I am always looking for the most value I can get, but to still have things work properly or it is not worth it. Lately I have been experimenting with the new suite of Amazon FireTV boxes. Fortunately, I can say both the FireTV and FireTV stick are awesome value with some added benefits over using other devices to run media. This guide will explain the differences between the FireTV and FireTV Stick, then show you how to extend functionality to play local media, stream anything from the web, integrate native android apps (Netflix, Hulu, VEVO, for example), use your mobile device as a remote, and other really awesome applications. All by installing Fire TV XBMC Kodi. FYI – Kodi is the new name for the long time rock solid free media center software formally known as “XBMC”. If you are the type that does not have the patience or comfort to do this yourself… Get a fully loaded Fire TV or Fire TV stick from us!
Amazon Fire TV XBMC Kodi How to Get Free Movies and TV
Amazon Fire TV & Fire TV Stick Software Update History. View Options. Expand All / Collapse All Version 6.2.5.8 (Build NS6258/1607)-First Discovered. How to watch the 2019 Academy Awards on Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick; New Fire TV apps of the week — Feb 17–23; Amazon removes HDHomeRun app from the Fire TV Appstore likely. Amazon Fire TV XBMC Kodi How to Get Free Movies and TV. I am always looking for the most value I can get, but to still have things work properly or it is not worth it. Some huge advantages to the Amazon FireTV/Stick offerings. They run a flavor of Android which lets you integrate the actual android apps with Kodi. How to Sideload Android Apps onto Your Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick Jason Fitzpatrick @jasonfitzpatric Updated July 5, 2017, 11:18am EDT Although it’s not a particularly well advertised feature, the Amazon Fire TV and the Amazon Fire TV Stick allow for sideloading of Android applications.
What is the FireTV?
The FireTV is Amazon’s response to the Google Chromecast, Roku, and Apple TV.
We now sell fully loaded units here if you are not comfortable unlocking, installing, and configuring the unit yourself. See them here!
They come in two flavors:
New Fire TV 2 4K priced around $100
The First Generation FireTV – Which is priced around $100. (Obsolete)
The FireTV Stick 2nd Generation which is priced under $40.
Both flavors seems to work really well. If you have an older audio receiver that only has optical and not HDMI, then I would get the full legacy FireTV to take advantage of that. For the difference in price you don’t have to upgrade your audio receiver which will save you $200 to $300 and you will still get Dolby and DTS sound. If your house has wired network then the full FireTV might also be a better solution since wired is always better than wifi in my opinion. If you just want to plug into your TV or existing HDMI audio receiver then I would consider the FireTV Stick.
Some huge advantages to the Amazon FireTV/Stick offerings
So that is some introduction things to consider. Now I want to walk through how to get it loaded up where you can extend the functionality greatly.
Should I Root this Device?
*In this guide I will touch on how to root and/or keep your FireTVs on the lowest possible version so it could be rooted in the future*. With that being said, I would just let Amazon update the damn thing and not worry about getting to fancy with custom ROMs etc. It turns into a cat and mouse game that isn’t worth it. Amazon allows you to load Kodi without root. I’ll show you how to make it where you can launch Kodi from the Amazon homepage and you will want the Amazon updates as they come out because the box native functionality itself is very nice. So to recap: I think rooting is not really worth it in this instance since it is not needed to get everything I line out below.
So let’s get started.
Here is the video walk through showing the setup below and the functionality.
In the box
To Keep your FireTV and FireTV stick on the lowest possible firmware for potential rooting.
Again, I would just let it update and not worry about the root. Your are buying this thing because it works and you can sideload Fire TV XBMC Kodi without root so why not get the full update and functionality from Amazon? Skip this section (Move to “Initial Setup” if you don’t care about root and want to keep Amazon updates.
If you want to however…
For FireTV Full version:
For the FireTV Stick:
Initial Setup
Loading Fire TV XBMC Kodi
This process only takes like 10 min and you only have to do it one time. The steps are straight forward so do not get overwhelmed.
Preparing Your FireTV
First thing we need to do is enable some settings on our device
Next we need to get the IP address off the FireTV
Sending/Installing Kodi and FireStarter FireTV
Now you will need to leave your FireTV running on the network and head over to a PC/Laptop in the house running on the same network.
Download these two files
Click the link at the bottom on the first screen
Click “Skip Ad” in the top right hand corner after the 5 sec wait
Download the application
So we now have everything we need to for Fire TV XBMC Kodi.
The first thing we need to do is extract the FireTV Utility App to your C drive root. It is very important to extract it to C: as it will not work if you do not.
When done you will see it on your C drive as “FTV”
In the FTV folder you will see the “Amazon FireTV Utility App.exe”, launch it by right clicking and selecting “Run as Administrator”.
Alright so let’s do this… First we need to connect to the FireTV or FireTV stick by using the IP address you got in the earlier step. Download microsoft operating system for mac.
In the top left hand corner if the application press File -> Settings and enter your IP address, select normal debug mode, and check for updates at start up.
Save and Close.
It will take you back out to the main application where you will press File -> Connect. It will open a dos type screen and show you connect successfully.
Side note to Root: If you want to root the FireTV (not the stick) and did the network trick above so it did not update you can do that now by simply pressing “Root your AFTV”. After it roots you will want to “Disable OTA Update” to prevent the FireTV from updating and erasing your root. Again this is not necessary to get all the functionality nor would I do it.
Now let’s install Kodi XBMC.
After this completes go ahead and click the “FireStarter” button. This will allow us to launch Kodi from the quick launch page later. You are done on your PC and the FireTV is now loaded up ready to configure.
Configuring Fire TV XBMC Kodi
Back on your FireTV let’s go ahead and launch Kodi for the first time. It will initially be location at Settings -> Applications -> Manage all installed applications
In the list you will be able to launch Kodi “XBMC” Windows support software for mac windows 10.
Loading llama is no longer necessary since we will use the
Launching Android Applications Directly from Kodi/XBMC
A huge advantage of running Kodi on a flavor of Android like on the FireTV and FireTV stick is that you can launch the actual Android applications native from Kodi.
Let’s go through setting up VEVO together which will allow you to stream music videos. The principles will be the same for any other Android application you have on your Amazon Fire TV such as Hulu for Netflix.
First, from the Amazon home page find and install VEVO (through search or in the apps section). Once it is installed launch Kodi.
Go to Programs on the Kodi home screen
Select Android Apps
Here you will see all the Apps you have installed on your Amazon FireTV. For testing, select VEVO
You will see it launches the actual application instead of some backdoor video addon.
When you exit VEVO you will see it goes back to Kodi. Totally Awesome.
Where to go from here?
Really where ever you want. Now you have a fully functional Kodi device will all the added functionality of Amazon behind it.
Here are a couple of other guides that will get your Fire TV XBMC Kodi configured so you can watch literally anything.
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