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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2017
Update: still love it. All this week my neighbors Comcast kept going out, but my fire TV with DirecTV now works great on my measly 0-3mbps internet. I had some stuttering and thought I might have to upgrade my internet, but I just deleted the DirecTV now app and reloaded it (you'll need your password!) And it's been fantastic ever since! Very few glitches on live TV-way less than the Comcast set top box! My parents' Comcast tv is screwed up right now, channel not authorized every few minutes. Comcast tv is like landline phones: ditch it and save money and hassles. Comcast internet is great-if your neighborhood network of ok.
I canceled my Comcast TV subscription but kept my measly "up to 3Mbps" internet. I ordered this device and plugged it in. Clicked to confirm my Amazon account (came right up on screen) and selected "English". Then I navigated to the Direct TV Now app and selected it. It told me to sign up at direcTVnow.com/amazon...please note that there is only 1 "T" in the address.
I signed up for the free 7 day trail and swiped LEFT to go to the cheaper plan of $35/month. BAM: I'm channel surfing just like I had with Comcast...only now I have MORE channels!!!!
Why did I choose Direct TV Now over PlayStation Vue? Well, the $25/month PS Vue had ALL the channels I watched on Comcast EXCEPT for AMC (Better Call Saul, Walking Dead) and History Channel (Forged in Fire, Ancient Aliens). The $35/month PS Vue deal added AMC and some other sports stuff I don't care about.
The $35/month Direct TV Now added AMC AND History Channel...AND it includes Spike TV (Ink Masters, Bar Rescue) which Comcast took away from us way back in like 2015! Plus Direct TV also adds Comedy Central (South Park) and Velocity TV (car fixing and racing shows) and TV Land (1950s TV shows, etc.) plus a few others.
I kept a notebook log of what channels I watched on Comcast...out of 727 channels PS Vue 11/12 and Direct Tv Now had all 13 channels I watched. Ditching the other 700+ channels has lowered my monthly living costs by $84/month.
With this Fire TV Box and a $84/month subscription to Direct TV Now I can now watch my favorite channels: A&E, AMC, Cartoon Network/Adult Swim, Comedy Central, Discovery, E!, Fox, Fox News, FX, FXX, HGTV, History, ID, Nat Geo, SPIKE, ScyFY, TBS, Turner Classic Movies (TCM), TBS (they still have NEW episodes of American Dad), TNT (Animal Kingdom), TV Land, Velocity, Viceland plus some other stuff.
With my crappy "up to 3Mbps" Comcast internet (so low they don't offer it to new customers) I am watching TV and CHANNEL SURFING just like when I had Comcast. I canceled Comcast TV last week. I'm typing this as I'm watching Deadliest Catch.
I have no idea what resolution this is playing in, but it's definitely better than the lame-ass 430p resolution Comcast was putting out of their set-top box for $90/month! In the 3 days I didn't have Comcast or Fire TV I hooked up a free over the air digital TV antenna (so I could watch Colombo reruns and Svengoolie on local TV) and that was WAY better resolution than Comcast! The screen looks like I'm watch a DVD of live TV (not a BluRay, but better than Comcast live TV). I'm so HAPPY I found this and so ANGRY Comcast has been screwing me/us all these years...although their internet is great.
Fire TV and Direct TV Now together give you a channel surfing experience just like with Comcast. I've been watching for almost an hour now and I haven't had any glitches. With my Comcast TV the setup box from Comcast would have reset it self TWICE by now and maybe even asked me to "unplug for a minute and replug if the problem continues". My comcast TV was glitchy, but Fire TV somehow works great with way higher resolution! Unbelievable. I can't believe how beautiful my TV looks now with high resolution!
What would I miss? Well, I'm not sure how to watch old episodes "On-Demand", but I still have to play around and possibly download individual "apps" and then tell them my TV Provider is Direct TV Now. Or it's just somewhere on the menu I haven't played with. There are a few free movies I already found.
Update: it automatically loaded apps for all the Direct Tv Now channels: there are on demond episodes for almost evetything! So happy!
Oh, apparently if you have Amazon Prime you get Prime TV which is like literally millions of movies and TV shows and stuff. I have a freebie "limited" Prime account through a family member so I just get the free shipping. I guess I can pay the $85 per YEAR (not month) and get a "Full" Prime membership and get all those movies and TV. I'll probably do that since there is an old AMC show called "Rubicon" that isn't available on DVD or online anywhere...the rest would just be gravy.
Also, for like $7/$8 dollars you can add HBO or Showtime or Cinemax to your Direct TV Now account per month. I think PS Vue charged like $15/month for those each...so adding premium channels is like 50% less on Direct TV Now per month. I looked at all those premium channels and it was like: I've already seen all of the Sopranos episodes so I bought the entire run of "Dexter" on BluRay for $60 and thus I have zero need for any premium channel.
I'm staring at Deadliest Catch and marveling how clear it is compared to the crap Comcast fed me!
So, what were the BAD parts of Fire TV:
You have to run an ethernet cable to it if you want the best performance instead of wi-fi. I just unplugged the one out of my old BluRay player and plugged it right in. I believe this will also do wi-fi wireless, but cable is always better than over-air wifi.
The player arrived in a padded envelope and not a box! Scary, but it was ok.
There was tape run around both ends of the "sleeve" of cardboard around the box containg the unit. I had to get a knife to slice it and even then it tore the box apart as I slide it off!
The box had a clear, hard to see tape seal.
The unit was in a plastic, sealed bag and also the unit had a ring of clear cling wrap around it which was hard to remove.
The AC plug had TWO layers of plastic cling wrap running on opposite directions covering it!?!?!?
The remote was in a plastic bag that had instructions on how to insert the batteries (included), but there was also a separate piece of glossy paper in the box that duplicated the exact same instructions! Wasteful!!!! The entire back of the remote slides off by the way, kinda weird so you DO need visual instructions to get it off, lol.
The batteries were just rolling around LOOSE in the box: no wrap!
THIS UNIT DOES NOT COME WITH AN HDMI CABLE!!!!!!!! You can order one for $8 from Amazon.
The AC cord had a really nice, wide black rubber band keeping the wire coiled nicely, but I still think it's wasteful: rubber is a natural resource, why waste it. The batteries were rolling around loose, who cares if the AC cord is a little uncoiled?
When you first turn it on and do the setup you have to hit the pause/play button to OK your choice to setup; then your second choice of language you have to hit the center button to ok your choice: jut sort of sloppy: pick a button to "OK" stuff with. From then on, you use the huge center button to click on/ok things just as you'd think the remote would work.
You have to press AND HOLD the microphone button to talk to Alexa. Not a big deal, that's a good thing actually for privacy but it took me by suprise: I'm used to clicking on things, not pressing and holding. It took me a few tries to realize...it also says right on screen with huge letters "Press AND HOLD while talking to Alexa". LOL!
Hit the "Home" house logo and click to the right to go to "Guide" and you have a guide grid of channels and show titles and times just like Comcast. How nice and simple!
I have no affiliation with Comcast or Direct TV. I'm a middle-aged librarian in Metro-Detroit who just wants to veg-out and channel surf every now and again. I tried Hulu but didn't like it because it was like "Please tell us which of the 38,0000 TV shows we have that you want to watch" and I'm like "Uh...I dunno!, let me see the shows that start with the letter A" and Hulu was all like "We have 11,214 TV shows that start with the letter A, which one do you want?" And I'm like, "Um, Archer?" I spent 3 days binge-watching Archer and then canceled it. I don't "know" what I want to watch for the most part...I surf and find it. With this setup I can watch reruns of Archer and I do "know" I NEED tio see Better Call Saul, but other than that I stumble on the usual shows....like Fargo or whatever. I LITERALLY canceled a 7 day FREE trail of Hulu on the 3rd morning because it just seemed like WORK to find something to watch.
2 hours in and no glitches--my crazy slow 3Mbps internet is just fine :) I guess I don't have to upgrade the internet (which even if I did I'd still be saving like $60/month over Comcast TV)...but I think I'm going to. For the first week everything worked great: I could watch Fire TV and also use the internet on my tablet. I even watched a Youtube video while also using the Fire TV...but that was pushing it. My internet sucks generally: I can barely read emails on my new desktop it's so slow (even before getting the Fire TV). We also just had some storms in Detroit and my Air Conditioner unit blew a fuse at 5am...so I can't be sure if it's really even a speed issue, or just power brown outs and general mayhem playing havoc with the internet (and the lights and AC unit).
IF I WERE PLANNING THIS OUT: I would price the cost of ditching all Comcast TV but upgrading to their 10Mbps internet. It's still way, way cheaper than Comcast TV. My bill came today and it was $51.54 instead of $135.13!!!!!!! Heck, I may upgrade to their 75Mbps service! Every month I save enough money to buy another Fire TV box....$1008 per year less (unless I upgrade the cable).
I'm glad I went with the Fire Box instead of the stick, since the box can take an ethernet input instead of relying on wi-fi to connect: My wi-fi goes out when I use the microwave, LOL!
Also weird: earlier today (before Fire TV was delivered) there was a Comcast Internet and TV outtage throughout the subdivision! That raised my stress level a bit, but it was fixed before the box arrived.
Fire TV Box + HDMI Cord + Ethernet cable to my modem/router + Comcast 3mpbs slow internet = AWESOME!
I can remember back in the 1970s we had "ON TV" with a single movie channel and it was a cool treat! Like having a Coke was a treat, like a milkshake. Then regular cable as we know it came around with Atlanta/Georgia scientific boxes or something? They were beige with huge reddish/clear remote control windows and it was fine: tons of channels. Then Comcast came along and it was: at least twice a month you were calling them to reset your box or fix your internet. TODAY MY ENTIRE SUBDIVISION HAD A 2 HOUR CABLE TV AND INTERNET OUTTAGE. My parents up the street had to call because NOTHING worked and it was some substation that blew out. There is ALWAYS something wrong with Comcast. Since 2002 nobody can watch BBC America without audio glitches and picture freezing...which is fine, I've overdosed on Gordon Ramsey shows and the only movies they show are Aliens (2) and Silence of the Lambs (which I love, but how many times in a row can I watch that).
I know this was wordy, but the more info I give the more it might help others cut the cord. Oh, two months ago my Comcast modem died so they sent me one of the combination modem/wireless/router "Bridge" things. All is well.
Tip: hold the home button (little house) and it'll bring up the sleep option. Never leave your Fire Tv running a TV channel or else you'd be burning gigs of Internet usage and slowing your network. If you just tap your home button it takes you to the home screen which I think goes to sleep after 30 minutes.
Good luck and great savings to you fellow cord-cutters,
Michael Logusz
Science & Optics
I canceled my Comcast TV subscription but kept my measly "up to 3Mbps" internet. I ordered this device and plugged it in. Clicked to confirm my Amazon account (came right up on screen) and selected "English". Then I navigated to the Direct TV Now app and selected it. It told me to sign up at direcTVnow.com/amazon...please note that there is only 1 "T" in the address.
I signed up for the free 7 day trail and swiped LEFT to go to the cheaper plan of $35/month. BAM: I'm channel surfing just like I had with Comcast...only now I have MORE channels!!!!
Why did I choose Direct TV Now over PlayStation Vue? Well, the $25/month PS Vue had ALL the channels I watched on Comcast EXCEPT for AMC (Better Call Saul, Walking Dead) and History Channel (Forged in Fire, Ancient Aliens). The $35/month PS Vue deal added AMC and some other sports stuff I don't care about.
The $35/month Direct TV Now added AMC AND History Channel...AND it includes Spike TV (Ink Masters, Bar Rescue) which Comcast took away from us way back in like 2015! Plus Direct TV also adds Comedy Central (South Park) and Velocity TV (car fixing and racing shows) and TV Land (1950s TV shows, etc.) plus a few others.
I kept a notebook log of what channels I watched on Comcast...out of 727 channels PS Vue 11/12 and Direct Tv Now had all 13 channels I watched. Ditching the other 700+ channels has lowered my monthly living costs by $84/month.
With this Fire TV Box and a $84/month subscription to Direct TV Now I can now watch my favorite channels: A&E, AMC, Cartoon Network/Adult Swim, Comedy Central, Discovery, E!, Fox, Fox News, FX, FXX, HGTV, History, ID, Nat Geo, SPIKE, ScyFY, TBS, Turner Classic Movies (TCM), TBS (they still have NEW episodes of American Dad), TNT (Animal Kingdom), TV Land, Velocity, Viceland plus some other stuff.
With my crappy "up to 3Mbps" Comcast internet (so low they don't offer it to new customers) I am watching TV and CHANNEL SURFING just like when I had Comcast. I canceled Comcast TV last week. I'm typing this as I'm watching Deadliest Catch.
I have no idea what resolution this is playing in, but it's definitely better than the lame-ass 430p resolution Comcast was putting out of their set-top box for $90/month! In the 3 days I didn't have Comcast or Fire TV I hooked up a free over the air digital TV antenna (so I could watch Colombo reruns and Svengoolie on local TV) and that was WAY better resolution than Comcast! The screen looks like I'm watch a DVD of live TV (not a BluRay, but better than Comcast live TV). I'm so HAPPY I found this and so ANGRY Comcast has been screwing me/us all these years...although their internet is great.
Fire TV and Direct TV Now together give you a channel surfing experience just like with Comcast. I've been watching for almost an hour now and I haven't had any glitches. With my Comcast TV the setup box from Comcast would have reset it self TWICE by now and maybe even asked me to "unplug for a minute and replug if the problem continues". My comcast TV was glitchy, but Fire TV somehow works great with way higher resolution! Unbelievable. I can't believe how beautiful my TV looks now with high resolution!
What would I miss? Well, I'm not sure how to watch old episodes "On-Demand", but I still have to play around and possibly download individual "apps" and then tell them my TV Provider is Direct TV Now. Or it's just somewhere on the menu I haven't played with. There are a few free movies I already found.
Update: it automatically loaded apps for all the Direct Tv Now channels: there are on demond episodes for almost evetything! So happy!
Oh, apparently if you have Amazon Prime you get Prime TV which is like literally millions of movies and TV shows and stuff. I have a freebie "limited" Prime account through a family member so I just get the free shipping. I guess I can pay the $85 per YEAR (not month) and get a "Full" Prime membership and get all those movies and TV. I'll probably do that since there is an old AMC show called "Rubicon" that isn't available on DVD or online anywhere...the rest would just be gravy.
Also, for like $7/$8 dollars you can add HBO or Showtime or Cinemax to your Direct TV Now account per month. I think PS Vue charged like $15/month for those each...so adding premium channels is like 50% less on Direct TV Now per month. I looked at all those premium channels and it was like: I've already seen all of the Sopranos episodes so I bought the entire run of "Dexter" on BluRay for $60 and thus I have zero need for any premium channel.
I'm staring at Deadliest Catch and marveling how clear it is compared to the crap Comcast fed me!
So, what were the BAD parts of Fire TV:
You have to run an ethernet cable to it if you want the best performance instead of wi-fi. I just unplugged the one out of my old BluRay player and plugged it right in. I believe this will also do wi-fi wireless, but cable is always better than over-air wifi.
The player arrived in a padded envelope and not a box! Scary, but it was ok.
There was tape run around both ends of the "sleeve" of cardboard around the box containg the unit. I had to get a knife to slice it and even then it tore the box apart as I slide it off!
The box had a clear, hard to see tape seal.
The unit was in a plastic, sealed bag and also the unit had a ring of clear cling wrap around it which was hard to remove.
The AC plug had TWO layers of plastic cling wrap running on opposite directions covering it!?!?!?
The remote was in a plastic bag that had instructions on how to insert the batteries (included), but there was also a separate piece of glossy paper in the box that duplicated the exact same instructions! Wasteful!!!! The entire back of the remote slides off by the way, kinda weird so you DO need visual instructions to get it off, lol.
The batteries were just rolling around LOOSE in the box: no wrap!
THIS UNIT DOES NOT COME WITH AN HDMI CABLE!!!!!!!! You can order one for $8 from Amazon.
The AC cord had a really nice, wide black rubber band keeping the wire coiled nicely, but I still think it's wasteful: rubber is a natural resource, why waste it. The batteries were rolling around loose, who cares if the AC cord is a little uncoiled?
When you first turn it on and do the setup you have to hit the pause/play button to OK your choice to setup; then your second choice of language you have to hit the center button to ok your choice: jut sort of sloppy: pick a button to "OK" stuff with. From then on, you use the huge center button to click on/ok things just as you'd think the remote would work.
You have to press AND HOLD the microphone button to talk to Alexa. Not a big deal, that's a good thing actually for privacy but it took me by suprise: I'm used to clicking on things, not pressing and holding. It took me a few tries to realize...it also says right on screen with huge letters "Press AND HOLD while talking to Alexa". LOL!
Hit the "Home" house logo and click to the right to go to "Guide" and you have a guide grid of channels and show titles and times just like Comcast. How nice and simple!
I have no affiliation with Comcast or Direct TV. I'm a middle-aged librarian in Metro-Detroit who just wants to veg-out and channel surf every now and again. I tried Hulu but didn't like it because it was like "Please tell us which of the 38,0000 TV shows we have that you want to watch" and I'm like "Uh...I dunno!, let me see the shows that start with the letter A" and Hulu was all like "We have 11,214 TV shows that start with the letter A, which one do you want?" And I'm like, "Um, Archer?" I spent 3 days binge-watching Archer and then canceled it. I don't "know" what I want to watch for the most part...I surf and find it. With this setup I can watch reruns of Archer and I do "know" I NEED tio see Better Call Saul, but other than that I stumble on the usual shows....like Fargo or whatever. I LITERALLY canceled a 7 day FREE trail of Hulu on the 3rd morning because it just seemed like WORK to find something to watch.
2 hours in and no glitches--my crazy slow 3Mbps internet is just fine :) I guess I don't have to upgrade the internet (which even if I did I'd still be saving like $60/month over Comcast TV)...but I think I'm going to. For the first week everything worked great: I could watch Fire TV and also use the internet on my tablet. I even watched a Youtube video while also using the Fire TV...but that was pushing it. My internet sucks generally: I can barely read emails on my new desktop it's so slow (even before getting the Fire TV). We also just had some storms in Detroit and my Air Conditioner unit blew a fuse at 5am...so I can't be sure if it's really even a speed issue, or just power brown outs and general mayhem playing havoc with the internet (and the lights and AC unit).
IF I WERE PLANNING THIS OUT: I would price the cost of ditching all Comcast TV but upgrading to their 10Mbps internet. It's still way, way cheaper than Comcast TV. My bill came today and it was $51.54 instead of $135.13!!!!!!! Heck, I may upgrade to their 75Mbps service! Every month I save enough money to buy another Fire TV box....$1008 per year less (unless I upgrade the cable).
I'm glad I went with the Fire Box instead of the stick, since the box can take an ethernet input instead of relying on wi-fi to connect: My wi-fi goes out when I use the microwave, LOL!
Also weird: earlier today (before Fire TV was delivered) there was a Comcast Internet and TV outtage throughout the subdivision! That raised my stress level a bit, but it was fixed before the box arrived.
Fire TV Box + HDMI Cord + Ethernet cable to my modem/router + Comcast 3mpbs slow internet = AWESOME!
I can remember back in the 1970s we had "ON TV" with a single movie channel and it was a cool treat! Like having a Coke was a treat, like a milkshake. Then regular cable as we know it came around with Atlanta/Georgia scientific boxes or something? They were beige with huge reddish/clear remote control windows and it was fine: tons of channels. Then Comcast came along and it was: at least twice a month you were calling them to reset your box or fix your internet. TODAY MY ENTIRE SUBDIVISION HAD A 2 HOUR CABLE TV AND INTERNET OUTTAGE. My parents up the street had to call because NOTHING worked and it was some substation that blew out. There is ALWAYS something wrong with Comcast. Since 2002 nobody can watch BBC America without audio glitches and picture freezing...which is fine, I've overdosed on Gordon Ramsey shows and the only movies they show are Aliens (2) and Silence of the Lambs (which I love, but how many times in a row can I watch that).
I know this was wordy, but the more info I give the more it might help others cut the cord. Oh, two months ago my Comcast modem died so they sent me one of the combination modem/wireless/router "Bridge" things. All is well.
Tip: hold the home button (little house) and it'll bring up the sleep option. Never leave your Fire Tv running a TV channel or else you'd be burning gigs of Internet usage and slowing your network. If you just tap your home button it takes you to the home screen which I think goes to sleep after 30 minutes.
Good luck and great savings to you fellow cord-cutters,
Michael Logusz
Science & Optics
