Which streaming stick to use?

[4strokeluvr111]

We currently have Roku streaming sticks but I'm sick of all the glitches/bugs and want to switch to a different platform. I was leaning toward the FireTV stick, but after reading numerous online reviews, it seems like they all suck!

What do you have and do you like it and why? It needs to have an ethernet port too.

 

[earthling]

We currently have Roku streaming sticks but I'm sick of all the glitches/bugs and want to switch to a different platform. I was leaning toward the FireTV stick, but after reading numerous online reviews, it seems like they all suck!

What do you have and do you like it and why? It needs to have an ethernet port too.

What kind of glitches/bugs are you seeing? (we have roku, firestick, nvidia, pc, appletv)

 

[Yamajon1]

I have Roku and Apple both work fine with no issues from either brand

 

[4strokeluvr111]

What kind of glitches/bugs are you seeing? (we have roku, firestick, nvidia, pc, appletv)

The infamous characters disappearing. The screen goes black for about a second many times. That's pretty much all I can think of right now. 200mps up/down and I know it's not an internet issue with the black screens.

 

[4strokeluvr111]

I have Roku and Apple both work fine with no issues from either brand

I'd have a hard time getting anything from Apple, but I should look into it.

 

[earthling]

The infamous characters disappearing. The screen goes black for about a second many times. That's pretty much all I can think of right now. 200mps up/down and I know it's not an internet issue with the black screens.

By characters you mean actors? We have quite a few rokus, but I think none of the streaming sticks, we have two roku Express 4K devices on wireless and they are pretty much perfect but my wireless network is about as good as it can get.

If you are thinking about upgrading, I would look in this order, descending from best to worst and also price.

+ Nvidia Shield TV Pro (2019+)
+ Nvidia Shield TV
+ AppleTV 4K (latest)
+ Roku Ultra (basically a tie with AppleTV)
)) Roku Express 4k
)) FireTV
)) Roku streaming stick

+ = Wired
)) = Wireless

At the top of the foodchain is an Xbox as it has the horsepower to decode anything but unless you have a kid that is into gaming its probably not a practical solution due to price.

Wireless performance is critical. We have the Roku Express 4K at our cottage and we run Ubiquiti access points, basically in the same room.

A black screen for a few seconds will only happen due to a few conditions. One, the TV loses sync over HDMI for some reason, two the player (stick) is struggling to decode video for some reason, three the player app is struggling to maintain timing between audio and video. All other errors should show up as either temporarily low resolution (lack of bandwidth) or buffering for the same reason depending on the app.

 

[4strokeluvr111]

By characters you mean actors? We have quite a few rokus, but I think none of the streaming sticks, we have two roku Express 4K devices on wireless and they are pretty much perfect but my wireless network is about as good as it can get.

If you are thinking about upgrading, I would look in this order, descending from best to worst and also price.

+ Nvidia Shield TV Pro (2019+)
+ Nvidia Shield TV
+ AppleTV 4K (latest)
+ Roku Ultra (basically a tie with AppleTV)
)) Roku Express 4k
)) FireTV
)) Roku streaming stick

+ = Wired
)) = Wireless

At the top of the foodchain is an Xbox as it has the horsepower to decode anything but unless you have a kid that is into gaming its probably not a practical solution due to price.

Wireless performance is critical. We have the Roku Express 4K at our cottage and we run Ubiquiti access points, basically in the same room.

A black screen for a few seconds will only happen due to a few conditions. One, the TV loses sync over HDMI for some reason, two the player (stick) is struggling to decode video for some reason, three the player app is struggling to maintain timing between audio and video. All other errors should show up as either temporarily low resolution (lack of bandwidth) or buffering for the same reason depending on the app.

No, characters, letters, symbols etc. missing. Maybe my cable is going bad? Our Roku is hardwired to the router. I check speeds frequently and it's good.

 

[4strokeluvr111]

No, characters, letters, symbols etc. missing. Maybe my cable is going bad? Our Roku is hardwired to the router. I check speeds frequently and it's good.

I really like the idea of the Invidia system but it's way too costly if I want to add two more TVs to the setup. So I guess I'm left with fire stick or Apple.

 

[earthling]

No, characters, letters, symbols etc. missing. Maybe my cable is going bad? Our Roku is hardwired to the router. I check speeds frequently and it's good.

Text Characters are either converted from plain text (captions or SRT file) and then converted into images and an overlay on the video. If the video is there and the characters are missing, the cable is good. Its all sent as combined video from the roku to the HDMI port on the TV. This means that the roku is having a hard time supporting them. My wife watches an annoying amount of foreign films with subtitles and never sees a problem (or has never complained) but like I mentioned, we only have the higher end roku and nvidia boxes.

 

[4strokeluvr111]

I'm one of thousands who have the problem. It's annoying but the black screens have put my frustration over the top. I want to try something else but we've got 2 other tv's to set up as well.

 

[earthling]

I'm one of thousands who have the problem. It's annoying but the black screens have put my frustration over the top. I want to try something else but we've got 2 other tv's to set up as well.

I was unaware of that issue. I try to avoid the 'sticks' as much as possible because I know what it takes to decode video having managed teams in that area. Those sticks are a compromise as they have to cram quite a lot of technology into a very small amount of room without causing a heating problem. Since you are familiar with the environment (roku) it may be worth picking up a used one.

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[4strokeluvr111]

I was unaware of that issue. I try to avoid the 'sticks' as much as possible because I know what it takes to decode video having managed teams in that area. Those sticks are a compromise as they have to cram quite a lot of technology into a very small amount of room without causing a heating problem. Since you are familiar with the environment (roku) it may be worth picking up a used one.

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We have sticks on our 2 other bedroom TVs. Our main TV has an ethernet cable attached to some sort of older roku device, then an hdmi cable to the tv.

 

[biffdotorg]

We have used the Firestick and Firestick 4K, and over time we have found the 4K must have quite a bit more hp/cache, as it has had better longevity as far as performance going through menus. Once streaming, they have all done just fine.

One thing I do love way better is our Xbox One X. Going through menus, and picture/sound quality are way better. Obviously, it's not a $30 USB stick, but if you needed a reason, do it.

The one thing that makes the xbox run so much better as a streamer is a dedicated AV remote for the xbox. It's always on, and just picking it up, the buttons light up. We run our entire theatre room with the xbox. It fires up the stereo and projector from the AV remote. Unlike the controllers which shut down about the time you need to pause the video for a bio-break.

I'm a bit biased as a Microsoft FTE, I get to try out new apps and games before the general public. I am pretty excited about the cool apps that run so well on xbox that I have tested in beta.

Sirius XM, Amazone Prime Music, Apple TV, Disney Plus, Paramount, and GamePass

Good luck!

 

[earthling]

Any "4k" variant and specifically anything that has to support 4K and h.265 or HEVC decoding will have significantly more horsepower and memory. The Xbox is the cadillac of streaming boxes, it just cost too much unless you can justify it because you have one already.

 

[YukonMP]

Out of curiousity I clicked on this thread to find out what a streaming stick is. Living as I do in rural northern Canada I've never heard of them and from this thread it seems I may not be missing much. Reminds me of the time way back when I was in a city and walked into an electronics store. I was greeted "Can I help you'. I replied, "Yes, I'd like to see a DVD player. I was led to the back, looked at them and started to leave. I saw the quizical look on his face and said "I've been hearing about these things for years and just wanted to see one".

Now back under my rock.