Was looking for a cheap device to run Kodi and since this was a secondary device for me, focus was on cost and footprint (the smaller the better)
The new Amazon Fire Stick just came out (US$39.99) and figured it was cheap enough to try. After a few days testing it out, am extremely happy with it and thinking of getting another one for my folks. It's probably not for everybody, particularly those who need 4K, but for those looking for a cheap player that's easy to use for the non-techies in the family, this one's great. They'll probably discount this come Black Friday, so might be a good time to pick up a few more then
Main purpose of the device for me was to run Kodi. Sideloading Kodi was extremely easy, and no issues running Kodi 16.1 Jarvis. While I had Exodus installed, I like being able to control the quality of my streams, so I actually download myself. I have an Emby server running on my QNAP NAS in Manila, and using the Emby Kodi add-on, I get access to my library pretty much anywhere (in this case, in HK). You can do this with Plex as well (haven't tested as I don't have the Plex server installed), but I like Emby for its ability to sync watched status (pause/resume across multiple devices/locations). End result, from a user interface point of view, is seamless access to my library in Kodi natively - you don't even know content is being streamed remotely. I can keep track of shows/episodes I've already seen as well.
I don't use the other apps in the Fire Stick, although it looks straightforward enough.
I have Amazon Prime and can access the non-geoblocked content on Amazon Video, but would need a VPN to access other stuff. Unfortunately, and this is one of the shortcomings of the Fire Stick, Amazon's taken out Android's native VPN libraries. Will need to use a VPN-enabled router to get around geoblocking, and I wasn't keen to put in that much effort
All in all, not bad for less than 40 bucks. Last year's Black Friday sale saw the previous Fire Stick versions go below $20.
Pros:
- cheap
- extremely small - just an HDMI dongle, although has to be powered via USB. There's an included power adapter, although I'm thinking it should be possible to power this if your TV has a spare USB slot (mine didn't)
- latest version has Alexa voice control built in the remote (although since I was using Kodi and not the other Amazon apps, I didn't have much use for this, aside from weather)
Cons:
- No 4k
- No native VPN
I've seen the Fire Stick being sold for 4-5k in Manila, marketed as "jailbroken", etc etc. You don't really need to root it to sideload Kodi, and it's pretty simple. Then I guess, have to include shipping and the effort to customize it
Happy to help anybody looking at this option. PM me if you want to try out my Emby stream - can give temporary access for those looking to do something similar, but not sure how to go about it.
