Alexa Voice Remote (2nd Gen) with power and volume controls – requires compatible Fire TV device

great product

Perfect replacement controller.

What a disappointment. The new remote paired seamlessly with my second generation Fire TV stick. It controlled power and volume on my Panasonic plasma set on the first try, and added switching control on a later try. It also recognized my Comcast X-1 cable box immediately, and I am fairly confident I will be able to use the voice command to change channels if I can ever solve the problem that inspires this review.I spell out all the things that work because they lead me to conclude that I do NOT have a defective device.So much for the good news. The bad news is that the remote simply refuses to recognize my Emotiva UMC-200 device that I use to control switching between devices and to control volume to my 7.1 speaker setup. Amazon includes Emotiva on its long list of products that will work with their remote and Amazon does not list any limits on how it works. Amazon troubleshooting pages appear to be limited to making sure that CEC is activated.I hope to update this review someday to a higher score. For now, this remote does no more than the first generation Alexa voice remote that came with the Fire stick.UPDATE - Rating increased from two to five stars. Within a few hours of posting my initial review I received an email from Amazon asking me to schedule a time for them to call and help with my problems. They asked for 48 hours and called about 50 hours from the time I wrote back.Paula said she had no experience with my equipment, but she did have detailed notes from her tech department. We followed through the steps suggested. There were a few hiccups, but we got the remote synced with the Emotiva, and later with my Comcast X-1 and Roku box in fairly short order. When we hit snags, she was able to message her tech guru and get back on path fairly quickly.I am very impressed that Amazon provided this level of customer service this quickly on a product at this price level. While I am not completely sure of this, I think they actually did an update of their programming for my particular Emotiva device.The best trick I can pass on from this experience is to keep clicking YES, even when the answer is no. It asked me to power down my processor, then asked if it worked. I said yes when the answer was no. Then it asked me to try using the volume control, and asked if that worked. It didn't but I said it did. I then made a mistake which returned me to the home page. Power did not work, said yes, then tried volume. This time it worked! It then asked for some HDMI info and then to use my original remote to change to any other input. Pushing the fast forward button then returned me to the Fire home screen. And pushing the Power button then turned the whole system off.The remote seems to learn more and to offer more setting options the further you get into the setup process. Go through it again and if things are working, you get still more changeable options.The remote is not perfect. It does not have enough buttons to do everything you might want done, and an awful lot of switching gets done by voice instead. You need to be very patient waiting for some of the voice commands to take. Still, I think it is very good value for the price. Paula and her customer service team did a great job for me on this one.

Most of my Fire TVs are the Amazon Fire TV (3rd Gen, Pendant Design) and came with the older style remote that can't power on your TV or adjust the volume. For Christmas I got one of the new Fire TV Stick 4Ks and loved the new remote, which almost made me want to upgrade my older Fire TVs for the new remote, until I found that you can just buy this and pair it to your older Fire TVs (compatible models).The remote itself is the same size and color as the older Fire TV remotes, but had 3 additional buttons: power, volume, and mute). It runs on two AAA batteries that are included in the box.Setting this up could not have been easier. Simply go to the Fire TV's settings and go to remotes. You will then have an option to pair a new remote, click this. Then it should detect your new remote and you simply press the select button (big round button) to pair it. It should then perform a quick software update on the remote that takes a couple of minutes.Next it will detect the model of your TV and prompt you to power it on and off with the new remote. Then check to ensure you can adjust the volume. I did this for 2 Samsung TVs and a Toshiba and it worked perfect for all of them.Lastly, it will ask if you want to control and other inputs, like a Roku or cable box. If you say yes, it will give you instructions based on your TV model to select the HDMI port it is connected to and name it. After setting this up you can simply tell the controller to switch to your cable box and it will change the input. However, that's where using this remote stops, as you won't be able to control these inputs, just change to them.I would recommend after setting up your new remote, un-pairing the old remote from your Fire TV and just keeping it as a spare if needed.PROS- Affordable replacement remote- Give you more functionality- Easy to setupCONS- Does not work with all models of the Fire TV, so check your model and make sure it is compatible- Does not control other inputs, just changes to themOverall this is a great remote that I wish Amazon would have had all along and a great addition to the Fire TV family.