Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums
Welcome to Our Forums. Once you've registered and logged in, you're primed to talk football, among other topics, with the sharpest and most experienced fantasy players on the internet.
Amazon Prime (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter Maddenf
- Start date
mquinnjr
Footballguy
Wow, that is big news. How long until they buy out GameFly? I'd be surprised if that wasn't on the radar.
belljr
Footballguy
IvanKaramazov
Footballguy
I'm not sure the console market is large enough to support three firms. It would be very interesting to see what happens if Amazon decided to enter that market.
Chaos Commish
Footballguy
I found an Amazon gift card while cleaning out some trash left behind by tenants in my mom's old house. The scratch off code on the back was messed up. I called Amazon. They called me back in less than ten seconds (how do they do that?). I told customer service about the card. It had not been redeemed. So they applied it to my account. $100. Free prime for me.
Leeroy Jenkins
Footballguy
Mr. Ected
Footballguy
Mr. Ected
Footballguy
Probably, but how often do you buy a couple things on Prime that add up to less than $25? You just need to bundle some stuff together and you are set.
RUSF18
Footballguy
Probably the primary reason I started using Prime was so that I could get free shipping on something for $8 or $12 or $22.
I finally relented. I'm in.
jonessed
Footballguy
Amazon is expanding the service so it makes sense to charge more. The problem I see is that most people I know primarily use the streaming (Kindle users) or primarily use the shipping. I know very few who use both.
Three people out of the five I know that use Prime in my office don't plan on renewing. They will likely just bunch up items to get free shipping, pay for normal shipping, and shop local. The expansion of streaming is irrelevant to them. They aren't mad by any means. Its a straight value proposition (or at least perceived value). Are they really using the shipping discount enough to make the service worth more?
That leads to their second problem. People who bought Prime will use Prime to justify the cost so Amazon will inevitably lose some sales from the people that drop it.
They have obviously thought of all of this and modeled it as best they can, but I've done enough predictive modeling to know how sideways something like this can go if a few of your variables are off. Human response is often predictable in isolation, but this is a large, complex system. They are going to be a shooting from the hip on this one.
I will stay because I use the shipping and my wife and daughter use the streaming, the free book rental, etc. It makes sense for me. If I was just using shipping though I would have a real decision on my hands. I'm not so sure I would keep it.
Three people out of the five I know that use Prime in my office don't plan on renewing. They will likely just bunch up items to get free shipping, pay for normal shipping, and shop local. The expansion of streaming is irrelevant to them. They aren't mad by any means. Its a straight value proposition (or at least perceived value). Are they really using the shipping discount enough to make the service worth more?
That leads to their second problem. People who bought Prime will use Prime to justify the cost so Amazon will inevitably lose some sales from the people that drop it.
They have obviously thought of all of this and modeled it as best they can, but I've done enough predictive modeling to know how sideways something like this can go if a few of your variables are off. Human response is often predictable in isolation, but this is a large, complex system. They are going to be a shooting from the hip on this one.
I will stay because I use the shipping and my wife and daughter use the streaming, the free book rental, etc. It makes sense for me. If I was just using shipping though I would have a real decision on my hands. I'm not so sure I would keep it.
Last edited by a moderator:
jonessed
Footballguy
Yeah, I don't know how this works. My daughter and my wife use the same Kindle account which is mapped to me. They basically have two Kindle's with the same content (I don't have a Kindle or use the streaming). This works for now, but I suppose it could change at some point.
Notorious T.R.E.
Showdown!™ Administrator
Leeroy Jenkins
Footballguy
Amazon Fire Tv out today?
17seconds
root of all aliai
you're paying nothing for 2 day shipping because your mom has prime? doesn't sound bad
AhrnCityPahnder
Yinz-o-riffic
Psychopav
Help us, Joebi-Wan Brynobi, you're our only ho
I'm confused. So this basically does what my bluray player does, but with voice search and without playing blurays? All for just $20 - $30 more than my bluray player? Why would I want that?Mine will be here Friday
AhrnCityPahnder
Yinz-o-riffic
It sounds like you don't.I'm confused. So this basically does what my bluray player does, but with voice search and without playing blurays? All for just $20 - $30 more than my bluray player? Why would I want that?Mine will be here Friday
Disc media is not long for this world.
Psychopav
Help us, Joebi-Wan Brynobi, you're our only ho
My point is that for about $50-$60 you can get a br player that does everything that this Fire TV does, plus plays blurays. Flash drive input too btw so playing downloads is simple.It sounds like you don't.I'm confused. So this basically does what my bluray player does, but with voice search and without playing blurays? All for just $20 - $30 more than my bluray player? Why would I want that?Mine will be here Friday
Quez
Footballguy
I'm not really impressed either. There are plenty of devices that do what it does. I don't expect many people will be willing to spend $100 for this thing. The thing that makes it different is the gaming, and I'm not sure if they can pry away the gaming market from Xbox or PS. Maybe their target is more of the family market like the Wii hit big on a few years back? They are gonna have to have some big titles, but who knows they could buy Nintendo at this rate.
Chromecast had the sweet spot price range. Amazon should make this thing like $40 for Prime members just to get it out there.
Chromecast had the sweet spot price range. Amazon should make this thing like $40 for Prime members just to get it out there.
Last edited by a moderator:
belljr
Footballguy
isn't this just roku 2.0
AhrnCityPahnder
Yinz-o-riffic
Yeah, the latest Roku is the closest existing hardware there is, and it's not far from that. the Fire TV beats the Roku with Better cpu, more RAM, optical audio out, and Voice search. I think Amazon will push for gaming to be a moneymaker on this thing, but that remains to be seen. I'm sure I'll stick with the 360 for now but the kid / wife may like it.
And regarding a BluRay player that will do most of the same -- I don't doubt a big portion of the functionality is there on newer BR players. I have zero DVDs and this thing is about as big as a smartphone, not as big as a VCR. My entertainment center is pretty full as is.
I have no idea if this thing will suck or not. It sounds decent, and lord knows I've spent $100 on dumber tech than this. I'll post some feedback once I have it unboxed and hooked up.
And regarding a BluRay player that will do most of the same -- I don't doubt a big portion of the functionality is there on newer BR players. I have zero DVDs and this thing is about as big as a smartphone, not as big as a VCR. My entertainment center is pretty full as is.
I have no idea if this thing will suck or not. It sounds decent, and lord knows I've spent $100 on dumber tech than this. I'll post some feedback once I have it unboxed and hooked up.
Last edited by a moderator:
Quez
Footballguy
An Xbox360 can do everything this does. No way anyone who owns a console would buy this thing, that's why I think they may be targeting a different demographic. I think they are looking at younger kids & families. They are probably targeting the mobile gamers / angry birds generation & Nintendo Wii players.
IvanKaramazov
Footballguy
I'm interested in seeing reviews on this too. When I got a PS4, I moved my PS3 to the master bedroom for streaming/BR purposes. But it's big and bulky, we hardly ever watch physical discs on it, and I'd rather move it back to the basement and hook it back up to my good tv / home theater system. Something like the Fire TV would be a really good upstairs replacement since it's small, cheap, integrated with Prime, and easy for the kids and my wife to use. Ideally a BR player would be nice, but those take up more dresser space than I'd like.
IvanKaramazov
Footballguy
The Fire TV isn't meant to compete in the gaming console market. That market arguably isn't big enough to support the three firms that are already there -- analysts have been suggesting for years that Nintendo might do well to exit the hardware market and just focus on software development. It was always kind of hard to imagine Amazon wanting to launch a new product in direct competition with Microsoft and Sony.Quez said:
This thing is really competing with products like Roku and Apple TV. The limited gaming functionality is just an added feature that might get it into a few more living rooms that it might otherwise. The suggestion above that Amazon should somehow bundle this with Prime or sell it at a discount to Prime members makes a lot of sense. I'm sure Amazon sees this mainly as a platform for Prime.
Last edited by a moderator:
igbomb
Footballguy
That's what I have. Not complaining as I've had free shipping for going on ten years now. But having to pay $99 just to get the streaming content doesn't seem worth it to me. Netflix is still a better product.
AhrnCityPahnder
Yinz-o-riffic
AhrnCityPahnder
Yinz-o-riffic
This is also what I am hoping for. We have a dedicated HTPC machine now, but the wife never uses it because it's "too complicated".
VA703
Footballguy
Yeah, don't get the issue here. In the "mom" case, see if she even uses it. My parents have HBO and I am 99.9% sure they don't use HBO Go and I was going to see if I could grab that for them and use it at my house. They wouldn't care, they never watch TV outside of their house and they have HBO there.
IvanKaramazov
Footballguy
Did I miss some sort of development where FBGs relied on their parents to cover basic entertainment expenses? When did this start? I thought we were all making the payments on our parent's Lexuses, not bumming off their streaming services.
AhrnCityPahnder
Yinz-o-riffic
Ray Karpis
Footballguy
Still concerned about the streaming speed of any of these devices on my home wifi.
What speed do I need to be able to stream without it being a complete PIA?
Also, do you Roku-ish guys have an antennae for local?
What speed do I need to be able to stream without it being a complete PIA?
Also, do you Roku-ish guys have an antennae for local?
Homer J Simpson
I don't push
Considering they're main purpose is streaming video, I think they all have the ability to, you know, stream video.
Ray Karpis
Footballguy
I realize they all can stream video...my question is how fast does my wifi connection need to be in order for it to stream smoothly?
Psychopav
Help us, Joebi-Wan Brynobi, you're our only ho
Which dial-up are you using? AOL is good but Juno and NetZero are the right price. Pretty slow for streaming video though.
Uruk-Hai
Footballguy
I use one of the mid-level speeds with my DSL (sorry, can't recall the actual speed but it's not the top offered) and it works fine just about all of the time. Every so often, it'll buffer/freeze for a sec but that's really rare. It's the same for my Roku, Chromecast, and BluRay player.
Ray Karpis
Footballguy
Thanks. I probably would need to bump up to a faster DSL package. I'm still using one of those AOL CDs that come in the Sunday paper.
AhrnCityPahnder
Yinz-o-riffic
Set this up last night. Random thoughts:
The packaging is nice. the actual unit is heavier than I expected it to be. It's small and practically invisible sitting right next to the stand of our television.
One interesting, potentially concerning thing on setup -- I guess when you order these, at the factory they pair the serial # of the device with your prime account. So once I got it hooked up and on my wireless network, my Amazon settings were already pre-populated. Neat, but what if I had bought this for a gift? I'm not sure they thought this through. Or maybe I'm missing something.
Large firmware update was forced on first startup -- took 10-15 mins.
Navigation/interface is clean and intuitive.
voice recognition is really good. I tried about 20 searches last night and I didn't have to repeat myself once, and it matched everything on the first try.
I'll update as I spend some more time with this, but my initial impression is that if you already have a newer roku or apleTV, nothing revolutionary is going on here with the Fire TV. If you use Prime for streaming and you don't yet have a STB, this one is pretty solid. In the reviews I was reading -- the hardware specs on this are the best available right now (comparing to Apple and Roku) but of course that will probably all change as the next gen of Apple and Roku devices are released.
The packaging is nice. the actual unit is heavier than I expected it to be. It's small and practically invisible sitting right next to the stand of our television.
One interesting, potentially concerning thing on setup -- I guess when you order these, at the factory they pair the serial # of the device with your prime account. So once I got it hooked up and on my wireless network, my Amazon settings were already pre-populated. Neat, but what if I had bought this for a gift? I'm not sure they thought this through. Or maybe I'm missing something.
Large firmware update was forced on first startup -- took 10-15 mins.
Navigation/interface is clean and intuitive.
voice recognition is really good. I tried about 20 searches last night and I didn't have to repeat myself once, and it matched everything on the first try.
I'll update as I spend some more time with this, but my initial impression is that if you already have a newer roku or apleTV, nothing revolutionary is going on here with the Fire TV. If you use Prime for streaming and you don't yet have a STB, this one is pretty solid. In the reviews I was reading -- the hardware specs on this are the best available right now (comparing to Apple and Roku) but of course that will probably all change as the next gen of Apple and Roku devices are released.
Last edited by a moderator:
