Roku vs Fire Stick

[retire48in2018]

We have several TVs. Most are Fire Cube

1 more advantage of Roku - better copying apps, and Home Screen from TV to new TV
Fire cube is so/so on carrying over profile (layout and apps) to new TV

 

[GenXguy]

I have both. Seems like the Roku has a simpler interface.

The Firestick will allow me to connect to my Windows home theater PC via SMB share to play videos from there directly, while Roku required DLNA or something like Plex, Emby, or Jellyfin. No big deal. I had some issues with my Roku suddenly pixelating badly while watching video from anywhere until I rebooted it. It kept happening. But once I power cycled it, that hasn't returned. Had an issue with Peacock locking up while launching on the Firestick, and would always have to clear the cache to get it to work again. Uninstall/reinstall and reboots didn't prevent the the problem from returning. But eventually the problem went away - probably some update that got pushed out. Both are fast enough. My Firestick is a 4K Max. Roku is actually older 1080P model. I do like that I can control volume with my Firestick remote.

By the way, I use an antenna a lot, and these devices have absolutely nothing to do with that. I use Sage TV software for tuning and playing broadcasts from antenna.

 

[retire48in2018]

We have 1 with both….to get both advantages

 

[Cobra9777]

I like the Fire TV platform. We use the Cube with ethernet. IME, this is much faster than any stick on WiFi. It's extremely snappy and responsive. Yes, the homepage can be a bit "pushy" on Prime and sponsored content. Sometimes this is annoying, but often it is helpful. Overall, I like the homescreen look and layout, plus some short-cut functionality, like bookmarks for the Silk browser. This is how I look at weather radar. We also use the Live Guide from the home screen. And DW likes the "Continue Watching" feature.

The Cube is also an Echo Show device that uses your TV screen for the visuals. So we use it for home automation stuff using the mic button on the remote. For instance, we can pull up a live view of our 3 outdoor Wyze cams, turn lights on and off, unlock the front door, etc. If you ask about the weather, you'll get a forecast display on the TV. When you ask it to play music, you get visuals of the artist, lyrics, etc. And of course, you can check the status of Amazon shipments, which will display an image of each item and it's expected arrival date and time.

I also like the integration with Amazon Photos. I know that other platforms do this as well, like Google Photos on Chromecast. But it has become our main way of looking at photos. Our phones automatically upload to Amazon Photos. So as soon as we get home from an outing, we can enjoy our photos on the big screen. You can also search for specific photos or image content using voice prompts.

The remote is intuitive and simple to use. It controls the TV and our AVR. You can change inputs with the mic button and voice prompts, though we rarely do that. We don't use any other remote.

Roku is a simpler display, less cluttered, easy to use, and less "pushy"... though not quite as agnostic as it once was. Personally, I like some of the added functionality and the linkage into the Amazon ecosystem. Certainly Apple TV links to the Apple ecosystem and Chromecast links into all things Google. If you don't want any of that, then Roku is the way to go. Or just use the smart apps on your TV, which BTW are MUCH better than a few years ago. Otherwise, pick your favorite ecosystem and enjoy the added functionality.

 

[Luvtoride]

Like JoeWras and many others, I think Roku is the best way to go. I have at least 5 Roku devices in my two homes and it has allowed me to get rid of most of my Xfinity box rentals and saved me hundreds of dollars a year (using the Xfinity stream app). I’m currently staying with a friend in Florida and the TV in the bedroom we’re staying in is not a smart TV. We went out and bought a Roku 4k for the TV and we had it hooked up and working with their Xfinity service in 10 minutes. I don’t think there is a single major streaming app that Roku doesn’t support and interface with very easily.

 

[Sojourner]

All - in all - if you want screen mirror or use attenna - choose Roku
If you want previews/recent shows as you screen over apps - choose fire stick
Clean Home Screen - Roku
Smart home integration - Fire stick (fire cube)

I agree with all the above, especially the point about a clean home screen. FireTV stick is much worse in terms of how cluttered and riddled with ads the home screen is. Takes much longer to boot up and get going than a Roku stick due to how much crap the FireTV stick has to load initially.

OTOH, the one thing I really do like about FireTV stick is that it supports the free 3rd party app Kodi. I use Kodi all the time to watch videos from my local media server, and I really like the Kodi interface. AFAIK, it's difficult and kludgy to get Kodi to work on a Roku. For that reason alone, I would choose FireTV stick over Roku as my primary/main device.