20 December 2014

Amazon Fire TV as a XBMC MythTV Frontend

Amazon FireTV + XBMC + MythTV

I am quite pleased with using the Amazon FireTV as my MythTV Frontend using Kodi(was XMBC) and the myth plugin. Here are my overall views on the FireTV.

Pros:
  • Wireless Streaming works well across the 5GHz band (YMMV)
  • Quad Core in Fire TV can decode MPEG2 video without a stutter
  • One streaming box to do Amazon Prime, Netflix, and MythTV
  • HDMI CEC can turn on the TV
  • Amazon Prime streaming starts instantly

Cons:
  • XBMC 14 release candidate seems to be unstable on the box, changing recordings causes it to crash
  • Cannot launch XBMC from the Fire TV home screen (must used buried application menu or FiredTV launcher that works most of the time)
  • No power-off function (must wait for it to time-out)


Other Thoughts/TBD:
  • PLEX works well with streaming CBS and CW shows as well as many others


Setup:
  1. Download Kodi and FiredTV
  2. Enable ADB on Fire TV
    1. Settings
    2. Developer Options
    3. ADB -> On
  3. Determine IP Address of Fire TV
    1. Settings
    2. About
    3. Network
  4. Install ADB on your computer
    • apt-get install android-tools-adb
  5. Start the adb connection
    1. adb kill-server
    2. adb connect <ip-address>
  6. Install the 2 apks
    1. adb install path/kodi.apk
    2. adb install path/firedtv.apk

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