amazon fire tv

I bought this product it wasn't free or discounted I just thought I would share.
Hey everyone! So since this is just something I decided on a whim ( by whim I of course mean scouring through countless reviews and carefully deciding that this was something that was valuable to me and worth the money) to buy I figured with out a timeline I could really get a solid feel for it before writing. I know some of you have been waiting for quite awhile and I apologize. Anyway I usually start these with a back story of why I needed the product in question and this one is no different. I love TV but I hate cable. Like detest it. You pay outrageous amounts of money and what do you get really? A few shows you really enjoy, endless repeats of the same old movies, commercials, a huge bill, and 90% of the time you settle on watching something with the reasoning that despite having over 500 channels there is really nothing on that you want to watch and that's when its actually in good working order (ever notice the cable always goes out when your favorite show is on?) So for a really long time I had Netflix. I mean its a great price and there is tons to watch plus its all on demand with no commercials. My biggest issue with Netflix was there is no way to just pay for it. Its all automatic withdrawal and for me just happened to always fall whenever I had no money in the account so goodbye $7.00 tv hello $34.00 overdraft fee. It happened so often I decided to go with cable because at least I can pay that when I do have the money. Then of course the only shows I wanted to watch were on AMC HBO and showtime so hello huge bill every month for what 3 hours of quality programming a week (if that). Now I've been an amazon prime member for quite awhile and yes it comes with the free (sometimes) TV thing but it was hard to search for something on the PlayStation that was actually free so I never really got the full scope of the programming I was actually allotted. Now I have this issue. I tend to make big decisions suddenly when I'm angry. Happened with cable, then netflix, then cable, then Netflix, then cable. So why would I pay money to make use of a product that I have but never used before? (Seriously I've been a prime member since I've had children) well, it seemed to be a good buy I mean $99 to not have to use my PlayStation for everything and get away from cable? Heck the cable portion of my bill was higher than that per month! So I figured I'd give it a shot, after all we had two TVs and only one ps3 and the fire TV was definitely cheaper than another of those. When I got the thing I couldn't get over how ridiculously tiny it was. Especially compared to that moronic DVR that was the size of the combo VCR player/recorder/cdplayers that we had when big screen TVs were bigger than a bathroom! (Ahh projection bulky huge screen you could really only view from head on and quickly became a TV stand simply because tube replacement was too expensive to bother and its easier to simply move to another house then to trash the thing how I miss thee lol) seriously though its not much bigger than my phone.
Ease of install.
So have you ever gotten the diy cable kits in the mail? You save about 30 bucks and screw the thing in yourself which requires plugging the cord in and plugging it in and connecting the cable cord to the wall and the cable box (with the endless screwing where you can't really see and its awkward and uncomfortable) then connecting the cable box to the TV (with the HDMI cord if you are lucky or else its more screwing) and then about half the time they send faulty equipment just so they can still send their service tech out (and charge you twice btw once for when they shipped it and again for the guy coming out) such a headache! This though you just plug into the TV (HDMI) and the wall and its good to go. There isn't even a power button. You connect it to your internet wirelessly (one of the easiest things to connect to the internet btw sorry ps3 you are ridiculous) sign into your prime account and then you can just push a button and tell it what you want. Now still there is a lot you can get that is not free. However its pretty easy to find tons that is. It all has a ribbon on the corner of the icon that reads prime. There are parental controls (need a password to watch anything that may be suspect AND to buy anything OR change any settings) tons of movies and tv shows for everyone (and yes full series from beggining to end however some of the shows that are still running do have seasons you have to pay for if you want to watch it now but they have them available sooner than Netflix and its still cheaper than cable to buy a season of a show even if its every month ) also you can run pretty much any other streaming app (like Netflix or Hulu plus for example) right on it and it remembers your log in info. Plus there are tons of free games (albeit not the full spectrum of play store offerings no clash of clans yet) including games that you can play with a controller (sold separately I suggest the knock off to the amazon one though) there are even apps that mimic cable (to some extent anyway basically TV you can keep running) I am however disappointed that their prime music feature doesn't work on it yet though you can run Pandora and even YouTube their prime music really rocks and I anxiously await them throwing that into my television entertainment pleasure! So like Netflix it does offer suggestions based on what you watch and informs you of their newest prime offerings as well as suggesting movies based on one you are thinking about watching (like if you decide not to spend the money for lady and the tramp it will give you a whole slew of other Disney movies and some other cute cartoon or kids movies with talking animals) on the other hand unlike Netflix which sometimes has movies and shows you can have mailed to you for a separate monthly fee (and I do mean separate) that you have to wait for with amazon you can buy it (and own it and use it on anything that you can access amazon on demand from) and watch it right then and whenever you want. They even have tons of HBO programming which is NOT offered by any other service without cable so that is a huge bonus! So what have I spent all told? Well I've bought 2 of the fire tv boxes @$99 each plus 2 of the video game controllers one amazon one not for around $30 each plus my subscription to amazon prime which was $79 when I paid this year (may have gone up but whatever) so 300 bucks? (My cable alone was $100 a month) what do I get? Included with my subscription every year (because next year I won't need the boxes or controls again that's done with) I get for no additional cost free 2 day shipping (why I signed up in the first place) on most of what amazon sells, free books, free music, free TV, movies, and games. Plus is so easy my kids can use it (unlike cable) and most of all I'm let off of the leash cable had me on. Totally worth it!