5 helpful Hearth TV Stick options I remorse not utilizing sooner

I’ve had a Fire TV Stick 4K Max for a very long time, but I nonetheless uncover options I wasn’t conscious of very often. It is easy to attach it to your TV, begin streaming, after which overlook about all the things else. For a streaming device that typically prices as little as $20 on sale (relying on the mannequin you select), it is spectacular how a lot it may well really do.

In case you personal an Amazon Hearth TV Stick and wish to elevate your streaming experience, it is fairly straightforward. Most of those settings/options solely take a couple of seconds to take a look at, so there is not any motive to not give them a shot. In case you’re an skilled Hearth TV Stick person, you would possibly already know a few of these, however in case you’ve not too long ago purchased one for the primary time, these options may very well be useful. From one Hearth TV Stick person to a different, listed here are 5 helpful options I want I had found sooner.

1

Shortly repair stuttering or freezing

You should utilize a shortcut in your Alexa distant to repair this

One of the crucial irritating points of utilizing any streaming stick is when it begins to lag or freeze. More often than not, my Hearth TV Stick 4K Max runs simply wonderful, however each as soon as in and whereas, it does begin to stutter and never load issues. Usually, to repair this, I’d use the tried-and-tested technique of merely unplugging and plugging it again in. Nevertheless, I then found a a lot simpler approach to restart it with out having to achieve for the again of my TV or navigate to restart within the settings menu.

To restart your Hearth TV Stick tremendous shortly, all you must do is maintain down the Choose button and the Play/Pause button on the distant on the similar time for 5 seconds (as highlighted in inexperienced within the picture above). As soon as you’ve got finished that, your Hearth TV Stick ought to immediately restart. As soon as it is booted up once more, any freezing or stuttering points you’ll have skilled must be gone, and your gadget will really feel a lot smoother. I like to recommend doing this as soon as per week to forestall any points from arising within the first place.

2

Join Bluetooth audio units

Hearken to your Hearth TV Stick to AirPods or different Bluetooth headphones

Throughout the summer time, I made a decision to attempt a brand new approach to make use of my Hearth TV Stick. As a substitute of hooking it as much as my TV, I plugged it into my monitor at my desk so I might stream in 4K there every time I needed. Throughout this course of, I found a function I did not even know the Hearth TV Stick had, however which made excellent sense for it to have: the power to attach Bluetooth audio units. In spite of everything, you may join a controller to your Hearth TV Stick, so why not Bluetooth audio units?

You probably have a pair of Bluetooth earbuds or headphones, like Apple’s AirPods, you may join them to your Hearth TV Stick by navigating to Settings > Remotes & Bluetooth Gadgets > Different Bluetooth Gadgets. From there, allow pairing in your Bluetooth headphones or earbuds, and you may join them proper to your Hearth TV Stick. Since I’ve began utilizing my Hearth TV Stick at my desk close to my PC, I’ve discovered this extremely helpful for listening to my PC’s audio (linked through USB-C) and my Hearth TV Stick (through Bluetooth) concurrently with my SteelSeries Arctis 7 Nova headset. It is an effective way to observe TV late at night time with out disturbing anybody else in your family with loud noises.

3

Use your cellphone as a distant

Cannot discover the distant? Your cellphone can resolve that downside

I just like the Alexa Voice Distant that Amazon contains with its Hearth TV Sticks, however typically it isn’t probably the most handy to search out or choose up. I’ve a foul behavior of leaving my distant midway throughout the room or within the kitchen, which is problematic after I sit down to observe one thing, and my cat instantly jumps on my lap, and it does not want to be moved. Fortunately, I at all times have my cellphone in my pocket, and you probably have the Hearth TV app, you need to use it as a distant on your Hearth TV Stick.

The Hearth TV app is out there on each iOS and Android. When you obtain it, you may be given the choice to attach it to your close by Hearth TV Stick. As soon as linked, your cellphone’s display turns right into a distant, displaying a person interface similar to your bodily distant — full with the navigation dial and all of the button instructions you want, reminiscent of dwelling, pause/play, rewind, and ahead. You possibly can even quick-launch apps in your Hearth TV Stick immediately from the Hearth TV app, like Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney+, or another app you select to pin. The Hearth TV app is completely free to obtain, so it is value testing in case you like the concept and the added comfort of utilizing your cellphone as a distant management.

4

Mute featured content material

No extra audio leap scares

Each infrequently, I used to get leap scared by my Hearth TV’s dwelling display after I by accident hovered over one of many sponsored reveals or advertisements Amazon has on its homepage within the featured content material tab, as these are set to play with audio by default. In case you’re like me and would fairly not have your Hearth TV Stick immediately play audio with out you clicking on a present or film to observe, it is fairly easy to repair.

To cease computerized audio playback in your Hearth TV Stick, head to Settings > Preferences > Featured Content material. From there, you may see two choices: Permit Video AutoPlay and Permit Audio Autoplay. By default, each of those are set to on, however in case you’d choose to not hear it or have it play any video in any respect for featured content material on the homepage, you may set each to off.

5

Play video games from the cloud

Xbox Cloud Gaming is not unhealthy for single-player titles on the Hearth TV Stick

Bethesda

Once I purchased my Amazon Hearth TV Stick 4K Max, I knew it might assist cloud gaming by the Xbox app, however I by no means tried it, fearing it will be too laggy. Not too long ago, I scored a deal on an Xbox Recreation Cross Final subscription for a month, so I made a decision to attempt Xbox Cloud Gaming and see the way it performs. To my shock, enjoying Xbox video games on the Hearth TV Stick is not that unhealthy.

To be clear, would I play aggressive multiplayer video games on it? Completely not. However for chill single-player titles like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, the expertise wasn’t too unhealthy. Sure, there’s a tiny little bit of latency, and your expertise might fluctuate relying in your web velocity (Xbox recommends utilizing 5GHz Wi-Fi with not less than 20 Mbps velocity for optimum efficiency), however it was playable. My greatest gripe is that the Xbox app itself could be considerably laggy when looking for video games to play, however I imagine that is because of the limitations of the Hearth TV Stick’s {hardware}.

In case you personal a Hearth TV Stick and haven’t got a gaming console, however wish to play new video games, Xbox Cloud Gaming is value attempting, and I imagine the expertise will solely enhance as Microsoft continues to refine it. Simply understand that you may want a wi-fi Bluetooth controller to play, reminiscent of an Xbox controller, Sony DualShock 4, or Nintendo Change Professional Controller, and an Xbox Recreation Cross Final subscription (which prices $20/month). You possibly can play it with cheaper Recreation Cross subscription tiers, however you might have to enroll in the Xbox Insiders program. You possibly can play video games by the cloud through Amazon Luna in your Hearth TV Stick, however I believe the Xbox app is the higher selection attributable to its bigger catalog of video games.