Fire TV

Planning support for Amazon Fire TV ? I realize it's brand new.. Just wondering, I plan on replacing an old roku with it.

We're going to do whatever is possible. We have spent time analyzing it so far in the day it has been available and no real news to report yet. We think we found a way to launch apps on it, but not yet a way to send basic commands like cursor up. If it can be controlled via IP or Infrared, we'll figure it out and add it ASAP.

Thank you.

Hello,

Pretty close to choosing Roomie to replace my aging Monster Cable Harmony based universal remote. However, one thing missing is the ability to control Amazon Fire TV.

Any news on when this will be possible?

Thanks,

Alex

Merged threads.

We have a Fire TV test unit. We like it. Unfortunately, there is no way to control it. At all. No infrared, no serial, no IP. Nothing. This is obviously just growing pains for the new box and they will fix this over time, but for now there's no way to control Fire TV with any control system.

Unofficially, there are USB adapters you can plug into Fire TV that do let you control it via infrared.

It's clear they're making slow progress toward fixing this. We can do very basic things right now like launch YouTube on the box, but nothing we feel is worth productizing at the moment into Roomie.

We believe though we have not tested to verify that the Plex app that runs on Fire TV is also likely controllable via Roomie as Plex normally is.

In the short term, your best bet will be one of the USB adapters for infrared to control Fire TV. The moment there is a valid way to control Fire TV, it will be added.

Thank you.

Thanks. Anyone have any recommendations on what USB to IR adapter to use to control an Amazon Fire TV?

This is far from a recommendation, but various sites on the Internet identify this as an example infrared interface that works with Fire TV:

<a href ="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00224ZDFY/?tag=cyphersoft-20" target="_blank">Ortek Infrared Receiver</a>

Thank you.

Is IP control something that Amazon can implement through an update or sofware patch or is this a hardware limitation of the current Fire TV? If you could please shed some light on this it will determine whether I will buy the current model or chose to wait.

Thanks in advance!

We would be surprised if they didn't activate it via a software update. But they haven't explicitly committed to doing so. They do provide the ability already to launch YouTube for instance. It's useless in itself, but the point is that they have something and can easily expand it if they chose to do so. We (and others) have certainly made them aware of the issue.

Thank you.

would you feel safe buying this generation of the Fire TV if IP control was your main concern? I ask because being able to control this thing via IP control (w/Roomie) is something that I feel is critical. I just don't want to buy this version of the Fire TV if it turns out that it is missing vital hardware to make IP control possible ur main concern? I ask because being able to control this thing via IP control (w/Roomie) is something that I feel is critical. I just don't want to buy this version of the Fire TV if it turns out that it is missing vital hardware to make IP control possible

No, it is not safe to assume they will add this. We think they will, but that's speculation. If IP control is your main concern, a Roku is a much better choice that will work right now. The Fire TV is definitely not missing hardware to do this. This is purely a software issue where they just don't provide IP control yet. They could add it next week, they could add it never. They could add it in a V2 update next year in software and then not deploy that software to V1 boxes, who knows. Might as well get something that works now if that is a requirement.

Thank you.

I shouldn't say that IP control is a total deal breaker for me... If I could effectively control the Fire TV via a combination of my iTach IP2IR, Roomie and some sort of USB to IR receiver, I think I would be happy. I noticed that you all mentioned the Ortek remote/IR receiver in a previous post. I guess I don't fully understand how the IR code end of things work in that scenario.... does the Ortek remote need to have Fire TV IR codes learned into it to work? Or do the codes in it "just work"? Could I use my iTach, the Ortek IR receiver, and Roomie to somehow control the Fire TV? Where would I get the IR codes if the Fire uses a Bluetooth remote and doesn't utilize IR at all? Is this currently the best solution for control of the Fire using Roomie?

The Ortek (and others) send USB commands like a mouse or keyboard would. It translates a generic IR command into a USB command. Fire TV apparently understands the idea that a keyboard press of left arrow causes a left arrow command. Yes, if you need control of Fire TV today, investigating those kinds of options is probably the best path.

Thank you.

So I got the Ortek and set up Roomie to control it using Microsoft Media Center remote/device that was already in Roomie. It mostly works, but when moving cursor up, down, left or right it often moves twice with a single click. I have the commands set in the remote so they don't repeat at all.

Any suggestions?

That's a typical result of a bad learned command – the learned code ends up with two copies and needs to be cut in half. It can be corrected either by relearning and trying to press the button on the physical remote for a shorter duration, or by editing the learned code directly using the Advanced IR Learning section of the FAQ:

roomieremote.com/faq/#learnir

We should just add the Ortek to the main library with known good codes as a lot of users have gone this path. If you send your Roomie Codes file to support, we'll take a look.

Thank you.

Yep, works great now.

How do I create a Roomie Codes file if I did all the learning of the remote from within Roomie?

It's part of any backup you would make to Roomie Agent or Dropbox.

Thank you.

Adding on to this old thread concerning the Ortek controlling Fire TV via Roomie. ITBlogger can you or support explain how exactly this setup works? Sorry for the basic question, but making sure I don't have to have windows running on a computer to make this work. If I just buy a Ortek does it plug into a roomie adapter which then you put the IR adapter on the Fire TV and control it via IR through Roomie? I'm probably making this harder than it is, but want to make sure the Ortek can stand alone or in combination with a roomie adapter to control the FireTV in my roomie application. Don't know about anyone else, but the Plex interface in FireTV seems so much better than the one in Roku. The FireTV appears like the Plex HomeTheater version instead of the client app so want to go this route instead of my Roku for that purpose.

The Ortek doesn't need anything else. Also, we have created a code set for this and it is part of the main library so you don't need to learn anything either. Just toss the remote they give you, plug in the USB IR adapter from Ortek, and Fire TV is well controlled via infrared.

Thank you.