That Cenmate box is awesome, I have seen basically no PQ difference between it and my hardware encoders. No A/V sync issues either.
For $12 it was a steal.
I chose this one because of your and @Bobby_Vaughn's recommendation. But, dang it, I paid $18 for it 
I must have something wrong with my fire stick code. DirecTV worked great on my CCwGTV and my Onn stick. The package and activity are the same for Android/Google TV and Fire OS TV. It should work. Let me borrow a Fire Stick from someone and test it out. That's the only other thing I can think of. Sorry it's not working for you. I know it's aggravating for you and I hoped it would have been a simple process. I have not had any issues with it on the Google TV Streamers or Onn devices.
Edit: My daughter has an extra one. I'll get it from her after work and run the tests with it.
One more thing to try. On Windows, open Settings/Bluetooth & devices/Cameras. Click on the USB 3.0 Video device and make sure you actually see the Fire Stick homepage on it. If you do, scroll down to Advanced Camera Options and click Edit button and turn on the Allow multiple apps to use the camera at the same time and click Apply. If you do not see the Fire Stick screen, restart the Fire Stick and see if it is picked up.
Well, that's interesting. I don't see anything even after changing that setting and restarting the Fire Stick.
There's our problem. The capture card isn't connected to the PC. Check the USB cable and try changing USB ports to see if it will start to work.
Do you see any other Camera inputs other than the USB 3.0 Video one?
No other camera inputs. When viewing the Cenmate in Windows settings, I unplug power to the Fire Stick, wait, then plug power back in, I can see the starting animation, but then the screen goes black. It never shows the homescreen.
That is odd. I have not seen that behavior from any USB capture card I have tested. I am pretty sure that is the issue though. It is not staying connected. Edit, nevermind. What you described also sounds like the Fire stick may be going to sleep.. I have no idea why it is giving you so much trouble. Everything I tested went smoothly.
Is there still something in the operating system settings for putting the USB controller into a power saving mode?
I guess I'm just lucky 
!
I just tried another Fire Stick and it's doing the same thing. I can't see how it's going to sleep in the middle of restarting, though. Maybe I just got a flaky Cenmate...
That might be it.
Windows 11, the only thing I see is a setting to allow the computer to turn off the device. I've unchecked that on all of the controllers, restarted the PC, but no change.
I've now tried it on a different PC with two Fire Sticks and the same thing happens. I'm going to try and get a replacement capture device.
I definitely didn't have that problem with mine, it worked right away. If you can see the fire stick starting up and then it just goes away I would also suspect that the device you got is bad.
The nice thing about the Cenmate is that it doesn't get hot at all and uses very little power. Having HDMI passthrough is just a bonus.
I'm hoping the new unit gets delivered soon. Thanks for all your help everyone.
Hi @Bobby_Vaughn,
I received the replacement Cenmate and now I can see the Fire Stick's homepage in Windows settings, so that seems good. Unfortunately, I still get nothing when trying to preview a channel.
I'm still waiting on the fire stick to test it with. They worked on the CCwGTV device fine, I would assume the Fire sticks are the same. Does it even try to open the DirecTV app on the stick?
No, it just stays on homepage. Oh, and yes it's the same Fire stick.
ok, I will get the fire stick and test it as soon as I can.