If you have purchased and used an
Amazon Fire TV stick, then you know how handy and portable it really is. You
can get streaming content on any TV without major complications and all you
need in Internet connection and an HDMI port. You can also use it if you have a
converter kit (though the resolution will be lower), and you need a
female-to-female HDMI connector. The fact that the stick is so convenient can
get you to travel with it on the road and give you a nicer experience when you
are staying at that hotel with a nice big TV but terrible channels.
However, if
you are a forgetful human being like many of us are, then doing this would
probably mean you end up forgetting the remote. At the moment, that might feel
like the biggest disaster on earth cause you carried your stick all this way
and for nothing, now we tell you not to worry. We got you, now you can learn
how to hook up the stick without a remote cause it is very much possible. Here
are the two easiest methods to get this done.
Read Also: Amazon’s Fire Stick TV Remote Battery’s Draining Very Fast
Read Also: Amazon’s Fire Stick TV Remote Battery’s Draining Very Fast
Option 1: HDMI-CEC remotes
CEC stands for consumer electronic
control, and when it comes to consumer electronics with a high degree of
inoperability among HDMI connected devices, it is a rather new standard, but
useful. What the control basically does
is that it can automatically change the input on your TV depending on what HDMI
connected device you want to use, so you don’t have to change the input
yourself. But how does this help you set up your Fire Stick? Well,
if the TV you are trying to use is compatible with CEC, that means that you can
control the Fire Stick using the remote of the TV, as simple as that. On the
unfortunate part, although CEC was released a long time ago in 2002, not every
TV (actually almost any TVs) have it. However, high-quality TVs usually do. So,
if your does, you don’t have to worry about anything else cause CEC is already
installed by default on your Fire Stick.
However, do check if the stick is
connected. In order to do this, you first have to go to settings and the
displays and sounds. Once in there select display and settings and check if
HDMI-CEC is enabled in the TV. If it isn’t then you might need to enable it on
the television, the option to enable it on the TV is under the TV setting menu.
The issue is most TV manufacturers won’t call it CEC but another name,
depending on the brand: some of the names that are commonly given to it are
E-link, HDMI-CEC, SimpLink or SIMPLINK, NetCommand for HDMI, Easylink.
Once you have enabled the CEC you
will just need to hook up the stick as normal, this way you are supposed to be
able to set up your Fire Stick using and controlling it with your TV remote.
Though you won’t have access to the voice control features of the device,
however, every other feature is enabled and you can use your fire stick as you
normally would.
Option 2: Use your smartphone as a hotspot and another device to control the Fire TV Stick
If your TV doesn’t support CEC then
you are not out of options. The issue why you can’t just use the smartphone app
is because the app doesn’t directly connect to the firestick, but to the same
Wi-Fi network. You Fire Stick is supposed to be connected and working on your
home network, which you probably didn’t bring with you. Since you do not have
an interface with your Fire Stick, that means you cannot change its network
connection for it to fit your local Wi-Fi, and therefore you can’t use the same
Wi-Fi as your phone to keep it connected, and the smartphone control won’t
work. Anyhow, there is a way in which you
can trick this system and manage to do it.
First, you need to set up either
your smartphone or another device to work as a wireless hotspot, once you have
enabled it as such, set the SSID and network password to be the same as in your
home network (the one your Fire Stick is connected to). Then you need to
install the app to control the Amazon Fire Stick (Amazon Fire TV app) on
another device, which can be a phone, tablet, or second phone, it doesn’t
really matter since you’ll only need it for a minute. Now connect this second
device to the wireless hotspot from the other phone (the one you created at the
beginning), now both your device and your Fire Stick are connected to the same
network and can work together. Finally, you just need to connect the fire stick
to the TV and the use the second device to change the network of the stick to
one of the places you are staying in. Now just turn off the hotspot, connect
your cellphone to the Wi-Fi and enjoy your Fire Stick experience.
Now you can either use the first or
the second device to control the stick. You are much more likely to be able to
do this since a lot of TVs don’t have CEC. This option is much easier also as
long as you remember your SSID and your password of the network at home to
which you connect your fire stick, and you are done.
Option 3: Borrow or buy another one
The obvious one, if you are in a
hotel you might want to ask the lobby if they don’t happen to have any.
Sometimes the will, also you can just go to any TV store or electronics store
and purchase it in there. To connect this new remote to your stick you just
need to hold the menu, back and left arrow buttons down simultaneously on the
remote for 10 seconds or so, this will reboot your Amazon Fire Stick.
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