Installation is a breeze: the stick (possibly with flexible extension) into a HDMI jack on the TV, connect via USB cable to the AC adapter, and this starts the Mini-PC. First, the remote control is sought, which should be fitted with the supplied batteries now. Since it is not found, suggests the indicator on the TV front to press a certain button on the remote control 10 seconds, and in fact I have an immediate connection. One great advantage of this Bluetooth remote control, it is that I do not need visual contact with the stick, a keystroke always depends. The wireless connection is set up quickly and then an animated video is played, in which the main features are presented for operation and menu navigation.
In the menu you find your way quickly, it is clearly and logically structured. It is also helpful that the remote control contains only the main key and remains intuitive to use. In the embroidery data of the own Amazon Prime account are (if any) deposited, so that films can be viewed immediately. There are also play the ability to record video and photos from the Amazon cloud, and of course all conceivable applications can be installed. The proposed Apps from Youtube and the ZDF Mediathek I immediately downloaded and launched, which works fine. Also Kodi I could install manually using the smartphones with no prior knowledge, which, inter alia, access to external hard drives is possible. Here the sky is virtually unlimited.
A few sentences the supplied remote control: It would have been nice to be able to change the volume, but this must be done with the TV's remote. Also I miss a button to turn off the sticks, playback instead stopped automatically when the TV is turned off, it draws nevertheless permanently current. Can be avoided by releasing the stick is connected to the USB port of your TV. Now he is terminated forcibly turning off the TV and starts only when power is reapplied the new TVs (Edit:. There's a sleep mode, just long-press the home key 1W is still consumed). Toll would of course have been a voice control as it provides remote control of the Fire TV. For the asking price, this was probably simply no longer possible, and the more expensive remote control can be bought later, too. But there are at least Android also an app for the smartphone that connects to the stick and processed voice commands without difficulty.
Up to this point I could forgive the full five stars, but as often happens, there is in this product, a dark side, and that affects the refresh rate. A small digression: videos on Youtube, Amazon etc are either 24, 25 (Europe) or 30 (USA) frames per second (fps). Voices now video footage and output of the stick with regard to the agreement framerate, the film becomes liquid reproduced on the television. Of course this the stick at different videos must recognize their refresh rate and adjust the output signal. THE NOT happening here!
The problem is evident when I stream movies from Amazon: The most clearly bucking. What happened? The data stored in Germany with 25fps movies are forwarded at a different frequency to the TV, in this case with 60Hz. In the settings under "tones and screen", "screen", "Video resolution" are now different refresh rates to see which can be selected manually. By default, selected 'Automatic', which should adjust the frequency actually own, but this does not do. Here I manually set to "1080p 50Hz" or "720p 50Hz", ie a multiple of the usual here 25Hz, the video runs smoothly because now matches the output frequency at the video frequency and not 25 frames must as before be converted into 30. However, the logical consequence of this is also that now videos with 30fps is reproduced jerky. That said, I have to go in every jerky video on the menu and adjust everything manually. Up to this point it would be just a nuisance, but in all the movies that are with 24fps on the servers of Amazon (and this is the absolute majority of all films), is added another problem, because I can select in the menu, only 50 or 60 fps and such films never play fluently!
Well I thought the whole thing would be a temporary problem that can be solved with a software update problems. But I read my reviews of Fire by TV, there is just this problem there just the same, and for over half a year! Now I know that not even Amazon is to blame for this failure, but the Android operating system, which is used here, no automatic switching between the frequencies allowed and also does not support 24Hz.
Conclusion:
The Fire TV stick is a great piece of technology with great potential and an unacceptable error. Films with a 24Hz, such as those used in every movie and so are also on the servers of Amazon, can never be reproduced smoothly since such output frequency is not provided. And actually should a product that's created just for a specific task, this rule also completely. In this sense, everyone has to decide whether it can accept the disadvantages of the Fire Sticks, as long as no update fixes the problem yourself.
