ROKU STICK OR FIRE STICK

Chuck Summers

SatelliteGuys Pro
Feb 23, 2016
178
147
KIrksville, Mo.
I was wondering if you have a Hopper 3, is there any advantage in adding the
Roku or Firestick to your system. We just got internet at our rural house and was just wondering if it's worth using
that with the Roku or firestick since as I stated we have the Hopper 3. Thanks in advance for your help.
 

navychop

Member of the Month - July 2014!
Pub Member / Supporter
Lifetime Supporter
Jul 20, 2005
60,108
27,437
Northern VA
I have a Hopper 3. I do not have the Hopper Plus. Don’t need it, as I have a Sony smart TV, a couple Firesticks and about 3 Rokus.

One old Roku stopped being supported and has gone to that great capacitor in the sky. Or maybe to the burnt resistor in the other direction.

Sony access to YT, Prime, etc has become a little flaky. So I use the Firestick Ultra wiz-bang model on the Sony. It plays video on the TV and audio thru my HT. Great.

I use the Rokus on the other TVs.

Both are fine. Happy all around. If I HAD to, I’d give a slight preference to the Firestick.

Both are certainly superior to the Hopper Plus. I gather the only advantage to the Plus is an integrated, more or less, UI.

Ask any questions you like. I can fire them up and test.

Happy Happy
Joy Joy
 

charlesrshell

SatelliteGuys Crazy
Lifetime Supporter
Jan 14, 2006
10,979
5,687
O'Fallon, IL
I think it is worth getting a Firestick or Roku. It's nice to have a backup if you have issues with your Hopper apps. Also, you can take it with you on vacation if you stay at a motel.
 
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Chuck Summers

SatelliteGuys Pro
Feb 23, 2016
178
147
KIrksville, Mo.
I have a Hopper 3. I do not have the Hopper Plus. Don’t need it, as I have a Sony smart TV, a couple Firesticks and about 3 Rokus.

One old Roku stopped being supported and has gone to that great capacitor in the sky. Or maybe to the burnt resistor in the other direction.

Sony access to YT, Prime, etc has become a little flaky. So I use the Firestick Ultra wiz-bang model on the Sony. It plays video on the TV and audio thru my HT. Great.

I use the Rokus on the other TVs.

Both are fine. Happy all around. If I HAD to, I’d give a slight preference to the Firestick.

Both are certainly superior to the Hopper Plus. I gather the only advantage to the Plus is an integrated, more or less, UI.

Ask any questions you like. I can fire them up and test.

Happy Happy
J

I have a Hopper 3. I do not have the Hopper Plus. Don’t need it, as I have a Sony smart TV, a couple Firesticks and about 3 Rokus.

One old Roku stopped being supported and has gone to that great capacitor in the sky. Or maybe to the burnt resistor in the other direction.

Sony access to YT, Prime, etc has become a little flaky. So I use the Firestick Ultra wiz-bang model on the Sony. It plays video on the TV and audio thru my HT. Great.

I use the Rokus on the other TVs.

Both are fine. Happy all around. If I HAD to, I’d give a slight preference to the Firestick.

Both are certainly superior to the Hopper Plus. I gather the only advantage to the Plus is an integrated, more or less, UI.

Ask any questions you like. I can fire them up and test.

Happy Ha
 

chiodo

SatelliteGuys Pro
Pub Member / Supporter
Aug 17, 2005
665
453
Pacific NW
I have both Roku and Firestick, Firestick had better picture quality on my TV, but with updates on the Roju I can't tell the difference.
But yeah definitely better than trying to use apps on the H3.
 
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TRG

SatelliteGuys Master
Pub Member / Supporter
Jul 19, 2007
5,314
8,228
Albuquerque, NM
My TV needs are very minimal. We've had both Roku and FireStick. My wife prefers the Roku user interface so that's what we use. I keep the FireStick in my bug out bag for when I need to travel out of town on short notice. Personally I could be happy with either of them. A good friend of mine who is a TV aficionado ponied up the extra money and bought a Fire TV Cube. He has it controlling everything in his entertainment center via voice. It's kinda cool but a bit overboard for my needs.
 
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KAB

SatelliteGuys Master
Pub Member / Supporter
Lifetime Supporter
Sep 20, 2005
21,747
5,248
Fishers, IN
My TV needs are very minimal. We've had both Roku and FireStick. My wife prefers the Roku user interface so that's what we use. I keep the FireStick in my bug out bag for when I need to travel out of town on short notice. Personally I could be happy with either of them. A good friend of mine who is a TV aficionado ponied up the extra money and bought a Fire TV Cube. He has it controlling everything in his entertainment center via voice. It's kinda cool but a bit overboard for my needs.
So can AppleTV, which is good, but not great...it has it's "issues".
 
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Bobby

Publican
Supporting Founder
Lifetime Supporter
Sep 7, 2003
70,043
25,701
Rohnert Park, CA
I have a Roku, Firestick, and AppleTV. They all have issues with one thing or another. The issues aren‘t with the devices themselves, just the application software provided to them. You will generally find the version you are looking for, 4K/HDR, on one of them depending on the application.
 
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Strega

SatelliteGuys Family
Aug 6, 2023
53
103
West Coast
It must be an interesting time to be a content company, because besides delivering video to cable and satellite feeds, now you get to write and maintain apps for Roku OS, Fire OS, Android, Android TV, Google TV, iOS, Samsung, LG, Xbox, PS5, Apple TV, TiVo Stream, web browsers… I’m sure some of those have at least some degree of overlap, but I’m not surprised there are some bugs here and there.
 
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KaptainRandom

SatelliteGuys Pro
Jun 6, 2013
617
455
mesa az
I was wondering if you have a Hopper 3, is there any advantage in adding the
Roku or Firestick to your system. We just got internet at our rural house and was just wondering if it's worth using
that with the Roku or firestick since as I stated we have the Hopper 3. Thanks in advance for your help.
Firestick has 2 advantages...
A) DishAnywhere for traveling
B) Internet browser for streaming web sites that don't have streaming apps.

The Roku has a nicer user interface.
 

arlo

SatelliteGuys Pro
Dec 4, 2016
1,245
851
North Eastern
I would say for me it's 99% Fire TV and 1% Roku.
Roku does have easy screen mirroring and cast to from your pc, phone. Fire, not so much.
Roku has you locked into what Roku approves of. Unless things have changed. Roku only allows one "sideload" app.
Fire, the sky is the limit. Kodi, apps that may or may not work with them from Aptoide.
Troypoint and other sites keep up on the latest greatest Fire apps with tutorials and step-by-steps.
Downloader has apparently been removed from Amazon. But you can still get it. It lets you get those apps easily.
It's a choice you will need to decide on. I'd say get both. Roku has a lot of free apps. And a whole lot of paid ones too.
If that's the direction you don't mind going.
I'm sort of a geek. So being able to access the file system of my Fire TV is nice. Roku, not so much.
One nice thing about Fire devices is the ability to use a bluetooth keyboard and mouse. A pita on Roku.
 
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sktrus

SatelliteGuys Pro
Feb 4, 2020
729
838
Ken ta kee
Follow the sales. Roku sometimes offers better deals than Amazon for its own device. They are so inexpensive. Get both. Roku lets you arrange all the the streaming apps. Amazon believes theirs is superior to others!!!
 
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Software version H368 for Hopper 3

DishAnywhere and DVR glitch or not?