Nearly everything is easy to find on the platform, aided in no small part by deeply integrated voice search functionality that scours over 200 apps to find the best prices on shows and films, and features like My Feed help us keep track of the content coming shortly that we have our eyes on. While the massive, egalitarian offering of 3,000+ streaming channels is clearly the highlight of Roku OS, we’re also fond of its clean and simple layout, as well as its robust search platform. While we were reviewing the Roku Streaming Stick+, The Roku Channel was showing The Warriors, The Pursuit of Happyness, Drive and Men in Black, among dozens of others. The films range in quality and swap from time-to-time, but considering it’s all free content, it’s hard to complain too much. The latest addition to the line-up is Roku’s own streaming channel - a free-to-watch network that has films and TV shows the company has licensed from studios like Columbia and Paramount. If you’d like to stream some audio, Roku offers both music mainstays, Pandora and Spotify, but also Deezer, VEVO, SiriusXM, Amazon Music and TuneIn, too. In the case of the new Roku Streaming Stick+, you’ll have to familiarize yourself with Roku OS 8 – a pumped up version of the egalitarian operating system that adds few new streaming services and apps, including Roku’s free streaming channel, Roku TV.īefore now, Roku had most everything a streamer could want: Netflix and Amazon, obviously, but also YouTube, Crackle and Vudu as well. Of course, what’s hardware without software to go along with it? Roku vs Fire Stick: which streaming video devices are better?.It would’ve been nice to have 3.5mm audio jack built directly into the remote, but not having one here isn’t a dealbreaker - and plus, there’s always the Roku app for iOS and Android. It has a microphone built-in for voice search, dedicated media buttons for Netflix, Sling, Hulu and PlayStation Vue, and thanks to its IR Blaster/HDMI CEC connection, it can control the volume on your TV and some external devices. While the Streaming Stick’s remote doesn’t have all the bells and whistles that the Roku Ultra has, it still feels fairly premium. The major advantage Roku has over its competition - namely the Chromecast Ultra - is that, like every other model Roku makes, the Streaming Stick+ comes packaged with a remote. you won’t have to rebuy the entire system just because you’ve misplaced (or destroyed) the power cable. Thankfully, Roku has given that scenario some thought and will make individual cables available for purchase - i.e. The downside is that, should the cable break or go MIA for any reason, you can’t just replace it with any old mini-USB cable. The benefit here is a faster and more stable streaming experience which translates to faster load times and less time buffering. It provides the Roku Streaming Stick+ with four times the range as the old Roku Streaming Sticks and helps reduce interference. New for the Streaming Stick+ is that strange, proprietary power cable that houses the external antenna. The form factor was popular enough for Roku to warrant an update last year and throughout the years has been copied by both main hardware manufacturers and cheap knock-offs alike. It’s a form factor that Roku pioneered five years ago with its oblong and creatively colored purple Roku Streaming Stick, and it’s clearly served the company well over the years. It is, for the most part, a familiar design. Despite the additional hardware, however, it will still neatly fit behind your TV, and draw power from either your TV’s USB port or from the wall. Roku’s streaming sticks have always been deceptively simple devices, but the new Roku Streaming Stick+ takes that design philosophy to a new level: It’s just as petite as its predecessors (a mere 3.7 x 0.8 x 0.47 inches and 0.9 ounces) but stuffs even more power into the flash drive-sized form factor.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |