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> Amazon FireTV needing to be rebooted every time my cable internet blinks

Returned the Fire stick and purchased a CCWGTV (Chromecast with Google TV) for this very reason.



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>Amazon removing the Chromecast from their store was, if anything, verification at the Fire TV was not a product that could succeed on its own.

Did anyone ever think otherwise? Content is king. Fire stick is just a raspberry pi with half-ass UI built in


> Do you not use Prime Video at all?

I don't, despite having Prime, because it doesn't work with Chromecast.


> Amazon has just responded to Google’s decision to remove YouTube from all Fire TV products

I'm sorry - is amazon prime video available on my chromecast now and I've missed it?

These guys are bloody hypocrites.

(edit: meant to say 'prime video' on chromecast, previously it just said prime)


> Prime Video has a 300ms audio delay on my Android TV and chromecasting to said TV has an even worse delay

We use a fire stick, and it has the same issue for Prime Video. We have to pause the show for a couple seconds and then start it back up to get it back in sync. It's totally annoying.


> "This device will not support X service after Y date" has happened.

Again, that's a symptom of shitty manufacturer firmware, it's a burden on streaming services to support these devices because they are the ones that have to maintain software packages for hundreds of different TV models.

In contrast, Fire/GoogleTV OS are built on Android, so streaming networks don't need to support individual TV models, they just have to target supported versions of Fire/GoogleTV OS. Android has APIs to handle Smart TV functionality.


> The situation on Android might be different; at one point I certainly could cast from Netflix to Chromecast on my Kindle Fire (even though no Google Play Services existed) although from looking around on Google a bit that appears to no longer be the case.

Correct. Google removed that ability, and Amazon won’t support Chromecast until Google adds it back.


> it appears that amazon pulled both Apple TV and Chromecast because they didn't offer Amazon Prime.

Amazon pulled Prime Video off of Chromecast themselves to sell the Fire TV (stick). Google did not remove Amazon's apps.


> If you tell Alexa, "buy me a chromecast", it orders you an Amazon fire stick instead.

This is not true. I just tried it.


> Also, all their apps are crap. Prime Video has a 300ms audio delay on my Android TV and chromecasting to said TV has an even worse delay.

Casting to a 2nd gen Chromecast from the prime video Android app works just fine for me.

I don't expect a built in function to the TV to be even remotely useful and have yet to see one that is snappy and not crap.


> Now, we wanted to Chromecast it, and Amazon (to the best of my knowledge) does not allow you to do that, presumably because they want you to buy their Fire TV instead.

It works on a phone or tablet if you cast the whole screen. Might work on a laptop the same way.


>There's no technical reason Chromecasts can't be set up by Kindle Fire devices, it's an intentionally-implemented block by Google.

This is some high-level misinformation being spread on your part, and not the first time you've done this on HN.

Chromecast is an open SDK - Amazon has the power to implement it at any time: https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/terms


Frack I've just bought a FireTV stick because I couldn't watch Amazon on my Chromecast.

> I found it frustrating when I couldn't stream Prime videos to my android phone (is stock android that different from the version on Fire?)

They've fixed that now. There was a time when you couldn't, but eventually the fire crashed badly enough that they started allowing it.



> I can do amazon streaming in the browser on chromeos.

ChromeOS would cover a portion of my requirements, and that's part of it.

> What devices have offline amazon streaming

I know my Android devices support downloading Amazon video and have for a long while.

> problem solved

One problem of several, as far as I'm concerned.


>It’s also worth noting that Amazon has said as soon as those products support Prime Video apps they’ll allow them back on

source? IIRC amazon claimed it was confusing for its users if they sold the chromecast and their firestick at the same time.


> First it was YouTube and the Firestick

The whole spat started because Amazon removed Chromecast devices from their retail platform.


> I'm both a subscriber of HBO and of Prime, and I'll actually be using this. You see, I have a Roku...

I'm in a similar situation, but I use a Chromecast instead of a Roku. Why oh why Amazon doesn't implement Chromecast support baffles me so much. I would spend a good amount of money on their streaming content that way. Instead, my money goes into the Google Play store.


> Amazon dropped Google Home products in favor of their Alexa

There was also Google breaking the ability for Amazon products to receive Chromecast streams.

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