# Firestick



## Traveler (Jan 28, 2018)

I know what a fire stick looks like and I know that it plugs into the USB port of a Tv , DVD player or laptop.  What I don't understand is exactly what does it do.  I know they cost $39-$89. But if I buy one does that mean I get unlimited FREE movies for life ?


----------



## Pappy (Jan 28, 2018)




----------



## Ken N Tx (Jan 28, 2018)

It is the same as a Roku...


----------



## Marie5656 (Jan 28, 2018)

*My husband got the Fire TV. Basically it works like a Smartv.  He can watch all his apps...Hulu, Netflix, Amazon movies, etc, as well as other Amazon TV apps.  No charges except for the monthly fees that go with Hulu and Netflix.  Amazon has many TV apps that are downloaded right to the TV for free and for no monthly fee.

Our big Smartv works the same way.  We can watch everything on it.
*


----------



## Ruthanne (Jan 28, 2018)

Marie5656 said:


> *My husband got the Fire TV. Basically it works like a Smartv.  He can watch all his apps...Hulu, Netflix, Amazon movies, etc, as well as other Amazon TV apps.  No charges except for the monthly fees that go with Hulu and Netflix.  Amazon has many TV apps that are downloaded right to the TV for free and for no monthly fee.
> 
> Our big Smartv works the same way.  We can watch everything on it.
> *


Doesn't your Amazon have a fee, too Marie?  Mine does.  It's Amazon Prime and it's a little below 12.00 a month when you get it on a monthly basis in  my state.


----------



## Marie5656 (Jan 28, 2018)

Ruthanne said:


> Doesn't your Amazon have a fee, too Marie?  Mine does.  It's Amazon Prime and it's a little below 12.00 a month when you get it on a monthly basis in  my state.



We pay $99 a year for our Prime membership. That covers free and fast shipping on orders, as well as access to much of their movies, and I get some free ebooks on the Kindle.  As an aside, anyone who has Prime and wants to keep it should go to the annual membership, as I hear they are raising their month to month fee.


----------



## Ken N Tx (Jan 28, 2018)

Marie5656 said:


> We pay $99 a year for our Prime membership. That covers free and fast shipping on orders, as well as access to much of their movies, and I get some free ebooks on the Kindle.  As an aside, anyone who has Prime and wants to keep it should go to the annual membership, as I hear they are raising their month to month fee.


Yes I heard month to month is going to $12..


----------



## Traveler (Jan 28, 2018)

So, with Firestick do I get free movies ?


----------



## Marie5656 (Jan 28, 2018)

Traveler said:


> So, with Firestick do I get free movies ?



If you are talking newer movies, no. But there are several apps like Popcorn, Crackle and Pluto that have movies.  There is also Tubi TV.  Tubi is good for some more recent movies.  By recent, in last 20 years, and movies you have actually heard of.  We have it on our Fire and Android tablets.  You can sigh up at their website and check out the selection.


----------



## RadishRose (Jan 28, 2018)

Marie5656 said:


> If you are talking newer movies, no. But there are several apps like Popcorn, Crackle and Pluto that have movies.  There is also Tubi TV.  Tubi is good for some more recent movies.  By recent, in last 20 years, and movies you have actually heard of.  We have it on our Fire and Android tablets.  You can sigh up at their website and check out the selection.



I watch Tubi sometimes, but although all these are free, with a Kindle or Roku, there are commercials. I find a lot of interesting documentaries free on Youtube. Youtube only as one commercial per show that you can skip after a few seconds.

There are 2 kinds of Hulu; one with and one without ads. I dropped it and kept Netflix and Amazon but mostly I watch Youtube, also Youtube has tons of older stuff, you just have to explore it. Netflix and Amazon have no commercials.


----------



## Marie5656 (Jan 28, 2018)

*Hey, RR, good suggestion. I had forgotten about YouTube.  But, Amazon and Google (which owns rights to YouTube) are in a dispute.  I know my Husband cannot access youTube through his FireTV.  Though he IS able to watch it through his Fire Tablet.  He needed to download FireFox to his TV in order to watch YouTube there.  You may want to see if you can get it through the stick*


----------



## Ruthanne (Jan 28, 2018)

Ken N Tx said:


> Yes I heard month to month is going to $12..


I can't afford to pay the yearly fee so I am screwed; pardon my French as my mother would say..


----------



## Ken N Tx (Jan 29, 2018)

Marie5656 said:


> *Hey, RR, good suggestion. I had forgotten about YouTube.  But, Amazon and Google (which owns rights to YouTube) are in a dispute.  I know my Husband cannot access youTube through his FireTV.  Though he IS able to watch it through his Fire Tablet.  He needed to download FireFox to his TV in order to watch YouTube there.  You may want to see if you can get it through the stick*


On Firestick you need to download the Silk Browser or FireFox to see YouTube..
.
Edit: If you download Silk/FireFox, you can view SF Forum on your TV..You can save it to favorites..


----------



## RadishRose (Jan 29, 2018)

Marie, I never knew that. I have the Roku and always use Firefox so I can always stream Youtube into my TV. I don't have a smart TV.


----------



## kteas1 (Jan 31, 2018)

Free movies was done by hacking your firestick, and installing an App called Kodi kodi had install packages that hooked you into illegal servers that had on demand free movies, sports, TV, music and more. You could get low quality movies that are still in theaters. Once it was released to blu Ray you got it free hi def. Since it was illegal, and although it lasted a long time, they started filling law suits against the owners of the servers. Most, not all, but most flipped the switch and quit offering the free stuff. Kodi is about done everyone quitting. You can still run apps for movies, but they are the premium sites that charge. Hulu, Amazon prime video, netflix etc. There are some free ones, popcorn, crackle etc. I like it because I can hack it and put apps on it that Amazon doesn't allow. Kodi was not offered by Amazon, you had to hack the firestick to install it. 

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


----------



## kteas1 (Jan 31, 2018)

You can install YouTube onto the firestick, by hacking it and installing it through open port. 

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


----------



## Ken N Tx (Jan 31, 2018)

kteas1 said:


> You can install YouTube onto the firestick, by hacking it and installing it through open port.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


You can see YouTube legally by install the Silk or FireFox app from Amazon.


----------



## kteas1 (Feb 2, 2018)

YouTube is legal to install on your firestick. It's just not available through the app store for the firestick. There some ip camera apps not available, but I put those on to, now I can watch TV and if I hear something outside I can check my cameras on the TV in any room. It's legal, just not available. KODI was illegal. If you have an android phone, you can get apps2fire at the playstore and then load apps on your phone to your firestick is easy now. 

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk


----------



## Ken N Tx (Sep 20, 2018)

Aleksks said:


> Sure you can install YouTube on your Firestick and here is a guide on how to do it. I think that using Silk to access Youtube on Silk is the most convenient method at the moment. You basically get to access the Youtube app from within the browser. Once installed, you can YouTube TV on your device the way you used the original YouTube app before it was decommissioned.


Ditto... I also use the Silk app for streaming the Internet on the TV.. thanks It works great for Senior Forum!!


----------



## jujube (Sep 20, 2018)

We used Terrarium to watch just about any movie we wanted to see, including a lot of the new ones, but it has shut down, darnit.  I wondered how long that would take. Now I know.  Legal problems, of course.


----------



## Camper6 (Sep 23, 2018)

The Firestick that I bought because it was on sale is supposed to scan your computer for a virus.

I tried it and all of a sudden the computer was screwed up.  I managed to recover and I threw the Firestick in the trash bin even though they told me  when I phoned about it that I could restore the Firestick to factory setting.

I wouldn't trust it.  

In all the years that I have had a computer I have never had any program report a virus. The only time I ever had a virus stop my computer dead was when I brought one of those 2 1/4 disks home from the golf course where I used to handle the handicap system.

It wiped out the start of my hard drive.

Right now I am still using Windows XP which is no longer supported.  I have no virus scanner at all and boy what a difference in speed.
If I do get a virus, I don't care.  I  will just reinstall whatever I need to get going again.  In fact it might be a blessing because there is a ton of stuff on there I don't need or use anymore.

Most of my internet browsing now is done on my I Pad.


----------



## C'est Moi (Sep 23, 2018)

Camper6 said:


> The Firestick that I bought because it was on sale is supposed to scan your computer for a virus.
> 
> I tried it and all of a sudden the computer was screwed up.  I managed to recover and I threw the Firestick in the trash bin even though they told me  when I phoned about it that I could restore the Firestick to factory setting.
> 
> ...



That must be a different kind of "firestick."   The discussion here is about the Amazon FireStick which is a streaming device that you connect to a TV, not to a computer.   It's the same type thing as a Roku or Apple TV.  https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Fire-...TF8&qid=1537719971&sr=8-1&keywords=fire+stick


----------



## Ken N Tx (Sep 23, 2018)

C'est Moi said:


> That must be a different kind of "firestick."   The discussion here is about the Amazon FireStick which is a streaming device that you connect to a TV, not to a computer.   It's the same type thing as a Roku or Apple TV.  https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Fire-...TF8&qid=1537719971&sr=8-1&keywords=fire+stick


Ditto it is a TV device not a computer device..


----------

