Amazon Fire TV

Amazon Fire TV (stylized as amazon fireTV) is a line of digital media players and microconsoles developed by Amazon since 2014. The devices are small network appliances that deliver digital audio and video content streamed via the Internet to a connected high-definition television. They also allow users to access local content and to play video games with the included remote control or another game controller, or by using a mobile app remote control on another device.

The device is available in two form factors, the first being a set-top box, of which the current model is the Fire TV Cube with embedded Amazon Echo smart speaker (which effectively replaced the original Fire TV box model ). The other product is a HDMI plug-in stick with, in general, lesser specifications than the contemporaneous boxes; these are offered in the entry-level Fire TV Stick Lite, the standard Fire TV Stick, and the high-end Fire TV Stick 4K and Fire TV Stick 4K Max (the third of which effectively replaced the third-generation "pendant" Fire TV ). Additionally, Amazon licenses the Fire OS and Fire TV interface to be embedded and built into certain television sets from third parties sold to the public, labeled as Fire TV Edition.

First generation
The first Fire TV was made available for purchase in the US on the same day of the April 2014 announcement for US$99 and was launched with a video game called Sev Zero. Codenamed "Bueller", after the eponymous character from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, it offered HDMI audio, with support for Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 surround sound pass-through, if the user's Internet bandwidth was sufficient. According to Amazon, the Fire TV was designed to outpace competitors like the Apple TV and Roku in performance: the 0.72-inch-thick box featured a 1.7 GHz quad-core CPU (Qualcomm Snapdragon 8064), 2 GB of RAM and 8 GB of internal storage, along with a MIMO dual-band radio for 1080p streaming over 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and a 10/100 Ethernet connection and USB 2.0 port. Included with the box is a Bluetooth remote control with a microphone for voice search.

The company said that it did not intend the Fire TV to compete with gaming consoles; instead, its gaming capabilities were geared toward people who did not already own a console but may play games on a smartphone or tablet. It has a dedicated controller accessory.

Second generation
Amazon released a second-generation Fire TV, codenamed "Sloane", after the film love interest of Ferris Bueller, in late 2015. This version had 4K resolution support, improved processor performance, and a MediaTek 8173C chipset to support H.265 (HEVC), VP8, and VP9 codecs. Wireless hardware upgrades included 4K capable, a dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi with 2x2 MIMO and Bluetooth 4.1. It was effectively replaced with the Fire TV Cube.

Third generation
The third-generation Fire TV, also known as the Fire TV with 4K Ultra HD and Alexa Voice Remote, was released in 2017. It eschewed the previous set-top box design for a small, diamond-shaped "pendant" reminiscent of the Fire TV Stick, which plugs directly into a television set's HDMI port and can be hung from a short HDMI extender cable. It contained a slower processor but more RAM than the second-generation Fire TV, and also had support for 4K resolution streaming, Dolby Atmos, and HDR10, but dropped support for Miracast. Production was discontinued in 2018 in favor of the Fire TV Stick 4K.

First generation
The Fire TV Cube was released in June 2018. It is similar in function to the third-generation Fire TV but also includes embedded Alexa functionality similar to the Amazon Echo smart speaker line and can use HDMI-CEC and an IR blaster to control other devices with voice commands. As its voice functionality is integrated into the device, the Fire TV Cube's included remote does not include voice capability. The device uses a 1.5 GHz quad-core ARM 4xCA53 processor, 2 GB RAM, and 16 GB storage.

Second generation
A second-generation model was unveiled in September 2019, featuring a hexa-core processor, "Local Voice Control" (which allows client-side recognition of common voice commands to improve response time), and support for Dolby Vision and HDR10+. It supports 4K output.

Third generation
A third-generation model of the Fire TV Cube was announced on September 28, 2022 for release on October 25, 2022. Notable upgrades to the 3rd-generation model include an octa-core processor (4x 2.2GHz 4x 2.0GHz), support for Wi-Fi 6E (IEEE 802.11ax) networking, and Bluetooth 5.0+LE.

First generation
On November 19, 2014, Amazon released its Fire TV Stick, a smaller dongle version of the Fire TV that plugs into an HDMI port. Codenamed "Montoya", it retains much of the functionality of the larger Fire TV. It has 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of internal storage, weighs 0.9 oz, and it uses a Broadcom BCM28155 1.0 GHz Cortex-A9 processor and a Broadcom VideoCore IV GPU. Wireless hardware includes a dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi with 2x2 MIMO and Bluetooth 3.0 The Fire TV Stick is bundled with a remote control, in either of two variants: one with Alexa voice search and one without Alexa.

Second generation
On October 20, 2016, Amazon released the Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote, codenamed "Tank". Other than the new remote, the updates include MediaTek MT8127D Quad-core ARM 1.3 GHz processor with a Mali-450 MP4 GPU, and support for the H.265 (HEVC) codec. Wireless hardware upgrades includes a dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi with 2x2 MIMO and Bluetooth 4.1. It retains the 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage and weighs slightly more at 1.1 oz.

In January 2019, the second-generation Fire TV Stick was re-issued with the updated remote from the 4K model.

Fire TV Stick 4K
In October 2018, Amazon unveiled the Fire TV Stick 4K, codenamed "Mantis," which "effectively replaces Amazon’s Fire TV pendant." It is upgraded to a 1.7 GHz quad-core processor, 1.5 GB RAM, and supports 4K output, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, hardware-accelerated MPEG-2 decoding, and Miracast through a later update. It also includes an updated voice remote that contains an infrared emitter and buttons for controlling TV power and volume (which can also be controlled with voice commands). The remote is backward compatible with previous Fire TV models, and also sold separately as an upgrade.

Third generation
In October 2020, two third-generation Fire TV Stick models were released. The Fire TV Stick model includes a remote with TV control buttons where the Fire TV Stick Lite model's remote does not include TV controls. Both models include similar internal hardware as the Fire TV Stick 4K, except for a maximum output resolution of 1080p and only 1 GB of RAM. In 2021, the third-generation Fire TV Stick was re-issued with an updated remote "3rd Gen Alexa Voice Remote".

Fire TV Stick 4K Max
On October 7, 2021, Amazon released the Fire TV Stick 4K Max. It includes the updated 3rd gen Alexa Voice Remote, and has Wi-Fi 6 support. It has a 1.8 GHz processor, a 750 MHz GPU, and 2 GB of RAM. It also has Dolby Atmos support. This Fire TV is the first in the line with hardware accelerated AV1 support.

Fire TV Edition
Fire TV Edition is the product name applied to smart television sets produced by major television manufacturers that include Amazon Fire OS and the Fire TV interface, licensed from Amazon. They offer basic live television program information and minimal recording capabilities. Fire TV Edition television models are available from Best Buy's house brand Insignia, Toshiba (in U.S. and Canadian markets), and JVC and Grundig (in European markets).

Fire TV Recast
The Fire TV Recast is a digital video recorder that works with an over-the-air antenna to record shows for later viewing on a Fire TV or an Amazon Echo Show device. It was announced in September 2018 and began shipping in the United States on November 14, 2018.

In August 2022, Amazon confirmed the discontinuation of the Fire TV Recast. Among the downsides: Content stored on a Recast cannot be viewed using other major streaming devices, such as Roku, Apple TV, or Chromecast, limiting its appeal; it also never gained the ability to skip commercials during playback.

Software
The Fire TV series runs Fire OS, which is derived from Android Open Source Project source code. It supports voice commands via either a remote control with an embedded microphone, or integrated microphones inside the device (as is the case of the Fire TV Cube), and can also be controlled with Alexa via Amazon Echo smart speakers. The devices support various Amazon-owned services, including Amazon Prime Video, Twitch, Amazon Freevee, Amazon Music and Amazon Luna, as well as other major third-party services, including Netflix, YouTube, YouTube TV, Curiosity Stream, Mubi, Dekkoo, Ameba TV, YuppTV, Chorki, Eros Now, the Apple TV app, ZEE5, SonyLIV, Crunchyroll, Crackle, DAZN, Dailymotion, Peacock, Hulu, Hotstar, Disney+, Tubi, Vimeo, Max, Discovery+, Joyn, Philo, Paramount+, JioCinema, Pluto TV, FuboTV, WOW Presents Plus, MX Player, Spotify, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, Tidal, Audacy, BBC Sounds, Qello, Plex, Emby, Jellyfin, AirConsole and others via Amazon Appstore.

The "X-Ray" feature allows users to view contextual information related to Prime Video content (such as biographies of actors and other trivia), using face recognition, music recognition, and IMDb data.

Most Fire TV devices allow screen mirroring and casting from Miracast or (only on Fire TV Edition sets) AirPlay devices. Third-party applications such as AirScreen can allow AirPlay and Google Cast to be used. Amazon are currently also adding support for a new protocol named Matter Casting.

Reception
Dan Seifert from The Verge reviewed Fire TV on April 4, 2014, giving it an 8.8/10 rating and largely praising its functionality and future potential. Dave Smith from ReadWrite wrote, "Fire TV aims to be the cure for what ails TV set-top boxes." GeekWire editor Andy Liu's review is headlined "Amazon's Fire TV sets a new bar for streaming boxes." Ars Technica praised the device for specifications that surpassed competitors, good build quality, and a microphone works very well if you use Amazon content. The reviewer disliked the fact that its media browser puts Amazon content in the front, which makes other applications less convenient to use, limited game selection with many games not optimized, and only 5.16GB of free space, which limits the number of games that can be installed.