Owners of older Fire TV Stick models are advised to upgrade their devices as Netflix will no longer be supported on these aging Amazon products, leading to the inability to access a variety of popular shows, movies, and series, as reported by PC Welt.
The upcoming change specifically impacts Netflix, a widely used online streaming service, rather than an obscure application.
Starting in June, three Amazon devices, namely the Amazon Fire TV Stick (2014), Amazon Fire TV Stick with Alexa voice remote (2014), and Amazon Fire TV (2014), will no longer be compatible with Netflix.
Fortunately, households with relatively modern Fire TV devices are not affected, except for those owning the mentioned 2014 models who enjoy watching Netflix shows like Drive to Survive, Love, Death & Robots, or Bad Thoughts. In such cases, users are urged to upgrade to newer models such as the Fire TV Stick 4K Max or Fire TV Stick 4K available on Amazon’s website.
The reason behind Amazon’s decision to discontinue support for these older devices remains undisclosed. However, PC Welt suggests it may be related to the devices’ lack of support for the AV1 codec used by Netflix for high-quality streaming on certain subscription plans.
For customers on premium Netflix plans, this change could mean the loss of features like 4K resolution that they are paying for. Netflix appears to have opted to cut off support for these devices rather than providing a subpar experience to its users.
To identify your Fire TV device model, navigate to Settings > My Fire TV > About on the device. If your device matches the affected models and you are a Netflix enthusiast, it’s time to consider upgrading to a newer Fire TV device.
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