Poll: Fire Stick or Roku?

[comfortably_numb]

Which do you prefer and why?

I've had Roku sticks on all 3 TV's in my house for a long time. Friday I went out and bought a Fire Stick- pretty much just because I wanted the Earthcam app.

I've had Fire Sticks before but it's been a couple of years. I found the GUI to be "busy" and there were bloatware apps I couldn't get rid of. Also no VUDU app, I guess because of a spat with Walmart. Overnight Friday it installed even MORE bloatware apps I couldn't delete.

I liked the Earthcam app, but that wasn't enough of a reason to keep it. I returned it to the store today. I guess I just prefer the cleaner, more app-focused look of Roku better.

 

[TRG]

Gotta go with Roku. The firestick along with all the any of the "fire" products have much too much advertising and other distractions on the screen. That said, I keep a firestick, power supply and remote in my bug out bag. There are times where it comes in handy while stuck in a hotel somewhere. Did I mention that my firestick was FREE?

 

[TheKrell]

Split decsion here. I much prefer the Ruko interface. But it can't play media on my local LAN because it's almost all mpeg2/DTS. My FireTV Sticks can.

 

[TRG]

Split decsion here. I much prefer the Ruko interface. But it can't play media on my local LAN because it's almost all mpeg2/DTS. My FireTV Sticks can.

Is that with a stock firestick or one that's side loaded?

 

[TRG]

I much prefer the Ruko interface.

Is Ruko some cheap Chinese knock off of a Roku?

 

[osu1991]

I’ve never cared for the Roku’s. They work ok, but never worked well enough for me. The OS always seems slow on them and I did have one of the newer 4K models that I gave to my sister earlier this year.

I just prefer the latest 4K Fire Sticks. One click down past the banner ad and I’m in my recent apps and below that are my apps. I can ignore everything below those 2 rows.

That said I do like Android TV running on the new TiVo Stream 4K, once I removed all the TiVo stuff. However now Google has added an ad banner of recommendations that you can’t remove to the top of the Android TV home screen and TiVo still has some firmware bugs to fix, before I can really make it my go to device.

I’ll probably take a look at googles new Android TV device when it launches, if the price is right, but so far the 4K Fire Sticks are solid and do everything I need the way I like them.

 

[TheKrell]

Is that with a stock firestick or one that's side loaded?

Ah... It's stock along with VLC loaded off the app store.

Is Ruko some cheap Chinese knock off of a Roku?

That's me going blind to my typo. Fixed.

 

[TRG]

Ah... It's stock along with VLC loaded off the app store.


That's me going blind to my typo. Fixed.

That's right I forgot that you could load VLC from the app store. VLC plays everything you throw at it. Its the best multi platform Swiss army knife CODEC decoder to date.

BTW - I know you made a typo. I was just being a wise a$$. It's what I do.

 

[comfortably_numb]

That's right I forgot that you could load VLC from the app store. VLC plays everything you throw at it. Its the best multi platform Swiss army knife CODEC decoder to date

Actually, I think PotPlayer may have overtaken VLC as the best media player!

 

[dishdude]

I've had them both and have settled on Android TV. I like how simple and clean I can make the home screen, plus it seems more "open". Amazon and Roku are playing hardball so new apps don't seem to be launching on their platforms - no HBO Max or Peacock for example.

 

[solarvic]

I have 2 roku sticks and 1 roku sound bar which plays likr thr roku stick. actually the remotes on the roku sticks are the same as as the soundbar. Never a problem with roku. Have 3 fire sticks and it hangs up sometimes and I hate how it trys to trick you into playing Amazon stuff. Also have a nvidia player that I am still learning how to use and like it also. Roku is my favorite go to player.

 

[ncted]

I prefer the UI of Roku, but the reality of daily use favors the Firestick in my house, despite the advertising and bloatware. This is not because the Firestick is all that, but because we can count on it to just work, which is what we used to say about Roku. Here are all the problems we've run into with Roku which I spent inordinate amounts of time troubleshooting before giving up:

1. Roku remote decides up is down and starts doing the opposite of the volume button pressed on our Samsung TV in the kitchen.
2. Roku remote will not power off the Sony TVs in our living room and master bedroom. It puts them in standby and then they immediately come back on again 90% of the time. It takes forever to actually power off these TVs with the Roku remote.
3. Roku Ultra remote with headphone jack cause instability in that device. When I attempt to use the headphones for private listening, the Roku invariably reboots, often more than once. Firestick just uses bluetooth for connection and works fine.
4. Roku remotes use wi-fi. Removing all the batteries in our Roku remotes after we determined we wouldn't be using Rokus any more greatly improved my wife's wi-fi performance for working from home ever since.

Additionally, I have been able to side load apps on the Firestick, making up for things like HBOMax not being available, which is not so easy on Roku. The Roku remote will also control my AVR power/volume separate from the TV power/volume. YMMV, but that is why we've gone with Firestick.

 

[navychop]

Stop using their remote. I control mine with Harmony. IR is an option.

 

[arlo]

Just like Apple devices, Roku has you held captive. Although their subscription content is diverse, you're still under their watchful eye and mercy as to what you install. It's your device and therefore I believe you should have control over it.
Applications from developers have to meet both of these vendors specifications except for the one and only sideload app you can install at a time.
Fire devices allow third party developers such as the Kodi team to offer a vast number of applications with no intervention of Amazon.
Exactly like Linux OS applications, most are free and you can install and uninstall at your digression.
I have an Apple TV. Sets in a drawer. My Roku is up and running. Not really used that much.
My Fire TV and Cube get thumbs up all the way. PVR capability is a big plus.

 

[ncted]

Stop using their remote. I control mine with Harmony. IR is an option.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I am not going to pay for Harmony remotes for 4 TVs to support streaming devices that cost less than the special remotes. Amazon gets the user experience (mostly) right at a low price point, so they win.

 

[mwdxer1]

I have both, two Fire Sticks & 2 Roku's. My complaint with Fire TV, is the lack of memory to hold channels. With Roku, I can easily have 200-400 channels without any issue. If I get too many with the Fire sticks, I start losing material. But the Fire Stick have apps and also search engines the Roku doesn't. The Roku has no search engines, and some channels are not available either. So they both are about 50-50 with me.

 

[osu1991]

200-400 channels. I barely keep and use 6 apps.

 

[arlo]

I have both, two Fire Sticks & 2 Roku's. My complaint with Fire TV, is the lack of memory to hold channels. With Roku, I can easily have 200-400 channels without any issue. If I get too many with the Fire sticks, I start losing material. But the Fire Stick have apps and also search engines the Roku doesn't. The Roku has no search engines, and some channels are not available either. So they both are about 50-50 with me.

An option that is slick on the Fire is you can use a USB OTG adapter and a USB stick and attain exactly what you need. And as mentioned with the right stuff, use it for PVR storage.

 

[lparsons21]

I like the Roku UI better, but the FireTV devices are just overall a better choice IMO.

Nearly all the various streaming services are available and in those cases where they aren’t, getting the service app via sideloading is available and not onerous to do.

And for those that want OTA also, Amazon has the Recast DVR that only works with FireTV devices and it works well. Just got one today and it found more stations than any other over the air device was able to get and it integrates reasonably well with the FireTV UI.

 

[Zookster]

I voted Roku. My primary use is YouTube TV and a handful of rotating paid apps (NF, Prime, HBO, Hulu, etc.). Though I really like the faster loading speed and voice control for YouTube TV I get on the 4K Fire Stick (compared to my 2016 Roku Premiere+/Ultra), the 4K FireTV locks YTTV's 2-channel audio in a way that prevents my AVR from processing it to create a pseudo-surround field. My work around is to run it through my 2008 plasma TV, which only outputs 2-channel audio from connected sources via optical digital. For some reason, my AVR can process this audio, but of course I can't get 5.1 audio from any other apps on my 4K FireTV Stick. Therefore, the Roku is a better all-around streamer for me, if I had to choose (or vote in a poll). However, when I know I'll mainly be watching YTTV for the next few hours, I fire up the FireTV stick.