Supercharge your Fire Stick by installing Kodi and HDD
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I had a Fire Stick (old version without volume buttons in remote) and the battery drain was horrible! Chewed up a pair of Duracells in 3 days flat. So, stay away from this one below.
Neither my non-smart TV nor Fire Stick could play 1080p x265 10-bit HDR content. So, decided to get a Fire Stick 4K though my TV supports max 1080p.
FS4K lowest price has been 3599. If you can grab one at that price, great. I was not so lucky and this is what I did:
After searching in OLX for two weeks, got a 3mo old FS4K for 3000. It was within warranty and Amazon CS confirmed that the warranty can be transferred. So, if something went wrong I was covered.
Had an old micro-usb OTG Y-Cable lying around. One end went into FS4K, another to my charger and to my 1TB HDD. The charger output must be more than 1A otherwise it won’t power the whole setup. Also, HDD or pen drives should be in FAT32 format to be detected by FS4K.
Installed Downloader, MiXplorer File Manager & Kodi. Kodi scanned my HDD and organised my entire content into a library. FS4K plays 1080p x265 10-bit and 2160p x265 10-bit HDR content without any lag or stutter.
The IR remote doesn’t have the battery drain of of Bluetooth. Duracells now last 5-6 months with moderate daily use. The remote can now control both my TV/FS4K and the convenience is priceless. Volume and mute buttons are a lifesaver.
The remote is made of plastic and can crack with a nasty fall. New remotes have an inflated price tag of 2000. Instead, get a silicone cover like this from Aliexpress and it will be protected.
Extremely satisfied with the Fire Stick 4K powered media centre costing around 3000.
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Used the following for step-by-step guide with images and to troubleshot issues. Works for both Fire Stick & Fire Stick 4K
1. https://troypoint.com/how-to-install-kodi-on-fi...
2. https://www.reddit.com/r/firetvstick/comments/b...
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Glad to know it was helpful.
Remove unnecessary apps from Fire Stick and plug-ins from Kodi and clean individual app caches afterwards. That made all the difference regarding speed for me.
Regarding WiFi speed, make the FS4K connect to the 5Ghz channel if you have dual-band router in the same room/nearby. You’ll never have a problem with speed after that.
So should i just throw my old firestick?
It drains my duracell batteries in a week.
Use everyday rechargeable battery it ll work 20 to 25 days with full charge I am using it on fire tv version 1
Price? Any online link to buy?
guys, why buying batteries for remote… just use your smartphone as remote to control your TV stick/TV box. I am using the “Zank Remote” app for my Mi Box 4K. It also works by connecting the TV box/stick to our smartphone hotspot. no need separate wifi router.
Firestick has its own remote app that works fine but the reasons I prefer remote are
Convenience – App is Difficult to operate without looking at the phone
Anyone can use without having to install apps in all phones.
Phone is out of juice generally after full day of calling at work
Fire Stick battery is draining very fast. I heard that there is some technique for it. Any suggestions. I got old one
Battery drains due to faulty Bluetooth tech used in the version.
Some good suggestions already in the thread, might help.
simple. sideload zank remote apk or if the firetv stick have app store then search for zank remote.
Can anyone please post the link of firestick remote silicone cover from Aliexpress
AFAIK Aliexpress shippings are still banned in India, I don’t think your parcel will reach you without a custom receipt.
I use my Firestick Lite 5/6 hours from last 10 months no such battery drain issue. I’ve Setup a Plex server on my PC and I can access my 1TB movie library in my Firestick. Installed TiviMate app and getting all the Indian+foreign live channel with bufferless stream.
Can share more details of your setup and how you are able to get channels streaming
Installed kodi. How to watch tv on it?
Does Kodi app have any preinstalled Add ons where we can watch movies. I know we have to add manually add Add ons and it’s not easy to find them.
Any other alternative kodi botallen add on isnt installing now
Thanks for the nice write-up. Indeed very helpful.
I also experimented with Kodi on my firestick. Although its library is huge, you can only get servers to play the movie/show for the recent releases. I found Kodi to be running quite slow too. Nevertheless, Firestick itself is an awesome device, and I closed my cable TV connection after I started using it on my Samsung Non-Smart Full HD TV.