Amazon Fire TV Stick

madlyn

can you get radio stations on the Fire Stick? and if I were to use it as my main source of receiving TV would I need to unplug the aerial?

debitcardmayhem

Yes , why , no.
You can't get all live TV on the firestick afaik

emptybox

If you have a TV with no access to a terrestrial aerial or satellite dish, but access to wifi, then the Amazon Fire stick can do a lot of the same jobs.
There are radio apps to allow you to listen to radio; there are TV player apps to allow you to watch some of the free or paid for channels, over the internet.

But if you have a working aerial or dish and the appropriate tuner in the TV (or TV box), then that is still the most convenient way to watch broadcast TV channels.
Of course that may well change in the future.

Needless to say (as debitcardmayhem has already said it) the aerial connection has no effect whatsoever on the Amazon Fire TV stick. The TV sees them as different sources

vivatifosi

If you haven't seen a firestick, think of it both in terms of the Amazon content such as films and tv shows, but also like a phone or a tablet in that you can upload apps to.

The choice of apps is somewhat different and I would argue more restricted in choice than Google or Apple offerings, nevertheless there are plenty of choices.

For tv, I went for TV Player, which gives access to many freeview channels, then backfilled with other apps to give a more complete choice, such as iPlayer, More4, the Sky News app, etc.

I will say though that if you are using Firestick to watch live tv it is very clunky, particularly if you have to switch from one app to another to change channels, it is much better as a content platform than a surrogate for live tv.

For radio you can go for an app such as TuneIn Radio to give access to a wide range of channels, as well as load individual apps. Again, it is slower to switch if using as a surrogate for a radio with presets.

madlyn

I live in the dip of a hill, so I have an extra long aerial with a booster box on it. I live in North West Leicestershire and the aerial picks up South Yorkshire TV signal, the TV and Radio can sometimes be Broken picture/sound or freeze all together.
I was hoping that if I got a Fire Stick I could watch Tv through that with a near perfect picture/sound, but it would appear this is not possible.

Norman_Castle

Freesat could be an option.

martinthebandit

I have a roku streaming stick and can watch all the free channels and several thousand more I have no interest in.

I can even cast from my iPad to it.

neilmcl

madlyn wrote: »

I live in the dip of a hill, so I have an extra long aerial with a booster box on it. I live in North West Leicestershire and the aerial picks up South Yorkshire TV signal, the TV and Radio can sometimes be Broken picture/sound or freeze all together.
I was hoping that if I got a Fire Stick I could watch Tv through that with a near perfect picture/sound, but it would appear this is not possible.

How old is the aerial? If it was "pre-digital" then it may be worth getting an aerial installer out to discuss your options as to whether getting a newer one or, as the poster above mentioned, fitting a satellite dish for Freesat.

madlyn

The aerial is around 9 years old.

vivatifosi

madlyn wrote: »

I live in the dip of a hill, so I have an extra long aerial with a booster box on it. I live in North West Leicestershire and the aerial picks up South Yorkshire TV signal, the TV and Radio can sometimes be Broken picture/sound or freeze all together.
I was hoping that if I got a Fire Stick I could watch Tv through that with a near perfect picture/sound, but it would appear this is not possible.

It doesn't have to be either or. You can still have tv through your aerial into the aerial socket and Firestick into the HDMI socket. So you can switch between the two when you have a bad tv signal.

Also, the sound and picture are generally very good on mine. I have moderately fast unlimited broadband, but haven't gone for super fast, that's fine.

I also rarely use mine for the Amazon content, such as films, so it is possible to get by without a Prime subscription, but if you are going to do that, you might as well also look at other options such as Roku.

madlyn

So am I able to watch "live" TV with a fire stick, can I access BBC 1, ITV and so on as the programm is actually aired?
And I wont be using Prime or Nerflix.