13 expert tips and tricks to get the most out of your Amazon Fire TV

13 expert tips and tricks to get the most out of your Amazon Fire TV

An Amazon Fire TV is one of the best ways to make your TV that little bit cleverer.

The cheaper Fire TV Stick will do the trick if your TV is of the Full HD variety, while the Fire TV 4K is at hand if you’ve splashed out on the extra pixels for UHD. Both offer very similar functionality otherwise, though, so these tips and tricks should help you get the most out either one.

1. Make good use of Alexa

Both Fire TVs have Amazon’s voice assistant onboard and you can ask her to do a whole host of things, such as control playback, play music or find content based on name, genre or actor. She’ll even dig up Netflix shows as long as you’ve got a subscription.

If you’re unsure of what else to ask the Fire TV has a handy guide built in. Navigate to Settings > Alexa > Things to Try for inspiration.

2. Ditch the remote

Like all things vaguely important, the remote that comes with Fire TV is just the right size to fall down the back of the sofa and never be seen again. Fortunately, the Fire TV app (iOS/Android) does everything the actual remote will, some of it even better, such as inputting text and passwords using the touchscreen rather than that fiddly grid.

3. Get serious about gaming

Amazon has a decent selection of games but you can’t play all of them with that fiddly little remote. Upgrade to the Fire TV Game Controller, which comes with a D-pad, dual joysticks and shoulder buttons, plus all the functionality of your regular Alexa remote, so you don’t even have to chop and change between gaming and boxsets.

4. Have a private movie night

Ever wanted to get stuck into a film when the rest of the house is asleep? With the Fire TV, you can chuck the sound of even the loudest TV show to a pair of Bluetooth headphones, and the rest of the house need not be any the wiser. Particularly handy if your preferred genre is “Steven Seagal.”

Head to Settings > Controllers and Bluetooth Devices > Other Bluetooth Devices to get your headphones paired.

5. Change your location

Alexa is clever, but only when you give her the right stuff to work with. If you move from where you first set up your Fire TV (or if you take it abroad), you’re going to want to re-enter your postcode so you can get personalised updates on things like weather in your location.

To do that, head to Settings > Preferences > Location and enter your current postcode there.

6. Turn off targeted advertising

Call us brainwashed, but if we have to have advertising thrown in our faces, we’d rather it was personalised to our interests. If you’re someone who prefers to keep their love of Friends repeats a secret (or you’re just not down with Amazon profiling you from your likes and dislikes), you can turn off targeted advertising.

You’ll still get ads, but they’ll be the bog-standard stuff rather than based on anything you’ve clicked on. You can do this in Settings > Preferences > Advertising ID.

7. Turn off auto-play on featured content

The Fire TV’s interface usually includes a trailer at the top, which will autoplay if you so much as hesitate over it. The worst thing is it’s often for The Grand Tour. If the idea of Clarkson honking into your room uninvited makes you feel uneasy, you can turn it off with a quick dive into the settings menu.

Go to Settings > Preferences > Featured Content, where you can choose to turn off video and audio autoplay independently.

8. Set a personalised screensaver with Prime Photos

If you leave your Fire TV twiddling its thumbs for too long it’ll kick off a slideshow of some brilliantly shot scenery from around the world. If you’d rather it showed your selfies, set it to choose from what you’ve uploaded to Prime Photos, which will happen automatically with anything you take on a Fire tablet.

Go to Settings > Display & Sounds > Screensaver and pick the collection of photos you want to appear.

9. Turn on parental controls

A 4-digit PIN separates your sprogs from the stuff they shouldn’t see (or buy), but you can also set restriction levels. It’s on “Family” by default, which sees video content rated PG and below as fair game and PIN-free.

You can personalise this in Settings > Preferences > Parental Controls, with the option to put a PIN lock on purchases, any app launches and Prime Photos. Don’t forget third party apps might need their own settings.

10. Turn off navigation sounds

It’s pretty much universally accepted that having your mobile phone keytones turned on is socially unacceptable, so why deal with it on your TV?

Fire TV comes with a fairly understated click sound as you navigate the menus, but to turn it off entirely, head to Settings > Display & Sounds > Audio and turn navigation sounds to off.

11. Find out more about your film

You recognise that actor but you can’t quite put your finger on what you saw him in and it’s driving you mad. Fortunately, Amazon’s X-Ray feature is a know-it-all film buff at your fingertips. Simply press the up button on the remote at any point in the film, to bring up IMDB’s profile on the movie, including actors in that scene, the full cast, featured music and some trivia.

Ah, that’s it. He was Unnamed Terrorist #14 in True Lies.

12. Use an Amazon tablet as a second screen

If you’re watching a movie on your Fire Tablet and want to upgrade it to the big screen, you can send it to your TV in a similar way to using Google’s Cast function.

Press the Second Screen icon (a screen with an arrow in it) on the Watch button on your tablet, select your Fire TV and you’re away. Just be sure both devices are on the same Wi-Fi network, and both are signed in to the same Amazon account.

13. Control the TV from your tablet

Before you start dual-screening you’ll want to ensure Second Screen Notifications are turned on on your Fire TV (Settings > Displays & Sounds > Second Screen Notifications). This enables second screen controls on your tablet so you can control playback, as well as letting you access X-Ray functionality for whatever you’re watching. Nifty.