Poll: Fire Stick or Roku?

[wormil]

I have both. Roku has a better UI but Fire sticks last longer. Rokus get slower and slower with every software update. Fire sticks slow down but you can clear the cache to fix it. I've never sideloaded but that's a plus. I would prefer Roku but my experience has been better with Fire. All my Rokus except the first had a relatively short life.

 

[malt]

A couple of years ago, I got our first streaming device, which was a Fire stick. It worked fine until we got YouTube TV last fall. Whenever we watched a live ballgame, the picture was very jumpy, to the point of me feeling sick. After searching online, I decided on a Roku Streaming Stick+. We've never had that problem with the Roku. Also, there have been a couple times when I tried watching MLB.TV on the Fire stick, and I got a message that the app was not available, try again later. I then switched to Roku and it worked just fine.

 

[arlo]

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.

Logitech BT keyboard and mouse all the way here.

 

[KaptainRandom]

We have firestick for DishAnywhere when on vacation,
Our Hopper 'goes' with us.
I like the layout of the firestick
And the web brouser for non-app stream sites.

We also have a roku.
I like that the ff/rewind function on the roku does 30sec/10sec per button press.
At least it foes on espn+.
Makes it easier to get through commercial breaks.

Sent from my SM-G986U using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[MartyDe]

My first Roku wifi receiver failed and had low signal. I think it cooked itself. Really a hot running device. Newest one seems to loose contact with the remote. Have to pair more than normal. It's at my sister's so a work in progress. I have a new firestick and so far very good. I just want it to keep running. I can get to what I want so no operating complaints.

 

[comfortably_numb]

My first Roku wifi receiver failed and had low signal. I think it cooked itself. Really a hot running device. Newest one seems to loose contact with the remote. Have to pair more than normal. It's at my sister's so a work in progress. I have a new firestick and so far very good. I just want it to keep running. I can get to what I want so no operating complaints.

I will agree that the Fire Stick runs cooler than the Roku.

 

[Zookster]

^ I'm reminded of another reason I voted for Roku over Fire TV. My second generation Fire TV stick died just a month or two after it was out of warranty with only very limited use in my bedroom setup.

 

[ncted]

I've seen a number of reports of Rokus overheating, including my neighbor who I helped replace her dumb TV+Roku stick with a TCL Roku TV recently. I've never had this particular problem. Mine just get slower and slower over time to the point where they just become unusable. My oldest Firestick (2nd Gen) is still useable, if not as fast as the 4K sticks I have. All of that said, these are pretty low cost devices, so getting more than a couple of years out of them isn't bad IMHO.

 

[klang]

Fire TV Stick 4K on sale for $34.99

 

[mackie99]

Fire TV Stick 4K on sale for $34.99

Amazon is getting greedy. They are normally $24.99 when they go on sale.

 

[comfortably_numb]

Sheesh! I paid $49.99 for mine at Target last Friday. Now I'm doubly glad I returned it!

 

[klang]

Amazon is getting greedy. They are normally $24.99 when they go on sale.

It was from one of my tech emails. No idea what the normal price is. Think I paid $25 for mine but that was during one of Amazon's 'special' events. Bought one because it was cheap but never use it at home. Works for travel though.

 

[Jimbo]

Amazon is getting greedy. They are normally $24.99 when they go on sale.

34.99 for the Dolby Vision version
29.99 for Non Dolby Vision version.

 

[chiodo]

I have both Firestick 4k and Roku premier 4k , picture quality is far superior on Firestick 4k.

Only drawback is lack of storage space on Firestick limited # of apps.

Roku 4k is okay, but picture quality is much better on firestick 4k.

 

[StanDarsh]

I like the Roku, even though I have a firestick...right now it's located at my fire dept, for use when we are bored and sitting at the station...
I will say that I am more involved with Roku because I am in close contact with the OS dev team for the Roku OS, and have been for a few years. I know they work hard and push updates almost weekly that try to address the bugs found in the Rokus... not all updates get pushed to the public, but they do work to try and squash bugs regularly, and are actively working on updates.

 

[wormil]

Amazon is getting greedy. They are normally $24.99 when they go on sale.

They only let you buy one at that price.

 

[ncted]

I have both Firestick 4k and Roku premier 4k , picture quality is far superior on Firestick 4k.

Only drawback is lack of storage space on Firestick limited # of apps.

Roku 4k is okay, but picture quality is much better on firestick 4k.

I thought this was the case when I first got my Firestick 4k, and it still seems true for most everything except Prime Video. I get all sorts of low-bandwidth issues on Prime video on my Firestick 4k, but not on my Roku Ultra for some reason. Both are hardwired to ethernet, and I have AT&T Fiber Gigabit service.

 

[StanDarsh]

What are people doing to them to cause them to fry? I've still got the very first Roku device. In fact, the thing is in a clear housing, as in the beginning, roku didn't have a black casing, it was see-thru clear plastic. I have a streaming stick, 3 ultras, and 2 or 3 Roku 3's.

Same question for the slowing down. I've never seen any of mine do that. An occasional reboot is probably healthy (via the settings menu). I also put 64gb or 128gb memory cards in all of mine...solves the problem of not enough room... Basically it's running a linux backend so there shouldn't be any resource hogs that aren't fixed with a reboot.

 

[wormil]

What are people doing to them to cause them to fry? I've still got the very first Roku device. ...

Same question for the slowing down. I've never seen any of mine do that. ...

If I dig out my old Roku2 it will be so slow that you'd notice. Matter of fact I could show you the speed difference between previous generation Fire stick and Roku TV. Or Roku Stick and Fire stick, if the Roku Stick hadn't died.

 

[StanDarsh]

obviously the older Roku devices aren't going run as efficiently as the new ones, but I don't ever see anyone posting about their Roku being fried. My daughter, 8 y/o, uses our Roku 4k Ultra for 10-12 hours each day...still runs pretty efficiently. Prior to the Roku 4k ultra, she was using the Roku stick the same amount of hours per day...and it still works fine since I took it from her room. Again, all of my Roku devices get an SD Card soon as I buy them ...all of my Roku3 devices had an SD Card and ran pretty fast the entire time I used them. My neighbor uses my Roku 3 now and she never has issues with loading or speed. And my grown daughter nextdoor uses my other Roku 3 and it's her primary means of watching TV. All have SD cards.