[SOLVED] How to connect my Amazon Fire Stick to PC

[xandor123]

Not sure if this is the correct forum, please let me know if not.

Just purchased a Fire Stick. Basically, what I want to do is plug this thing into the back of my PC and let it run from there. I understand that there's no direct way of doing this, but I'd like to know if there's a solid way of doing this, either via software or hardware.

Thanks in advance!

 

[helpstar]

only hardware; you will need a HDMI in port. Usually graphics cards only have output ports.

Check if your monitor has a free HDMI port and plug it in there.

TV cards or game capture cards can have HDMI in ports as well, like:
https://www.amazon.com/hdmi-capture-card/s?k=hdmi+capture+card&tag=comput0d-21

 

[xandor123]

Well crap. I was really hoping that there'd be some kind of software solution or emulation I could use.

Thanks for the answer and the recommendation!

Edit: Just to make sure, if I get a capture card, I plug the Fire Stick into the card, the card into my PC, and then run the whole thing through VLC or something, correct?

 

[helpstar]

the capture card/box will provide you a software

next problem will be HDCP, but anything further described is against toms forum rules. Like bypassing or similar.

 

[jsmithepa]

My first puzzlement is, WHY?

Normal people plug their firestick either on the back of the TV or the AVR receiver.

Are you planning to do capturing or manipulating of the Stick's signal by PC, if so, like said ^above you will run into rights management issue.

 

[hang-the-9]

Well crap. I was really hoping that there'd be some kind of software solution or emulation I could use.

Thanks for the answer and the recommendation!

Edit: Just to make sure, if I get a capture card, I plug the Fire Stick into the card, the card into my PC, and then run the whole thing through VLC or something, correct?

Why not just connect it to the monitor or TV? Seems silly to spend money on a capture card to get a hacked together solution.

Even then, if you are running the FireStick on a computer, why not just use the programs on the computer? Amazon video, Netflix, Hulu, etc... are all available to run on a computer. So you have a FireStick with all the same programs, going through a capture card to grab the video to show on the computer screen, only to get the same exact thing as you would have if you just use the computer on it's own. There is a flaw in this plan hehe.

 

[xandor123]

This firestick is being used in my home office, which doesn't have a TV in it. Just my computer and two monitors. I also don't have any standalone monitors with speakers built in, so I wouldn't be able to get any audio which defeats the whole purpose. I'm also using a subscription service to access a whole bunch of crap, including live TV, so using individual programs isn't going to work.

So unless there's a way to plug this into a monitor and then route that into my computer so I can have my speakers play the audio, I'm guessing that the capture card is my best option.