With the appearance of sensible TVs and voice assistants, common remotes have all however disappeared. Why would you purchase a separate clicker when you possibly can management the whole lot with Alexa or your TV distant? As a result of loads of individuals nonetheless want greater than a fundamental controller, that is why. Thousands and thousands of Individuals subscribe to cable TV and/or have an AV system that may’t be managed by a TV distant alone. The unique Amazon Fireplace TV Dice was a bridge between the brand new actuality of streaming and the sensible house, and the necessity to management third-party gadgets. It has been changed by a second-generation Fireplace TV which incorporates loads of high-end options, reminiscent of a quicker processor and 4K upscaling.
7.7
Amazon Fireplace TV Dice
Like
Smooth design
Speedy processor
4K upscaling
Do not like
Good TV options do not work with each TV producer
Alexa is not at all times dependable
Tough to arrange gear management in some conditions
There’s lots to love concerning the Fireplace TV Dice. Its small, boxy design is each cute and glossy, and it appears good in a TV cupboard. Its built-in mic and audio system are additionally able to controlling a TV utilizing simply Alexa. To high all of it off, the Dice additionally connects on to a cable field so Alexa can management that, too. Fairly candy, proper?
In idea, sure. However after spending untold hours over the course of 5 months testing two completely different Fireplace TV Dice models on three separate TVs, I am unhappy to report that the brand new Dice simply did not work as marketed. Positive, it carried out admirably as a daily streaming participant, because it enables you to obtain and watch nearly any content material you’d need. However individuals shopping for the Dice would possibly fairly anticipate the total smart-home expertise, and that is exactly the place the machine faltered
In my testing, Alexa constantly struggled to reliably full voice instructions, whereas the Dice as a complete frequently encountered glitches when making an attempt to manage different linked gadgets. When the whole lot labored because it ought to, the Dice felt virtually magical. However too usually, I used to be left begging Alexa to comply with the instructions I gave it. The top result’s a product that gives a tantalizing imaginative and prescient of the way forward for sensible TVs however is in the end so irritating to make use of that I wished to throw it throughout the room.
A fairly package deal
The Amazon Fireplace TV Dice appears nice.
Sarah Lord/CNET
The Dice, true to its title, has at all times been a sq. field that is made to take a seat by your TV. The primary two generations of the Dice had been made solely of plastic and featured sharp, straight strains.
The newest model of the machine comes wrapped in a mesh-like cloth with rounded edges that provides the Dice extra of an upscale feel and look. On high of the field, you will discover Alexa mute and quantity controls, in addition to a Choose button. To regulate anything, you will want to make use of your voice, or the included distant.
On the again of the Dice, you will discover area to plug in a USB stick; an ethernet cable; an non-obligatory IR extender for controlling a tool that is in a cupboard; plus two HDMI connectors — an output to hook up with your TV and an enter to attach from a cable field or different machine. It is simple to arrange, too: I had the whole lot plugged in and operating in about 5 minutes.
The Dice comes with an additional HDMI slot so that you can plug in a cable field.
Sarah Lord/CNET
Content material in all places
The preliminary onscreen setup can also be pretty painless. The Dice walks you thru all of the steps — from signing into your Amazon account to pairing Alexa together with your TV — in only a few minutes. All of it works seamlessly till you are confronted with navigating the busy Fireplace TV house display, most of which is taken up with a carousel of rotating adverts.
Beneath this,you will see a small strip of helpful buttons, reminiscent of your Amazon profile, an enter change, search, a house button, a channel information for Amazon’s Freevee dwell TV choices, a Favorites bookmark and a bunch of your put in apps, in addition to a settings shortcut.
However right here is the place the acquainted issues of the Fireplace TV interface develop into evident. These helpful buttons are rapidly adopted by seemingly limitless carousels full of content material, most of it spam. For each useful part, like Just lately Used Apps, there are twice as many rows full of sponsored content material or motion pictures from different Amazon properties.
The Fireplace TV Dice enables you to mute Alexa.
Sarah Lord/CNET
I may not have minded this a lot if Amazon had made it simpler to truly get to the content material I wished to observe. As an alternative, the small space containing all my downloaded apps solely has slots for six of them, which implies I’ve to dig deep into the apps menu to get to what I need. Not surprisingly, Prime Video and Freevee come preinstalled on this record of six. Fortunately, you possibly can demote them from the highest spots and put different apps of their place, however it’s only one extra means Amazon makes the Fireplace TV interface lower than user-friendly.
Navigating via the system and launching apps does really feel snappy, although. There is a new processor within the Dice that Amazon claims has twice the efficiency of the Fireplace TV Stick 4K Max, which itself is impressively quick. Though I wasn’t capable of again up the corporate’s pace claims for the Dice, it felt simply as responsive because the 4K Max stick, if no more so. The Dice launched each Netflix and Disney Plus in simply over two seconds, which is on par with different punchy streaming gadgets.
Playback regarded nice, backed by the help of Dolby Imaginative and prescient, HDR and Dolby Atmos audio. I used to be additionally a fan of the included Wi-Fi 6E help, because it permits these with upgraded routers to reap the benefits of superfast streaming.
Gear management failures
Amazon touts that you can join lots of your TV-related gadgets to your Dice so it could actually seamlessly change between streaming, a sport console or perhaps a cable field. So as to arrange this function, you first want to go to Gear Management within the settings menu so as to add every further piece of kit you wish to join. That is the place my issues started.
I first tried so as to add a Roku and an Xbox Sequence X to a Dice plugged right into a 2021 TCL 6 Sequence Google TV, however the Dice didn’t robotically acknowledge the tv. As an alternative, I wanted to manually discover and click on on my TV producer. Ultimately, the Dice was capable of flip my TV on and off utilizing Alexa, however it remained incapable of adequately studying which machine was plugged in, and to which HDMI. As a backup measure, I attempted to show it the infrared indicators my distant makes use of when switching to every machine, however that additionally didn’t work. Even when it made the right guess one time, it could change to the fallacious enter the following. I spent means too many hours attempting any conceivable mixture to get it working constantly. I contacted Amazon and had a gathering with its technicians to attempt to repair the difficulty. They despatched me a model new Dice to see if that will assist. It didn’t. The Dice simply does not wish to work with this TCL TV.
You are going to want to make use of the distant.
Sarah Lord/CNET
Subsequent, I attempted the very same setup on a 2020 Samsung TV, which, to my aid, labored a lot better. The Dice acknowledged the TV instantly, and Alexa was capable of change backwards and forwards between my Xbox and my Roku with ease. Sadly, I used to be unable to get Alexa to launch my Xbox video games, regardless of spending hours checking all my settings on each gadgets and utilizing the prompts listed on the Xbox website. By this level within the course of, I used to be simply comfortable that Alexa labored in any respect.
Lastly, I linked the Dice to an LG TV circa 2011 to see the way it labored with older gadgets. To my shock, it robotically acknowledged the mannequin and linked simply. I then attached my cable field on to the Dice via the HDMI enter. Amazon claims cable bins from Spectrum, my supplier, together with a string of others, work along side the Dice to permit Alexa to manage your cable.
After I added the cable field to my record of linked gadgets, I mentioned aloud “Alexa, tune to ESPN on cable,” and held my breath. To my real shock and delight, it labored. My TV went from the Fireplace TV house display on to ESPN on my cable field. Ultimately, I may lastly skip simply round cable, a number of streaming gadgets and gaming consoles all with a couple of easy instructions to Alexa. It felt, dare I say, magical. I used to be lastly beginning to expertise Amazon’s imaginative and prescient for the Dice, and it felt fairly cool.
Generally, Alexa simply did not work as marketed.
Sarah Lord/CNET
However, sadly, all of it went out the window the second I attempted to get Alexa to alter the channel and was met with silence. Saying “Alexa” triggered the Dice to pay attention, but in addition activated the TV’s quantity mute and unmute options in a means that made it unimaginable for Alexa to listen to my question. She would perk up each time I mentioned her title, however irrespective of what number of instances I pleaded and begged, I could not discover a option to manipulate the settings in order that she may truly perceive my instructions.
To seek out out if the issues I would had had been with the Dice or the Alexa assistant itself, I arrange the Dice side-by-side with an Amazon Echo Dot. I issued the identical command to every in flip whereas muting the opposite. The primary distinction is that the Dice tries to seek out solutions in related TV reveals should you’re not extraordinarily particular. Many of the points I used to be having with Alexa associated to navigating the Dice’s connections between gadgets on the TV, which I am not capable of replicate on the Echo.
Off the mark
The 2022 Amazon Dice might have lofty intentions, however I discovered it simply did not ship on its promise of a full-featured sensible house connection. A few of its key options are incompatible with a latest and in style TV set, whereas its new cable field connection is just too buggy to make use of. Should you’re on the lookout for a high-end Amazon streaming machine, the Fireplace TV Stick 4K Max works simply as properly at half the associated fee. Whereas elements of the Dice really feel near providing a wealthy, voice-activated expertise, the top product is just too underbaked to advocate.