We have lot of similar low cost Android tablets in which the manufacturers do not give access to Google Play. My friend brought one such tablet from HCL (a Indian brand) known as the HCL ME U1 tablet. We successfully installed and accessed the android marketplace on it without doing any rooting or custom ROM stuff or anything so the warranty on the device is intact. You can give it a shot. First search Google and download these APK files: 1. GoogleServicesFramework-signed 2.

Buy Used and Save: Buy a Used 'Zeki 7' TB782B Capacitive Multi-touch Tablet' and save 57% off the $129.95 list price. Buy with confidence as the condition of this item and its timely delivery are guaranteed under the 'Amazon A-to-z Guarantee'. See all Used offers. The Zeki tablet uses the latest Android TM OS, Jelly bean, giving you access to the fastest and most feature rich OS yet. It also comes with multiple app stores pre-installed, allowing you to customize your tablet with apps. In addition, the built-in Wi-Fi, high-capacity battery, and high-resolution screen make this tablet a truly.

OneTimeInitializer-signed 3. SetupWizard-signed 4. Com.android.vending-3.1.3-signed (For this last one you can try the latest Google Play Store APK file, though I haven’t tried it myself, so not sure if it will work or not, the one suggested here is a old version, which has been tested and tried and works) Once you have done that, go to your tablet setting and enable Unknown sources under security. Now tap and install the four APKs mentioned above in the exact sequence mentioned (this is very important and need to be followed). Once you have installed the four APKs, un-tick the Unknown Sources option under security in Settings and then reboot your tablet. The start-up process will take much more time now (in some cases upto 45 minutes) and once it is completed, a small window will come-up with the option of a launcher and setup wizard. First tick the below dialogue which says always use this as default and then select the launcher.

Now you should find the android market icon in the app drawer or work-space. Enable your internet connection and tap it. First I will ask you for a Google Account. If you already have a GMail account, select existing or otherwise select new to create one. Once you have finished this step, you should logically have an access to the Google Play Store. Kindly give a feedback of how did it go.

This at-least worked for my friend’s tablet and he is a very happy man now. The link I referenced alongwith the download link of the APK files will be found here:. If it does not work for you, kindly refer to the link for further advice that is given in the forum below the article.

Costs more than the similar, but it’s worth the slight premium because it’s more future-proof. It supports the latest video formats and Dolby Atmos for audio. Its redesigned antenna also improves its Wi-Fi reception. Otherwise, it’s pretty much the same as the cheaper model, which is a good thing. You get the user-friendly Roku OS; an RF remote works through walls and lets you search with voice and control your TV’s volume and turn the TV on and off; and the iOS or Android app lets you watch shows and movies with headphones to avoid disturbing others. Finally, it’s super-easy to set up and gets all the power it needs from your TV’s USB service port.

It’s a fantastic update to what was already an excellent streaming device. The ’s clean, easy to use, customizable interface provides the best overall user experience of any media streamers. It supports all the major streaming services, and displays 4K video with HDR, including Dolby Vision, which Roku can’t. If you have prior iTunes purchases Apple will upgrade those to the 4K versions for free if available.

For cord cutters, it supports all the streaming TV services and can integrate an OTA tuner quite easily. However, Apple TV is much more expensive than our main pick and is harder to search across multiple services. It also doesn’t support all the music streaming services, so you’ll need a different device for Spotify and Pandora or you’ll need to use AirPlay.

If you want to play back local media directly from a USB hard drive or thumb drive, the is the one to get because it supports almost any file format and serves as a full Android TV streamer, which gives it access to a large and quickly growing selection of streaming apps. It also supports 4K playback, including HDR, from most streaming services that offer it. Integrated Google Assistant, and an optional SmartThings adapter let it work as a control center for your smart devices, and an integrated Plex server means it can serve up your media content as well.

I’ve reviewed TVs, Blu-ray players, and home theater equipment since 2008. In my past I spent time at Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity, running the Blu-ray and DVD Benchmark they created and updating it as features changed. With the help of Stacey Spears, we devised a testing system to determine which Blu-ray players were actually accurate and which were not, working to show that even in digital, bits are not always bits. I’m also ISF-trained for evaluating image quality and am up-to-date on all the current and future HDR standards and what to look for while evaluating those on players. Who this is for.

Almost all recent TVs have Netflix and Amazon or have support for those two services built in, and many remotes include a dedicated Netflix button, so if those are all you watch, you don’t need a separate media streaming box. Gaming consoles and also have a decent amount of built-in streaming options that may obviate the need for a separate streaming device. Otherwise, the main reason to get a streaming device is to gain access to streaming services and apps you wouldn’t otherwise be able to access. Typically, streaming boxes include more channels, a more responsive user interface, and better search features. Support for newer streaming services such as HBO Now and Movies Anywhere also comes to streaming boxes before it comes to TVs. With such a wide selection of streaming services, and now even access to live TV using services like Sling or PlayStation Vue (not a PlayStation exclusive), a streaming device can allow you to.

Some companies, including Time Warner and soon Comcast, let you replace a monthly cable box rental with a streaming device. With cable box rentals costing $10 a month or more, a streaming device can pay for itself in just over a year. A streaming box can also give you easy access to the content you already own and play it on any TV in your house. You can access and play media stored on your home network (either on a computer or on a ) without needing to hook a PC up to your display. And Apple users have few other options besides Apple TV if they hope to watch iTunes purchases.

Some streaming devices also offer exclusive features that typically aren’t built into TVs, such as AirPlay or Google Cast, or the ability to play games or use apps. But typically these are more “nice to have” than the major reason to get one. How we picked and tested. The Roku Sticks are much smaller than the Apple TV or Shield TV to easily take them with you. Photo: Kyle Fitzgerald The single most important thing any streaming device must do is play back your content. If you get most of your content from a source that a particular streamer doesn’t support (such as iTunes on a Roku), that device will not work for you.

A streamer with a wide selection of content sources will be a better choice for most people than one that has a limited selection. A good search feature helps you find the content you want. Many streaming devices search across a limited number of services or prioritize content from a source where they earn income. For instance, Amazon puts Amazon content at the top of the screen.

These companies make more money when you buy content from their stores, so they prioritize their stores even if they aren’t the ones you typically use. A streamer that looks across more services and provides both free and pay options helps you find your content at the lowest price. Your streamer should also allow you to customize the interface and prioritize the services you use the most. If you prefer to use Netflix or Amazon or Vudu, you should have the option to push those services to the front of the interface. An ideal streamer is ecosystem-agnostic and lets you—rather than the device manufacturer—make decisions. If you recently bought a 4K TV or plan to buy one in the next couple of years, it will likely be compatible with formats, so your streaming box should be too. We tested the media streamers in a basic system with only a TV, and in a complete home theater system with a receiver.

All were tested over Wi-Fi, and Ethernet was also used if available in the dedicated home theater system. Both TVs used support 4K HDR to take full advantage of the streamers, and one TV is compatible with Dolby Vision as well. We used a wide variety of content from services including Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and Vudu, and compared the system’s integrated search features. Our pick: Roku Streaming Stick+.

Pull Quote If a movie or TV show is available for free from Netflix but for purchase from Amazon and Vudu, Roku’s search function shows Netflix first.Roku has a larger selection of content than anyone else, and it continues to grow. Finding something that Roku doesn’t support is the challenge. The only major service missing is iTunes, but Apple doesn’t open that to anyone (and the new service somewhat mitigated this). When new services launch, Roku is typically among the first—if not the first—to offer support. Amazon, Google Play Movies and TV, HBO Go and Now, Hulu, Netflix, Pandora, Showtime, Sling TV, Spotify, and Vudu are all available, along with more, and you can search across them all to find the content you’re looking for. The new Roku remote has TV power and volume controls on it. Photo: Kyle Fitzgerald Roku prioritizes search results to save you money and time.

It first displays results from channels you have installed, sorted by price (lowest first). After this, you get results from channels you don’t have installed, which are also ordered by price. Not only does this approach help you find content more easily, it also lets you choose content from the least expensive source. For example, if a movie or TV show is available for free from Netflix but for purchase from Amazon and Vudu, Roku’s search function shows Netflix first. For people who subscribe to multiple streaming services where content changes monthly, Roku’s search function makes finding what you want at the lowest price easier than competing streamers. There are volume up and down keys, but no mute button.

Photo: Kyle Fitzgerald You can also customize the look of the interface to place your favorite apps at the top. If you use Netflix, Amazon, and Sling TV the most, for example, you can place those three apps at the top of the home screen. If you don’t use Netflix or Amazon at all, you can remove those apps entirely. This makes Roku superior to the Fire TV, which gives priority to Amazon content. If you buy almost all of your content from Amazon, this is fine, but other services’ content can be harder to find.

Roku added useful new features to the Streaming Stick+ remote. The remote still uses RF to communicate with the Roku Stick (which means it works through walls and furniture), but it adds an IR output for controlling power and volume on your TV or projector. During setup, the Streaming Stick+ will determine the model of TV (by ) and automatically program the buttons for you. This worked perfectly on all the TVs we tested and we didn’t have to look up codes. On a projector it didn’t detect it automatically, but once we told the Roku who made the projector, it tried codes until it worked correctly and we still didn’t need to reference a manual. These controls work great, though adding a Mute button to go with Volume Up and Volume Down would be nice for next year.

If your TV uses it will automatically change to the Roku input, but if it doesn’t you’ll have to use the TV remote to do this. Search on the Roku shows the available streaming, rental, and purchase options and puts the cheapest result first. Photo: Chris Heinonen The Roku Streaming Stick+ also has a private listening feature that allows you to listen to shows and movies using headphones. But the remote lacks a headphone jack so you have to use the iOS or Android smartphone apps.

In some cases this will be better, especially if your headphones don’t have a 3.5 mm jack, but some people will dislike having to use their smartphone for this. If you’re using Bluetooth headphones with your smartphone you may have lag between the video and audio, but we didn’t with wired headphones. With support for 4K, including HDR10 and WCG, the Streaming Stick+ can play back all of today’s content and is ready for you if you decide to upgrade your TV. Amazon, Netflix, Vudu, and others are currently streaming in 4K with HDR and WCG on supported titles, and more content is coming online all the time. The tiny size of the Streaming Stick+ makes it easy to plug into a side HDMI port without being seen, even on a wall-mounted TV.

Because USB powers the stick, you can run it directly from the USB ports that almost all TVs and projectors have today. Although this means it will turn off when the TV does, it completely boots in about 10 to 15 seconds. In our testing we found that one TV and one projector were not able to provide it enough power, so we had to use the included USB power adapter for it to run reliably. The stick’s small size also makes it easy to pack and take with you, and Roku lets you log in to Wi-Fi through captive portals, such as in a hotel. If the size of the stick is too large for your TV’s HDMI inputs, Roku offers to fix the issue. The Roku Streaming Stick+ also supports screen streaming or mirroring, but currently just a limited selection of Android and Windows Phone models, so no iOS support. However, if you have one of the supported devices, the mirroring works well if you want to show your tablet screen on your TV.

This also means if a streaming service you want isn’t offered on the Roku, you can stream it from your tablet instead. The result isn’t as good as native streaming from the Roku device, but the arrangement might work in a pinch. Some channels that may be important to some users that are available on other platforms are missing from the Roku, but you have a few workarounds. Anyone can create a third-party channel for Roku, but Amazon locks down its devices. Using a third-party channel entails the same risks as running any piece of software that isn’t authenticated, but you can find some reliable sources of channels. For example, during earlier testing, I noticed the lack of a Twitch channel for Roku. This has since been remedied with an official channel, but at the time, I turned to a third-party app.

Flaws but not dealbreakers. Roku lacks access to iTunes and Google Play Music. If you use either of those services extensively, you should probably choose either an Apple TV or a Chromecast. However, mostly negates this issue if you’re willing to sign up for it. Most titles you purchase on these services will be shared automatically with the Movies Anywhere app along with Vudu. Part and parcel with the HDMI-stick design is that it’s HDMI-only. So you’re out of luck if you own an older TV with only component video.

If that’s you, the older, slower, and cheaper with composite video might be for you. The user interface design on some of the Roku apps isn’t as current as it could be. For example, the Roku version of the Netflix app is the most current design, but HBO Now on Roku is clunkier than on Android.

The same content is available on Roku, but the interface could use improvement. The Roku interface is easy to use, but every channel lives in a sandbox that is isolated from every other channel. Apple is trying to move past this with its TV app, which lets you add different shows from different apps into a single location. Samsung TVs now let you browse shows from different apps without having to launch them, and LG lets you add your favorite shows to a quick-launch area as well. Roku is great at getting you easy access to all those channels but doesn’t provide quick access to shows or movies inside those channels from a unified location. Search on the Roku is limited to searching for your favorite movies and TV shows, while Apple, Nvidia, and Amazon have expanded their streamers into full-featured personal assistants. Alexa on the Fire TV can do everything that you expect from it, which means showing sports scores, the weather, or controlling compatible smart-home devices beyond just showing you movies.

The Apple TV can also work as your HomeKit hub if you’re working to expand home automation in the Apple ecosystem. The Roku search remains locked down to movies and TV. The Roku Streaming Stick doesn’t do well with local media playback, and the Streaming Stick has completely dropped the local USB port (the built-in USB port is for power only).

You can use the USB port on the Roku Ultra for some media, but it doesn’t support a huge variety of file types. A much better option is to use on a computer or along with the Plex app on the Roku. This arrangement lets you play back far more content than the Roku can on its own.

Plex also offers apps for iOS and Android that let you stream your local content to any device in the house. This setup requires you to leave a computer or NAS powered on and running Plex, so it isn’t for everyone. Using the Roku Media app, you can play back files from a DLNA server over your network. The interface isn’t as nice as that of Plex, and the media format support isn’t as extensive. For viewing photos or playing music over the network, it should work fine, but it can’t handle as many kinds of video files.

The Roku stick also lacks, the streaming protocol that the Apple TV (see below) uses. This means you can’t mirror your iOS screen onto the Roku box as you can with an Apple TV, nor can you stream your iTunes library directly to your Roku. If you need either of those features, you should get the Apple TV instead. As is true with most streaming services,.

The company earns a significant portion of its income from advertising, and to that end it collects a large amount of user data to support that business. You have no way to opt out of much of the data collection, it isn’t totally clear what data is shared with third parties, and the policy asks you to agree to binding arbitration in the case of a dispute. Although it’s hard to avoid this kind of thing with any streaming service (and thus we don’t consider it a dealbreaker in Roku’s case), we do think it’s important that you be informed. If you need Ethernet: Roku Ultra.

If you don’t need to stream UltraHD 4K content, the is the best option available today. It is almost identical to the Streaming Stick+, but supports only 1080p resolution and doesn’t have the external Wi-Fi antenna. If you know you aren’t going to get a 4K TV in the future, or are just looking to upgrade an existing 1080p TV or projector, it offers the same content selection, search, and performance of our main pick. Aside from those two differences, the Streaming Stick works the same.

It boots fast if you power it from a USB port, and it requires less power making it work more reliably on the USB ports from a projector or a TV in our testing. We had no issues with the Wi-Fi reception when compared with the Streaming Stick+, but we also have a high-end mesh Wi-Fi setup in our test environment, so reception is almost never an issue for us.

The Streaming Stick is slightly smaller than the Streaming Stick+, and might be a tight squeeze behind some TVs. In my case it barely fit into the ports because of how the TV I was testing it with is designed. If the size of the stick is too large for your TV’s HDMI inputs, Roku offers to fix the issue. Upgrade pick: Apple TV 4K. The has an attractive user interface that is easy to navigate. The device supports 4K and HDR, including the Dolby Vision standard, and Apple gives people that bought 1080p content free upgrades to 4K versions through iTunes.

It works great for cord cutters as well with apps that support networked TV tuners and online TV services. However, it doesn’t include most music services, like Spotify, Tidal, or Amazon Music, and the search lags behind Roku. We’re recommending the 32 GB version because we think most people don’t need the 64 GB version unless they’re heavy gamers, as the unit is designed to free up space automatically when necessary by uploading it to the cloud.

Since inception, Apple’s tvOS was the best option only for heavy iTunes users. But with the addition of Amazon, 4K streaming with Dolby Vision support, and improved search, it became a great media streamer for anyone. The interface takes full advantage of the resolution of 4K displays with bright, sharp icons and text.

You can customize the layout of apps and your top five apps can give you access to content inside them without having to load them first (if the app supports it). Apple’s version of some apps is sometimes easier to use than the same apps on Roku, and you can do far more with games and apps with the Apple TV than you can with Roku. All of the key channels you might expect to see are here, including HBO Go, HBO Now (its $15-a-month streaming service), Hulu Plus, Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube. It also has good sports coverage with MLB.TV, NBA, NHL, and WatchESPN channels.

Fans of video game streams will note the absence of an official Twitch app. For cord cutters, the Apple TV lets you use a networked tuner (like the HDHomeRun) to watch TV in supported apps, and supports the online TV services like Sling, Playstation Vue, Hulu TV, and DirecTV Now, with YouTube TV coming soon. You can do this with the Shield TV or the Fire TV, but the experience isn’t as good as it is with the Apple TV. Apple’s single sign-on lets you automatically sign into supported apps based on your cable or streaming TV service.

For example, if you have PlayStation Vue, you can sign into your account, and the Apple TV can download all the apps that support that service, and sign you into them automatically. It works very well for watching on-demand episodes of shows and saves you from having to log into multiple apps, but not every provider or app is supported yet. The TV app that should hold a queue of shows you want to watch does work, but it also fills it up with lots of extra content you might not want, with no way to focus on only your chosen programs. It’s a good idea, but poorly executed right now. Most popular music streaming services, like Spotify and Pandora, are missing from Apple TV. You can send many of these channels to the box via AirPlay if you own an Apple device, but otherwise you’re missing some content you may find essential.

Apple TV selects a default option for the main play button on search results, in this case knowing we have a Hulu subscription. Photo: Chris Heinonen Apple TV 4K lets you use Siri to do voice searches, and the number of apps you can search across keeps increasing.Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and can be searched. Siri’s search results prioritize one service over the others, and isn’t as clear as it could be what services are available and the difference in price.

Roku shows you more results in an organized list, and the Shield TV also has more clear results on where to stream content. The Apple TV search is fine but others are better. At launch, there was a problem with HDR handling that caused all content to display in HDR, even if it wasn’t HDR, and films showed at the wrong frame rate. This made things look weird. But it was addressed in tvOS 11.2.

Also great for local media: Nvidia Shield TV. If your top priority is playing content from your personal media library, the powerful offers the best local file support. Its Android TV OS supports all the most popular apps, but more important, it can play content from hard drives and flash drives either locally (via USB) or over a network using apps like VLC or from a server. Roku can also play files off of a Plex server, but the Shield is actually capable of running its own server. The ability to run a Plex server is one of the Shield’s most distinguishing features.

It allows you to share your media library throughout your house—it supports internal, USB, and networked storage (internal works only for the 500 GB model). It can even do 1080p video transcoding on the fly.

This means files will play on any Plex client (like your phone). It played every single file I tried, including 4K content and even supports bitstreams (which are the latest high-resolution audio codecs). Photo: Kyle Fitzgerald Like Apple TV, you can use the Shield with a (or a USB tuner) to watch live TV.

I preferred the experience on Apple TV because the app I use, Channels, is better designed, but the Shield can get the job done. It can also integrate live TV with Plex, which allows for DVR and the ability to watch from anywhere in your home, something Apple TV can’t do. The Shield also offers gaming features and. It supports Nvidia’s cloud gaming platform, which streams modern PC titles to the box.

It’s much better for gaming than, say, Amazon’s Fire TV, but it still lags behind a dedicated game console or gaming PC. The Shield includes a game controller and a remote control, both of which can navigate the system. The Shield includes Google Assistant built in with a microphone in the remote. This can help in searching for content and show you results across multiple platforms, but you can also use Google Assistant to ask questions, play music, turn on your smart lights, and access all the other features of Assistant. Thanks to a, a $20 to $30 Z-Wave USB dongle will let it function as a hub. In our testing it works well, letting us control Z-Wave and Zigbee devices through the SmartThings app just as if we had a SmartThings hub.

Shield TV doesn’t offer as many options for where to watch content as the other streamers do. Photo: Chris Heinonen To allow all of that, the Shield has the most powerful hardware of any streamer, and the user interface is very responsive as a result. Compared with TVs that use AndroidTV, the Shield TV is a much more user-friendly experience with fast response times and smooth animations.

The competition. If you’re looking at a comparison spec sheet, the Roku looks like the obvious winner, but in practice that is often not the case at all. For example, if you fall into one of these 2 categories, the Apple TV is a must have. 1) You have TV Shows/Movies you’ve purchased through iTunes. ICloud + Apple TV = HEAVEN. 2) You have an Apple iOS device. (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) The Airplay feature from these devices to the Apple TV is incredible.

If you’re trying to get video/pictures from your iOS device to your TV, it is definitely worth paying $80 for an Apple TV over paying $40-50 for some wire adapter. Unfortunately we don’t get any of the online services offerd by Roku here in Australia, my setup involves a Samsung BDe5900 bluray player with smart tv (solely used to run Plex) and in the bedroom the original WD Live – once I had plex server running on a virtual Win7 machine (HP Microserver hardware) it does not skip a beat. I do agree with article that there is no one device that does all things well, just find what works and provides the service you need. The only powerful alternative is a dedicated HTPC – I was contemplating a mac mini (popular choice), but at $6-700 not a cost effective way to ‘just’ run Plex. So the Bluray smart tv is the next best thing – well that or a jailbroken AppleTV 2 – but a colleagues drama’s with that put me off.

I did think about getting a Roku from Amazon, but its not really supported here in Australia, (some have figured out how to use a VPN service to get a U.S IP and get Netflix etc) but we also have less than perfect broadband, so streaming a flick might be problematic. There is a thing called Google TV, which obviously has access to You Tube. This service is accessible with players made by different companies, Sony and Logitech to name a couple. The most recent one is the Sony NSZGS8 released in June 2013.

Google TV meshes internet videos/tv with your cable or satellite provider, so all of your content is in one place. Other features of this Sony box are voice recognition on the remote, as well as a full QWERTY keyboard on the back, and motion sensor for gaming. The box has a full Chrome browser, Netflix, Amazon IV, and so much more, For a limited time, $45 in movie credits are included with purchase. More info can be found here •. I have a Roku (LT I believe).

The plex app gives you so much more functionality. You can add a Youtube channel in Plex and so that solves that problem. You will need to setup a plex server on your computer though to have the plex channels available.

I have been satisfied with a Roku, but now I am looking at getting an Android TV box, like the G-Box Midnight Android 4 TV box, or something similar. XBMC is now out for Android and so I can have that app available on that box or use the Plex app.

Also Netfilix, Hulu Plus, YouTube all have apps for Android. Also you can use a full web browser ( some of the web browsers have flash built into them, like Dolphin or the stock web browser) for anything else you might need. If you use Amazon Prime, I believe XBMC has an addon to access those videos. Basically the Android box seems to give a lot of functionality and is basically an android Ice Cream Sandwich tablet on your TV, but its not for everyone, since it may take a little Android knowledge to get everything working right. I have 2 ROKU2 XS boxes. One in lounge and one in spare room for guests.

On LAN via homeplugs. I run PLEX on a cheap quad core PC in the office. I use it 95% of time just for plex and the apps on it. If I didn’t have PLEX I couldn’t really see the point of ROKU at all.

But for what I’m using it for it’s awesome PLEX is awesome too I use it on VPN and access it on my phone while on the train each day and also all over the world in hotels while I’m travelling. For 100 bucks to get all this is great and takes very little effort or nouse to maintain. Housemate is an Apple guy, I’m not. He has Apple TV and while he has airplay (which is cool imho) it just doesn’t compare to the ROKU PLEX combo for most media based desires both home and away. If you are looking to buy media streaming device, in a word, stay from Roku. If you are looking to use Roku with Plex on a LAN, it will not work.

Get a media player. This may be the only forum not paid by Roku. What a slick Internet ad campaign. It does not work. Especially if you are using it overseas. Here’s my set up.

I have Roku on a LAN with a media server trying to access US or UK content overseas from SE Asia. That was my second consideration. My first consideration is to get a media player that can run Plex which is the most advanced media scraping software available. It saves me hours of work putting metada to all the media files I collect. So I want to be able to browse my extensive collection of movies and go right into playing. Roku sounds like a great device as it has a Plex client.

My Plex is running on an iMac on a Gigabit LAN. After browsing Plex table of content, I select the media for play. After 5 minues Roku might start playing or it might not. I have tried it with direct play and rendering by Plex.

Most of my movies are in MKV format. And most of them will not play on Roku. The ones that do, often have to pause to buffer. Fortunately I also have a media player, eGreat. Cheap, but good. EGreat plays all of them flawlessly.

So that reduces me to search by Plex and play by eGreat which I am willing to accept because Plex saves me countless hours of cataloging. So now I want to use Roku to access contents from US or UK.

I have a VPN router installed on my network specifically for this. I then subscribe to Netfilx which works fine when I use my VPN router connected to a server in the US.

But on the Roku it will not even log me into Netflix. But let’s back up a little. I wanted Roku to connect to by VPN router on my GB LAN. Speed being desirable to play local movies. Then I discover that Roku has no capability fo setting IP configuration.

Not possible! True, check it out.

It’s like a dumb box with mediocre firmware, but great advertisement and review (probably paid). I’m still scratching my head. I bought is fairly cheap, 100$.

But if I had to redo, I would get an Apple TV. I don’t have one and have not tried one.

But it cannot be worse than Roku. What a rip off. May be I’ll change my mind if they upgrade the firmware. But for now, stay away from Roku. Especially if you use it from outside US.

Actually you can set your IP address on Roku. I think you have to be in developer mode to do this I stumbled on it a while back. I am also a developer for the platform with 3 channels on it. Now the Plex Server question has been addressed recently in the developer forums. I do know you have to get the source code for plex if you need to modify it you can and you can get it to work on you Roku.

Once you get it side loaded in developer mode you can then upload it to your developer account and make it a private channel that you can just enter the code to your box or share it with others to see your channel. Now to streaming content from the US to another country using VPN may not work unless you have a US Roku box. I think they use different boxes based on the region and that has been addressed as well in the forums. I have a desktop and can’t watch certain content on UK sites so there are blocks on content from other countries. Your configuration is exotic and an interesting challenge, but try to be careful when slinging libel against WireCutter’s writers.

It would be really easy for them to accept thousands of dollars in free toys for sponsored reviews, but since they’re going through the inconvenience of NOT doing that, you shouldn’t needlessly muddy the waters that way. Is it possible that your VPN is a little off?

IPV4 or other DNS issue where DNS requests are getting leaked around your VPN? Are you using privateinternetacess.com or a VPN that rolls your IP and traffic with a bunch of other 4chaners and DDOS attackers? When you say VPN router do you mean DDWRT flashed onto commodity hardware? Your one-off, unique situation does not apply to 99% of the market. “Stay away from Roku [because it does not work for me]” is terrible advice.

I’ve been a “cord cutter” for much longer than the term has been around, starting with MythTV more than 10 years ago, and everything in between since then, including about 3/4 of the products or services mentioned here. To date, the Roku3 has been my favorite device out of all of them, and I think this article is nearly spot on for just about everything in it. I’m US-based, so that weighs in on that statement.

The bottom line is: you need to determine what is best for you and use the solution that best fits that need. For about 95% of the “general audience”, the Roku3 is probably that answer. The only way to watch internet TV is to hook a laptop to your TV. Then you can watch internet TV. Watch the free Hula not have to pay for Hula Plus. Plus a lot of other free shows that are on the internet that you can never see with a streamer. It gets REAL expensive with streamers.

I would just as well have cable. No, if you want to cut the cord and get free internet, just hook up that laptop or computer tower to your TV. Then sign up for Netflix for $8.00 a month. You will be a lot better off financially and get a lot more to watch.

You can even watch Football or other sports. Streamers are limited. Very, very limited. No matter how well they are reviewed or marketed, they don’t have nearly what you can get with a computer hook-up to your TV. They must greatly improve these and I mean all streamers, before I ever invest my good money in the products. I gotta say when not if the android mini pc matures you can kiss roku good.

Who wouldnt want a media streamer / browser that can do so much more. The roku will only play certain file types, so if you have a large collection of movies in the wrong format you will have to convert them. Not so with an android mini pc. It plays almost every file type. It also has real youtube and many other things to recommend it. I have four rokus and i see them as nothing more than an appliance. Most of the free channels suck.where as the mini pc is like opening the world of the internet right on the tv.

Yeah thats been done i know. Its called a htpc. But who wants a big computer sitting on their entertainment center when you can have something as small as a usb stick do the same thing. I bought the Roku 3 based off of this recommendation and I really regret it. I didn’t know about the lack of a proper YouTube app, which is a major major flaw in my opinion. I also overlooked the fact that I use an iPhone and a Mac and that I really could have made good use of the AirPlay feature. By the time I decided the AppleTV really made more sense for me, I was last my return period.

I really think a major section of this review should be dedicated to discussing the perks of AirPlay if you own other Apple devices and a major section detailing the lack of YouTube would be helpful as well. I’ll still continue to use this site, as it really is a great and useful site for product recommendations. But this one review definitely made me reconsider a little bit how thoughtful and thorough some of the recommendations really are. I’m interested in using a Ruko 3 for JUST plex. Hopefully someone has feedback on a similar configuration.

My plex server is a Synology Diskstation 1812+ (best home NAS ever conceived), so not enough processor on the server side to handle BluRay transcoding. 1) The Plex app for Samsung Smart TV almost never works, sometimes with SD content it can keep up. 2) The WD Live HUB just barely does it and varies from movie to movie. Sometimes it will even light up my receivers HD Audio light, but that’s like a magic unicorn day. WD has been pushing firmware updates that add worthless stuff like facebook or Twonky and take away useful stuff like its ability to do this.

Can the Ruko 3 handle an mkv with 11GB h264 stream and 4.5GB DTS-MA or Dolby TrueHD on top of that, or am I stuck building an HTPC now? Also, will it bitstream DTS-MA and Dolby TrueHD and LCPM 7.1 lossless over HDMI? It may not be your streaming client that is the problem. It may be that the Synology NAS is trying to transcode or do some high CPU work to send the data stream. My experience with NASs are that they can be under powered for serious video streaming.

Synologys are great, but I suspect if you use a format that requires transcoding, your performance will be marginal. Even if it’s just a high bandwidth stream, your result may be poor. I tried streaming relatively low badwidth ripped DVDs in MPG format directly from my home NAS (Radius NV+) to my Roku and had bad performance. My experience improved very much when I used the NAS as disk storage then put a Linux PLEX server that pulled data from the NAS and streamed the movie to the Roku. When I monitored CPU utilization for MKV files it spiked my substantial Intel CPUs to 90%. You NAS is more capable than my old Radius NV+ but you may want to be prepared to insert a streaming server in the middle in case you run into performance issues with your 11 GB (I think you mean 11 Mb) video streams.

You’re so right on that point! Though Roku 3 and the older Rokus now have Youtube, there’s no browser. There are some miniature computers out there that plug directly into the TV via the HDMI (mini android and Favi Stick are examples) but I tried a couple and they didn’t work that well.

Some reviews glowed, but the two I tried had problems. Also tried Chrome Cast, but it was very limited, and required the phone or tablet to use. I can use a tablet that has mirroring to “cast” to the TV, and that has worked very well for me. I multi-task so much, though, that I’d rather use the Roku so I can research with the tablet at the same time. Roku recently signed deals with AOL and “MGo” for news, movies, and TV.

They put links to these services right at the top of the home menu. Terrible, right? Unavoidable advertising, right?

Just how it goes, right? Shrug, say it sucks, and learn to live with it, right? See, this is where Roku obliterates the competition. Yeah, they signed deals and yeah those items are at the top of the menu. You can go into the settings and TURN THEM OFF! When I discovered that Roku allowed me to disable those menu items I was absolutely flabberghasted. TiVo would never do that, not in a million years.

Time Warner Cable? Never, never ever.

But Roku puts its customers first. I do have an android phone, but trying to pick out movies and navigating youtube on that tiny screen is very prohibitive. I tried that, and didn’t like it at all.

Someone just posted that Roku has added YouTube, which was my main gripe about it (I’ve had Roku for a long time). $35 is still too much for something that you have to use your tiny phone screen or a laptop – if you can connect – to access, for very limited content. I returned it.

My Roku only cost $50 and I don’t need to use a phone or computer to access content, with way more apps and live TV shows like FSTV. Beware of chromecast. You can’t add the chrome extension to your Chrome browser on your phone, and if you use some laptops, you still might not be able to use the device. I wasn’t able to sync it to a Win7 laptop, even though the app showed the Chromecast was on the network, it had the eternal circle looking for the device.

I wasted an entire weekend trying to set it up on laptop with no luck. Basically it limits you to a very few apps that you can access on your phone, and MAYBE cast (with a delay) from your computer. Might as well just watch on a computer monitor.I have Roku, but no Youtube on that. So I’ve tested it a bit myself and while I agree it’s far from “perfect” I have a few points to make. 1) If the Android app can connect to the Chromecast, I don’t see any reason why the Desktop client couldn’t eventually connect.

Essentially, time will tell how much longer the whole “using a phone” thing will be a thing I have high hopes. 2) You really can’t stress the cost of the Chromecast enough. It doesn’t fulfill the most ideal set-up I’d like (HDMI cable from my PC running XBMC), but nothing around enables as much as it does for such a low price. It’s worth considering. I wonder if you actually tested these products.

I owned a WD TV Live and it was terrible. It wouldn’t play half of the videos on my system. I had to re-encode a lot of them so it would. Then there was the horrible GUI that didn’t display covers but awful generic icons of movies. If you paused a video and then un-paused it, it would play about 5 seconds then jump to the next video file. There was no way to retrieve your position other than by playing the whole movie again, couldn’t even fast-forward.

Finally, the Netflix app would get blurry after viewing any video as to be unreadable unless you restarted the player. All these streaming boxes are the same. They are very limited, Netflix, Hulu etc dont have a lot of movies, at least ones that i search for. If you want my advice, I would get a the Apple TV (just cuz im use to apple products). It can be any of these even an old computer hooked up to the TV. Forget Netflix and all that other stuff. Download XBMC and the XUNITY addon (FREE).

Its like Netflix except it has pretty much every movie and TV show ever made and its free. You can also get the Sports devil addon and watch live sports.

I purchased a Roku 2100XD/S in about Sep 2010 and stopped cable TV and sat services. I watch Netflix, Amazon Prime, Crunchyroll, YouTube and others. I wish there was an alternative to roku and now am faced with replacing this box.

I have never liked the interface or performance. There is in practice no support from roku. My recently watched list is alway incorrect. The main sources of vids are Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Crunchyroll. Netflix is horrible on the roku; vids stop and reload every 20-40 minutes.

Reloads can take 10 minutes or a power cycle. I got no support on this problem but have had the ISP test my lines twice.

ALso, playing vids on a computer works great which points at the roku box being failed. I expected the roku to last more than 3 years.

The interface has been terrible from day one and there were no updates in 3 years. I condsider roku crude and unreliable and am leaning toward using a computer to watch vids on my HDTV. I am new to cord cutting. 4 days into it. I have a 4 year old vizio which came with “vizio apps” at a time when I only knew about Netflix and pandora. It has received software upgrades Regularly and it includes hulu plus, vudu, amazon, you tube and crakle. I am trying to learn what additional value of the other devices would provide to me if I have all the major apps.

I have a decent media library but I care to know more about all these other channels that roku has that I can’t seem to find any details on. I watch project free TV alot and would like to buy something that would support something like that so that I can dedicate to my TV instead of using my laptop for it. Also just recently learned about the existence of things like NaviX, xbmc, and Plex.

Any guidance appreciated. There’s a guide to channels for Roku, but if you want Project Free TV on the Roku (should you go that route), here is what I found: “There are a couple of work arounds to get Project Free TV content running thorugh your Roku box.

The First is an app called Playon Channel but you would have to pay, either $25 a year or $45 for a life time, this app allows you to generate scripts to run certain video web channels like PFtv or 1channel movies; you can copy the script for free, from the playonscripts website; and get support from other users to get your script properly installed. Now before I go to the second option I may say that Playon is worth the $45 if you additionally buy the most popular script on playonscripts dot com which is called SuperusvoxTV, that will let you watch a bunch of live streams from real channels. The Second option may be free as long as you already have a Smartphone, you have to download in your Roku a “private” app form the mkvxstream website (Google it). The app you have to download is called Twonky Beam and is essentially a similar concept to the Airplay in the AppleTV; so once you download Twonky Beam in your Roku, you have to do the same in your Smartphone. And with that you can stream YouTube, Project Free TV or whatever you like from your smartphone.” Hope this helps!

I would also suggest the ZEKI Box. Turns your TV into a fully operational android device. Can download any app you desire from the Google play store.

Full Qwerty keyboard on one side of the remote and you navigate screen like the Wii via the remote. The Zeki media box has an Ethernet port up to gigabit speeds, two USB drives for read/write flash storage, SD card slot as well. Also provides its own wireless hotspot and acts as a router/gateway. Ridiculous piece of equipment and severely overlooked.

Only drawback, even though I never had a problem with my own Zeki Box, I hear there are some complaints of having to exchange because certain features didn’t work. But I would exchange this thing 100 times if I had to, to get a working one. The fact that I have a fully operational Android TV is just awesome! And everyone I show is blown away and all share the same exact response in being confused why they never heard of this. Well, articles like this one simply focus on the big names. In practice, most Roku users (at least that I know), could care less about the vast majority of channels offered. They (and I) are primarily interested in movies and music.

Basically, Pandora and Netflix. Well, really, the other streaming stuff is just not really up to snuff yet. Really no live streaming at all to speak ofsports, local channels, favorite channels ((history/sci fi/news, etc.)most new users are somewhat disappointed, and put up an antenna.

Roku has a real problem with it’s boxes stuttering, stuttering, becoming unresponsive and ultimately rebooting. Often enough to now be losing customers because of it. Check out the Roku forums. When evaluating boxes, this should be brought up.

It is very frustrating and support has been lacking (problem outstanding since December, with update promised since January 2014) •. It depends where, but this is what I read about the Roku & Netflix “Once activated, the Roku player can be used to watch movies and TV shows on Netflix from anywhere within the 50 United States and the District of Columbia. Some people even take their Roku player on vacation. Unfortunately, at this time, Netflix cannot be used for streaming outside the 50 US states, in US territories, on US military bases overseas, or in foreign countries.” Chromecast might be a better overseas option, depending on where you live since it is offered in other countries: •. Sorry, guys, you can pimp Roku all you want but the device family has one HUGE downside; customer support. My problem with Roku is that it constantly ask if I am still listening.

I listen to a music station I pay for and if I am in the middle of something upstairs or in the bathroom I can’t go and push OK. I have acquired Wifi speakers so I could hear the music all over my house.

I would gladly turn the damn thing off if I wasn’t listening but it has no on/off button. I am seriously considering canceling my subscription to the music channel and just listening to Pandora which Roku does not interrupt. Go figureyou think they are trying to get rid of Live365. If Roku is on all the time why does it have to find out if I am listening or watching something I pay for. I own the Roku 3 and actually I don’t like it anymore than my old Sony.

I could listen and watch without interruption from my Sony. I’ve been a cord cutter for about 4 years now. By the time I discovered Roku, I was pretty fed up with negotiating with my cable company for promotions to keep the cable bill down. The last negotiation went pretty bad because they didn’t have any promotions at the time, and I wasn’t going to pay a higher bill and cancelled the service. I tried Hulu (kept freezing), but Netflix, Amazon instant videos, and the free network stations is working fine for me. I went from $135 to $7.99 monthly.

After cutting the cord, I get letters weekly with offers for a $200 gift card with another promotion for two years. I’ll never go back. I wasn’t watching a fraction of what they offered anyway.

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Another downside to the Chromecast you didn’t mention is using an iOS mobile device as a remote can be a frustrating experience in terms of pausing, skipping around, toggling closed captioning and selecting videos. I have significant syncing issues. If I start a video and 15 minutes later want to pause it, more than half the time it doesn’t work and if it does, it’s laggy. Android works better me, but still, it’s not quite like having a real remote in hand. This doesn’t bother me as much because I’m can work with it, but grandma, or mom, no way. Not even close. And setting it up when moving around, can be a crapshoot.

I’m actually fine with the breadth of content that’s available on it, it’s the performance that totally bites. I use a Chromecast, Roku and ATV so I can make a decent relative judgement. Have you actually tried plex or are you just talking out of your ass? I run it in a VM on an 8 year old dell server and it works totally fine for transcoding on the fly.

UPnP/DLNA usually requires running back and forth between your computer and TV several times, trying to figure out why its not working, restarting your neckbeard UPnP service several times, and then finally realizing that your streaming box doesn’t support whatever goofball hipster codec was used to encode your l33t warez movie. Plex, on the other hand, just works with everything. So I disagree with this review. The fact the Chromecast uses your device as a remote control is a great feature, not a problem.

One of my biggest problems with devices like the Roku is having to navigate a keyboard with their remote control in order to search for what I want to watch. With the Chromecast, I can use the software keyboard on my tablet and it’s easy as pie.

This is the problem Amazon is trying to solve with the voice search, but as the article pointed out, that’s not on every application (yet). You can also stream video files from your computer to the Chromecast using a Chrome app, which does the job of the WD TV. And all that for a fraction of the price of the Roku 3.

For me, the Chromecast is clearly the superior streaming device. You need to review the Chromecast option again and take a look at the extension Videostream. Aside from the Chromecast supporting WAY more streaming options now, Videostream lets you stream any video from your PC to the Chromecast. Additionally, I’m not sure why having to use your phone as a remote seemed to be mentioned as a negative That means one less remote to deal with, whereas the Rokus require you have their remote, with a Chromecast it’s convenient just to use your phone instead, not a detriment. This also allows friends to queue up videos or music at a party. The ‘get what you pay for’ line seems kind of meaningless as well, since then the article goes on to say that they are still developing the ecosystem.

For $35, this is the best price-to-functionality you can get, and I thought that was what the Wirecutter went for. Roku 3 is nothing more than another content provider that you have to pay on top of your internet service just to play content. WE NEED offline media players, there are plenty of people that own files on their USB or hard drives that need to be played on their TVs and Roku 3 does not do the job. Why should I pay for PLEX when I can stream for free using UPnP based apps and Roku 3 does not support a standard streaming protocol.

As it stands Roku 3 no better than me hooking my iPad to my TV. I am using Chromecast with Videostreamer app to play my media on my PC. Having major issues streaming Netflix using DVD Blu-Ray players and Wi-Fi.

I thought it might be my old Samsung when I kept losing Netflix, forcing me to restart it over and over. So I went out and bought a newer and better LG DVD Blu-Ray player.

The first day or so it worked fine but then it started messing up as well. I can’t figure out why this is happening. For example, today, I watched a couple of movies and a couple of television shows on Netflix with zero problems. But then as I watching another half-hour show the screen just froze up. The picture was still there but it did nothing.

I unplugged the player and waited. When I turned it back on it wouldn’t even go to the Netflix intro screen. I bought this DVD player last week. Why is this happening? Should I find another way to stream Netflix? I’m a cordcutter getting super frustrated with my Roku’s.

I have an old LT and newer stick – both stink at Hulu Plus. They consistently either don’t load the content, crash the app, or crash the whole device. I can literally get it to load 25% of the time.

Now when it does load it streams perfectly – no buffering or anything – and Netflix and Amazon are flawless as well. So here’s the question – do I spend more $ with Roku to get a 2/3 when it seems like they have failed me twice, switch to a Fire or Chromecast, or wait for the new Apple TV to save the world soon? Well, Roku won’t work for me. I am in Canada and Roku does not have DNS redirects so one can watch US only regional programming. There is no VPN settings within Roku which should be a consideration when choosing a media player. Additionally, there are many Asian specific media players based on the Android OS that allow streaming of Chinese (Cantonese, mandarin, and Taiwanese) programming.

I would be intrested in hearing feedback on these types of players, especially for those of us who are your neighbours to the North 🙂 •. I find a lot of the hate toward amazon fire TV absurd. I returned my 2014 roku 3 for a Fire TV and glad I did.

I have a hardwired Samsung Smart TV downstairs that has an OK interface. Upstairs we have the Fire TV in our bedroom connected to our wif-fi router over the 5ghz channel. We only stream from Amazon, Netflix, and HBO GO.

I have yet to see how Amazon pushes their content over others as they always list your last used apps on top of the UI. My wife is tech challenged can turn the fire tv on, see the Netflix and HBO logos on top of the UI, and simply click on them to launch the app. Even better I have a kindle hdx that I use as a remote and can easily launch the app on my kindle, search through all the crap offered on Amazon, HBO, Netflix to find something decent to watch and then simply toss it to the bedroom screen. Not to mention the fire tv has a better processor, quad when everything was dual core, and more RAM then the competition. The UI flat out flies compared to the old Roku 3. Our $19 Fire TV Stick has been the most popular device for accessing NetFlix and the occasional Prime video. The cable only gets used for sports these days.

The Apple TV hasn’t been getting much use since I plugged in a newish Raspberry Pi running Raspbmc, a nice version of XBMC for the Pi. I tossed it together using unused parts lying around my workbench plus a Windows ready IR remote, so it was dirt cheap. It is sharing a 60G partition on the house network, so any of us can upload any media from any device and it plays it, it has balked at nothing we’ve thrown at it. We have gotten in the habit of downloading online video, like YouTube content, and sending it to the Pi over wireless, avoids the network slowdowns and pre-roll commercials and no fussing when you come back to finish something a few days later. Oh, it does Airplay, too, and has some apps but I never tried them. Highly recommended for DIY types, but research it online first. I’ve actually been looking into the sideloading capabilities of the Fire TV for the purpose of using Xfinity’s app/watching live TV.

Otherwise I have to jailbreak and AirPlay with an AppleTV and it’s too much work. Do you have any idea if the Fire TV Stick supports this as well? I’m guessing it doesn’t due to its size/lack of storage but I could be wrong. Also, the Raspberry Pi idea is a great one. There are so many great DIY ideas out there for streaming, but they really fall into a niche category – or closer to HTPC setups.

Most of the people looking for a media streamer just want the basics (Netflix, Hulu, Prime video, HBO, etc) but awesome feedback & thanks for sharing! Sorry, Tony, I haven’t looked at the Fire Stick very much, just to load the NetFlix and YouTube apps. I forgot to mention that the remote is wireless, so that’s great, but typing a search term with it is super painful.

They didn’t bother to layout the keyboard like qwerty, so it is the opposite of a good UX. And the iOS remote app is painful to use. Amazon seems to take about 15 years to get a working UI, so I just suffer through using the remote to search or just do it on the laptop and copy the video to the Pi. I have no idea why Amazon can’t do a decent UI, probably because you-know-who has to get involved and thinks he knows what a good UI is, contrary to all evidence. The Pi route is a niche, but really, anyone with a minor tech skills could put it together.

Maybe there’s a kit opportunity here? I have an older WDTV live with Netflix (which I don’t care about) and it’s the best player for local media at that price point (~$80-$100). There’s nothing short of a computer (or maybe the new Nvidia shield with Kodi installed) that does as good a job playing ANY type of media off a USB flash drive or NAS.

The reason (from what I’ve heard) that Netflix is not supported on the newer models is that WD opened up their API and added developer access and Netflix of course wanted DRM and assurances that there wouldn’t be any “funny business”. Hulu simply doesn’t work properly on the Roku.

I’ve owned several Rokus, including this one. Hulu has never worked right. The lag time between the remote button presses and the app responding means it’s almost impossible to rewind or fast forward.

The app freezes and causes the machine to restart really frequently, like once every 20-30 hours of watching time. And the Roku Hulu app interface is totally unintuitive to use. If you’re a heavy Hulu/HuluPlus watcher, I recommend the Amazon Fire instead.

It makes it much easier to watch. First, the top pick Vizio you are talking about for $800 might be the D-Series Vizio that is a Black Friday special. The reason the M-Series Vizio is so good is that 32 local dimming zones give it great contrast ratios, and the D-Series cuts that down to 10. Some places (Dell and Amazon I believe) will have the M-Series on sale as well, but make sure it’s the M-Series and not the D-Series. With the Roku 4, there isn’t much reason to pick it over the Roku 2 today. The remote locator is nice, but the Roku itself is much larger, and when running continually on 4K content the fan can kick on and be noisier, Since the Vizio already has almost all the 4K content sources built in, there isn’t much reason to spend extra on the Roku 4.

I’m working on an update to that now, but the advice will be to get the Roku 2 unless your TV is 4K and lacks Amazon or Netflix (only a couple do). The one main source the Roku 4 has that Vizio lacks is YouTube, and Vizio will likely never offer it in 4K (YouTube 4K uses the VP9 Codec, everyone else uses H.265, and the Vizio can’t handle VP9 but the Roku can). I still don’t understand the obsession some people have with a d-pad remote. I was at my parents last night and they had the Roku Netflix app up, I decided to turn on the Bill Murray’s new Christmas special. I wasted at least a minute pressing click-click-click thinking it would be in popular or trending or something. Finally had to locate search and slowly click out his name.

I would have had it up and playing on my Chromecast in like 10 seconds from start to finish. Using a d-pad remote is just a terrible interface for a TV, the Chromecast is the future whether old-fashioned tech reviewers realize it or not. It’s like they think because something costs more money it must be better, even when it’s clearly not. Because if I want to pause something that I’m watching, it’s a lot easier to hit a Pause button than to take out my phone, unlock it, launch the app, let it connect to my device, and then pause. Supporting a remote control also lets you integrate with a universal remote.

I run a Roku and Apple TV in my living room and almost never have to use the actual remotes for them, I just use a Logitech Harmony instead. Everyone in my family (from my wife to my 3-year-old) can operate the Roku and Apple TV on their own, but they couldn’t do that if it needed a phone. A phone can provide a nice secondary interface to content.

But remotes now include voice search which is just as quick for finding content as typing it in to an app. All of the main boxes (FireTV, Roku, AppleTV) support this now in their remotes. A phone also lacks the easy feel to locate a button that a physical remote has. Yes, a phone can do searching faster in some cases, but it also is clunky to use in many of the other cases. I’m editing an update to this piece now, and have looked at all the updated options. The issue with the Amazon Fire TV is still the same as before: The OS is basically like being inside an Amazon app, where every other service is relegated to it’s own app. If you buy everything from Amazon, that’s great.

If you use a lot of Netflix, Hulu, Google Play, iTunes, or so on than your experience isn’t as good. It also still doesn’t support voice search across Netflix while Roku, Google, and Apple all do at this point. It’s also barely 4K. It’s running with the old HDMI 1.4 bandwidth, which means it can only do 24p or 30p and not 60p which is why the interface only runs at 1080p. It also means no support for HDR or wide color gamut, so the Amazon Instant Video app built-in to UHD TV’s is better than the one in the FireTV today. I purchased the older version of the Roku 3 (4200) a while back after reading your guide, and had largely stopped using it because I found the contrast ratio on any content I watched on it was much worse than when I watched the same content on the same television from any of my other streaming devices (e.g., WDTV or the television’s built-in apps).

I ran some tests and found that the Roku is truncating full-range color output (0-255) down to limited range (16-235), killing the contrast ratio, which is most noticeable watching 2.35:1 aspect ratio films, where the letterbox bars show up as a dark gray instead of pure black. I detailed a test procedure for checking the issue using standard calibration patterns on the Roku forums here: Would it be possible for you to test the newer Roku models to see if they experience the same issue? If so, it would probably be worth mentioning in the review, since it means that anyone who cares about picture quality should avoid Roku in favor of other streamers.

I’m working with Roku on this right now. I’ve gotten conflicting reports saying that the Roku passes everything in the format it receives (so it would pass 0-255 as 0-255) but in my use I’ve noticed that it seems to change based on the EDID data a TV or receiver passes back. So with an Arcam receiver, it was sending Netflix as 0-255 but with an Anthem it went back to 16-235. Since the Roku hides the option to change this, I’m working to see if there is something that can be done to change this manually. I’d seen some Roku statements that the output was EDID based, but I tested straight into a 10-year-old Samsung TV, straight into a 2015 Vizio, and routed through a Yamaha receiver, and had the same result on all three, so I was starting to doubt that.

I guess it’s just dumb luck that all three triggered the 16-235 output. I agree that the simplest solution would be for Roku to just let the user pick the output levels (perhaps in one of their secret screens, so an average user wouldn’t accidentally stumble over it if they didn’t know what they were doing), but I’ve talked to their support team several times, and they continue to claim it’s just not an issue (or that it’s an issue with the TV or receiver, not the Roku), so I’m not holding my breath for a solution from their end. Does anyone have a suggestion for a device to replace my Apple TV?

I’m really only interested in having a means to send my Macintosh, iPhone, IPad, and PC screens / audio to my home theatre / projection system. I’m not particularly interested in a device that is mostly a means to connect directly to internet-based media providers.

Видеопроигрыватель Для Андроид. I have Apple TV, and after a year, have decided that it simply cannot be the solution for me. Nothing I’ve been able to do has been effective at enabling me to use the thing reliably. It crashes, the video freezes, the audio gets out of sync with the video, or it won’t connect at all, and that’s just on other Apple products. To use it with my Wintel systems, I have to use a third party solution.

I have Parrot 2.something. It’s even worse.

I won’t bore you with the details. Suffice it to say that I’ve given up even trying to connect my PC to the home theatre system. I’m not a total idiot. In fact, I’m a software developer who has extensive experience working with networks. I’ve already done the usual things with my routers, such as setting dedicated channels, updating the firmware and software on everything, and none of it works, at least reliably.

Certainly none of it can be made to work on all of my devices. If I tweak and reboot everything, I can usually get it to work on one of them.

But when it craps out, I frequently have to go through the entire process to get it working on another one. That really blows when I’m trying to screen a live event that isn’t on cable TV and have friends over to watch. Does anyone have a suggestion for a wireless device that I can put between my devices and home theatre amplifier that will allow me to send a video / audio signal from the devices I own? I think this review needs to be adjusted to also include Kodi usage on the Amazon Fire TV which, I think, most people owning the Fire TV take advantage of (since the Fire TV and Stick use android this is easily done). Sideloading Kodi is pretty easy nowadays and with the combination of Kodi and Amazon, it’s the clear winner to me. Not only do I have access to all of my network video files, but I can run other Kodi add-ons.

Also, Amazon continues to add function to the service allowing for quick typing when using the fire tv app on a phone. I don’t know if this makes a difference, and I respect that you’re likely far more of a subject matter expert on technical devices like this, but I work in Home Theater in Best Buy. The Amazon Fire Stick and Amazon Fire TV sell like crazy and the Fire Stick is frequently out of stock even though we regularly get copious amounts of them. Customers will just bluntly ask, “I’m looking for a streamer I can put Kodi on”, or “I’m looking for the fire stick, someone told me about Kodi and i want to try it” something along those lines. Now I realize one experience from an employee at a single Best Buy isn’t indicative of this, but I also know that the Fire Stick and the Fire TV are wildly popular on Ebay where you can buy it already loaded with Kodi on it, its usually where people coming into my store heard about it, they just dont want to pay the hiked up price.

This isnt meant to be a challenge to your statement, more or less an on hands observation from someone who sells them. I think for those wondering why Kodi isnt included in this review, it should really be taken into account that the popularity of Kodi is in that it is open-sourced and allows streaming libraries that host pirated content. Kodi does not officially support these libraries, and coming from an editor view point, I wouldnt really consider Kodi relevant since it doesnt typically provide anything I cant find in another streamer in regards to legal and ethical applications. I just assumed that regardless of whether the individual reviewer is personally okay with it or whether Kodi is or is not very popular, it doesnt seem conducive to industry rapport for The Wire Cutter to put their brand in a position where its advocating or explaining how well certain media streamers use the unofficial or non-legal uses of Kodi. If you don’t use Kodi, I would absolutely agree that the Roku 2 is the best one out there, user friendliness and reliability along with the ability to now purchase Tv’s that have Roku built into it gives it even more credibility.

Sorry for the long response, I’ll be surprised if most even read the entire thing, just wanted to provide an actual real-world observation along with a explanation for those gettin all bothered by the lack of Kodi advocacy. The Roku TVs function exactly the same as a Roku box. The only differences are that you have channels for the inputs in addition to channels for streaming services.

The speed is a little slower than the 2, 3 or 4 but not bad. I bought one for my wife’s office space and it’s been working great for her. You’ll get better picture quality going with a different brand and adding a Roku to it, but that might cost more and you may not really care.

Firmware upgrades can be slightly behind the Roku box, but not by much. We had the older version of the Roku 2 on our first flatscreen but it was much slower than our TCL 40″ Roku TV and did not have the kids account, so we swapped our TVs. Someone gave a much larger and nicer flat-screen TV that did not have streaming features so we decided to replace the older Roku 2 with a new one. I debated between the 2 and 3 for a long time because I like the headphone feature of the old one but did not seem worth the cost increase ($70 for a refurbished 3 verses $40 for the 2). I discovered that with the line of sight remote with the new 2 only works about 8′ from the box. Part of our sitting area is about 10′ away so you have to lean in to use it.

Thankfully I had the remote from the older 2 and was able to pair it with the new one. We now have a remote that works AND has headphones!

Had I known the line of sight was so poor, I would have paid the extra $30 and then been able to give the older Roku 2 to someone else rather than having to pilfer the remote to make the new one functional! (“Having to hook up your PC all the time”? I hooked it up once, and it stays hooked up. I use a different input on the TV for my DVD player.) It does work for me, but maybe the real question is, why wouldn’t it work for everybody? Advantages of streaming with a PC – Supports every streaming service; – Supports every protocol, like Flash; – Versatile: you can play computer games, watch video or photos stored on your hard drive, etc.; – With the right software, you can turn your PC into a TiVo; – You already have a PC. It may even have a DVD drive too. Disadvantages – You might have to buy a cable to connect your TV to your computer; – If your computer doesn’t have have two video outputs, you need a splitter; – You need a smart phone, tablet, laptop or wireless keyboard/mouse to control the cursor from the sofa (but you probably have at least one of those); – PC’s consume more electricity than those dongle streamers.

(About the boxes, I’m not so sure, especially compared to laptops.) Assuming electricity costs 10 cents a kilowatt-hour, which a PC might use in one evening. So three dollars a month. So a $30 dongle might pay for itself in a year, assuming you turn your PC off at night. (You mention universal remotes are more convenient than the app on a phone, but I am not sure that’s true. Amazon and Netflix both have on-screen controls for everything, including volume control.) Have I missed anything?

Let’s take those points one by one. – “A PC is large.” I am typing on a PC right now that is the size of a hardcover novel. It has what is known as a “mini-ITX” form factor, with a motherboard of less than 6″ to a side. They are widely available, even from mainstream PC manufacturers. – “A PC is utilized for other things as well.” As I said, that is an advantage.

It is a device that can be used for more than just media streaming. Of course, maybe you mean that somebody will want to use the PC while somebody ELSE wants to watch a movie. Luckily, with dual-monitor video cards (I have one), a PC can send different video streams to two different monitors. And even if you don’t have one, that misses the main point, which is YOU HAVE A PC ALREADY. If it turns out your family makes too many demands on the one device, you are perfectly free to buy a media streamer, (or even another PC.) So then, you would have bought only one media streamer instead of two. – “Having a PC for each TV in the house would be cost prohbitive.” First, a media-streaming PC can cost as little as $200, which is more than a media streamer, but cheaper than many gaming consoles, and is far more versatile than either. But second, you wouldn’t even pay that much, because YOU HAVE A PC ALREADY.

If you want to stream to a second TV, you are perfectly free to buy a media streamer for that one TV. – “Single point of failure”. Well, there you have me. If your PC fails, then you can’t watch video. Of course, the same is true of the TV, cable, cable modem, router, the receiver possibly, etc.

The same would be true of a media streamer. But it isn’t clear that you really mean it “fails”. If you mean it is simply “not available,” where one person wants to watch video while another wants to do word processing, then, as I said, 1) it actually often is available: a PC can send one video stream to one monitor and another to the TV, and 2) then you can get a streamer. As I said, PC’s are far more versatile than streamers, game consoles, DVD players, etc. AND YOU ALREADY HAVE ONE. I feel like it makes sense to maximize your use of an existing product in your home instead of buying a new gizmo, if you can help it. Don’t you agree?

You keep going by the “YOU HAVE A PC ALREADY” statement, yet you keep talking about the PC you have. That type of approximation doesn’t necessarily work when taken over an average. Looking at the current stats for the average cost of a PC show it closer to $400 and that’s assuming it was purchased recently, the average has been higher the earlier it was purchased (500ish in 2012, 600ish in 2010). Using for my averages. I’m guessing when you say “YOU HAVE ONE ALREADY” you are referring to the average user having the average PC not people who’ve purchased a media streaming PC dedicated to that task (this is basically a media streamer at this point).

The thing with average PCs is they likely also use the average form factor which is still ATX and are a bit larger than what you’re describing, making them somewhat less mobile but that’s besides the point I suppose since you are content with just having a very long cord mobility was simply something I like having but not necessarily something everyone needs. In regards to overtaxing the PC and multi-monitor setup I suppose this comes down to preference and others may be ok with having a monitor they can’t see attached to their PC, I would not like this as a setup at all. And if the device is overtaxed and you end up purchasing a media streamer this wouldn’t be a media streamer and PC (equaling 2 media boxes) this would be a PC and the media streamer taking over what the PC was doing before and replacing said PC. (Not sure where you’re coming up with would have bought 1 media streamer instead of 2) In regards to cost prohibitive to have a PC/TV. Cost I sort of covered at the start, but if you’re buying a dedicated device for media consumption (be it a streamer or media streaming PC is a bit irrelevant to the argument i’m making). Also it seems you agree with me on this point except for n TV’s I’d purchase n media streamers and you’d purchase n-1 media streamers so I suppose our point of contention there is on the -1 which we’re sort of covering with the other points 🙂 Cheers on the single point of failure, yes everything can break but man would it suck if your one source of everything broke:p. Also the whole multiple streams to multiple monitors is great but please let me know the software you use to make all this seamless because in practice I’ve not really seen it work the way you describe.

I’m guessing you use your PC as a streamer when you want to watch things and then also use it for other things separately (or maybe you have both in the same room which would make this a lot more bearable but certainly not an option for people that have their PC in an office or separate room from their TV area). I do agree that PCs are versatile.

But that versatility is part of why a streamer is nice. In order to configure a PC to be a media streamer you do need to have a little tech know-how, it’s not an out of the box experience and for the average PC user it may not be something they want to spend the time figuring out. A media streamer you purchase, plug in and stream away. Maybe you’re the type of person that doesn’t like potato peelers because a knife can peel potatoes just as well, just because configuring your PC as a media streamer was something convenient and easy for you to do does not mean that on average it is something everyone can or should do especially when there are dedicated devices that are affordable and require no additional knowledge to set up and configure. If you can come up with a little setup pamphlet that can explain to a 5 year old how to set up their PC as a media streaming device to their TV then I will concede that you are correct until then I will keep to my stating that a PC is simply impractical for most common case users to configure the way you have it set up and a media streamer is the better and more viable solution. Example setup pamphlet: Cheers •.

You have two options for this: – You can get the Roku 2, which was our prior pick, and it will work just fine with the Harmony 650 IR remote. – You can get the Harmony Companion remote, which also allows for IP control of the Roku Streaming Stick, and other devices that don’t use IR (Sonos, etc) With the Roku 2, it’s still a great option, it just costs more than the Stick and lacks the private listening feature and is harder to move. For people that haven’t already invested in a universal remote, we recommend the Streaming Stick, but if you have, just get the Roku 2. What they’re selling is an Android TV box that is shipping with Kodi and a few extra packages installed. Those packages are designed to aggregate sources online for movies and TV and then make them available for streaming. They point out that it’s not illegal to do because you’re streaming and not downloading, but lots of them require you to use a VPN to make it appear that you’re outside of the country, or can be aggregating from sources that might be illegally streaming them.

Also, those Kodi packages can easily be removed in the future, or support can stop on them, and then they’ll stop working (which has happened with many of them). They’re also charging $350 for what is likely a $100 box with some free software installed on it. It’s not something we’d recommend as if it seems to good to be true, it usually is, and you have no guarantee that the movies or TV shows they are streaming are even the ones you want to watch.

They just promise a lot, nothing about quality of selection or the image quality. This report is spot on.

I have tried everything – Google TV, Chinese Android stick, Android TV, Chromecast, Fire TV, 4th Gen Apple TV, and now Roku. Out of all of these the Apple TV has the nicest interface and user experience. Everything is polished and smooth.

The remote is excellent, AirPlay is easy to use, and apps are high quality. But it is missing contents from Amazon and Google and not as portable. Therefore I now added the Roku stick to my TV set as well. It works well.

Best of all it has the TWC app so I can get my cable channels without renting additional boxes. Before Roku I relied on Chromecast while traveling and hook everything up to a portable router. I didn’t know what I was missing.

Now with Roku I have a remote. Doesn’t sound like a big deal but it’s annoying to open up your phone every time just to skip back a few seconds. The Roku remote handily take care of that.

I have Rocket Cast for Chromecast and now I got Rocket Cast for Roku and I find that it works even better. The Roku version works flawlessly so far. The newest revision to the Streaming Stick is TERRIBLE. Do not buy it.

Get the old one or a Chromecast if you need a stick. The remote is flimsy and tiny, very hard to hold and use, feels like a bad child’s toy. The vaunted “sound through your mobile” works for about 5 minutes and then loses the connection, no more than 2 feet from the Roku and 5 feet facing the wifi router.

The picture quality is bad. The device routinely can’t be found by the Roku app as a remote. Cheaper is not better in this case.

I would point out that the PS4 does support HBO go, and Blu-Ray. Also does output sound for 5.1.2 (don’t know if Roku supports that). Since I already use the PS4 for gaming, I like to also use it for Netflix, amazon movies, etc., but for local storage streaming I still use an old WD TV.

I have to say, the point you make about the Roku stick having one search across multiple platforms is really enticing. My biggest pet peeve is wanting to watch a movie and searching Fios, Netflix, Amazon prime, HBO, and on and on •.

I typically have no issues with the streaming devices over WiFi in my house. I don’t hard-wire most of them since I feel most people don’t, and almost never have issues with the services. During the Olympics I did find the AppleTV did better streaming than the Roku 3, but the Roku 3 was further away from the WiFi router so I can’t be certain if it was device or WiFi. Since more services are 10-15 Mb/sec or less and WiFi can easily maintain those speeds, you usually don’t need to hard-wire but it is better if you can. For the most part, people don’t need or care about Ethernet or USB, so it’s relegated to more expensive models. Just like an Optical output.

For the same price as that Roku 2XS you can get a Roku Stick which loses Ethernet but adds a faster processor, much smaller form factor, USB power instead of a bulky adapter, an RF remove instead of IR, and private listening mode. If you require Ethernet or USB then yes, the price is higher. But since most people don’t, you are getting more for your money now. Anyone know the full specs for the new Roku boxes? Specifically the Roku Ultra? Which SoC is it using and at what speed? How much RAM does it have?

How much internal storage? I am assuming they skimped like most of these companies and are still using USB 2.0?

For $129 it should have at least 2GB of RAM, hopefully they upped the internal storage from the paltry 512MB that the Roku 4 has. For $129 you should be getting a USB 3.0 port and Gigabit ethernet but of course Rokus are overpriced for the actual hardware you are getting. I have been running plex on multiple Rokus for years that more or less has worked just great.

I just spent some time with a cheap $40 Android box, Wellwin, that received good reviews on Amazon. Interested in Kodi that can’t be used on Roku and not native to Fire though it can be added. The review above relating to Android TV vs Android boxes is spot on! Kodi navigation with the remote is OK but the UI for PLEX on this machine is total crap! Even navigating through the Google Play store is clunky. Might be worth “hacking” the Fire to get Kodi. While I can’t do a comparison as I only have the Roku Ultra (just got at Costco on sale) I can say I streamed Star Wars Force Awakens REMUX through the plex server and app and it looks just as good to me as from the bluray player.

My remuxed mkv file did have the audio in FLAC_7.1 (converted from DTSHDMA_7.1) because it takes up less space and the Roku can handle FLAC but since there is no audio loss between the two and the fidelity is exactly the same then I would say yeah it works great! That’s streaming a total of something like 40Mbps and it took it no problem. Even told me in the settings section of the Plex App the bitrate it was receiving. It likely wouldn’t be considered for Media Streaming since it lacks HDR support for 4K, and you’re also tied into a single streaming service (Sling) for your TV content. If it were to support HDR then it might be a contender in Media Streamers, but right now it would need to go into a guide to tuners if we wanted to do that. Since you can also pair a Shield TV with a tuner and run a number of different services to record OTA TV (Plex, Tablo, HDHomeRun, Local Channels), or use Channels on an AppleTV with a tuner, and not be locked into a single service, those are more promising options for most people IMO. The two reasons I returned the Roku streaming stick were: wifi-only meant I couldn’t get signal strength for it to even work – depends on your situation.

Also for anything like youtube, typing with the remote is ridiculous. I guess there’s a smartphone app though. The roku media streaming app (for your network files) is clunky. For mainly youtube and streaming files from PC, I think android box is more versatile. Also you use whatever the hell wireless usb remote you want, including wireless/IR ones that control both the box and your TV so you’re not juggling 50 remotes but rather 1. Btw, I think most android boxes are being used to steal copyrighted content.

Don’t be a sociopath, and actually pay what you’re supposed to. The Shield TV, which runs Android TV, is a pick and has numerous paragraphs written about it. Another Android TV device was tested and the performance and experience was well behind other media streamers in my view. Bias is defined as “prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair.” I think the Roku streamers are better for most people, and prefer them to other streaming devices. It’s not unfair, their boxes are just better choices for most people. I have an MXQ android box that I purchased from Amazon in 2016, which I use for playing local video (.mkv,.mp4, etc from a USB drive), in 1080p, no hdr. Last night the box died 🙁 (When I turn it on or unplug/plug, I get an “Android System Recovery” screen, the box’s remote doesn’t work at this stage, and the box has no button so I don’t now how to recover from that).

I’m looking for a replacement. The article seems to suggest Nvidia Shield for my use case, but that seems overkill for what I want to do (nvidia shield = $250, my MXQ box was $60). Contrary to what the article says, the android box with Kodi works just fine – I don’t feel like I should be using touch to use the interface). What’s a good Android box to get at this time (my MXQ box doesn’t seem available anymore)? The Roku also offers 24p output now as well if the app will stream at 24p. It’s up to the app to provide that feature, and most TVs (though not all) will extract 24p from 60p correctly now as well. Testing image quality is something that’s far, far harder to do unless it’s a very apparent flaw.

I’d need two identical TVs, and would need to know how much of the flaws are from streaming bandwidth, network congestion, or other issues. I try to eliminate the network as an issue as much as possible (Gigabit fiber, high-end Ubiquiti mesh networking, wired connections with possible) but it’s not possible to be 100% certain what causes the image issues without physical media to use. I can do that for Blu-ray players and TVs, but for media streamers it is hard if not impossible. I’m asked streaming services if it’s possible to setup a local server to use test media and have always been told no, so I’ve tried. Hi – I currently have a previous gen Fire TV (bought earlier this year) and I recently added an LG B7. I’m going to hang the B7 and use the Fire TV to feed content.

Is there any good reason to upgrade? Looks like the Fire TV (previous generation) does not do HDR? I think both Netflix and Amazon Prime serve up HDR content, so would I be selling myself short? Alternative would be to use the smart TV capabilities, but I would still need a streaming box for PS Vue – but I don’t think PS Vue streams in HDR.

So – long story short – do I need to upgrade? Thanks Chris. I think there were some issues a while ago with the LG smart TV apps tracking and reporting usage?

Are those solved? To clarify – the FireTV I have won’t push full 4k and HDR, correct? I ask because: a) I don’t really like the interface on the LG b) Would like to have only one remote control c) Want the easiest solution – not sure that my wife would be thrilled about bouncing around on different solutions At this point, another few dollars isn’t going to break the bank and I want this to be simple and reliable. Correct, the older FireTVs lacked HDR support. One had 4K support, but without HDR there is really no point IMO. Also, everyone tracks your usage on the apps pretty much, so it’s not just LG but everyone. However, if you want the easiest solution, I’d suggest picking up the new Apple TV 4K and giving it a shot.

I’ve been a Roku person forever, and still think it’s the best choice for most people, but with your LG the AppleTV supports Dolby Vision, has all your streaming video apps in one location (including Amazon in HDR10, but not in Dolby Vision yet), and a great interface. I use it with my OLED and it’s been great, but costs a lot more than the Roku of course. Also Apple had the best consumer privacy of any of the media streamers we tested, or TV companies, so there is that.

Great article, I love thewirecutter/thesweethome, the team continues to do solid, objective analysis. This is a challenging category to judge, especially if you were to have considered the cord cutting aspect (and considered which devices support Hulu Live, YouTube TV, Sling, Vue, DirecTV Now).

While that was beyond the scope, that is the use case that many people are starting to look to fill. If you choose an internet only ISP plan, and use YouTube TV to fill your live television needs, then I think the Nvidia Shield would be the most obvious choice at this time as it is one of the few streaming devices that supports YouTube TV (and provides the most cord cutting options). Until then I can justify a $150 upgrade, I will continue to rock my Roku SS and Plex server!

How is the performance of the new Streaming Stick+ compared to last year’s models, specifically the Premiere+ with ethernet? Amazon currently has a Premiere+ for only a few dollars more than the new 2017 Streaming Stick+. What’s the difference?

Is the newer one a much better CPU and faster interface? Or are they pretty much the same? I’m just wondering if it is worth it to get the older Premiere+ just to have an ethernet port, although I have 802.11AC in my house, but I’m hoping it can handle 4k + 5.1 audio on my Plex server without issues.