon's Fire TV sets a new bar for streaming boxes". GeekWire. Retrieved 2014-04-21.
  22. ↑ Amazon Fire TV misses the same marks as Ouya, other media boxes. Ars Technica. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
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