I've always hated my cable provider. I just feel like I have little options and little power and have to pay out the butt for anything I really would want. I've been with Direct TV(which hasn't been as bad as Charter) for the last 2 years and I'm happy to say I'm ready to cancel.

I started hearing some rumblings at work about the Amazon fire stick and how this media program could give you live tv,movie channels,PPV.. Basically everything. Now I was pretty skeptical and stubborn since I a huge sucker for my HD sports. How good was the quality? Can I really watch good looking live TV with little to no hiccups? As for getting the Fire Stick to do this I would need to side load the Kodi program and all its "add-ons". After reading and watching some videos about it I was pretty sure I could do but I just didn't have the time with two kids ect ect. So I went to Ebay where Sellers are in fierce competition to sell these TV wonder sticks.

I found a great seller Derek, or modifi.myshopifycom on ebay. I sent some questions out to many sellers looking for the best seller who knew what they were selling and talking about. Derek came back with the quickest and most info about my questions. I highly recommend him when buying a fire stick since I know he will take care of you and does have 100% feedback. He also puts the Kodi launch app right on the home screen so you can jump right into it, not all sellers do this. It can be hard to know which one to buy since there are so many sellers. Go to Derek, he even sends easy to follow paper instructions. Check out his auction here! and his website here!
I got my stick in about 2 days and plugged it up. Everything was going great until I tried to stream live tv which would go for a few seconds then buffers FOREVER! I couldn't get any of the movie to load either. Whats the deal? So I tested my internet speeds and found them to be terrible. I was getting anywhere from 14 mbps to 28 mbps. I pay for 60 mbps! So I called up Charter and they recommend that I try a direct line to my computer than test the speed. Sure enough 60 mbps came blasting through. So my router was pretty old... and was choking my internet. I went out and bought the Netgear R6100 This router got me up to speed and it broadcast at 5hz which the stick can pick up and is easily faster then the standard 2.4hz. Once my stick was connected to its new network(footLAN......) everything was as smooth as butter. Live TV had no problems, movie loaded up at decent speeds. No buffering at all to date!

The Stick
It plugs and plays pretty much from the get go. You don't even have to have a Amazon account since Derek does all that before he ships it out. You can add your account if you want. There is some processing and waiting at times when you select things. You get the dreaded "waiting" spinner which if it goes on for a while it means the content isn't going to load. It got hung up on me a few times and has crashed once but you have to remember it is  a stick and ram can only do so much. Its amazing it holds and does what it does with such limited ram. In no way a deal killer. Not even close. Now I can't comment on how the Amazon box works which has more processing power but it will cost you a bit more. I can deal with a few moments of waiting. If the content is there to load(which is most the time) it boots right up in great speeds.

LIVE TV
Espn, NLF network, NBA TV, Comedy Central ,E and a bunch of crazy channels I have never even heard of work most the time on IPTV Stalker(its a live tv add-on). There will be times when they just flat out won't load. Not sure the reason behind it but this isn't the case most the time and there are so many other add-ons with live tv like Navi-x or Sports dog that even if they are down in one add-on you can jump over to another and try those which will work. For the price of the stick this doesn't bother me but it might bothers some.

Most the time the quality is pretty close to HD if not HD but at times it can drop a bit. I watched the NBA finals and it was dropping a bit and that could be do to high volume traffic but I did jump around and find a pretty good stream. Once and while you might go to a stream that might be in Spanish or something like that.  Did this when I was looking for CN for my son but again, you just go to the next CN stream until you find what you want.
You can also watch HBO,Showtime and all those channels but I really don't see the point if you can just watch things on demand or search for any movie you want.

With Live TV you just have to be willing to look around if the first option doesn't work. You'll get what you want but like I said that isn't the case most the time. It works pretty well. There is also a add-on for local stations but I haven't had a chance to try it yet.

Movies
This where the KODI program really shines. Derek has it settings so the "movies" tab will take you right to the "Genesis add-on" which I think so far is the best movie add-on. Navi-X is good too just not as user friendly. Genesis will have all the newest movies or the most popular movies that you can watch right as soon as you hit the movies tab. You can also search for whatever. I wanted to watch "Castaway" for some odd reason and and it came right up and watched it with no issues. Newer movies are always in HD and older movies can be DVD quality. When you chose a movie a list of links load with the movie you chose. More than not the first one will work, if not just go to the next and one will work. Or you can hit "auto play" which will play the first working link. I never use it since the first one works 99% of the time.
There is a kids zone tab where its just kids movies which my son loves. They even have kid tv shows. They have all the DUCK TALES FERGODSAKE! Lots of great kids content. Again most work, most the time but there is so much stuff the kids has option ABCDEFGHI...ect ect.

TV on demand
Again, just a amazing thing. I can watch Game of Thrones, True Detective... Orange is the new Black... Anything on TV really, you can watch on demand. It won't take more then a day or so after the latest episode for it to show up to view.

I even found out I can watch TMNT 2K3, Thundercats, Real Ghostbusters, Knight Rider, Batman ......M.A.S.K... Its all there! Tracking down 2k3 turtles is very pricey. Now they are all at my finger tips. Same with Thundercats. Its all here for me to watch whenever. My 8 year old self would have crapped its pants.

So buy it??
Oh.My.God.Yes... If you are looking to be a cord cutter but the other options never seemed good enough to do it? This is the stick that will have you pulling the trigger. Once you learn the ins and out and play with it a bit you will feel right at home and you can't believe you paid a thousand dollars a year for cable. Is it going to match the live HD you get with cable? No, but it isn't far off. Some times the stream is so good it does look like I'm watching my Direct TV.

Even as a pure movie watcher and say you just need it for that its worth it. It has more than Netflix. For the one time fee its more then worth it. Buy it and hope to god Amazon never patches it which I hear might not matter anyway. Kodi has been running on the stick for over a year so things are pretty promising going forward. If you have more question contact Derek at his Ebay store.



Pros
-Live TV in near HD or HD
-Movies play in 1080p
-86248924729847 on demand movie choices
-76484684294848 on demand TV choices
-76383628374999 on demand kids TV and Movie choices
-Even has old movies and shows.
-cheap price
-Genesis add-on is amazing
-Good support(Derek will update the device to v.15, just have to pay shipping)
-Stick picks up 5hz wifi for even faster speeds to reduce any buffering
-Kids add-ons with everything.

Cons
-Live TV can be hit or miss.
-Learning Curve
-Some non working things but usually work later or even a re-click
-"Working" hate when it goes on forever leaving you stuck

Tips
-Make sure your router and internet speed is up to snuff. I had to buy a new router since my old one was only pushing 15-22 mbps and the stick could not stream anything without a decent router. Check your speed at speedtest.net to make sure you getting proper speeds.
-Go for 5hz signal router if you do buy a new one.
-Use Genesis and save your favs to the save folder.
-Things will go down from time to time for maintenance.

I want to thank Derek again for the great deal on the stick and and all the help when I had questions. Make sure to swing by his Ebay store.

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