Amazon is currently offering three Fire TV devices. the IR-blasting Fire TV Cube, then there’s the Fire TV Stick and one for those with a 4K HDR TV.
All of these accompany an Alexa Voice hand held Remote, It’s access the video streaming services as well as will answer your voice commands like an Amazon Echo speaker. Fire TV Cube also comes with far-field mics that makes Alexa hear you without using the remote controller.
Whichever Fire TV device you own or are looking to shop for, here are many tips and tricks to assist you get the foremost of your device
How to Operate Fire TV with Alexa Voice
To use Alexa via the voice remote, hold down the microphone button on the control that comes within the box and ask what you would like –
you do not even need to say “Alexa”.
Same way, you can also use an Amazon Echo, Echo Dot or other Alexa-enabled device to regulate your Fire TV, meaning you do not even need the remote in the least. If you’ve got an Echo within the room (or Fire TV Cube), you’ll simply bark commands and therefore the Fire TV Stick will obey.
Alexa ablaze TV can just about do whatever an Echo can do but with the advantage of Visual Cards. You ask Alexa an issue by pressing down the microphone button on the remote. It can respond you both orally and with sending graphics on your screen.
For example, say – what’s the weather like? and Alexa will reply about the your current area. additionally, you will see subsequent week’s worth of forecasts on the screen.
Here are few other commands you’ll try:
• What was the Manchester United score? – or the other sports or team, of course.
• What’s on my calendar? – you’ll specify days, etc too.
• Who is that the main singer of Coldplay? – or ask for another band or trivia questions.
• Play Happy Mondays! — your Fire TV will play songs from an Amazon Music or Music Unlimited account.
• Jump forward one minute! – all manner of commands are often made during video playback.
• What’s the traffic like? – you would like to line up your commute or travel details within the dedicated Alexa app for iOS, Android or Amazon Fire devices.
• What’s within the news? – again, found out your favourite news source within the Alexa app; Sky News is about because the default.
Turn off notifications
Pop-up notifications are always annoying, and on Fire stick Certain installed apps might interrupt your viewing experience. These will likely not interfere a lot, but if you would like to remove them, just head to Settings > Preferences > Notification Settings and you’ll either hide all notifications pop-ups by turning on “Do Not Interrupt” or switch them off on an app to app basis.
How to Turn off targeted advertising
Some of the apps on the Amazon Fire TV Stick or Fire TV, including Amazon’s own, will target adverts at you counting on previous data it’s gathered about your interests. you’ll turn this off. You’ll still see adverts, but they will not be supported data gathered – indeed, data will stop being gathered about your interests and “advertising profile”.
Head to Settings > Preferences > Advertising ID and you’ll switch them off there and/or reset your “Advertising ID”.
Set up Parental Controls
The Fire TV devices offer comprehensive parental controls where you’ll use PIN to protect purchases and apps. The Prime Photos app also use a four-digit PIN is required before accessing any of these features.
In addition, you’ll set the viewing level available without having a PIN. for instance , if you turn on the parental control, the default viewing level is ‘Family’ this allows all Amazon Video content rated PG & below to be viewed without a PIN. Anything rated higher requires to enter the PIN. you’ll also set the ratings to General (U), Teen (12, 15) and Mature (18, Unrated, Not Rated).
Next to turn on and adjust parental controls head to Settings>Preferences>Parental Controls.
You may got to adjust parental controls for other services separately – like Netflix.
Calibrate your display
Some apps might need you to make sure the hearth TV device is correctly calibrated to your exact screen size. this may require you to see the choices on your individual television, although there’s a handy screen in Settings with arrows to point out the right scaling.
Here is how to Calibrate – Settings > Display & Sounds > Display > Calibrate Display. The grey arrow top, bottom, left and right should be visible with pointing towards the each edge. If they do not, you’ll got to adjust your TV settings.
Set your own photos on Fire TV screensaver
Being an Amazon Prime member you can use your own photos as your Fire TV screensaver taken with a smartphone or camera and stored on the Prime Photos cloud service.
Prime Photos upload is a free unlimited cloud storage service for Amazon Prime members, this can store all of your smartphone photos automatically, uploaded through a browser or app, or possibly can be linked with a Facebook or Twitter account to sync socially posted images.
You can determine more about Prime Photos and the way to access your account here.
If you’ve got photos stored on Prime Photos, they will be accessed via a major Photos app pre-installed on a fireplace TV device. you’ll also set them to figure as your screensaver.
Amazon Fire TV Stick automatically scrolls through pretty pictures of scenery if you allow a menu screen static for too long. you’ll change the photos it shows by getting to Settings > Display & Sounds > design . Here you’ll see “Amazon Collection” because the default Album, click thereon and you’ll be able to change it to any collection or folder of your own images you’ve got stored on Prime Photos.
You can also change the way the photographs advance screen, the speed they refresh and therefore the time the screensaver kicks in.
Turn off menu clicks
By default, the hearth TV menus click once you scroll through. you’ll turn this off by heading to Settings > Display & Sounds > Audio and turning Navigation Sounds to off.
Enable Miracast display mirroring
If your smartphone or tablet is in a position to mirror its display to a TV via Miracast, you’ll use it with the hearth TV or Fire TV Stick. this is often restricted to Android devices only.
Uninstall Fire Stick apps
It’s easy to put in apps – mainly through the homescreen or search – but less obvious on the way to uninstall them again if you would like to clear some space for brand spanking new downloads.
To uninstall an app, head to Settings > Applications > Manage Installed Applications and scroll right down to the app you would like to delete. Click thereon and you’ll see the uninstall option three lines down.
