You buy a Fire TV Stick, watch Prime Video, and that’s it. That’s like riding off gallantly on a bicycle with the training wheels still on. It’s not a bad thing. But since you’ve got your hands on a 4K Max, let’s take the training wheels off. Here, for people who “already know the basics”, I’ve gathered settings that quietly make a difference and a few little tricks. I won’t talk about flashy jailbreaks. If anything, this is about how far you can push it within official limits.

1. Assign the remote’s “power and volume” buttons to something other than the TV

The remotes of the newer Fire TV Sticks have power and volume buttons, and many people think these only work on the TV. In fact, you can assign them to an AV receiver or a soundbar. From the “Equipment Control” settings menu, choose “Audio equipment” and register the soundbar via HDMI-CEC rather than infrared, and the volume will move with just one remote. In our house, I spent three months searching for the soundbar remote before I noticed this. What a waste of life.

2. “Visualize” your storage before you delete

You can see how much space is left in Settings → My Fire TV → Storage, but advanced users want to see “what’s taking up the space”. Fire OS doesn’t show each app’s cache in detail, but you can clear caches individually from Settings → Applications → Installed applications. Browser apps in particular, and something Kodi-like (those who use it, use it), tend to have bloated caches. Do the rounds once a month and it’ll be in a good mood.

3. Rather than “locking to 5GHz”, suspect the “DFS channels”

The 4K Max supports Wi-Fi 6E and can also use the 6GHz band. However, 6GHz is weak through walls. If the router is close, use 6GHz; if it’s far, 5GHz. And within 5GHz, the DFS channels (channels shared with weather radar) have less interference, but can drop out temporarily when radar is detected. If your video occasionally stops for a moment, setting the router to avoid DFS can make it more stable. This is about the router, not the Fire TV. It’s unglamorous, but it works.

4. Quiet the home screen with an “apps only” mode

Having recommendations lined up on the home screen is convenient, but for advanced users it’s noise. In Settings → Preferences → Features → Home screen, you can get a display close to “apps only” (the names change depending on the version). This makes your decision right after startup 0.5 seconds faster. 0.5 seconds adds up to quite a lot over a year, you know. Well, maybe not that much.

5. Lower the “animation speed” in developer options

Press Settings → My Fire TV → About seven times in a row and developer options appear. In there, set “Window animation scale”, “Transition animation scale” and “Animator duration scale” to 0.5x. The UI becomes snappier. It isn’t dramatic, but the older the model, the more you feel the difference. Note that if you set this back to 1.0x, you’ll go “huh, was it always this sluggish?”. You’re happier not setting it back.

6. Don’t use the voice remote’s “Alexa” to adjust the volume

If you press the Alexa button and say “turn the volume up”, the TV’s volume moves. However, this goes via IR or CEC, so depending on your setup, the response can be slow. You’ll have less stress if you remember that volume is for the physical buttons. Limit voice control to searching and launching apps. That’s a humble truth.

7. Preventing “screen burn-in” during sleep

If you have a Fire TV Stick plugged into an OLED TV, the home screen may keep showing faintly even during sleep. Shorten the time until “screen off” in Settings → Display. Or enable the “screensaver” in the Fire TV Stick’s settings. It’s essential for OLED users. There are still people who worry about screen burn-in as a holdover from the plasma era, aren’t there? That’s me.

For a quiet night in after work, Canal IPTV brings thousands of channels to your laptop or smart TV.

8. Use external storage via a “USB hub”

The 4K Max has no USB port, but you can connect external storage or wired LAN with an OTG cable plus a USB hub. However, it tends to run short of power, so a self-powered hub is recommended. Switching to wired LAN makes 4K streaming stability a whole different thing. No matter how much Wi-Fi evolves, it can’t beat the peace of mind of a single cable. That’s simply a victory for physics.

9. Deliberately turn off “automatic app updates”

If you don’t like apps updating on their own and the UI changing, go to Settings → Applications → Amazon Appstore → Automatic updates and turn it off. However, security updates stop too, so check manually on a regular basis. The privilege of advanced users is “being able to choose for yourself”. And the same goes for the freedom not to choose.

10. Make full use of the remote’s “custom buttons”

The new remote has buttons that launch apps directly, and in some cases you can change their assignment in the settings (depending on the model). The Prime Video and Netflix buttons being fixed is just one of those things. But for little tricks like launching something with a long press of the voice button, there’s room to work something out on the Alexa skills side. This is the realm of romance.

So, the Fire TV Stick isn’t a “plug it in and you’re done” device. Just tweaking the settings a little makes it work for you in a good mood. Of course, tweaking too much and then making a fuss that “it stopped working” is my specialty, so please forgive me there. Take notes when you change settings. That’s the first step to becoming an advanced user.

You buy a Fire TV Stick, watch Prime Video, and that’s it. That’s like riding off gallantly on a bicycle with the training wheels still on. It’s not a bad thing. But since you’ve got your hands on a 4K Max, let’s take the training wheels off. Here, for people who “already know the basics”, I’ve gathered settings that quietly make a difference and a few little tricks. I won’t talk about flashy jailbreaks. If anything, this is about how far you can push it within official limits.

1. Assign the remote’s “power and volume” buttons to something other than the TV

The remotes of the newer Fire TV Sticks have power and volume buttons, and many people think these only work on the TV. In fact, you can assign them to an AV receiver or a soundbar. From the “Equipment Control” settings menu, choose “Audio equipment” and register the soundbar via HDMI-CEC rather than infrared, and the volume will move with just one remote. In our house, I spent three months searching for the soundbar remote before I noticed this. What a waste of life.

2. “Visualize” your storage before you delete

You can see how much space is left in Settings → My Fire TV → Storage, but advanced users want to see “what’s taking up the space”. Fire OS doesn’t show each app’s cache in detail, but you can clear caches individually from Settings → Applications → Installed applications. Browser apps in particular, and something Kodi-like (those who use it, use it), tend to have bloated caches. Do the rounds once a month and it’ll be in a good mood.

3. Rather than “locking to 5GHz”, suspect the “DFS channels”

The 4K Max supports Wi-Fi 6E and can also use the 6GHz band. However, 6GHz is weak through walls. If the router is close, use 6GHz; if it’s far, 5GHz. And within 5GHz, the DFS channels (channels shared with weather radar) have less interference, but can drop out temporarily when radar is detected. If your video occasionally stops for a moment, setting the router to avoid DFS can make it more stable. This is about the router, not the Fire TV. It’s unglamorous, but it works.

4. Quiet the home screen with an “apps only” mode

Having recommendations lined up on the home screen is convenient, but for advanced users it’s noise. In Settings → Preferences → Features → Home screen, you can get a display close to “apps only” (the names change depending on the version). This makes your decision right after startup 0.5 seconds faster. 0.5 seconds adds up to quite a lot over a year, you know. Well, maybe not that much.

5. Lower the “animation speed” in developer options

Press Settings → My Fire TV → About seven times in a row and developer options appear. In there, set “Window animation scale”, “Transition animation scale” and “Animator duration scale” to 0.5x. The UI becomes snappier. It isn’t dramatic, but the older the model, the more you feel the difference. Note that if you set this back to 1.0x, you’ll go “huh, was it always this sluggish?”. You’re happier not setting it back.

6. Don’t use the voice remote’s “Alexa” to adjust the volume

If you press the Alexa button and say “turn the volume up”, the TV’s volume moves. However, this goes via IR or CEC, so depending on your setup, the response can be slow. You’ll have less stress if you remember that volume is for the physical buttons. Limit voice control to searching and launching apps. That’s a humble truth.

7. Preventing “screen burn-in” during sleep

If you have a Fire TV Stick plugged into an OLED TV, the home screen may keep showing faintly even during sleep. Shorten the time until “screen off” in Settings → Display. Or enable the “screensaver” in the Fire TV Stick’s settings. It’s essential for OLED users. There are still people who worry about screen burn-in as a holdover from the plasma era, aren’t there? That’s me.

For a quiet night in after work, Canal IPTV brings thousands of channels to your laptop or smart TV.

8. Use external storage via a “USB hub”

The 4K Max has no USB port, but you can connect external storage or wired LAN with an OTG cable plus a USB hub. However, it tends to run short of power, so a self-powered hub is recommended. Switching to wired LAN makes 4K streaming stability a whole different thing. No matter how much Wi-Fi evolves, it can’t beat the peace of mind of a single cable. That’s simply a victory for physics.

9. Deliberately turn off “automatic app updates”

If you don’t like apps updating on their own and the UI changing, go to Settings → Applications → Amazon Appstore → Automatic updates and turn it off. However, security updates stop too, so check manually on a regular basis. The privilege of advanced users is “being able to choose for yourself”. And the same goes for the freedom not to choose.

10. Make full use of the remote’s “custom buttons”

The new remote has buttons that launch apps directly, and in some cases you can change their assignment in the settings (depending on the model). The Prime Video and Netflix buttons being fixed is just one of those things. But for little tricks like launching something with a long press of the voice button, there’s room to work something out on the Alexa skills side. This is the realm of romance.

So, the Fire TV Stick isn’t a “plug it in and you’re done” device. Just tweaking the settings a little makes it work for you in a good mood. Of course, tweaking too much and then making a fuss that “it stopped working” is my specialty, so please forgive me there. Take notes when you change settings. That’s the first step to becoming an advanced user.