AMAZON promises an immersive viewing experience with its ‘Alexa home theater’ feature – but users say it misses the mark.
The home theater feature allows users to play audio from their television and other HDMI sources like a game console through their Echo speakers.
However, those who have taken advantage of the feature are dissuading other users from trying it.
For starters, capabilities are limited. The feature is only compatible with the first and second generation Fire TV Stick 4K Max and the second generation Fire TV Stick 4K.
Even after successfully linking their devices, customers have reported lacking audio quality.
One Reddit user said the sound would change “considerably” when pairing the Echo Dot 4 with a Fire Stick – and not in a good way.
“The audio is very muffled, and the voices sound duplicated,” the user wrote.
“I’ve been the unfortunate recipient of these issues lately; mine never streams through the TV when its supposed to, it’s like it has a mind of its own, and that mind has a 10 point IQ,” another Redditor quipped in response.
Complaints have only piled up over the years.
One self-professed “tech enthusiast” shared that he had switched to Fire TV and purchased an Echo Dot pair in an attempt to “smarten up” his home.
“However, it just sucks,” the user reported.
“On YouTube TV there is a significant lip sync delay, which can’t be repaired by the lip sync adjustment feature on the Fire TV.”
The Lip Sync Tuning feature is meant to synchronize Fire TV video with the sound from Echo speakers.
After turning on a Fire TV device, a user can select Settings from the home screen and navigate to Display & Sounds.
Lip Sync Tuning can be found under Home Theater Settings. A user will be prompted to follow the on-screen instructions to pair their audio and video.
“This morning I played some music on the stereo pair and it just cut out mid song,” the Reddit user continued.
“It seems that the system just isn’t capable of streaming audio correctly from the Fire Stick. One way or the other, something goes wrong and it is a big headache.”
Some users claim the feature only works on Amazon-specific Prime Video content.
“I found that every app either didn’t work at all or the sync was so far out as to be unwatchable,” one user recalled.
“YouTube was just the worst but all apps I tried were the same.”
The Redditor claimed he’d chatted with Amazon Support and attempted to troubleshoot the issue on his own, “but all I found were others with similar problems.”
“Just a terrible experience all around,” the user declared.
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