What Can You Do With Fire Tv and Echo Cube

February 16, 2022 Post a Comment

The Burn down TV Cube is Amazon'south try to combine a smart TV streaming box with an Alexa-powered smart speaker, producing a small black box that doubles every bit an Echo device.

The Cube doesn't look like anything else. The combination of shiny and matt black plastic makes information technology stand out at beginning, but the 86mm-broad and 77mm-tall cube is small enough not to exist distracting sitting side by side to your TV.

It's essentially a vocalization-controlled Echo Dot mated with a Fire TV smart television box. The top resembles an Echo Dot with the aforementioned four-manner configuration of buttons for volume, muting the microphones and an activeness button, plus a series of holes for the viii axle-forming mics.

A low-cal strip at the top front edge shows what Alexa is doing, lighting up blue when listening, or orange with alerts. Ports are in the back for power, HDMI for your TV (cable sold separately), an optional infrared blaster and a microUSB socket, into which you tin can plug the included ethernet adapter if you don't want to use wifi to connect to the internet.

While the Cube looks dandy, the tangle of cables coming out the back doesn't, which is a shame as information technology has to sit out in the open to work properly as a smart speaker and to control your other devices.

Also included in the box is Amazon's latest Alexa voice remote that ships with about Fire TV products, including the £50 Burn down Goggle box Stick 4K. It'due south a simple, easy to use remote, which includes a much-welcome dedicated power button, a microphone button for talking straight into it for Alexa, plus dedicated play and book buttons.

Very smart Television receiver

amazon fire tv cube review — The Fire TV interface is fairly straightforward with almost options up forepart and voice-search across multiple services with Alexa making it easy to find what you want. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian

The Cube excels as a smart Tv box. The interface is fast and responsive. The home screen is adequately simple, with much of the recommended content from the likes of Prime number Video, Netflix and others accessible straight from carousels in the main interface.

Defended media apps accept intendance of the rest with almost mainstream services in the UK supported, including All4, Apple tree TV (iTunes etc), BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport, ITV Hub, My5, Netflix and YouTube, through which y'all can also access Google Play Movies. The merely notable exception is BT Sport, which may be a deal-billow for some.

The Cube supports high-end video and sound formats that are becoming increasingly popular as part of streaming services too. On the video forepart you have up to 4K at 60Hz, HDR10 and HDR10+, HLG and Dolby Vision, meaning that essentially every mainstream HDR format is covered. On the audio side yous have your standard stereo, 5.1 or vii.1 surround sound, but you also have Dolby'south Atmos format, again covering practically every base. Both Dolby Vision and Atmos are supported by Apple tree TV, Netflix and Prime Video.

Of grade your equipment also has to support these standards to utilize them, but attached to an LG OLED and Denon receiver, Jack Ryan in Dolby Vision and Atmos on Prime Video looked and sounded fantastic.

What was that, Alexa?

As a smart speaker the Cube tin't quite match up to Amazon's cheapest Echo devices. While it can hear you just fine, Alexa's speech is output from the box with annoying variations in volume. It starts very quiet before returning to normal volume each time Alexa starts to speak, and then yous often miss what is being said. It is seriously irritating.

You can control basic things such as playback, volume and navigation in well-nigh apps. Merely Netflix, Prime Video and YouTube support deeper vocalism control, including the ability to simply request a show or movie.

Alexa tin likewise turn things on and off, such as your TV. The Cube uses both the HDMI command and IR blasters to remote control your various amusement devices, alongside Alexa'south smart home integration for lights and other bits.

Setting it all up was a little long-winded but adequately straightforward. Getting the Idiot box and a Denon receiver to switch on for the Cube was like shooting fish in a barrel. Adding the Sky Q and Virgin V6 boxes was a flake more laborious, requiring the additional IR equalizer and pressing buttons when Alexa says and then.

Once working you can irresolute the channel upwards and down, control the volume and even "tune to BBC 1". Beyond that things become a bit hit and miss. Ask it to pause or play and Alexa says "your provider couldn't do that", but information technology tin can fast frontward and rewind. Information technology besides failed to turn off the satellite box when turning everything else off, and routinely failed to turn on the Tv set or the Sky Q box when commanded.

The novelty of voice command quickly turned to annoyance. I switched back to reaching for the remote for reliable control. In its current country I don't think information technology'southward worth persevering with.

Some of these bug will be due to the manufacturer of the box you're trying to control, simply given Logitech's long-continuing Harmony smart remote can reliably replicate practically every function of common devices, Amazon should exist able to do better.

All of these playback controls and Alexa functions can exist done through the voice remote likewise. Concord the button, talk to Alexa and it will either respond through the Cube's speakers or your Telly if on – no Alexa wake word required.

Observations

The blueish LED strip pulses from side to side when Alexa is turning things on or off
Volume control via Alexa caused wild jumps until I manually adjusted the IR controls through the settings on the Cube
Alexa mutes your Tv set when it hears its wake give-and-take
"Alexa, go home" takes yous back to the Fire TV interface even if you lot were watching Heaven or Virgin
You lot tin can turn off the mics on the Cube and yet use the button on the remote to talk to Alexa

Toll

The Amazon Fire TV Cube costs £109.99.

For comparing, the Fire TV stick costs £39.99, the Fire TV stick 4K costs £49.99, the Nvidia Shield costs £149.99 and the Apple TV 4K costs £179.

Verdict

The Amazon Fire Television Cube is an excellent smart Television receiver box, supporting a wide selection of apps and services, video and audio standards and with snappy, lag-free operation. It is arguably i of the all-time smart TV boxes available.

But it is not a good smart speaker. Irritating volume fluctuations and a decidedly boilerplate speaker brand information technology worse than a separate Echo Dot. The home entertainment equipment control is likewise poor. It works fine enough for turning on your Tv for the Fire Telly interface, just is inconsistent for other devices and can't replicate enough functionality via voice that you don't need to routinely reach for the original remote. Information technology's irritating more than it is useful once the novelty has worn off.

That'south not to say Alexa doesn't piece of work very well at controlling the Burn Television interface, playback of shows by proper noun and apace jumping to a particular point in a moving picture. But you can do that just fine using the mic push on the remote – the same remote and adequacy yous get with the Burn TV Stick 4K which costs less than half the price.

The Fire Idiot box Cube is even so significantly cheaper than most of the competition, but if y'all want the combo of an Amazon smart Television box and an Alexa smart speaker, purchase the Fire TV Stick 4K with an Echo Dot and save £10 or more.

Pros: fast, comprehensive sound and video support, most streaming services including YouTube and Apple Idiot box, Alexa remote, vocalization command of Fire TV interface

Cons: no BT Sport, variable book output bad as a smart speaker, device control more than trouble than it's worth, more than twice the cost of Fire TV Stick 4K