Name: Amazon Fire TV Cube (2nd Gen)
Brand: Amazon
SKU: 629e66e0851b7f0d0a361ee9
Rating: 4.0 (53 reviews)

Hiking Boots/Shoes Recommendations?

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Men's three season "urban hiker" (like Merrell MOAB but longer lasting)

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Consumer Reports

This is the updated version of the 4K-ready Fire TV Cube, essentially a mashup of two of Amazon’s popular Alexa-powered devices, the Fire TV streaming player and the Echo Dot smart speaker. Like its predecessor, it adds an interesting element into the mix: universal remote control capability.
Compared with the first generation, the new model adds a more powerful processor, a faster response time, and Dolby Vision HDR. There are buttons on top of the unit to adjust the volume and mute the microphones, but the Cube is really all about voice control. What makes the Fire TV Cube stand out, though, is that it lets you control a host of other compatible audio/video gear, including TVs, sound bars, receivers, and even some cable and satellite boxes.  For more options: Best 4K Streaming Media Devices

This is an updated version of the 4K-ready Fire TV Cube, essentially a mashup of two of Amazon’s popular Alexa-powered devices, the Fire TV streaming player and the Echo Dot smart speaker. Like its predecessor, it adds an interesting element into the mix: universal remote control capability.
Compared with the first generation, the new model adds a more powerful processor, a faster response time, and both Dolby Vision and HDR10+ HDR. There are buttons on top of the unit to adjust the volume and mute the microphones, but the Cube is really all about voice control. What makes the Fire TV Cube stand out, though, is that it lets you control a host of other compatible audio/video gear, including TVs, soundbars, receivers, and even some cable and satellite boxes.
Best for: Amazon Prime subscribers who like the Alexa voice assistant and want to be able to control other components. Amazon tends to prioritize its own content, though, when you’re looking for something to watch.

This is the updated version of the 4K-ready Fire TV Cube, essentially a mashup of two of Amazon’s popular Alexa-powered devices, the Fire TV streaming player and the Echo Dot smart speaker. Like its predecessor, it adds an interesting element into the mix: universal remote control capability.Compared with the first generation, the new model adds a more powerful processor, a faster response time, and Dolby Vision HDR. There are buttons on top of the unit to adjust the volume and mute the microphones, but the Cube is really all about voice control. What makes the Fire TV Cube stand out, though, is that it lets you control a host of other compatible audio/video gear, including TVs, sound bars, receivers, and even some cable and satellite boxes.  For more options: Best 4K Streaming Media Devices

This is an updated version of the 4K-ready Fire TV Cube, essentially a mashup of two of Amazon’s popular Alexa-powered devices, the Fire TV streaming player and the Echo Dot smart speaker. Like its predecessor, it adds an interesting element into the mix: universal remote control capability.Compared with the first generation, the new model adds a more powerful processor, a faster response time, and both Dolby Vision and HDR10+ HDR. There are buttons on top of the unit to adjust the volume and mute the microphones, but the Cube is really all about voice control. What makes the Fire TV Cube stand out, though, is that it lets you control a host of other compatible audio/video gear, including TVs, soundbars, receivers, and even some cable and satellite boxes.Best for: Amazon Prime subscribers who like the Alexa voice assistant and want to be able to control other components. Amazon tends to prioritize its own content, though, when you’re looking for something to watch.

amazon.com

pcmag.com

consumerreports.org

Voice commands worked quite well on the Cube in testing, even with my voice going up against the TV audio. I could use Alexa easily, loading live TV and on-demand video through Amazon, Hulu, and YouTube. Voice commands let me pause and resume video, mute and unmute the TV, raise and lower the volume, and even enable and disable subtitles while I watched, all completely hands-free.

 Press the Play/Pause button on the remote to activate it and put the Cube in setup mode. The on-screen instructions will walk you through connecting to your Wi-Fi network, then signing in with your Amazon account (or making a new one if you don't already have one). 

The Cube also has all of the media playback capabilities as the Fire TV, outputting at 4K and supporting high dynamic range (HDR) in HDR10 format. Dolby Vision is not supported, though the newer Fire TV Stick 4K can stream Dolby Vision content.

Most apps that aggregate search results with Fire TV on the Cube let you directly load content with your voice, jumping immediately into playing the movie, TV show, or song you want in the app without going through the app's menu system first (assuming you've already signed in on the app previously). Many also feature in-app voice controls, letting you play and pause video with your voice.

Amazon Fire TV Cube Review

 I would also be using an HDMI audio extractor to send audio via bluetooth to a second set of speakers at the other end of the room as well as converting to an analog RCA output for the receiver, so the audio from the cube went to the audio stripper, then out via an rca splitter to the avantree bluetooth transmitter and into my no-name brand (but excellent) tiny class-D amplifer (with IR remote control).  The first attempt to get the Cube to control my Sharp tv successfully turned the TV off, but no amount of IR blaster location changes, profile changes or manual remote learning would turn it on. Eventually I just manually turned the TV on and pressed the >> Equipment Control > Manage Equipment > TV > Power Controls > Power Command to "Discrete On/Off" and this would now allow the Cube to successfully turn the TV on. Note that if you set the TV to "other" and just try learning the remote IR commands, the Cube will NOT successfully be able to turn the TV on

 If the Cube can power toggle the TV once, it can toggle again. Trust me. - Would it really be so hard to incorporate a built-in ethernet jack? I realize the usb dongle is a hack you produced for the 1st gen unit, but you've got plenty of real estate in that giant shell and I know if you try hard enough you can squeeze it in. - IR blaster - did I mention this is terrible? Please at least include a multi-cord cable since nobody will be stashing their cubes in their cabinets (with their amps etc) if they are going to be using voice commands

 - Would it really be so hard to incorporate a built-in ethernet jack? I realize the usb dongle is a hack you produced for the 1st gen unit, but you've got plenty of real estate in that giant shell and I know if you try hard enough you can squeeze it in. - IR blaster - did I mention this is terrible? Please at least include a multi-cord cable since nobody will be stashing their cubes in their cabinets (with their amps etc) if they are going to be using voice commands. Show me the setup where you have line of sight to the TV AND the AMP AND the cube is well positioned for voice.

Promising hardware but SOOO buggy - READ FOR TIPS ON GETTING UNSUPPORTED AMPLIFIER WORKING

 Of course, it is enabled in my TV and receiver, to transport audio from TV-based streaming apps, to my receiver. HOWEVER, I discovered that any time that this Cube device is “on” (which was “all the time”, with my previous Fire devices), the Cube is injecting some form of signaling, upstream to the receiver, and whatever it is, completely “breaks” ARC. I suspect it is related to the new CEC functionality in the Cube, which is intended to let you control other devices. HOWEVER, I have that disabled in the Cube

 The (HD) color “seems right”, but it makes no sense to me that it should “forcibly lock” into a “Dolby Vision”-only state, when it will probably be playing far more HD (1080) content, AND the fact that I have no control over that “choice”, is (in my humble opinion) inappropriate.  And, again, trying to resolve all of these, mostly crazy, issues with only the existing Amazon support model is mostly a non-starter. Those people don’t understand the more complex aspects of the technology (to which these devices may be attached), and a lot of this simply goes over their heads. The inability to open "real" tickets, and then have those tickets escalated up to higher tiers of (more skilled) technicians (and even to the coders who manage the firmware), makes this support model a nightmare for the customer

 (That is relevant to the following, more serious issue.)  I use ARC (another “thing” the support agents have never heard of) in my AV setup. Of course, it is enabled in my TV and receiver, to transport audio from TV-based streaming apps, to my receiver. HOWEVER, I discovered that any time that this Cube device is “on” (which was “all the time”, with my previous Fire devices), the Cube is injecting some form of signaling, upstream to the receiver, and whatever it is, completely “breaks” ARC

Cube, Gen 2: A real, super-buggy rat’s nest.  A flip of the coin, as to whether I will keep it.

 It blows them out of the water in response times. But, it will lag once in a while.  Overall I am very satisfied with my purchase and it's abilities. I will keep buying them and be ditching my Roku and Shield for more of these

 But in fairness Shield and Roku aren't much better in that aspect. I like the built in voice search. But I also find it extremely inaccurate on its return responses or what it finds very often.  I do not like the trend I have been seeing on Roku or Firecube where it leaves out the "free" services it knows you are with that have what you are looking for, and instead opts to show you places you have to pay to watch what you just requested

 But I also find it extremely inaccurate on its return responses or what it finds very often.  I do not like the trend I have been seeing on Roku or Firecube where it leaves out the "free" services it knows you are with that have what you are looking for, and instead opts to show you places you have to pay to watch what you just requested. I often have to go online and search to make sure I can't watch it on something else I am subscribed to already for free. This leaves an extremely bad taste in my mouth and makes me not want to trust those search options it responded with

 So if it's free on one of them why is it leaving it out sometimes. But if it is just free free across the board it includes them.  The speaker/microphone is pretty good in it for its size. I have used it when my son called me through Alexa and we had no issues with hearing each other

Actually quite impressed

.. If you're going to spend this much on a device just for watching 4k content save yourself the headache and spend an extra couple bucks on a NVIDIA Shield. That's what I'm going to go do now

.. not sure why but it doesn't. This device on the other had does have bluetooth and the sound is good and doesn't have a delay on it or anything

 They also do the same thing every amazon TV device seems to do and never shut down. Amazon..

Well since voice recognition is on here as a metric I'll start there. You can't really have this and a different echo device in the same room because they will argue with each other over who's job it is to listen to you. Using this as an echo device for voice commands such as "turn on the lights" doesn't work as well with this device though because it has to first determine if you're asking it about your light bulbs or trying to find a show to watch. About 40% of the time it's pretty sure you're talking about some show or another and it pauses whatever you were watching and takes you to another screen to show you whatever it thinks it heard instead of turning off the lights so you can enjoy the show you're already watching

Not as good as I thought it would be.

 I don't like yelling out commands while I'm watching TV and we have an Echo in the same room close to us. I suspect Amazon will be releasing an updated cube model perhaps in the fall but this is such an improvement over the Firestick that I doubt my husband would need any more memory or new features. As for me, the GUI of Fire devices is just not appealing so we have his and her devices. Nevertheless, for those who are pleased with Fire TV, this is a nice upgrade even though it's a bit aged

 With recent updates and Apps becoming more bloated, my husband was feeling the pain as well on the Firestick he used in the living room. Both Apple TV and Fire cube were deeply discounted recently but since we could not run two Apple TV's simultaneously in the living room (and my husband was not interested in learning something new anyway), I bought him the Fire cube. The extra memory made a significant dent in opening and operating Apps. The voice control on the cube is very responsive but because we have a major surround sound system we don't use it much 

Pretty Impressive

  Tips: 1) If you already own Fire sticks, you can trade them in for a 20% discount on the cube.  2) With a newer model on the horizon, Prime members can expect to see this model heavily discounted. Check reviews to see whether you really need the New features at a higher cost.  3) I've read that the new model will not include the IR plug in cable

 On two TVs I have old Philips soundbars (two different models) and one TV is hooked up to a Yamaha receiver. In every case, I can either say "Alexa / Computer / Echo, turn on/off TV." Or press the power button on the remote control. And in each of the three rooms, the TV and sound source turn on

 Which meant that I could turn on my TV plus external sound sources. I subsequently ordered two more Cubes. On two TVs I have old Philips soundbars (two different models) and one TV is hooked up to a Yamaha receiver. In every case, I can either say "Alexa / Computer / Echo, turn on/off TV

I already had Fire TV Stick 4K Max models on my three TVs. But during one of the periodic markdown sales, I started looking at reviews for the Fire TV Cube. Being a geek, I noticed that they have a lot more memory than the sticks. Which means you can install more apps-- and if you have multiple streaming services, etc

Worth the price differential vs. Fire TV Sticks

 If you own a recast; ensuring it and the cube are on the same WiFi band, like normal, is about the only setup you need to do for that, and if you need to set it up then the prcedure is the same as how you did the setup before. I see where many want to know if Alexa can be turned off. Yes. Once turned off you can use the Alexa button on the remote to issue your desires instead of through the cube

 I'm not going out on a limb and say the Cube has eliminated reboot issue, but so far things are going smooth and the picture quality has very much been improved, a lot, mucho much. What I enjoy the most about the Cube is the quick response to commands, and the very clean, high quality, streaming picture on my TV. I never thought it could get better but this made it so. If you've owned any type of streaming device, the setup is basically the same

 I never thought it could get better but this made it so. If you've owned any type of streaming device, the setup is basically the same. If you own a recast; ensuring it and the cube are on the same WiFi band, like normal, is about the only setup you need to do for that, and if you need to set it up then the prcedure is the same as how you did the setup before. I see where many want to know if Alexa can be turned off

 Alexa is not needed at all really. The remote buttons are exactly the same as most fire streaming devices and they'll run the cube just fine. I can't complain about the cube. Knowing full well it is being superceded by the Wifi 6e model, this older model does what I want it to, and at a fantastic price to boot

I have a Recast and my recordings have never been clearer.

 It's basically a streaming stick that can make noise.  Amazon can fix many of these issues in software or by a new adapter. But they won't. If they do, I'll take down the review - in other words, this review is permanent

  Want to hook up devices like a keyboard, to make things easy, or for making serious gaming a possibility?  Too bad, all they really 'support' are toy blue-tooth baby-keyboards (and best of luck getting such a thing consistently paired). You MIGHT possibly get a real keyboard hooked up, but you won't find anyone else showing how and you'll have such a bodge of adapters that you likely have a BestBuy's worth of left-overs.  Then there's the interface (onscreen) which is only marginally tolerable. Granted, you'll likely have only one or two 'channels' or apps that you stay within so that's a saving-grace

  Pairing of conventional game controllers is wonderfully nigh-trivial, so that's a plus for the fire-cube.  Sadly, this is a half-product that is plagued by trying to shoe-horn a streaming-stick device into a higher price-tag product and doing no additional work to add any benefits. It's basically a streaming stick that can make noise.  Amazon can fix many of these issues in software or by a new adapter

Firstly, for the most stable streaming experience, of course you will want a hardwired aka ethernet connection. Sadly, Amazon uses some ill-designed external ethernet to quasi-usb adapter (included :) ). That would be OK except that the speed of that ethernet port is at most 100 MB. So you could possibly exceed that with nearby wireless (except for the stability)

Hobbled by design

I bought this to update an older Fire Stick, when Amazon ran a promotion that gave me a discount when trading in my old Fire Stick.  Since I have many Alexa integrated Smart Devices in my home, having this Fire Cube gave me a fifth location where Alexa could hear my voice commands 24/7 (I have two Echo Dots and two Echo Flex units.)  One thing I appreciated about this unit is that it comes with a wired Ethernet port. Wireless is convenient, but in a crowded neighborhood like mine there is a lot of wireless competition -- particularly when several neighbors are also trying to wirelessly stream 4k content

  I did deduct 1 star because I cannot get the Equipment Control to work right, although this problem is not exclusive to the cube (the sticks have similar issues). I leave some of my integrated equipment on, but the cube shuts it off it when I hit the power button -- even when power control is disabled for a device (For example, I want my AV receiver to stay on, but the TV to turn off). When my TV is on and I want to use the Fire device, the TV does not switch sources when I hit the Home button to wake the Fire device (input selection does work when tested under Equipment Control, but it doesn't work after exiting the testing menu). I also wish Fire devices had a way to change Receiver and TV sources when one is done streaming video (when I am done streaming, I want my receiver to switch back to FM and my TV to switch back to Picture viewer mode/input)

 When my TV is on and I want to use the Fire device, the TV does not switch sources when I hit the Home button to wake the Fire device (input selection does work when tested under Equipment Control, but it doesn't work after exiting the testing menu). I also wish Fire devices had a way to change Receiver and TV sources when one is done streaming video (when I am done streaming, I want my receiver to switch back to FM and my TV to switch back to Picture viewer mode/input).

Amazon Fire TV Cube (2nd Gen)

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