From the strict point of view of Materialthe third generation of Amazon Fire TV Cube has a lot of things that you will love.
He is by far the player of diffusion Amazon’s fastest, and it comes with a better remote than cheaper models.
Power Alexa users will be happy to know that the Fire TV Cube also supports hands-free voice commands and even has an HDMI pass-through for controlling a TV. tv box cable or satellite without changing TV inputs.
The problem, as always, is not Material from Amazon, but your Software. The Fire TV interface is still too clunky, with too many sponsored ads, banners advertisements and strange menu items that get in the way.
At $160, the Fire TV Cube isn’t more expensive than the new Apple TV 4K, but without a home screen redesign, it’s even harder to recommend despite all it has to offer.
Fire TV with a little echo
Amazon has redesigned the 2022 Fire TV Cube, adding a fabric-wrapped case as a nod to the company’s Echo speakers. It uses far-field microphones to pick up Alexa voice commands from across the room and has a built-in speaker to answer basic questions when the TV is off.
Over the years, Amazon has created an impressive system for controlling your TV entirely by voice. With Alexa, you can launch movies and shows directly in popular apps like Netflix and HBO Max, and some live streaming services support connecting to live channels with voice commands.
As you navigate the home screen using your voice, Fire TV assigns numbers to each item to help you select them, and if all else fails, you can use commands like “left” , “select” and “back” to navigate.
For most users, this is very convenient, but the Cube’s fully voice-controlled interface also aids accessibility. No other device diffusion it has such comprehensive hands-free controls.
New Material Cheats
Hands-free voice control isn’t the only feature unique to the third-generation Fire TV Cube.
Its octa-core processor is faster than any other Fire TV device to date, with noticeable improvements even over the quad-core Fire TV Stick 4K Max.
While some apps load a second or two faster, the Cube sometimes loads five to 10 seconds faster than the Max. It was rare for an application to take more than a few seconds to start.
The new Cube also has an upscaler that upscales HD video to 4K in a more advanced way than the linear upscaling of most TVs, although I found the effects harder to discern than the upscaling from Nvidia’s Shield TV.
Unlike Nvidia, Amazon doesn’t offer adjustable sharpness levels or a one-click way to switch between upscaled and unscaled video, which makes comparisons even more complicated.
Amazon’s other great trick is HDMI pass-through, which can display video from another device (with the aforementioned scaling) without switching inputs or dropping on-screen responses. Alexa.
This is especially useful for cable and satellite boxes, as you can control them with your remote or tune to live channels with Alexa (if your provider supports it). However, I would avoid using it with game consoles, as there is significant lag.
An improved controller and full USB port
The other big improvement to the Fire TV Cube is the new remote, with a taller design and additional buttons, such as channel up and down, a dedicated settings button, and a new reuse button.
The latter is particularly useful, as it allows you to change recently used apps or channels in the Fire TV live guide without having to return to the home screen.
As before, the remote also has direct access to Amazon’s live guide as well as a channel selector that works in compatible apps such as YouTube TV and Channels DVR.
However, the standard Cube controller lacks backlighting, programmable buttons, and a controller search function. For these features, you’ll need to spend an extra $39.99 for the Alexa Pro voice remote.
Like most other Fire TV models, the Cube’s remote also has TV volume, power, and mute controls, and Amazon does a great job adapting it to a wide range of TVs, bars, and TVs. sound and A/V receivers.
All you have to do is choose your service providers Material during the setup process, and Fire TV will automatically find the correct infrared controls. You can then use Alexa hands-free commands to control volume and power as well.
It’s also the first Fire TV Cube to include a USB-A port, allowing you to connect external storage drives, game controllers, and even webcams (for Zoom or Alexa video calls) without needing a USB-A port. adapters or adapters. hubs.
Nor is there a need for a center for a wired Ethernet connection, as the 3rd Generation Cube has a built-in 100 Mbps Ethernet port. The wireless network connectivity used is Wi-Fi 6E.
software frustrations
All this completes a set of Material compelling, but the Fire TV interface remains a constant source of annoyance.
Like Google TV, Amazon’s menu system focuses more on content than apps. You can pin six favorite apps to the top of the screen, but the rest are behind a secondary menu.
On the other hand, if you scroll down the home screen, you’ll see suggestions on what to watch from various streaming services. diffusion.
While the approach makes sense in theory, far too many of these content lines are sponsored or self-promoting in nature. Using the Fire TV Cube last week, for example, 31% of the top 20 rows of the home screen contained ads, while 31% promoted content from Prime Video or Freevee.
That doesn’t leave much room for unbiased suggestions.
But it does not stop there. You have no control over the recommendations that appear. You can’t hide Tubi’s queue, for example, if you’re not interested in its content, and you can’t give more weight to recommendations from other apps like HBO Max or Paramount+.
You also can’t always see which service a recommendation is from without clicking on a separate menu.
Even basic amenities take a back seat to Amazon’s larger business goals.
The “Recently Watched” line, for example, only works for Prime Video content and live TV channels, so it’s much less useful than Apple TV’s “Next” line and “Continue Watching” line. from Apple TV to GoogleTV.
Amazon offers a separate list of recently used apps, but you have to browse through a row of sponsored content to find it.
The area where Amazon’s interface really shines is the Live TV Guide, which aggregates linear channels from free and paid live streaming sources. In this case, Amazon allows you to control which sources appear, and even offers a list of favorites.
The Live Guide is everything the Fire TV interface could be if Amazon trusted its users a little more. As it stands, the home screen is so chaotic and confusing that it’s not worth spending time on it.
Fire TV vs other TV boxes from another range
Competition is very strong in the sector of diffusion high-end, especially with Apple TV’s price drop, so the Fire TV Cube is a tough sell unless you really like its Alexa voice control features.
The Apple TV 4K, for example, is an extremely fast device that does a better job. At $169, it costs $10 more than the Fire TV Cube, but for a model without an Ethernet port.
And if you’re a tech enthusiast who just wants a powerful Android-based device to do side loadingyou might be better off with the Nvidia Shield TV Pro, with its more noticeable upscaling and dual USB ports.
With the third-generation Fire TV Cube, Amazon has shown it can do great Material of diffusion. But now more than ever, your Software needs to be completely redesigned to keep pace TV boxes rivals.
Original article published on TechHive.
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