The purple streaming company releases new Streaming Sticks and the high-end Roku Ultra.
Here's how to decide which is right for you.
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Roku
By Andrew Moseman
Oct 2, 2017
25
'Tis the season for new streaming players. Apple and Amazon recently refreshed their offerings, releasing more powerful and more capable boxes this year. Now it's Roku's turn. Fresh off its IPO, the purple-tinged underdog has a new slate of devices to play Netflix, Hulu, and everything else for you.
Roku Express and Express+
Roku
Roku sees this little guy as the entry-level device for people who might be buying their first streaming device—say, your dad with the cable package who wants to try out streaming on his second TV. It's also stocking-stuffer priced at just $29.99. There's also the $39.99 Express+, which is a version made for old TVs that don't have HDMI—only the red, yellow, and white RCA ports of old.
Roku Streaming Stick
Roku
The appeal of the stick is that it's not a box. That means you don't have another little black rectangle sitting on your dresser or entertainment center—instead, the stick plugs right into the HDMI port on the back of your TV. It also makes the Streaming Stick easy to take along with you and use in a hotel TV, for example.
The 2017 iteration adds a few key features to the Streaming Stick. Now it has a headphone jack in the remote for "private listening" (after your partner goes to bed), as well as voice search. That last part is key. I've been testing an Apple TV and an older Roku Streaming Stick at home. I can tell you that while the Roku experience is more pleasant in many ways, the lack of voice search in the old stick was a major stumbling block, especially once you get used to just asking for a show and having the device show you where it's available.
That costs $49.99. The Streaming Stick+ goes up to $69.99, and one thing you're paying for is a wireless receiver built into the power cord, which improves signal great if, say, your router is behind the TV (this way it doesn't have to go through the TV to get to the box). It streams 4K, too.
Roku Ultra
Roku
Gone is the Roku Premiere; now the top-of-the-line Roku box is the $99.99 Ultra. It plays 4K and 4K HDR. It's got the best tech inside, plus an ethernet port, a micro SD slot, and a neat remote-finding feature. It's the one you want if you're the kind of person who loves streaming and needs the very best.
Bonus Features
Roku also just released a bunch of cool features with version 8.0 of its operating system. A personal favorite is the nod to cord-cutters like me who supplement their streaming services by using a modern antenna to pull good-old over-the-air signal for the major networks. Roku introduced a smart guide that uses the data already in the broadcast signal to build a channel guide like what you'd get on DirecTV, showing you what's on in the past and the future.
They also integrated those antenna channels into the device's overall voice search. What that means is that if you search for Cheers, it'll show you not only the seasons you can stream on Netflix but also what episodes will be airing as late-night reruns on your local CBS affiliate. Or, if you missed an episode you were dying to re-watch, it'll show you where you can stream that particular episode.
(Full disclosure: Hearst, Popular Mechanics' parent company, has an investment in Roku.)
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/news/a28451/roku-new-streaming-players/
