What you need
- A TV or display with an HDMI input. It does not have to be a smart TV.
- The Fire TV Stick and the power adapter that came with it, plugged into a wall outlet.
- A Wi-Fi network the stick can join.
- An AI agent with the screenRIG plugin. Start installs it with one paste.
Not sure your stick is recent enough? The Player runs on Fire OS 5 and later, and the Fire TV Stick page lists every model.
1. Plug in the stick and finish its setup
Plug the stick into the HDMI port and into power, and switch the TV to that HDMI input. The setup screens pair the remote, join your Wi-Fi and register the stick with an Amazon account. Let the stick finish; Amazon says Fire TV devices download software updates by themselves while they are online.
2. Install the Player
On the stick, open the Amazon Appstore listing, or search the Amazon Appstore for screenRIG Player, and install it. It is the same Player that runs on the Amazon Signage Stick and, as an Android app, on Android TV.
3. Pair it with your agent
Open the Player. It fills the screen with a pairing code. Give the code to your agent.
- You
The Fire TV in the break room shows a code, ABC 234. Pair it, call it Break Room Fire TV, and put today's lunch menu on it.
- Agent
Paired. Break Room Fire TV is showing today's lunch menu now, and I checked a screenshot to be sure.
4. Check what the screen shows
Your agent checks a screenshot of the screen after it publishes. You can also look from the stick: press OK, the remote's center button, and a small menu opens over what is playing. You can rename the screen, switch playlist, step through pages and set brightness and volume. It closes by itself after a minute.
5. Make it start again after a power cut
Start on boot is on by default: once the stick is on, the Player opens by itself. On Fire OS 8, the settings screen where Android 10 and later grant Display over other apps does not exist, so the permission is granted once from a computer over ADB:
- On the stick, open Settings, then My Fire TV, then Developer Options, and switch on ADB debugging. If Developer Options is missing, Amazon's ADB guide shows how to reveal it.
- Find the stick's IP address under Settings, My Fire TV, About, then Network. Use that screen: the main Network screen does not show it.
On a computer on the same network, connect and grant the permission:
Terminal adb connect STICK_IP:5555 adb shell cmd appops set ai.screenrig.player SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW allow- Accept the prompt on the TV the first time you connect.
The Player guide has the same steps. After a restart, a stick with no network still plays its saved content at start, and the Player picks up new changes when the network returns.
6. Stop the stick falling asleep
A stick left idle can go to sleep. Over the same ADB connection, two commands keep a Fire TV awake:
adb shell svc power stayon true
adb shell settings put secure sleep_timeout -1On Fire OS 8 the Player cannot run as the stick's screen saver, so these commands are how you keep the stick awake there.
7. Publish, change and tag
Everything else is a conversation. Ask your agent to change the content, schedule it, or reach several screens at once with a tag.
- You
Tag the three Fire TVs in the cafe "cafe" and put the weekend specials on all of them.
- Agent
Done. All three Fire TVs carry the tag cafe and are showing the weekend specials. I checked a screenshot of two of them.
When something is off
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| The Player does not open after a power cut | Check that Start on boot is on in the Player's Settings. On Fire OS 8, grant Display over other apps over ADB, as in step 5. |
| The stick shows its own home screen | The Player is not in front. Open it from the stick's Apps menu, and check Start on boot. |
| Nothing new appears | Check the stick's Wi-Fi. A screen that loses its network keeps playing its saved content and shows a note that it is offline. |
| A Storage low message appears | Clear the Player's cache. The update and cache guide shows both ways. |
| You see a pairing code again | The Player was reset or reinstalled. Read the new code to your agent. |
Frequently asked questions
Do you need a smart TV to use a Fire TV Stick?
No. Any TV or display with an HDMI input takes the stick. A smart TV that runs Android TV or Google TV can install the Player itself; the smart TV guide compares the routes.
Do you need internet to use a Fire TV Stick for signage?
For setup, pairing and the first download. After that the Player plays from the stick's own storage, so a dropped network does not stop a playlist that has already downloaded. Web pages and live streams still need the network.
How do I use a Fire TV Stick with a business screen?
The steps are the same. For screens in a business, the Amazon Signage Stick runs the same Player and keeps the signage app in the foreground all day.
Next: keep the stick reliable with Keep a Fire TV Stick signage player reliable.
Related
More guides
screenRIG is free.
Install the official plugin, pair a screen and your agent publishes to it.