Amazon Fire TV Cube (3rd Gen - 2022)

After several months of use, I thought this review needed an update. If it was possible to change my 1 star rating to zero stars, I would definitely do it. I keep hoping for software upgrades that would address some of the issues, but none have been forthcoming. I can't even get the upgrade that I know is currently out as the Cube says it is up to date. It isn't. Audio issues have gotten worse over time. When Surround is set to "Best Available", it is always Dolby MAT and only recognizes Atmos for Amazon content. Sound output on Dolby MAT is so low it is essentially unusable. The hype on the screen says it will provide the best format up to Dolby Mat, but that is just a lie. It provides Dolby MAT period. Similarly when set to Dolby Digital Plus it is always Dolby Digital Plus, and there is considerable delay before it recognizes Atmos, and often it doesn't recognize it at all unless I reboot the Cube. The issue with the HBO MAX app appears to have been resolved as I no longer have to restart the Cube every time I want sound on that app from the Cube. This really is a terrible product if audio matters to you at all. And audio does matter to me. And I still don't understand why Amazon won't at least give me the latest system software for the Cube. I know there are serious security issues with the version I am running (7.6.1.3) and I know 7.6.2.5 is out, but the Cube says it is up to date. Totally unacceptable service from Amazon. On top of that, the Alexa volume from the Cube's internal speaker is so low now that it is undetectable if my ear is more than a foot away from the device, though it's medium OK through the TV. Volume on the Cube is set to maximum. The microphone isn't sensitive enough to pick up a shout from more than 6 feet away, and a shout is required at any distance from the unit. External USB storage devices are pretty much limited to thumb drives. Have tried several hard drives (formatted correctly) and none are recognized by the Cube, and it takes a significant amount of time for it to recognize a thumb drive, but it eventually does. Though it would be a huge hassle to untangle all of my Amazon stuff, I'm seriously considering switching to Apple, because this product is just terrible and Amazon doesn't seem interested in fixing it. Pretty much all of the issues are audio related. Video is pretty much OK. Previous revue: Well, I've only had it two days and lots of issues. Not ready for prime time, but when it works, it's excellent. First, it was supposed to come linked to my Amazon account. Nope that didn't happen. Shuts down at random for no reason. Takes it quite a while to recognize a change in audio format leaving me with several seconds of moving lips with no sound at all. Alexa's volume is too low even at max when running through the built in speaker. Fine running through the TV. Audio outputs are also way low. Soundbar goes up to 100, but the cube needs 20 points more than the Firestick 4K it replaces. Still usable, but strange. Hard to say at this point if it's a hardware or software issue. HBO Max app is especially problematic as far as audio is concerned. Many settings are inadequately explained. Setup asked if I wanted to import from a previous version. I've had 4 Firestick Versions before this, but my only option was to import from my very first Firestick rather than my 4K. Only had it 2 days, and maybe software updates will fix it. I'll give it a couple more days to see if it settles down, but right now it's pretty wonky. This stuff should have been worked out before they shipped. Revised Reduced the star rating to 1 because the problems are inexcusable. After 3 days of troubleshooting, I think I may have resolved the issues. The issue of the cube randomly shutting down seems to have been resolved by unplugging the cube and plugging it back in. Other issues all involved my setting the audio to "Best Available". Changing to Dolby Digital Plus appears to have resolved the issues. In my case, the "Best Available" was Dolby MAT/Dolby Atmos Mat. The problems were several and intermittent. 1) Sometimes when adjusting the volume using the cube's remote cause the audio to go away altogether. Made no sense and was very difficult to receiver as it wasn't simply a matter of it muting the sound system, the cube wasn't actually putting out sound to the system at all. Randoom buttoon pushing was the only resolution. 2) With the audio set t "Best Available" the cube frequently did not recoognize when a Dolby Atmos prgram had started. This was intermittent. Sometimes it switched from Dolby MAT, to Dolby Atmos MAT and sometimes it didn't. A woork around was to start the program go to Settings, chose Display & Sounds Settings, Go down to the Audio & Video Diagnostics and click "Play Dolby Atmos and HDR Content." Then hit the back button repeatedly until you get back to the program and hit play. I am not making this up. 3) Once I got Dolby Atmos MAT enabled, it didn't go away when playing non-Atmos content. It did seem to play 5.1 OK while Atmos was enabled, but eventually it would bounce back to Dolby MAT, but this was also often problematic. When switching back, it went smooothly some of the time. Other times, it killed the audio altogether leaving me with the same issues as above. The other transition was even worse. The picture began flashing with the audio going on and off. The oonly work around I could find was really weird. I opened HULU and played any episode of Letterkenny. No other program oon any service including HULU worked reliably. I cannot explain this, but it is what happened. 3) the low volume issue was completely resolved with the switch to Dolby Digital+ as opposed to Best Available. Solution was indeed the change in Audio Settings from "Best Available" to "Dolby Digital+". With this setting so far, Dolby Atmos was recognized on all three of the services to which I subscribe that support it, and it dropped back to 5.1 or whatever other format was appropriate to the content. As I just foound this solution this morning I can't claim that all issues are permanently resolved, but at least the seem to be for the time being. The Alexa thing is still useless when it uses it's own speaker, but fine when it uses the sound system. But it appears I wasted 3 days of challenging troubleshoooting t fid a solution and I ain't happy. Amazon doesn't document much of anything, and the on screen info is limited and often confusing. It's inexcusable that Amazon would release a product that requires that much time and effort on the part of a user to unravel. Should have been caught and fixed in testing before it was released on unsuspecting consumers. I am seriously angry at having to do their job for them without the nice compensation they pay their engineers for.