Other ways to control your FireTV

The FireTV stick is Amazon’s answer to making non smart tv’s smart. The remote control that you get with the Fire TV stick is very intuitive and you can get most things done using it. The one place where the Fire TV remote falters is when you need to type in something.

This could be for searching, login credentials, browser URL.

The voice search is great to use, but it cant be used everywhere, so how do we make things easier for us.

So the Firetv has taken over the HDMI port my Chromecast was connected to, as i had explained why in our last video. It is my current one stop access to most apps on the internet, like amazon prime, Netflix and YouTube.

But what if you needed more control, or when you misplace your remote.

Rii i8+ BT Mini Wireless Bluetooth Backlight Touchpad Keyboard with Mouse:

For more control we have the Rii i8+ BT Mini Wireless Bluetooth Backlight Touchpad Keyboard with Mouse, thats a mouthful. We will have the link to the product in the description, if you plan on getting one.

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This device is a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse combo, and as the Fire TV supports Bluetooth devices, this one can be paired easily.

FireTV also supports other Bluetooth Keyboards, this is only one of the options available.

The keyboard with a set of navigation keys allows to uh— navigate the FireTV user interface with ease.

There are play/pause and seek controls on the left. The volume controls sadly don’t work as the FireTV cannot control the volume of the TV set.

It pairs via Bluetooth and connects instantly when switched on. The keyboard is a god send and it allows to enter search terms and credentials. To access the context menu (extra options) it took me some time but i found the shortcut to be ctrl+ escape.

To access the Context Menu via the keyboard use the Ctrl + Esc shortcut.

This is a great keyboard and the mouse input works with apps that support it, note that not all apps support the mouse input.

Note: Not all apps support the mouse input.

Phone remote:

The phone can also be linked to the device to use as a remote control.

On opening the app, it would display the FireTV’s available on the same WiFi network. Select yours and the controller connects and provides the control interface.

You can have more than one FireTV on the same network.

Swiping allows us to navigate up down left right, you can pull down the mic symbol to voice search.

At the top right you an option to type in text, if you need more control for text input.

The mobile remote is a great alternative to the FireTV remote , makes it easy to type in.

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So these are a few other option to control the FireTV and makes it easier to control.

Post Author: Vinayak

Self-confessed geek from the days when computer memory was measured in Kilobytes

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