Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I’ve owned an original Fire TV since they first came out. I liked it so much I gave one to my son last Christmas and I also convinced my neighbor to buy one. So when I decided to get one for the upstairs TV it was a no-brainer to pre-order this new model. The plan was to install the new box on the main TV and move the original upstairs. But after fighting with it for two days, I wound up returning it. It’s inconceivable to me that a unit with this many bugs was ever released. I swear if I ran Amazon someone would lose their job over this. Many others have attested to the problems with this unit, but here’s a synopsis of what I experienced: 1) Very low volume. I had to crank up the volume on my AV receiver whenever I used it. Then, if I switched to another input without remembering to turn it back down I’d get blasted out of my seat. 2) Surround sound only worked on Amazon content. 3) It’s very difficult to remove the back of the remote to install/replace the batteries. Although I didn’t have as much trouble as some the old design was far better. 4) All sources hesitated or hic-cupped periodically, even with Amazon content. (This has nothing to do with my internet speed, and my LAN connection is hardwired). 5) Although advertised as having better performance, navigation between screens was noticeably sluggish compared with the original. 6) No You-Tube video would play for more than a few minutes before crashing (The screen would turn white for a few seconds and then return to the Fire TV home page). This was the deal breaker for me. Granted, most of these issues will probably be fixed via software updates at some point, but the quantity of obvious flaws with this product boggles the mind. And just to add insult to injury, several people have reported that a few days after its initial release it temporarily went on sale for $79.99. So those (like me) who pre-ordered this on good faith were not only sold a beta unit, they were charged more than those who waited. Nice… Finally, we come to Alexa: Initially I asked about the weather, just to try it, and it worked fine. But later I had a genuine question: “What was Yogi Berra’s lifetime batting average”. It came back with information about Yogi Bear (yes, seriously). I tried the question several times carefully enunciating “Berra” but to no avail. Thinking it was just confused over the name, I asked the same question regarding Mickey Mantle. This time it said it didn’t understand my question. Again I asked in several different ways, but never got a correct answer. Then I grabbed my Galaxy S5 and asked the same question of “OK Google”. The correct information appeared on screen the first time. I didn’t buy this for Alexa but even that was a disappointment. BTW: Reconnecting my original Fire TV got everything working fine again.