Which Roku to buy?

[MartyDe]

My express lasted about 2 1/2 years. Wifi signal went from excellent to poor. Tried everything and I think one of the receivers died. My thoughts about most of these sticks etc is no way to disapate heat. No vents and mine ran hot most of the time. Amazon fire TV due soon but I still expect it to run hot. Going to place it away from TV and associated electronics. Design goes against everything I know about electronics.

 

[TRG]

Before COVID I traveled extensively. I bought an Amazon FireStick during a sale to use in the hotel at night to stream Netflix and Prime Video. It started getting slower and slower over the period of about a year. Now its so slow or non-responsive that I don't use it anymore. I think I got my $30's worth though so I won't complain.

 

[solarvic]

The purple wifi roku stick And all the other roku players that roku doesn,t support are junk and too slow. You might as well junk them models.. The roku stick + is a really good stick and gets a strong signal. The roku speaker bar is excelent. The amazon fire sticks I have receive a weaker signal and are buggy with my tablo players. My choice is the rokustick + that is on sale for $39.00 and ordered another one.

 

[ncted]

My express lasted about 2 1/2 years. Wifi signal went from excellent to poor. Tried everything and I think one of the receivers died. My thoughts about most of these sticks etc is no way to disapate heat. No vents and mine ran hot most of the time. Amazon fire TV due soon but I still expect it to run hot. Going to place it away from TV and associated electronics. Design goes against everything I know about electronics.

A lot of the Firestick modders drill holes around the edge to dissipate heat. Mine never seem to get all that hot TBH.

 

[MartyDe]

A lot of the Firestick modders drill holes around the edge to dissipate heat. Mine never seem to get all that hot TBH.

Well thank you. I will look into that after I see how hot it runs. Also saw a procedure to uninstall some of the apps to free up memory.

 

[ncted]

Well thank you. I will look into that after I see how hot it runs. Also saw a procedure to uninstall some of the apps to free up memory.

There are a number of steps you can take to supposedly reduce load on the stick. Even with that, some apps, like Disney+, still do not run as well as on my 2018 Roku Ultra.

 

[Zookster]

My second gen FireTV stick died recently after 14 months of very light use. It did often feel warm to the touch though my setup is relatively open to air.

 

[solarvic]

Got a new roko stick plus as all the older roku stuff is not suported or too slow. Had the purple stick which is junk now as it is too slow and unstable. Paired the purple stick remote to the new stick + and it works well but has no volume controls. That was ok as that is a little tv that I use beside my computer. That leaves me an extra remote with volume and mute control for my roku speakers on my big screen tv.

 

[TheKrell]

all the older roku stuff is not suported or too slow.

Did somebody say "slow"? You don't know "slow" until you try a Roku SE, which was my first Roku device which I bought refurbished for $15. I gave it to the Goodwill. Maybe somebody else has the patience.

 

[StanDarsh]

Did somebody say "slow"? You don't know "slow" until you try a Roku SE, which was my first Roku device which I bought refurbished for $15. I gave it to the Goodwill. Maybe somebody else has the patience.

Like I mentioned..the first Roku that I ever got a hold of was unreleased to the public. It was clear/see thru, and it wasn't the best at loading up Netflix/Hulu.
Back before Roku ever launched, the only thing they had was Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. There wasn't even a YouTube or a real channel store. Things escalated quickly though, and lots of things were brought in before the launch. It has come a LONG way since the days of that first one that didn't get released...

And still, to this day, every single version of Roku that is pushed to the public is tested thoroughly before it's sent to soak, then eventually public. From 1.0 up to what..9.3 now?
Things have sure changed over the years in the streaming atmosphere.

 

[KAB]

That one will do most everything that the others offer, but the remote is IR only as someone else stated. I do think the other remotes are worth the cost increase as they are not line of site, and also contain tv volume and power control (and headset capability with the ultra).

But, for Harmony users, it would be the preferred model, next to the Ultra, which is superior.

 

[jerryez]

I love my Roku Ultra and I have only had it a few days. I used a TiVo OTA for streaming and it is really slow, plus not HD. MY Roku Ultra zooms and the picture is perfect HD.

 

[KAB]

I love my Roku Ultra and I have only had it a few days. I used a TiVo OTA for streaming and it is really slow, plus not HD. MY Roku Ultra zooms and the picture is perfect HD.

I just wish HBO and Roku can come to terms over MAX. I can only watch it on my Samsung TV where it is just a background TV. Had to update to a new Stick to get Apple TV+....bought my wife a new iPhone which gave us a year free. Some really good stuff there. Not the huge smattering of Netflix, but enough to get me back after a while when all the new seasons drop (which will be a WHILE).

 

[jerryez]

Since ATT now owns HBO< I would never do busines with any ATT company. And I almost feel the same about Disney.
Once burned, twice shy.!

 

[Zookster]

Since ATT now owns HBO< I would never do busines with any ATT company. And I almost feel the same about Disney.
Once burned, twice shy.!

I bite the bullet and "pick my battles." Occasionally subbing to HBO for a specific show is one thing. Dealing with AT&T for internet or mobile. NO WAY. With Disney, it's impossible to stand on principle if you ever want to watch ABC, ESPN, or Marvel and Star Wars movies. Though Disneyland is my personal definition of Hell on Earth.

 

[ncted]

Since ATT now owns HBO< I would never do busines with any ATT company. And I almost feel the same about Disney.
Once burned, twice shy.!

I get how you feel. I feel the same way. However, I have AT&T Fiber for Internet and AT&T Prepaid for cell service. Why? Because those are my best options for where I live. I could go with Spectrum for internet, but my wife works from home a lot(all the time for now), and the VPN experience on AT&T is so much better for her than on Spectrum, and AT&T has so far had fewer outages. When it comes to cell service, we could go with Verizon postpaid, and get maybe somewhat better service, but at a much higher cost. We tried Verizon Prepaid, and it was so deprioritized that it was unusable, so we pay ~$65/month for 2 lines on AT&T with plenty of data and all the features we need. It works pretty great, so I ignore that I am dealing with the death star and live my life.

Not that I love Verizon or Spectrum as companies either, but AT&T is a special kind of mismanagement. Now it looks like T-Mobile is going down the same road, laying off thousands after promising to increase staffing post-merger. They are all the same these days to some degree on another, so what is one to do?

Edit: FWIW: I get HBOMax for free now, so AT&T buying Warner actually means I am sending less money to AT&T in the big scheme of things.

 

[comfortably_numb]

One of my co-workers has a son that lives in a subdivision with AT&T as the only provider. So they use them for gigabit fiber, but subscribe to another service for OTT streaming.