New Roku stick surprise

[Jerry1]

My Roku stick was acting up. I bought it in 2019 and I’m pretty sure it was 4K. I got a new one today and set it up on my TV and was very surprised at how much better my picture looked. I bought it because the other one needed reset too often. The one I selected mentioned that it loaded faster and had the better remote. But when I saw the picture I was very pleasantly surprised.

If you have an older Roku (maybe any streaming stick), and a newer TV, you might want to consider upgrading your streaming device. I’m happy I did.

 

[Z3Dreamer]

I suffer from GAS - Gear Acquisition Syndrome. Every few years we buy a new TV and put the old one in some room in our house, for when guests visit or the exercise room or the office or the kitchen. I even have a small one in the master bath. Most are 13 years old or older. Most are small. We have 8 TV's in service. 7 have Roku's and one has a Fire TV.

From my account at roku.com, I can see that most are five to eight years old. The two that get a fair amount of use (any use at all) are from early and mid-2019. Are you telling me that upgrading my 4660x2 will result in significant improvement? If so, DW will not want to hear this as I just upgraded our working 55 inch TV with a 75 inch TV.

 

[qwerty3656]

I suffer from GAS - Gear Acquisition Syndrome. Every few years we buy a new TV

Funny I'm just the opposite - until just a few years ago, we still had an old tub TV from the 1980's. I still have one of those giant rear projection TV's as my big screen TV.

 

[Jerry1]

Are you telling me that upgrading my 4660x2 will result in significant improvement? If so, DW will not want to hear this as I just upgraded our working 55 inch TV with a 75 inch TV.

Unfortunately, the version I bought - the 4K+ Stick was $65 - not cheap enough to just get it and see what happens. You might try comparing the specs online to see if there is a difference. I was surprised because I thought the stick from 2019 and the new one were the same and that only the remote was different. I can say, the difference was noticeable and had I known it would be that way, it would have been enough to get me to buy a new one based on that alone.

 

[Qs Laptop]

If you are going to spend $65 on a Roku stick, you might consider upgrading to the Roku Ultra 2022 4K, since it's on sale now for $79. Best Buy, Amazon, Target, etc.

The Ultra is not a stick but more like a hockey puck. It's got a lot of nice features you won't find on a stick, like a USB port, 2 programmable buttons on the remote for one press access to streaming services, microphone for voice search, wired earplug port on the remote. The remote is rechargeable via a USB cable. The Roku Ultra is faster than the sticks.

You can't simply plug the Ultra into an HDMI port, you need to run an HDMI cable. It comes with a 2.1 HDMI cable.

https://www.amazon.com/Roku-Streami...istening/dp/B09T4VZDYV/ref=asc_df_B09T4VZDYV/

 

[Sojourner]

If you have an older Roku (maybe any streaming stick), and a newer TV, you might want to consider upgrading your streaming device.

+1

I bought an Amazon Fire Stick 4K in mid-2019 to use with my 4K Vizio TV. Very good picture, which I tested by loading up the YouTube app and playing some 4K videos. Unfortunately, though, most of the streaming services I use either don't offer much 4K content or they charge too much for them (looking at you, Netflix!).

I have, quite deliberately, not purchased a 4K stick (either Amazon or Roku) for any other TV. I always match the resolution of the stick with the resolution of the TV.

 

[Jerry1]

If you are going to spend $65 on a Roku stick, you might consider upgrading to the Roku Ultra 2022 4K, since it's on sale now for $79. Best Buy, Amazon, Target, etc.

The Ultra is not a stick but more like a hockey puck. It's got a lot of nice features you won't find on a stick, like a USB port, 2 programmable buttons on the remote for one press access to streaming services, microphone for voice search, wired earplug port on the remote. The remote is rechargeable via a USB cable. The Roku Ultra is faster than the sticks.

You can't simply plug the Ultra into an HDMI port, you need to run an HDMI cable. It comes with a 2.1 HDMI cable.

https://www.amazon.com/Roku-Streami...istening/dp/B09T4VZDYV/ref=asc_df_B09T4VZDYV/

I looked at the Ultra but the stick just fits better in my setup. Plug the stick in the HDMI port and the power comes from a usb port right next to the HDMI port. The remote I got for the stick was the voice/rechargeable remote. There’s two sticks, the 4K and the 4K+ which comes with the better remote.

 

[statsman]

I like the Roku Ultras, at least on paper. But when I last checked them a year ago, their Ethernet connections were limited to 10/100 Mbps. So, unless your Wi-Fi signal is not strong at the location of your Roku, why bother with Ethernet?

 

[Z3Dreamer]

If you are going to spend $65 on a Roku stick, you might consider upgrading to the Roku Ultra 2022 4K, since it's on sale now for $79. Best Buy, Amazon, Target, etc.

https://www.amazon.com/Roku-Streami...istening/dp/B09T4VZDYV/ref=asc_df_B09T4VZDYV/

This looks pretty good. It would be 5 years newer than my current one.

 

[Qs Laptop]

I like the Roku Ultras, at least on paper. But when I last checked them a year ago, their Ethernet connections were limited to 10/100 Mbps. So, unless your Wi-Fi signal is not strong at the location of your Roku, why bother with Ethernet?

Indeed, why bother with ethernet? You really only need 20Mps speed for a 4K HDR signal, easily achieved with wifi. If you are only watching standard 1080p content much less speed is needed.

The new Roku Ultra 2022 claim to have much better wifi range than its predecessors.

 

[Car-Guy]

Ethernet, HDMI, Optical, USB, WiFi, Bluetooth, etc... Won't be long and I won't be able to hook up my old BetaMax.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Ethernet, HDMI, Optical, USB, WiFi, Bluetooth, etc... Won't be long and I won't be able to hook up my old BetaMax.

Betamax was always better than VHS. (Oh my, I sound like the plasma vs. OLED TV snobs now.)

As long as you still have analog inputs, red, white, and yellow on the back of your TV you can do it.

 

[Car-Guy]

^^^^
Yep, I still have a a couple of old CRT styled TV's that have matching/workable direct inputs. Seldom used but both the Betamax and TV's still work... I think the beta tapes are starting to deteriorate since I don't recall the video quality being as bad 30+ years ago as they are today. Could be the machines playback too. Not surprising.

 

[Qs Laptop]

^^^^
Yep, I still have a a couple of old CRT styled TV's that have matching/workable direct inputs. Seldom used but both the Betamax and TV's still work... I think the beta tapes are starting to deteriorate since I don't recall the video quality being as bad 30+ years ago as they are today. Could be the machines playback too. Not surprising.

I've got a bunch of recordings from the 80's that I haven't looked at in over 25 years. I shudder to think what shape those tapes are in. They've been stored in the utility room, so at least it's warm and dry in there. I'm going to declutter that room and will likely throw out a bunch of the tapes. But first I have to find a couple that have sentimental value and try to convert to digital format before I toss them. I have an HDTV with analog inputs. I wonder what upscaled 480p beta content will look like on it? Come to think of it, I have a 13" Mitsubishi color TV from 1982.