I've been looking around for a streaming device and decided on the Fire Stick. I want regularly-updated native Netflix and Amazon Video apps (I subscribe to both) and kodi is a big plus. It was a choice between the stick or Roku2 and I haddecided on the stick because of Kodi. (although Roku2 has added bonus of ethernet)
Reading around, it seems that rooting is being updated, there are ways around and I guess it will be a cat-and-mouse of amazon blocking and workarounds. Bottom line, could there potentially come a time when amazon will totally block Kodi and it becomes too much of a pain of constantly finding workarounds. In which case I may as well go for Roku2
Also, as I understand rooting just allows easy access to Kodi from menu, even without root is it possible to still use Kodi ?
Any advice appreciated
You dont need to be rooted to have easy access to Kodi. Up until the latest update you just sideloaded Kodi and used Firestarter to access it easily. Now with the latest update wich has broken Firestarter you can still easily access Kodi via the recents menu. I have 3 AFTV's all run Kodi, none are rooted.
I think the writing is on the wall. Amazon has already moved to disable Firestarter and IMO will likely start looking at Kodi/SPMC to do the same. My thoughts are Amazon wants nothing to do with the Fire Sticks being sold for Kodi. This might be a unpopular opinion (as I use Kodi on my Fire Stick) but I am kind of hoping they do. These Fire Sticks being sold with Kodi setup with illegal streaming addons are a cancer in the Kodi community.
runderekrun said:
I think the writing is on the wall. Amazon has already moved to disable Firestarter and IMO will likely start looking at Kodi/SPMC to do the same. My thoughts are Amazon wants nothing to do with the Fire Sticks being sold for Kodi. This might be a unpopular opinion (as I use Kodi on my Fire Stick) but I am kind of hoping they do. These Fire Sticks being sold with Kodi setup with illegal streaming addons are a cancer in the Kodi community.
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I don't know much about Kodi so I don't really know what else it offers apart from streaming mainly. So taking away the streaming or okay the 'illegal streaming' what other stuff does Kodi provide that will make the masses want to have this? I maybe missing out on the potential Kodi, so i'm also curious what you use Kodi for?
sony007 said:
I don't know much about Kodi so I don't really know what else it offers apart from streaming mainly. So taking away the streaming or okay the 'illegal streaming' what other stuff does Kodi provide that will make the masses want to have this? I maybe missing out on the potential Kodi, so i'm also curious what you use Kodi for?
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In my case I have a linux server in my office that holds all my movies and they are indexed by Kodi so that I can play them downstairs on my main tv. Plex does this too but notice Plex isn't banned from the Amazon Appstore but Kodi is; Plex doesn't have an addon "problem".
sony007 said:
I don't know much about Kodi so I don't really know what else it offers apart from streaming mainly. So taking away the streaming or okay the 'illegal streaming' what other stuff does Kodi provide that will make the masses want to have this? I maybe missing out on the potential Kodi, so i'm also curious what you use Kodi for?
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I don't touch any of the illegal streams but I still use kodi as a media player.
It's free, relatively easy to use, plays most of what I want and it doesn't require a server to run (unlike Plex).
Kodi does also support legal streaming through it's plugins for various sites (don't know about now, but in the past I used it for the BBC iPlayer before it was as widespread).
Also, Amazon sell pre-kodi installed Android boxes on their site, so to me it will be a bit hypocritical to ban kodi from their devices while still selling these alternative devices.
Same here, I use KODI occassionaly as a media server. Never used streaming.
I'm a subscriber to both Netflix and Amazon Video that's why I've just bought the stick - native apps for both.
Is there a way to get stats on streaming bandwidth, or a speedtest ? I can only see signal quality in Settings.
tech3475 said:
I don't touch any of the illegal streams but I still use kodi as a media player.
It's free, relatively easy to use, plays most of what I want and it doesn't require a server to run (unlike Plex).
Kodi does also support legal streaming through it's plugins for various sites (don't know about now, but in the past I used it for the BBC iPlayer before it was as widespread).
Also, Amazon sell pre-kodi installed Android boxes on their site, so to me it will be a bit hypocritical to ban kodi from their devices while still selling these alternative devices.
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tech3475 said:
Also, Amazon sell pre-kodi installed Android boxes on their site, so to me it will be a bit hypocritical to ban kodi from their devices while still selling these alternative devices.
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Click to collapse
Amazon does whatever the hell it wants to, like banning Chromecasts from their Amazon store. If you ebay or craigslist "fire stick" all you will see is Fire Sticks loaded up with Kodi and illegal streams. Not a good look at all. You would think they would try to curb this.
Tbh I think people are looking a bit too far into the firestarter thing. If they really wanted to stop firestarter and kodi they would have removed them and blocked side loading apps. I think its more firestarter conflicted with something in the new os so it gets removed.
Wow! When I saw there were several replies to this thread, I figured I should check it out. I'm surprised to hear this level of concern.
It's HIGHLY unlikely kodi will be "blocked" by AFTV. I'm not even certain what that would entail. Kodi is open source software that runs on many OSs. Amazon has no control over that. What they'd need to do is block sideloading. Maybe a dev or a more knowledgeable person could chime in but I think that'd make the AFTV really a pain to develop software on.
I've never used FIRE STARTER, But from what I understand it basically highjacks the UI. I hate that amazon did it because imo if I bought the box I own and should be free to do with it what I want. But I understand why amazon blocked it. Can't go into the details but FireStarter is much different than most other apps. BTW--Did they do this to all launchers? Has anyone tried Nova or others? I've tried Nova but preferred fire tv ui. I know others use custom launchers and I'm wondering if those got broken too...
My stick just updated despite I blocked all the known host from amazon. As was meant to happen firestarter is gone.
Enviado desde mi OnePlus One
pbanj said:
Tbh I think people are looking a bit too far into the firestarter thing. If they really wanted to stop firestarter and kodi they would have removed them and blocked side loading apps. I think its more firestarter conflicted with something in the new os so it gets removed.
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KLit75 said:
Wow! When I saw there were several replies to this thread, I figured I should check it out. I'm surprised to hear this level of concern.
It's HIGHLY unlikely kodi will be "blocked" by AFTV. I'm not even certain what that would entail. Kodi is open source software that runs on many OSs. Amazon has no control over that. What they'd need to do is block sideloading. Maybe a dev or a more knowledgeable person could chime in but I think that'd make the AFTV really a pain to develop software on.
I've never used FIRE STARTER, But from what I understand it basically highjacks the UI. I hate that amazon did it because imo if I bought the box I own and should be free to do with it what I want. But I understand why amazon blocked it. Can't go into the details but FireStarter is much different than most other apps. BTW--Did they do this to all launchers? Has anyone tried Nova or others? I've tried Nova but preferred fire tv ui. I know others use custom launchers and I'm wondering if those got broken too...
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Sideloading will never be blocked. That would mean Amazon is basically saying "do not develop for this device" and that is the opposite of what Amazon wants. They could "block" Kodi the same way they "blocked" Firestarter. That's what it would entail, Amazon just deciding in a new update to hide Kodi/SPMC, effectively killing it on FireTV.
Firestarter didn't conflict with anything nor did it "hijack the ui". What it did (among other things) was watch for Home button presses using adb and launch things Amazon didn't want launched. Pure and simple Amazon did not like that. They want FireTV launcher to show up when you press home button. They are not interested in their FireTV line being a jack of all trades Android device. They want to sell you stuff from the Amazon store. They want you to see the ad at the top of the launcher. That is how Amazon makes it's money and it will protect that anyway they can.
runderekrun said:
They could "block" Kodi the same way they "blocked" Firestarter. That's what it would entail, Amazon just deciding in a new update to hide Kodi/SPMC, effectively killing it on FireTV.
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How exactly do they do that? And if they can, why haven't they already? Awhile back they removed it from the app store and labeled it a "piracy app". Seems like if they had the means, that would've been a perfect time to block (or hide) it. In fact, if its REALLY a piracy app then I'd go as far as saying they have a moral responsibility to block it. But they didn't do it. This leads me to think its not so simple. Also another fact--this is amazon. They're the company that breaks root, locks bootloaders and introduced most of us to efuse. If anyone can block kodi I'd think they'd be the ones to do it.
But I'm not being real technical here. This is more about motive than ability. Could be wrong but thought I read awhile back they'd need to block side loading in order to kill kodi on aftv...this isn't true?
KLit75 said:
How exactly do they do that?
Could be wrong but thought I read awhile back they'd need to block side loading in order to kill kodi on aftv...this isn't true?
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This is very true. Amazon can disable Kodi but there probably will be workaround as long as sideloading/adb is still enabled. Amazon disabled Firestarter by hiding anything with the package name that is installed on the FireTV. I believe people have gotten around that by simply renaming it.
This shows (IMO) that Amazon is actively trying to disable things on their FireTV they don't want on there. This is their first attempt, but I do not think it is the last. It would be hard, maybe impossible, to completely disable Kodi permanently AND keep adb intact but if anyone can do it, the assholes at Amazon can.
On the note of kodi I thought aftvnews.com found an interesting nugget in the update that he feels indicates they are sort of supporting kodi. Check the article on his site.
ouradu said:
On the note of kodi I thought aftv[news].com found an interesting nugget in the update that he feels indicates they are sort of supporting kodi. Check the article, [found here], on his site.
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Fixed that for you
I wouldn't necessarily say they are "supporting" Kodi, but they are at least acknowledging that Fire TV owners are using it and explicitly made sure it appeared on the Home screen after the new update.
Sorry I left the news off. Yeah I threw the "sort of" in there for that reason. Interesting catch.
AFTVnews.com said:
Fixed that for you
I wouldn't necessarily say they are "supporting" Kodi, but they are at least acknowledging that Fire TV owners are using it and explicitly made sure it appeared on the Home screen after the new update.
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Wow! Amazon bans Kodi from Appstore but adds extra support if its side loaded? Apparently Amazon doesn't mind their sticks being loaded with Kodi and sold on ebay/craigslist. Surprising to say the least. Like publicly they aren't supporting it but must be loving the sales numbers. I'm sure people fall back to Amazon Prime when the Kodi plugins eventually break.
runderekrun said:
Wow! Amazon bans Kodi from Appstore but adds extra support if its side loaded? Apparently Amazon doesn't mind their sticks being loaded with Kodi and sold on ebay/craigslist. Surprising to say the least. Like publicly they aren't supporting it but must be loving the sales numbers. I'm sure people fall back to Amazon Prime when the Kodi plugins eventually break.
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My guess is it's two separate teams that did each thing. The ones that added the Kodi code are at Lab126, the hardware division of Amazon. The decision to remove Kodi from the appstore probably had nothing to do with Lab126.
AFTVnews.com said:
My guess is it's two separate teams that did each thing. The ones that added the Kodi code are at Lab126, the hardware division of Amazon. The decision to remove Kodi from the appstore probably had nothing to do with Lab126.
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I still would have thought it would a corporate wide policy to pretend Kodi doesn't exist. I mean at least not help it. So very odd. At least it's good news for people that like Kodi to run on their Fire Sticks.
Related
My DSL is down, now I have nothing on my Home screen; is this expected? I thought I would still be able to access "local" apps like Plex, but I have nothing.
Indeed - you do.
(I'm not supporting any Plex related requests. People who depend on Plex, for me are lost. Someone else point him/her to how to use a second launcher in parallel.)
I already understand Plex, and I have played around with other launchers on the Stick I just happen to like the stock launcher. Kind of disappointing that stock use of the stick is dead without internet access.
Thanks for the feedback.
If no one else is stepping up, I guess I have to. Not because of the (very slight) passive aggressive note in your response.
"Already understanding Plex" is just another way of saying "I dont even want to learn something different".
Complaining about Amazons design decisions, especially those that are supporting their business model (the value of "always on" to them) is entirely futile. Much more so when you are complaining in here (not many PR guys at the dance).
And the solution for your problem would be to use FIrestarter (just one sub forum away).
Just dont use Plex if you can avoid it. They have made political decisions based on catering to the lowest common denominator of user expertise, which dont make sense from any other standpoint. And they catered to content provider interests in providing them a way to impose platform specific rights management. They are the flag bearers of a world we are trying to avoid. Where perceived convenience wins by default. Every time. Regardless. And they are exploiting Kodis open source base to be able to do it.
Also, their only claim to fame was to be able to circumvent a rights management issue on Apple devices, by throwing computational cycles (transcode your entire library!) at it. Thats a faulty business model that only can exist, because people are making uninformed buying decision, and then start caring later.
Wow, ok, so you hate Plex. Forget about Plex for a minute, his complaint is still valid. No internet = no home screen = no access to anything. Substitute "local games" or XBMC or any of several other apps that don't require internet access for Plex. Call it a design flaw or intended behavior, it doesn't do us any good. He also wasn't originally complaining, just asking if that's the way it works.
On a positive note, I didn't know there were replacement launchers that didn't require root (I haven't been following those kinds of things), but since you mentioned it I had to check. I may look into it and give it a try when I have more time.
Firestarter works. I tried it the day I read your question, setting up a blocking rule for the Fire TV on my router. You should be satisfied - when you get to testing it out.
Also, if I get people to show a little initiative - like you posting, that this is indeed a solution for non rooted devices and not waiting until someone explains the solutions to you, its worth it.
Also, as far as Plex is concerned, this is an opportunity for me to stress, why people shouldnt be using it, and that there are conditions which Plex was willing to satisfy to get listed in the Amazon store, that are harmful to consumer rights. Part of the price for me to get involved, is to get some of you in touch with a little bit of the ideology behind those projects.
To complain that amazon is doing certain things is not the end of evolution, when you could (and maybe should) also understand, why they are doing certain things.
Have fun.
h.
Ideology (and going way off topic) aside, Plex generally works well. I prefer XBMC for the most part, but Plex does have some advantages and can do things XBMC or others can't. Plex can be installed right from the store, XBMC has to be side-loaded. Plex runs on Roku, XBMC just doesn't (blocked by Roku, not a technical issue). Nothing gets transcoded by my Plex server for local playback, but if I want remote access to my media where streaming speed or device limitations require transcoding it just works. I also share my videos with a friend as well as watch videos he has. You can hate the hows and whys of what Plex does, but depending on your needs Plex is still a good product.
All that said, let me be completely honest. Other than not allowing gray area or blatant piracy type add-ons, I'm not aware of any harmful consumer rights practices. What else are they doing that I should be concerned about?
Is it still possible to use the fire TV without internet connection?
Zeepolar said:
Is it still possible to use the fire TV without internet connection?
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Of course !
Zeepolar said:
Is it still possible to use the fire TV without internet connection?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just have AppStarter installed. And use it to access apps offline.
I tested Kodi and Genesis add on today. It was amazing. Im wondering how safe is it?
1) Does anyone here ever received a letter from ISP for using Kodi/Genesis?
2) Did you guys use the real amazon account to register/signin to FireTV? I don't want my amazon account to get banned for using Kodi.
Maybe i'm a little paranoid but i just want to make sure.
Thanks in advance.
This thread deserves a tinfoil hat.
Sent from my KFASWI using XDA Free mobile app
SptMogul said:
I tested Kodi and Genesis add on today. It was amazing. Im wondering how safe is it?
1) Does anyone here ever received a letter from ISP for using Kodi/Genesis?
2) Did you guys use the real amazon account to register/signin to FireTV? I don't want my amazon account to get banned for using Kodi.
Maybe i'm a little paranoid but i just want to make sure.
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you do not want to recieve letters from yor ISP stop usng torrents. Production companies are monitoring torrent siites and turning peope in when their IP address has been found to have downloaded illegal material. Lots of people think that VPNs will stop them from getting caught which is not true at all, cause even VPN are being traced and VPN companies are even turning people in. So basicaly if you do not wanna get hasseled with the six strike alerts, stay away from torrents. I do not use Genesis, but if its torrent based leave it alone. I have never got an alert, but everyone I know that has gotten one is a heavy user of bittorrent sites.
Why? What's the problem? What are you doing wrong? Don't even look into ivue if you're that sccared
SptMogul said:
I tested Kodi and Genesis add on today. It was amazing. Im wondering how safe is it?
1) Does anyone here ever received a letter from ISP for using Kodi/Genesis?
2) Did you guys use the real amazon account to register/signin to FireTV? I don't want my amazon account to get banned for using Kodi.
Maybe i'm a little paranoid but i just want to make sure.
Thanks in advance.
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Click to collapse
Question#2 is a little much IMO.
As for the first one, I've never received a letter from my ISP for streaming movies. While you are technically downloading pirated content, you're not storing it to redistribute, share, copy etc. I'm not certain the laws have caught up to that in all parts of the world. Try downloading popular torrents and I guarantee you'll get a warning before long.
Look into a fast quality VPN service. Nothing is foolproof but as far as I know an SSL encrypted connection is nearly impossible to trace. Still, you need to trust the VPN service that they don't keep records and can protect their users. It makes perfect sense they would because all it'll take is a few horror stories and they'll be out of business but even a slight risk is still risk.
Agree with KLit75: the legal focus is on downloading pirated content, where the US laws about ownership are clear; streaming content isn't clearly illegal in the US so it seems it's being left alone, presumably because it would difficult to prosecute. As torrents are very popular for downloading, they are well monitored by copyright watchdogs.
Genesis is not torrent-based so it is theoretically safe: in practice, I have been using a variety of non-torrent-based streaming solutions for years, never had a legal problem.
On the other hand, Popcornflix and Pulsar are both popular and torrent-based: I don't touch them.
Been using Genesis since it came out on twc at two different cities. No letters yet
ramsesht said:
Why? What's the problem? What are you doing wrong? Don't even look into ivue if you're that sccared
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Er, what is ivue? :silly:
Ok this is a little late but wanted to add my 10 cents worth of info.
I was using Kodi with Gen and I have received letters from my ISP. But for movies I haven't downloaded or even watched. Pages of them,
I tried a few different things to stop the leak of my IP but to no avail. Only after I unplugged my fire stick and stopped using Kodi did they stop. I have fixed the issue using a vpn box from betternet. I'm sure you can find other ways to block your IP but thats what I found. And I never download torrents or movies just use kodi.
Come in france, it's not illegal the streaming
(in france kodi's work is like streaming)
Same is true in Germany... For now at least.
Jail brokeour fire stick andourisp thoughtits a smart TV and asked what brand it was they couldn't tell and we use real debris and use torrents daily on the firestick and android box...
Aftvnews.com said MRMC is now available for the fire tv. Anyone have experience with this Kodi fork? I know it's stripped of add ons. What I want to know is what level of customization does it provide? My big need is a way to separate home vides from movies so that I can have a menu item that only goes to movies and a menu item only to home videos. Aeon nox works great for that in kodi, but mrmc is supported by amazon's App Store and thus will be auto updated. So there's benefits to switching to that if it has the features I need. Anyone worked with it before?
ouradu said:
Aftvnews.com said MRMC is now available for the fire tv. Anyone have experience with this Kodi fork? I know it's stripped of add ons. What I want to know is what level of customization does it provide? My big need is a way to separate home vides from movies so that I can have a menu item that only goes to movies and a menu item only to home videos. Aeon nox works great for that in kodi, but mrmc is supported by amazon's App Store and thus will be auto updated. So there's benefits to switching to that if it has the features I need. Anyone worked with it before?
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No sure why anybody would pay for something that has been crippled & is already free. Might as well buy a car with only one axle then... But if you consider yourself a joke. Then go ahead & buy it.
Looking @ what the self proclaim "developer" posted as the products feature. MRMC is Kodi with less features. Not with more. So take what can be done with Kodi & subtract. That is your answer.
Product Features
supports many popular music/video container/formats. ALL ALREADY DONE BY KODI/SPMC
supports digital audio pass-through. ALL ALREADY DONE BY KODI/SPMC
supports MythTV, HDHomeRun and many other IPTV devices. ALL ALREADY DONE BY KODI/SPMC
internal sqlite or external mysql database for metadata storage. ALL ALREADY DONE BY KODI/SPMC
user addons/plugins are not supported. CRIPPLED ON THIS "BUILD"
Product Description
MrMC is based on an award-winning free and open source (GPLv2) software media center for playing videos, music, and pictures. MrMC, featuring a 10-foot user interface for use with televisions and remote controls. It allows users to play and view most videos, music, and other digital media files from local storage media. ALL ALREADY DONE BY KODI/SPMC
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ouradu said:
Aftvnews.com said MRMC is now available for the fire tv. Anyone have experience with this Kodi fork? I know it's stripped of add ons. What I want to know is what level of customization does it provide? My big need is a way to separate home vides from movies so that I can have a menu item that only goes to movies and a menu item only to home videos. Aeon nox works great for that in kodi, but mrmc is supported by amazon's App Store and thus will be auto updated. So there's benefits to switching to that if it has the features I need. Anyone worked with it before?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been using it on an Appletv and just used went ahead and got it. Looks the same. Skins are limited: Amber, SiO2, MrMC(looks exactly like confluence) and PM3.HD. PVR clients seem to work. I use HDhomerun PVR client and Simple TV PVR. If all you need is a good external media player, PVR, m3u player and local playback this is fine.
It serves my basic needs. The $7 seems steep unless you figure the auto-update is worth your saved time after a while. But honestly just using adb is so simple.
Edit : PVR for HDhomerun not the official Kodi HDhomerun addon. Still can watch live if not using for recording
goodhur said:
I have been using it on an Appletv and just used went ahead and got it. Looks the same. Skins are limited: Amber, SiO2, MrMC(looks exactly like confluence) and PM3.HD. PVR clients seem to work. I use HDhomerun PVR client and Simple TV PVR. If all you need is a good external media player, PVR, m3u player and local playback this is fine.
It serves my basic needs. The $7 seems steep unless you figure the auto-update is worth your saved time after a while. But honestly just using adb is so simple.
Edit : PVR for HDhomerun not the official Kodi HDhomerun addon. Still can watch live if not using for recording
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Auto-Update - For Kodi & SPMC FireStarter/FireStopper will give you that... Or you can just use ES File Explorer to download & install updates too.
On Apple products I understand the crazy prize & limited featured apps like this because of how close system their app store is. But for Android. It is not a good trend to bring or support such close system apps this way. SPMC took itself off the Amazon Market in solidarity with Kodi. MRMC went the other way. It's funny how MRMC is saying their code has branched for months but there is nothing different from Kodi. It just does less. It doesn't add anything different. Just subtracts. But they are not the same code. All they can say is it's different in the code or under the hood but when you ask for what specific. There is no specifics.
Y314K said:
Auto-Update - For Kodi & SPMC FireStarter/FireStopper will give you that... Or you can just use ES File Explorer to download & install updates too.
On Apple products I understand the crazy prize & limited featured apps like this because of how close system their app store is. But for Android. It is not a good trend to bring or support such close system apps this way. SPMC took itself off the Amazon Market in solidarity with Kodi. MRMC went the other way. It's funny how MRMC is saying their code has branched for months but there is nothing different from Kodi. It just does less. It doesn't add anything different. Just subtracts. But they are not the same code. All they can say is it's different in the code or under the hood but when you ask for what specific. There is no specifics.
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koying voiced in to give his full support here as well. Not sure why you have your pitchforks out here and on AFTVnews with contempt for this app.
http://www.aftvnews.com/mrmcs-developers-do-not-deserve-the-hate-theyre-receving/
For the record, I totally agree with the content of this article.
FWIW, I considered making SPMC a paying app as well. It’s basically the anticipation of the ****storm Scott is into now that made me cave in (plus the realization that Kodi is just too big to properly support on my own with a day job).
Haters, please move on. Don’t forget Kodi on Android is on life support. Pissing off the couple of devs still supporting it is not a wise move…
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And Nate Thomas gave some input as well:
Davilla is doing a really great job here, actually. He’s taking advantage of an error in the market. On Apple and Fire TV, there’s no way to get Kodi to auto-update and no way to install Kodi directly from the store. So he’s created a version of Kodi that meets the demands of those stores, so that it can be distributed that way. And in the process, he’s creating code that can theoretically make it back upstream to Kodi itself.
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jpeg42 said:
koying voiced in to give his full support here as well. Not sure why you have your pitchforks out here and on AFTVnews with contempt for this app.
http://www.aftvnews.com/mrmcs-developers-do-not-deserve-the-hate-theyre-receving/
And Nate Thomas gave some input as well:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So no one address what I find to be the biggest fault with this app. So I'll just re-quote myself.
On Apple products I understand the crazy prize & limited featured apps like this because of how close system their app store is. But for Android. It is not a good trend to bring or support such close system apps this way. SPMC took itself off the Amazon Market in solidarity with Kodi. MRMC went the other way. It's funny how MRMC is saying their code has branched for months but there is nothing different from Kodi. It just does less. It doesn't add anything different. Just subtracts. But they are not the same code. All they can say is it's different in the code or under the hood but when you ask for what specific. There is no specifics.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As for SPMC. I would not mind paying one time $10 fee for SPMC AS LONG AS IT WAS FULL ON KODI or KODI+. SPMC adds KODI+ by including Launcher & other options. It adds to the free KODI code. MrMC is only including auto-updates by selling KODI down the river by kowtowing to Amazon's Stores demands. If you don't see how MrMC is doing exactly what Amazon wants & you believe it won't hurt being able to run KODI on AFTV's in the future. Then that's on you.
Developers will always stick up for developers. Hence you have Elias, koying & whoever wanting to get folks to just accept MrMC. They can do what they want & charge what they want. But If I think their choice can affect something I don't want to deteriorate any further, then I'll call them out on it.
MrMC = KODI Minus anything related to legal or illegal add-ons with promises to add some things in the future. It also perpetuates Apple's close apps restrictive system over to Amazon. It eliminates any sliver of a chance of getting KODI back on Amazon's apps echo system.
SPMC = FULL KODI Plus it adds launcher & other fixes & code that did not make it into KODI's current release. THIS IS WORTH paying for to purchase off the Amazon/AFTV Store..
I honestly have no idea what your rant is trying to say it is so all over the place. Bottom line is..... Kodi will NEVER be on the Amazon store. That is Amazon's choice. It is Amazon's device, it is their app store. The obvious business model is to create a platform for people to give them more money via subscription and media sales. They have no interest in selling you a box to do anything you like with. They lock it down for a reason. If you don't like that, buy something else.
In the meantime, you can always sideload Kodi. And even that is likely short lived as there are no developers left at Kodi for the Android port. So you have one team getting back to the heart of what they believe XBMC and Kodi were meant to be, and selling it via a means that allows them to update seamlessly and creates them create some income for their work. Good for them. That is the nature of software development, and open source code. All GPL states is that you give notices where required, and make your usage of the code open source as well. What you do with the product around that, what you charge for it, etc. that is totally up to the developer. This is the very nature of freedom and choice with the license. Amazon included whether you like it or not.
Directly from the license:
When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it
if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it
in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
........................
For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that
you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their
rights.
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Click to collapse
If there is no demand for it, then it won't sell and development will likely stop (but they are currently #5 in TV/Movies). And if you don't like what Amazon is doing, don't buy their box and don't support them. Simple as that. This is worth far more than "calling them out" on internet forums.
jpeg42 said:
I honestly have no idea what your rant is trying to say it is so all over the place. Bottom line is..... Kodi will NEVER be on the Amazon store. That is Amazon's choice. It is Amazon's device, it is their app store. The obvious business model is to create a platform for people to give them more money via subscription and media sales. They have no interest in selling you a box to do anything you like with. They lock it down for a reason. If you don't like that, buy something else.
In the meantime, you can always sideload Kodi. And even that is likely short lived as there are no developers left at Kodi for the Android port. So you have one team getting back to the heart of what they believe XBMC and Kodi were meant to be, and selling it via a means that allows them to update seamlessly and creates them create some income for their work. Good for them. That is the nature of software development, and open source code. All GPL states is that you give notices where required, and make your usage of the code open source as well. What you do with the product around that, what you charge for it, etc. that is totally up to the developer. This is the very nature of freedom and choice with the license. Amazon included whether you like it or not.
Directly from the license:
If there is no demand for it, then it won't sell and development will likely stop (but they are currently #5 in TV/Movies). And if you don't like what Amazon is doing, don't buy their box and don't support them. Simple as that. This is worth far more than "calling them out" on internet forums.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I bought my AFTV's KODI was in the Amazon store. The icon would even appear in resents. Amazon decided to kick Kodi out of the store. I have not given up on trying to get it back in the store or to hold Amazon accountable for their choice. Until my FTV's become to old or die I will continue to use what I paid for. And will continue to try even if just by voicing my displeasure to influence it's echo system even if it's by posting in a forum. I have stop myself from buying anymore Amazon devices. I have stopped recommending FTV's & FTVS's too. So I'll do what I'll do.
Yes, anybody can mod/charge for KODI code. Last I checked. That was not part of my argument against MrMC. But thanks for posting something unrelated to my post. You make a great straw men argument. Posting the license was great. To bad I never mention MrMC was violating or doing anything wrong regarding licensing. Straw men up , straw men knocked down. Bravo.
I was very specific what my philosophy is regarding this. But since you don't seem able discern it. Then "que sera, sera".
.
What MrMC is doing is against my philosophy of what I want Android & specifically the FTV's app echo system to be. And I'll continue to "rant" or state what I think. Last I checked, that is how these innerwebs work. People rant & others post rants about the other rant and so forth. Two bad the second rant-ee won't read or understand any specific points for the first rant.
What MrMC is doing is against my philosophy of what I want Android........blah blah blah
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Tuning out right there. It is open source. Feel free to code exactly what you want Android and Kodi to be and share with the rest of us. Oh wait......
jpeg42 said:
Tuning out right there. It is open source. Feel free to code exactly what you want Android and Kodi to be and share with the rest of us. Oh wait......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And once again you completely missed my point. Which is...
MrMC = KODI Minus anything related to legal or illegal add-ons with promises to add some things in the future. It also perpetuates Apple's close apps restrictive system over to Amazon. It eliminates any sliver of a chance of getting KODI back on Amazon's apps echo system.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Regardless if I code or not code. Regardless if it's within Kodi's licensing. I still see MrMC choice to bring this over to Amazon as detrimental on this side of the non-Apple pond. MrMC is made for a close system where users take what apples allows them. I don't want to see that expanded on Amazon or Android. This is a very basic philosophy.
Ohh, snap, I don't code. Guess I better not have/share an opinion/philosophy then...
Y314K said:
And once again you completely missed my point. Which is...
Regardless if I code or not code. Regardless if it's within Kodi's licensing. I still see MrMC choice to bring this over to Amazon as detrimental on this side of the non-Apple pond. MrMC is made for a close system where users take what apples allows them. I don't want to see that expanded on Amazon or Android. This is a very basic philosophy.
Ohh, snap, I don't code. Guess I better not have/share an opinion/philosophy then...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't see your point because Amazon app store for FireTV has not changed since you purchased your device. So you are fighting for something that never existed.
Kodi was NEVER compatible for your FireTV. It might have been in the store for other devices, but you always had to sideload the initial install and updates. They never wanted Kodi (and its streaming feature specifically) to be installed from their official app store on your FireTV to take away from their profits. In fact all stores (amazon, apple and google) filter out whatever they choose. Nothing is open as you want to believe.
And now Amazon allows you to see your sideloaded apps, so it is even a better implementation than what you originally purchased. And if you want to have a version that comes from the store with updates, well, now we have MrMC. So you basically have you want, yet you still feel the need to rant.
jpeg42 said:
I don't see your point because Amazon app store for FireTV has not changed since you purchased your device. So you are fighting for something that never existed.
Kodi was NEVER compatible for your FireTV. It might have been in the store for other devices, but you always had to sideload the initial install and updates. They never wanted Kodi (and its streaming feature specifically) to be installed from their official app store on your FireTV to take away from their profits. In fact all stores (amazon, apple and google) filter out whatever they choose. Nothing is open as you want to believe.
And now Amazon allows you to see your sideloaded apps, so it is even a better implementation than what you originally purchased. And if you want to have a version that comes from the store with updates, well, now we have MrMC. So you basically have you want, yet you still feel the need to rant.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So KODI from the Amazon Store was never compatible with the FTV's. It just worked & showed up in resents after sideloading. Then Amazon used some lame excuse to remove it from their store. And in the future when Amazon whitelists Kodi from FTV's or other Amazon devices they will just say. Get the crippled MrMC app if you want Kodi.
Compare to Apple's apps store. Google can be somewhat consider an open system. And Amazon is somewhere in between both. I have a philosophy of encouraging Amazon to aim towards Google's philosophy & farther away from Apple's philosophy. I just checked & Google still has Kodi & SPMC freely available in their store & Google sells media just like Amazon does. Yet what MrMC is expanding is from Apple's side with the removal of code for store approval. Which is legal & within MrMC's prerogative. But it dose not mean I should either support it or be quiet if I disagree.
So the whole reason Kodi was shown the door by Amazon is because of the 3rd party add ons which promote piracy. Kodi WON'T be back on the Amazon store until Kodi removes the piracy aspect. Yes?
MrMC fills this void by removing the piracy aspect and voila, Kodi aka MrMC is back in the app store. Problem solved. Now since Kodi has no Android developer and says it's becoming extinct, you have Android developers working on the MrMC program which may see future development that Kodi may not. As far as charging for it, would you work for free? Neither would I.
As a side benefit (to the tin foil hat wearing crowd) to the people who keep thinking Amazon is going to block side loading of Kodi, well now they have a legitimate solution to this "problem" and they don't have to "worry" about blocking updates.
This seems like a big win win to me.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/5/16738748/google-amazon-feud-youtube-pulled-off-fire-tv-echo-show-nest-devices
Back it up while you can!
Link to the current APK: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AjlFvM-kUCwh-j5XfAMn9ySTPBp3
I think they will shut it down from their end. Unless someone can hack the apk, it will cease to work on January 1st.
I read about this yesterday and saw a notification on my fire today. I'm sure a modded apk will resolve this. I also wonder if playing you tube from within kodi will work. Not as nice but it does the job. I went into youtube in kodi and it did not have that notification so that may be a work around. Not the bet but better than nothing. Really sucks that it doesn't show history and has no "home" per say.
Dave
I decompiled the YouTube app. I'm not convinced Google knows it's coming from a FireTV from the user agent string. Here's what the app uses:
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/27.0.1453.93 Safari/537.36 Mozilla/5.0 (PLAYSTATION 3; 3.55)
So that begs the question, how can they block it? Is it just a scare tactic? If they don't know the source is an amazon fire they cannot possibly block it unless they put a youtube update to look for certain hardware criteria to ID it as a fire. If that's the case we just don't update the apk.
Dave
they seem to know how, since they are displaying the warning message on fire tvs only
What about alternative apps like Newpipe?
Im sure the hardware is identified by the build.prop...
The YouTube "app" is really just a webview to https://www.youtube.com/TV plus a shim to translate remote control commands. It seems very likely that any block should be trivially evadeable as long as that website remains available-- and since androidTV and smart TV UIs also use the HTML5 website, that isn't going to happen.
My guess is it is indeed something to do with the HTTP user-agent or some sort of other easily cloned fingerprint.
don_ernesto said:
they seem to know how, since they are displaying the warning message on fire tvs only
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Click to collapse
Well when I play youtube from kodi it does not display that message so..
Dave
TT_Vert said:
Well when I play youtube from kodi it does not display that message so..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right. So the question is how does Google know it's the app vs. Kodi? The user agent string seems pretty generic. Therefore, something else is going on that needs to be found.
The Kodi YouTube addon uses the API, which ultimately would be pretty easy to block. The FireTV literally connects to a public website, which is much more difficult. There are tons of ways to fingerprint a browser beyond the user agent.
https://amiunique.org/
This is exciting! It's a technology war. Doesn't effect me in any way. I rarely use YouTube on my fire tv and I'll just use chromecast if I need to watch it on my TV. Sure their will be an easy workaround. I'm team google. F amazon! Lol
look at this website.
https://smartyoutubetv.github.io/en/
there is a working apk to get YouTube back working on the stick. it is recognized as a lg tv
Yes, that app works perfectly. Good stuff.
I still think Amazon and Google will work it out, but if they don't, use that.
Is this better than the regular youtube app anyway?
That app is basically identical to the FireTV app, being a HTML5 webview of https://www.youtube.com/TV, but it supposedly also blocks their ads.
LOL NM I'm an idiot. I saw 1080 and instantly went for it without reading. FAIL.
Dave
mijorus said:
look at this website.
https://smartyoutubetv.github.io/en/
there is a working apk to get YouTube back working on the stick. it is recognized as a lg tv
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I sideloaded this today and also can confirm that it works.
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
you tube is still working for me. i get the warning message but it load just fine.
tw39515 said:
you tube is still working for me. i get the warning message but it load just fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Eventually it'll quit. Mine was the same way for a little while.
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
Hi, I am new to the fireTV 4K stick. I got these pop up browser ads every 5 or 10 minutes or so and have to use the mouse to close them. I know they are from sideloading apps but they do not go away even if I uninstall all these apps. I wonder if this is a common infection for the firestick as i can't really find a lot of information about it. The closest thing that I can find with a similar symptom is the bitcoin miner thing, but I don't think it is it because I don't see a "test" app under installled applications.
I know I can reset the firestick but I wonder if there is a way to deal with these browser hijacking ads. At least i want to figure out what is on the firestick that keeps trying to open these links. As far as I know there are not really antivirus or malware scanners that are helpful. Also my firestick 4k is not rooted.
Many thanks in advance!
onglyn said:
Hi, I am new to the fireTV 4K stick. I got these pop up browser ads every 5 or 10 minutes or so and have to use the mouse to close them. I know they are from sideloading apps but they do not go away even if I uninstall all these apps. I wonder if this is a common infection for the firestick as i can't really find a lot of information about it. The closest thing that I can find with a similar symptom is the bitcoin miner thing, but I don't think it is it because I don't see a "test" app under installled applications.
I know I can reset the firestick but I wonder if there is a way to deal with these browser hijacking ads. At least i want to figure out what is on the firestick that keeps trying to open these links. As far as I know there are not really antivirus or malware scanners that are helpful. Also my firestick 4k is not rooted.
Many thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try and use Adguard which can be found here:
https://adguard.com/en/download.html