roku vs firestick vs ??

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Sadly, I need my laptop for a(nother infernal) Zoom meeting at the same time, so it looks like I'll just be doing double windows with the game muted and my eyes plausibly aimed at the screen.

My Android phone casts directly to my smart TV. Worth a shot if your laptop is busy

[wilson]

My Android phone casts directly to my smart TV. Worth a shot if your laptop is busy

My tv is too dumb for that.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

My tv is too dumb for that.

Aw buddy, I'm sorry. Send it to tech school. No shame in that.

[wilson]

Aw buddy, I'm sorry. Send it to tech school. No shame in that.

Hey, plumbers make more money than I do. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[devilish]

Depending on your browser and TV you may be able to cast the game from a laptop to a TV. I will have to do this this afternoon for my dad so he can watch Arsenal get humiliated...again...sigh.

So I will be watching Arsenal/Liverpool on a laptop. What year is this again?

[Kdogg]

So I will be watching Arsenal/Liverpool on a laptop. What year is this again?

It’s a bit late but for the future: long HDMI cable and use the TV as a second monitor.

Also the beef between Peacock and Roku/Amazon explained.

https://www.businessinsider.com/why-...fire-tv-2020-7

[YmoBeThere]

Got a Roku Ultra recently, new version as of October 2020. Had a Roku 2 that after 5 years of service would "skip" about 1/10 of a second every once in a while. Ultra works fine but haven't really tested it with casting, don't have 4k, etc.

Did just get gifted HBO Max as part of my internet connection (AT&T Fiber for about 6 years now) now trying to thin the herd of services I now have. Sling, HBO Max, Prime, Netflix, Disney+ and the This Old House app on my Roku.

[rsvman]

As others have said, go with Roku.

[devil84]

Roku, definitely.

As far as the Roku remote controls, I know ours are around here somewhere (all 3 of them). The Roku app on your cell phone/tablet/computer works much better, especially because you can use your device's keyboard to enter text, rather than navigating the on-screen keyboard with arrows and the OK button. We've had Roku devices for quite a long time, probably owning 7 or 8 of them, with 2 finally being old enough to not support the Roku apps we wanted and letting our children borrow some of the others as we get the newfangled ones with more features.

I have a FireTV, too, with a Roku attached. FireTV is more tightly integrated to Alexa, but Roku can play nice with Alexa, too. "Alexa, watch ESPN" is as close as you can get to getting to the Duke game automatically, but honestly, that's reasonable enough, because the Duke games aren't usually more than 2-3 clicks away in the ESPN app. I haven't tried the Google Home device for sports recently, but I do like saying, "OK Google, watch Schitt's Creek" and it pokes Roku to turn to the proper TV inputs, turn on Netflix and start playing the episode where we left off.

There was something we really, really liked about the FireTV, but since I can't remember it, it's clearly not a feature we need often. It was probably the voice interface, asking to play a certain artist's music or videos, much like Google does. However, we don't do that often (mostly for a few Raffi and Sesame Street videos for the toddler grandson). The Roku does everything we need.

We also have a Google Chromecast dongle, too, for the stuff we want to watch on the big screen/surround sound system that is infuriatingly only on the laptop. Or when we need to annoy the other spouse by showing them the plethora of options while online shopping ("Honey, do you like this rug/pizza oven/recliner? How 'bout this one? Or this?"). Or, in the before times when we could share videos/photos among the visiting family.

To summarize: Roku has been rock solid for many years for us and plays nicely with Alexa as well as its own voice contol. The Google Chromecast is very useful for throwing your laptop/tablet/phone screen to the TV when Roku isn't supported. We are not in the Apple environment, so I can't speak to any of their products.

[LasVegas]

I’ve had them all and I still always come back to my Apple TV 4K. Every once in awhile I will be tempted to buy some of the cheaper options and try them out but they never live up to my ATV 4K. I’ve recently been intrigued by the new google chromecast so maybe I’ll give that one a shot since it’s been updated.