[Closed] Amazon Fire TV - with Kodi, etc for streaming

Has you TV got an optical out ? If so that is often better as it may avoid some lip-sync issues with the amount of time the TV takes processing the picture.

Thee are some pass-through boxes that pull the audio off of the hdmi connection if you do want to take the sound form the box - look for Neet on Amazon for example.

Not quite with the Chromestick. For example you find the YouTube movie you're interested in on your phone and then 'cast' it to the stick.

You can then turn you're phone to standby and the stick takes over the actual streaming. You then just use your phone essentially as a remote control.

Same goes for Netflix etc. Can't install Kodi on it though but may be able to stream from a Kodi device. Not investigated that far with Kodi.

I bought a fire TV stick a couple of weeks ago, sideloaded kodi onto it, and it seems to work fine.

I bought an external hdmi switcher to give me the optical audio out to feed into my amp.

I think the hdmi switcher was £35, and the fire TV stick also £35.

Thanks all!

Julians -
Do you have to use an Android device to "sideload" Kodi?

http://www.tvaddons.ag/install-kodi/ or a windows device.

Do you have to use an Android device to "sideload" Kodi?

No,you can do it all purely with the fire TV, it's a bit fiddly, but you first install es file Explorer from the fire app store then use that to directly install kodi to the fire TV stick, if you Google for it you should find the detailed instructions. The link that lokey posted above is a more complicated method that requires a separate windows machine to install from.

It's pretty straight forward. I've just done it via YouTube tutorials - I've even got Kodi to launch by double-clicking the home button on the remote.

Or you could get a Droidstick/Entertainment box

https://www.entertainmentbox.com/product-category/tv-boxes/

I have a T8 V2 with the S77 pro remote. It has optical out. Very good bit of kit, although mine is now redundant on main tele as I have an Android TV with all the bits built in/installed.

Nice one!
This has been really helpful. Will be ordering the Fire TV box.

Thanks again!

Cheers Superfli - Ill look into that as well.

Just a word of warning - the latest FireTV box does not have optical audio out. The first version did, but this has been removed from the latest one for some reason.

just having a play with this as mates have got various boxes with kodi and xbmc loaded etc so i thought id have a look. ive got a fire stick.

ive followed google instructions and loaded ES file explorer to enable me to load kodi. thats all gone fine. couple of questions tho.....

1. it suggests sideloading firestarter for ease of launching kodi with minimal clicks. i sort of followed the same pattern, put in the 'github' address, named 'firestarter', it went to the page with a list of available downloads, such as the apk file, a zip file etc. its the apk it told me to select but the cursor wont stop on it. it flits from whatevers above it straight to the zip file. i downloaded that to see if there was anything i could do with it, but im not sure ive done anything useful at all. where am i going wrong?

2. what actually does kodi do? whys it so good? i thought it was a streaming service, but when its open it just seems to have tabs for my videos, music and photos, so just a sort of media manager. can it stream, and if so what and where does it stream from?

thanks

what actually does kodi do? whys it so good?

Kodi is the new name for what used to be XBMC; at its core it's a media header, you plug it into your tellybox and play your media through it.

Why it's 'so good' may be down to the fact you can add loads of extensions into it to get media from different places, including some less-than-legitimate sources.

ah, that must be what theyre doing then, thanks. probably useless to me then, i just play stuff through the chromecast generally.

cheers

I praised the joys of tv addons a few months ago and I got slated promoting "piracy" I've used kodi since day dot on my old original Xbox when it was called xbmc a glimmer in Microsofts eye then they binned the project (was ment to be the dasg on all Xbox systems) and hackers and modders took it over and made it what it is today ie kodi.

It's fantastic you do get some buffering or no source available but its free. I've been putting this on my family and friends laptops and firesticks for free for yonks.

Some money makers seem to be charging for this now on local Facebook pages ie charging 75 quid for supply of a firestick with tvaddons sideloaded.... Jokers

Sadexpunk you need to load the "apps" or sources to enable the viewing tabs ie fusion installer. Google fusion installer and follow the steps then click on video addons and install them on kodi to make them work and watch away

thanks mate, just done that. i now have fusion on there but not entirely sure what it all means 🙂

i clicked a few add-ons but they all seemed fairly rubbish really. although the fact that i dont really know what i want or im looking at might have been the problem 😀

thanks

Sadexpunk, have a Google for Chris B's "The Beast". I was struggling along with basic Kodi on my android box for about 4 months. Installed "The Beast" and it's a different kettle of fish altogether.

just had a google thanks mate. dont really understand what it is but am i right in thinking its the same sort of thing as a rooted android rom on a phone, just for kodi tho?

ive been playing around with it tonight, not having much success. google shows plenty of 'how to's' to install various things from zips, but they never work and just say invalid path, or arent there in the downloads section 😀

must admit tho, ive stumbled across the man city vs leicester game which i guess im not sposed to, but ive absolutely no idea how i got there so wouldnt be able to do it again 😀 i was just looking at add-ons, browsing through stuff, getting cartoons, foreign tv, and this popped up. clicked on it thinking 'surely not', but..... twas there.

ill have another google of that beast thing tomorrow if i get chance, does it make streaming better, or is it just a slicker interface?

thanks

I suppose technically it doesn't add anything to Kodi as such, it just makes it soooooo much easier to use and navigate. Like a proper TV guide/Netflix-style list hybrid.

It took me a while to sort out properly, I think the way I got it to install was via Spartan wizard or something, and you have to exit Kodi rather dramatically by unplugging the power cable on your device once it says it's installed. Just exiting the app using the pop-up menus makes the installation fail for some reason.