Roku - Streaming Stick with Voice Remote with TV Power and Volume - Black

This is my third Roku streaming stick (fourth Roku overall--I also have the Roku Premiere Plus). After years and years and years of having the outrageous cable bills and paying for ten thousand channels we never watched, I finally convinced my husband to CUT THE CORD. Enter the Roku streaming stick. If you have a good internet service (read: fast speed internet), all you need is this streaming stick. We cut our cable off and our bill for a really good, fast, high speed internet is literally $100 cheaper without all the baggage of those ten million channels we never watched anyway. We already subscribed to Netflix (and thanks to my love of all things Star Trek, we have a subscription to CBS All Access as well). Between those two subscriptions and all the free (totally free) apps found on Roku to watch various movies and tv, it's all we need. And this is with three kids, a preschooler, an elementary school aged kid, and a teenager. They are more than happy with their YouTube, Netflix, and Internet shenanigans. But wait, there's more. Lo and behold, our former cable provider (Spectrum) offered us a good deal to come back to them--we could choose any ten cable channels we wanted (a la carte), plus have the major OTA channels (ABC/CBS/NBC/FOX/PBS) included and not counted among the 10 chosen channels, for a very low price of $20/month. As we live in an area where even the best (expensive) antennae never worked to receive those local channels, we jumped at the chance and now our tv experience is complete. Our (already bought) Roku streamers basically work in place of those cable set-top boxes that I hated paying ridiculous monthly "rental" fees for. Our total monthly bill now, for our high speed internet and cable tv (of channels we actually WATCH), is a fraction of what it was before. A win-win overall.

I have used Roku for years,including several different models.The best new thing of note is Roku has recently released The Roku Channel,which has hundreds of free movies.It is ad supported.Roku has just about every app you can imagine (YouTube/Pandora/Netflix/Amazon/Hulu/HBO Now) plus tons of more apps in many different categories.Here are some points to consider when deciding on which model of Roku to buy: 1)If you need to connect by WiFi in a room far away from your WiFi router,I would recommend the Roku Streaming Stick PLUS or Roku Ultra. 2)If you have a 4K TV,I would recommend the Roku Ultra or Roku Streaming Stick PLUS. 3)To search for content using your voice,go with either the Streaming Stick,Streaming Stick PLUS or Ultra. 4)If you want a wired ethernet connection,go with the Roku Ultra. 5)If you want to connect to an old TV with RCA/Composite audio/video jacks,you will need the Express PLUS 6)The Express models have a remote where it has to be pointed at the device,unlike the other Roku models. 7)If you are only going to buy one Roku device,I would recommend the Roku Ultra.The Ultra has many unique features that the other Roku models don't such as: -Gaming buttons to play video games -Remote finder to find a lost remote control -Ethernet port for a wired connection -Micro SD card slot -USB Port -Night listening mode (this lowers the volume of loud,explosive sounds and raises the volume of soft sounds like whispers.Very useful!) -Headphone jack on the remote for listening without disturbing others

First let me premise my review by starting off by saying that this little stick is actually pretty decent. I’ve used ROKU on smart tv and have enjoyed the experience. This little stick is very capable and works good. My reason for knocking off a couple stars are 2 fold. First off I bought this primarily for use with my slingbox (not slingtv). I install the slingplayer app so I can connect to my slingbox and low and behold slingplayer from my phone doesn’t communicate with this roku. After some digging on the Internet I found out the latest OS update by Roku broke the casting feature. Mind you this isn’t readily available information on the internet so I had to do some digging around to find this out. After some back and forth with roku support they have basically said the issue is with sling and it’s out of their hands so I have to contact sling. I contact sling and their response was they were aware of the issue and said Roku needs to patch their OS. Bottom line is this - neither have words of optimism to offer. This thing as it sits now doesn’t work with slingplayer for slingbox so don’t buy this expecting to use it for this! I’m disappointed to say the least and irritated that both companies can only point fingers but offer nothing for a solution. The customer service was less than stellar too. Slow to respond and lacks any offer a solution. As I stated earlier this is a good device so if you’re not dealing with a slingbox then this will definitely make you happy. I’m not returning mine as I’ll make use of it in other ways, But I can’t give it the rating I think it deserves due to poor customer service and failure to produce working results for a product it claims to works support. I know it works with older products and did with this one as per testimonials on the internet. When a fix is coming is the big question!

So I gave this 1 star because I expect all aspects of my devices to work when I buy them. I actually bought 2 of these, both in February. Within 2 months the remotes of both failed. The living room remote was using batteries every 3 days. The bedroom remote just quit responding with the stick. The bedroom remote still controlled my TV's volume but not the stick itself. After contacting Roku they did respond quickly, and I was sent new remotes for both units. Strangely, The new living room remote drained 2 sets of NEW batteries in the first week, and the bedroom remote still would not control the stick. I asked if there could be a problem with the stick sending bad signals to the remote causing a battery drain, or a bad receiver in the stick itself causing it to not properly respond. I was told, BY A ROKU REP, it could not be the sticks and it had to be a remote problem. I just find it hard to believe that I would receive 2 new remotes with identical problems. I spoke with friends who owned Roku sticks, and was told to "just throw the remotes away." Theirs failed as well. I was also told that one of their remotes melted on the inside. After my experience, reading forums, and hearing other's experiences I can firmly say that Roku makes a junk remote. There are a couple of pluses to these Roku sticks. (1)They have an app that you can download on any smart device and use your phone, tablet, etc. as a remote as long as you have WIFI. (2)It responds MUCH faster than a Fire stick. As long as you don't mind 1 of the 2 major components, that you are paying for, failing then this might be a good fit for you. For me, I expect my purchase to work.

Purchased 3 of the streaming sticks the weekend after Thanksgiving as we have had enough of high cable bills & contracts. Installed on main tv and began loading apps and using. Saw no issues and liked what we could do. Decided to hook up on the two other TVs in the house based on what we experienced. While watching a show through Prime Video a message popped up saying the stick was overheating. After researching online I was able to access the screen where you can see the temperature, 108C!!! I checked the other 2 Roku sticks and while sitting idle those sticks are at 88C & 82C, doing nothing!!!! Called Roku and they said they will send me out an extender to go between the tv and stick, we’ll see how that works. Checked temperature on other tv’s while using and both get up to around 96C when in use. Roku support said they do not have a known normal operating temp to tell me as each stick is different, what??? Anyways started using the Prime Video app again on one of the other TVs and temp went up to 106C. Tried on the 3rd tv and same result, 107C while using the Amazon Prime Video app. For some reason that app makes these sticks hot as can be. Again, Roku had no idea why and it doesn’t seem anyone else does either, very strange. From discussions I’ve had, and reviews I’ve read, it looks like the Roku Ultra is the way to go. Don’t like how hot these sticks run, makes me nervous as the first stick damaged the HDMI port on my bedroom tv, and people who I’ve talked to that have these said they have never seen their stick get that hot. I love what we are able to do with the Roku, but will do it through the Ultra and possibly the TCL tv. Will be returning the sticks.

I have a disable brother in a nursing home I bought this for from Best Buy. Although he has an Amazon Firestick on TV, he wanted to keep You Tube, which Google owns, but is canceling operation for on the Firestick because they say Amazon won't sell its products. Well as you can see from going to Amazon it is a pure out-and-out lie. Regardless, I bought a Roku from Best Buy so that my brother would be able to have You Tube. Well, if your contemplating about buying this Horrible Device, know that the TV unit generates a different activation codes on the hour and that you have to establish a Roku account to plug it in. And if you don't have a computer hooked up to the Internet right next to the TV, IT WILL NEVER ACTIVATE. This is the most insane method I have ever seen. The activation codes should be sent by the TV to Roku or Roku should send it via email so you can plug it into the TV since the device serial number is located on the side of the box. I think I am going to have to bring my laptop down to try and get this Horrible Device to work. It may not because it seems it doesn't want to generate new codes. By the way there are several codes you have to enter on your laptop, ipad or phone - this makes setup a complete nightmare and took several days to try and figure out. But it doesn't stop there. Their support is run by people who can't understand any coherent English. The support from what I can determine is all scripted and absolutely useless. Now the channels. I bought this for the exact purpose of having access to YouTube for my disable brother, with YouTube being listed as "Top Free". Don't you believe it!!! First of all it lacks all the videos you could find on your computer (which are currently on the Amazon Firestick), but also now charges for the ones that were absolutely free. And you can't even get 1/8 of the videos that were on which are currently on the Amazon Firestick and your computer. Talk about RIP-OFF!!! You get 14 basic channels which all are pay-for-view which includes movies and TV shows that date back 50 to 60 years ago. DO YORSELF A GREAT BIG FAVOR AND GO WITH AMAZON FIRESTICK WITH AMAZON PRIME ($100 per YEAR). You will be far more satisfied and keep more of your money!!!

The cost of the Roku streaming stick Makes it almost a no brainer to consider, and the remote can power your TV on/off easily and control the volume - something that remotes on video game consoles or some streaming players can’t do. If you’re hoping to cut the cord, there are several great options, such as YouTube TV, PlayStation Vue, DirecTV Now, Hulu, or many other options and they’re all supported by Roku. The only thing that annoys me is trying to find channels through the UI of the services I’ve tried (Hulu and PS Vue) - there’s no ability to just enter a channel on the remote and channels are not assigned a number like cable/sat service. If voice recognition worked to choose channels I probably wouldn’t mind; but, voice recognition varies in different apps. Movie services, like Netflix and Amazon Prime, all work really well; there’s no lag when starting to play a movie, or when trying to close a movie or scroll through the menu. If choosing channels were possible by inputting numbers, and if the power button actually powered the Roku stick itself on//off I’d give it five stars. The fact that the Roku stick remains on can be a problem for those of you that have ever Internet providers that place caps on usage since streaming continues for 2 hours (or whatever amount of time you programmead the Roku to timeout in).

Let me start off this review by saying so far I love my my Roku Stick. I have it plugged into an old, but good, Toshiba TV in the bedroom. Prior to the Roku Stick I had a Chromecast plugged in. To me, this is a big upgrade. Being able to browse apps and content on the TV instead of having to use my phone is great. The OS while a little basic gets the job done very well. The ability to set the Roku remote up to control the TV is an awesome added bonus, not having to fiddle around with two remotes adds a lot of value to me. Now, for the short comings, or places I think this could be improved. I would love to be able to plug an Ethernet cable into it. The WiFi just doesn’t seem to cut it while trying to stream movies from Plex server. I double checked all the settings and it just doesn’t seem to work right. The ability to use the remote to switch inputs and channels on the TV would also be very welcome. A lot of us cord cutters have antennas for local stations and this would mean never having to touch my TV’s remote again. Finally, the voice search is pretty terrible/unusable. Other than those couple of things this little stick is great value for the money and highly recommended for anyone with a “dumb tv” that they wished had apps. I’ve been recommending the Roku Stick from the first day I had it.