Streaming Devices

I am looking to replace my Apple TV since it’s giving me problems after about 6 years. I see that Amazon is still selling the Roku Ultra, which I was thinking of buying since it has built-in Ethernet. Given that the Roku website doesn’t list it as supported, is it still safe?

For my money, I believe Nvidia’s Shield products are the best streaming devices available right now. I’ve had my Shield TV Pro since 2016 and it’s been rock solid. I particularly like that the Pro variant is actively cooled, which I think has prolonged it’s longevity.

https://store.nvidia.com/en-us/shield/

I’m not a fan of the Roku platform. I had an Ultra some time ago but I found the UI frustrating to navigate. They’ve also started displaying advertisements on the idle screen which really irritates me.

1 Like

Roku gave just forced a change of conditions on their customers, forcing them to arbitration, instead of being able to sue them.

They, and Amazon and Google, collect a lot more information over your viewing habits than Apple does… But, on the other hand, the devices are a lot cheaper.

But my FireTV stick only lasted a couple of years, before it started running out of memory. I switched to an Apple TV last time around, the quality is day and night, but so is the price…

Shield pro would be the recommendation from me too ( don’t buy the non pro), although I’m not really in the apple ecosystem.

I think the latest fire cubes are pretty good too and a bit cheaper. I have I’d agree with the others that it’s best to avoid Roku.

We’ve got a Gen 1 Cube, and it’s been very good. I think the larger device means they run a bit cooler than the sticks. Had this one for over 4 years and had no problems at all.

Something to be aware of if you do end up going with a Roku device, Roku no longer allows you to change the DNS record, it always points to 8.8.8.8. I left the Roku platform in favor of Apple TV so that way I could point DNS to my internal pi-hole.

1 Like