Many of the gadgets we use every day don’t look all that sophisticated from the outside, but they’re brimming with hidden features and options. Think of the average smartphone, which to the uninitiated (if such people still exist) looks like a shiny block of glass and metal, but is really a computer more powerful than the supercomputers of yesteryear. Think of Alexa, Amazon’s voice assistant, which seems like the very definition of simplicity — “Alexa, bark like a dog” — but can do some truly amazing things (as I explain in my book Alexa For Dummies [Wiley]).

The pile of deceptively simple electronics also includes Amazon’s Fire TV devices. The most basic of these devices — the Fire TV Stick and Fire TV Stick 4K — look like nothing more than oversized thumb drives, while the Fire TV Cube looks like it could play the role of an airplane’s black box flight recorder in a TV movie. But within these nondescript exteriors lie some sophisticated hardware and software that can do some amazing — and surprising — things.

So, yep, the basics of Fire TV are readily mastered, but to get at the hidden depths and power of Fire TV, you need a guide. Amazon Fire TV For Dummies aims to be that guide.

About This Book

This book takes you on a complete tour of Fire TV’s capabilities, features, tools, and settings. In this book, you find everything you need to know to get the most out of your Fire TV investment.

Amazon Fire TV For Dummies boasts 12 chapters, but you don’t have to read them from beginning to end — you can start wherever you want. Use the table of contents or index to find the information you need, and dip into the book when you have a question about Fire TV.

If your time is very limited (or you’re just aching to start bingeing that new hot show), you can also ignore anything marked by the Technical Stuff icon or the information in sidebars (the gray-shaded boxes). Yes, these tidbits are fascinating (if I do say so myself), but they aren’t critical to the subject at hand, so you won’t miss anything critical by skipping them.

Finally, within this book, you may note that some web addresses break across two lines of text. If you’re reading this book in print and want to visit one of these web pages, key in the web address exactly as it’s written in the text, pretending as though the line break doesn’t exist. If you’re reading this as an e-book, you’ve got it easy — just click the web address to be taken directly to the web page.

Foolish Assumptions

This book is for people who are new (or relatively new) to using the Fire TV media-streaming device. Therefore, I do not assume that you’re a Fire TV expert, a Fire TV connoisseur, or a Fire TV authority. However, I do assume the following:

• You have a TV that’s compatible with Fire TV (see Chapter 2).
• You know how to connect devices to that TV.
• You have a running Wi-Fi network with an Internet connection.
• You know the password for your Wi-Fi network.
• You have either an iOS or an Android mobile device (that is, a smartphone or tablet).
• You know how to install and operate apps on your mobile device.

Icons Used in This Book

Like other books in the For Dummies series, this book uses icons, or little pictures in the margin, to draw your attention to certain kinds of material. Here are the icons that I use:

Whenever I tell you something useful or important enough that you’d do well to store the information somewhere safe in your memory for later recall, I flag it with the Remember icon.

The Technical Stuff marks text that contains some for-nerds-only technical details or explanations that you’re free to skip.

The Tip icon marks shortcuts or easier ways to do things, which I hope will make your life — or, at least, the Fire TV portion of your life — more efficient.

The Warning icon marks text that contains a friendly but unusually insistent reminder to avoid doing something. You have been warned.

Beyond the Book

In addition to what you’re reading right now, this product comes with a free access-anywhere Cheat Sheet that includes the most useful Fire TV settings, an exhaustive list of Alexa voice commands for controlling Fire TV, and a glossary of Fire TV terms to drop casually at your next cocktail party. To get this Cheat Sheet, go to www.dummies.com and type Amazon Fire TV For Dummies Cheat Sheet in the Search box.

Where to Go from Here

If you’ve had Fire TV for a while and you’re familiar with the basics, you can probably get away with skipping the first five chapters and then dive into any part of the book that tickles your curiosity bone.

However, if you and Fire TV haven’t met yet — particularly if you’re not even sure what Fire TV does — this book has got you covered. To get your relationship with Fire TV off to fine start, I highly recommend that you read the book’s first two chapters to get some of the basics down cold. Then read Chapter 3, 4, or 5, depending on which Fire TV device you’ve got. From there, you can head anywhere you like, safe in the knowledge that you’ve got some survival skills to fall back on!