Introduction 1
About This Book 1
Foolish Assumptions 2
Icons Used in This Book 2
Beyond the Book 3
Where to Go from Here 3
Part 1: Getting Started 5
Chapter 1: Understanding Streaming Media 7
Introducing Streaming 8
Getting Clear on Streaming Media Devices 9
Understanding How Streaming Works 10
More about buffering 11
Streaming and data usage 12
Knowing What You Need to Stream: Apps and Hardware 13
Chapter 2: Getting to Know Fire TV 17
Getting Acquainted with Fire TV 17
Understanding What Fire TV Does 18
Fire TV components 19
How Fire TV works 20
Figuring Out Which Fire TV Device You Need 21
Learning What Fire TV Can Do 25
Watching movies and TV shows 25
Accessing other types of media 25
Watching and recording over-the-air TV 26
Connecting devices 26
Controlling your TV with Alexa voice commands 26
Controlling your smart home 26
Chapter 3: Setting Up Fire TV 27
Changing Your TV’s Input Source 27
Setting Up Fire TV Stick or Fire TV Stick 4K 28
Connecting Fire TV Stick to your TV 29
Setting up Fire TV Stick 31
Setting Up Fire TV Cube 35
Positioning your Fire TV Cube 35
Getting to know your Fire TV Cube device’s Alexa hardware 36
Connecting Fire TV Cube to your TV 38
Setting up Fire TV Cube 39
Setting Up Fire TV Edition 42
Part 2: Watching Fire TV 45
Chapter 4: Learning Fire TV Basics 47
Getting to Know the Alexa Voice Remote 48
Touring the Fire TV Alexa Voice Remote 48
Touring the Fire TV Edition Alexa Voice Remote 50
Checking Out the Fire TV Mobile App Remote 52
Installing the Fire TV mobile app 52
Pairing your mobile device with Fire TV 54
Touring the Fire TV mobile app remote 55
Navigating the Fire TV Interface 57
Navigating with the Alexa Voice Remote 58
Entering text with the Alexa Voice Remote 59
Navigating with the Fire TV mobile app 62
Entering text with the Fire TV mobile app keyboard 62
Introducing Voice Control of Fire TV 64
Issuing voice commands using the Alexa Voice Remote 64
Issuing voice commands using the Fire TV mobile app 65
Learning some useful voice commands 65
Looking Around the Fire TV Home Screen 66
Chapter 5: Watching Live TV 69
Getting Live TV through an Antenna 70
Connecting your antenna 70
Scanning for channels 71
Checking channel signal strength 72
Getting Live TV Using a Third-Party App 73
Managing Live TV channels 74
Adding a live TV channel to your favorites 74
Hiding a live TV channel or app 76
Filtering live TV channels 76
Watching Live TV 77
Seeing what’s on now 77
Navigating the live TV channel guide 78
Checking out the Live tab 80
Controlling live TV playback 81
Chapter 6: Streaming Movies and TV Shows 83
Installing a Streaming Media App 84
Searching for Movies and TV Shows 85
Searching the Amazon catalog 86
Searching within an app using Fire TV 88
Using an app’s search feature 90
Streaming on the Cheap with Free Services 90
Subscribing to TV and Movie Streaming Services 91
Buying or Renting a Movie or TV Show 93
Watching a Movie or TV Show 93
Controlling playback 94
Setting playback options 96
Peeking at cast or music info 96
Viewing mobile content on your Fire TV Stick device 98
Connecting Fire TV to a second screen device 100
Chapter 7: Watching and Recording Shows with Fire TV Recast 103
What is Fire TV Recast? 104
Getting Ready for Fire TV Recast 105
Positioning Fire TV Recast 106
Setting Up Fire TV Recast 107
Watching and Recording Over-the-Air TV 109
Managing your over-the-air channels 109
Watching over-the-air shows live 111
Setting recording options 115
Recording over-the-air shows 118
Watching recorded over-the-air shows 120
Managing Your Fire TV Recast 122
Checking DVR storage 122
Adding external DVR storage 123
Checking scheduled recordings 124
Changing recording priority 124
Deleting recordings 126
Rescanning channels 126
Part 3: Going Beyond the Basics 127
Chapter 8: Getting More Out of Fire TV 129
Connecting Bluetooth Devices 130
Pairing your Bluetooth devices 131
Connecting to paired Bluetooth devices 135
Unpairing a Bluetooth device 136
Connecting USB Devices 136
Adding a USB storage drive 136
Ejecting a USB drive 138
Letting Your Kids Watch Fire TV 139
Activating parental controls 139
Configuring parental controls 140
Making Fire TV Accessible 142
Enabling the Fire TV features for the vision impaired 142
Checking out the Fire TV features for the hearing impaired 148
Browsing the Web 151
Surfing with Silk 151
Surfing with Firefox 153
Listening to Music 155
Touring the Amazon Music app 156
Controlling music playback 157
Viewing Your Photos and Videos 159
Viewing photos and videos using Fire TV Edition Media Player 159
Viewing photos and videos with the Amazon Photos app 161
Running a Fire TV slideshow 161
Chapter 9: Controlling Fire TV (And More) with Alexa 163
What is Alexa? 164
Alexa’s components 164
How Alexa works 165
Installing the Alexa App 166
Taking a tour of the Alexa app 167
Giving Alexa access to your device microphone 169
Connecting Your Alexa Device to Fire TV 169
Getting to Know Alexa 170
Getting Alexa’s attention 171
Keeping Alexa’s attention 171
Ending the conversation 172
Enabling Brief mode 173
Enabling Whisper mode 173
Watching Movies and TV Shows with Alexa 174
Navigating Fire TV tabs 175
Locating movies and TV shows 175
Watching a movie trailer 175
Playing movies and TV shows 176
Watching live TV 176
Controlling the volume 177
Movie and TV show info requests 177
Some movie Easter eggs 178
Some TV Easter eggs 179
More Useful Alexa Requests 179
Everyday-info requests 179
Information requests 180
Audio requests 180
Alarm and timer requests 181
Calendar, reminder, and list requests 181
Communication requests 182
Shopping requests 182
Using Alexa to Control Smart-Home Devices 183
Installing a Wi-Fi smart-home device 184
Making automatic network connections with Wi-Fi Simple Setup 185
Discovering smart-home devices using an Alexa skill 186
Controlling a smart-home device 188
Turning smart plugs on and off 189
Working with smart lights 190
Part 4: The Part of Tens 191
Chapter 10: Cutting the Cord: Ten Steps to Going Cable-Free 193
Step 1: Decide If You Really Want to Cut the Cord 194
Step 2: Make a List of Your “Must-See” Shows (Or Not) 196
Step 3: Figure Out What Equipment You Need 197
Step 4: Check What’s Available Over-the-Air 198
Step 5: Make a Streaming Budget 200
Step 6: Subscribe to Streaming Services 201
Step 7: Set Up Fire TV Recast 202
Step 8: Put It All Together with Fire TV 202
Step 9: Do a Trial Run 203
Step 10: Say Goodbye to Your Cable Company 203
Chapter 11: Ten Things That Can Go Wrong 205
Troubleshooting General Problems 206
Restarting your Fire TV device 206
Checking your Fire TV device for software updates 207
Resetting your Fire TV device 208
You Can’t Connect to Your Wi-Fi Network 208
You’re Having Trouble Streaming Media 210
The Fire TV Mobile App Can’t Pair with Your Fire TV Device 212
Your Fire TV Screen is Blank 212
You Don’t Hear Audio During Playback 213
You’re Having Trouble Connecting a Bluetooth Device 214
You don’t see a Bluetooth device 214
You can’t pair with a Bluetooth device 215
Your Fire TV Device is Unresponsive 216
You Changed Your Wi-Fi Network Password 216
A Fire TV App Doesn’t Work Properly 217
Chapter 12: Ten Ways to Enhance Privacy and Security 219
Make Sure Your Wi-Fi Network is Locked Up Tight 220
Stop Saving Wi-Fi Passwords to Amazon 222
Delete saved Wi-Fi passwords via Fire TV 223
Delete saved Wi-Fi passwords via Amazon 224
Secure Your Amazon Account with a Strong Password 225
Enable Amazon’s Two-Step Verification 226
Prevent Fire TV from Playing Previews Automatically 229
Remove Content from Your Fire TV 230
Prevent Amazon from Using Personal Data for Marketing 230
Prevent Amazon from Tracking Your App Usage 231
Prevent Advertisers from Tracking You 232
Deregister Your Fire TV Device 234
Index 235
