After hesitating for a couple few years, I finally took the plunge, buying & using a streaming device for TV. I found out a Lot the hard way -- I couldn't find the info or guidance that would have made it easier on-line, while I found the vast majority of user reviews, comments, & complaints useless &/or misleading. Despite the Many negatives, I do think streaming video can be worthwhile, so I wanted to share what I found out, hoping that it might help someone else. Basically this is the stuff I would have really liked to find out about beforehand.
Before HD TV, if there was something on TV that you wanted to save, whether it was just something you liked, or if you weren't going to be able to watch when the show or movie aired, you just used your VCR. In the 1st half of the 2000s you could also use a DVD recorder, though those were never as easy to use. Or you could use an analog capture device or PC card -- something Windows Media Center used to make easy. That's all gone now, replaced by on-line streaming. You can rent or buy Blu-ray discs, but that's never really become popular. Instead more people rent or buy movies & TV shows from sites like Amazon & Google, and watch shows streaming from network sites, often for free, using their apps.
While a cable provider might offer a DVR, they may not record your shows in HD -- I find that to be an issue with a 4k TV, where 720p & higher look OK, but standard broadcast [480i], not so much. If your provider offers on-demand video, there's usually lots of content missing, not everything is HD, & too often it's not available until maybe a week after the show aired. Another reason to use a streaming device is that cable & satellite TV can be unreliable depending on the weather [your cable provider gets the video stream they send you via satellite]. And yet another reason is that to squeeze in more content [e.g. cable loves PPV], those 2 types of provider cut the video bit rates to extremes, so the same movie or show might actually look better streamed.
The bad news is that the same greed & paranoia that effectively led to the demise of your fair use rights -- why you were allowed to record stuff with your VCR -- means that streaming on-line video to your TV is both more difficult & expensive that it should be. Every source of streaming video has its own infrastructure & DRM, along with its own Android app(s) -- video in the Windows store is the exception to the Android rule -- and few [if any] TVs &/or devices for TVs works, or works well, with every one of those apps. There are also disagreements between companies, e.g. currently Google has pulled YouTube from Amazon's streaming devices. You can of course stream video using a web browser, but that usually doesn't work out so well when you want to watch it on your TV.
Streaming video means you have to deal with the Android OS... Most Android devices will never see an OS update. To a large extent those updates are about security -- that may not matter to you when it comes to a streaming device, though an attacker may gain access to your network that way. If an app is updated, at some point the updated app may not work with older versions of Android.
If the device doesn't have access to the Play Store -- Google imposes certain requirements -- you may not be able to easily install the individual apps used for streaming, and may have to reinstall updated versions manually. How hard side loading apps is depends on the device -- with Amazon devices there's an app or two for that available, while with the Roku you have to enter a code by pressing certain buttons in sequence on the remote, and then you can only have one added "channel" at a time, & either may have issues displaying an added app in their menus. With a generic Android device you start by getting the setup file [APK] for the app you want -- there are apps that can give you the APK for any app that you've added to another Android device, like your phone -- then transferring that APK to the device where you want to install it -- if you can see the APK in something like a file manager app [think equivalent to Windows Explorer] selecting it gives you the option to install.
Unlike Windows or Linux or the Mac OS, you can't install Android -- with Android you get the source code, which has to be adapted & compiled just for the device you want to use with it. Companies making devices for streaming might use their own OS based on Android, which winds up similar to but not Android itself. If you buy a Roku or Amazon streaming device, that means you're limited to whatever apps they offer in their own app store, though as above it may be possible to side load Android apps. However those apps themselves are still created, updated, & controlled by the companies that offer streaming video, so each app is different, may or may not work etc., despite coming from the store maintained by the company that made your device.
That being said, some devices incorporate the software from one or more streaming sites into their OS itself -- our Vizio TV for example includes it's own Amazon app built-in, with a separate button on the remote to start it. Unlike a separate Android app it can only be updated if/when Vizio pushes out new firmware for the TV. OTOH unlike an Android app, that has to be designed to work on all sorts of devices running different Android versions, it works a bit better & is IMHO a bit easier to use.
One thing that is pretty much the same, whether the Android device is built into your TV, or in a separate box or stick, is the interface or GUI you'll use to select which app you want to use. Designed to be navigated with a remote, you'll scroll through icons or thumbnails for the installed apps & select one. The apps themselves were/are mostly designed for cell phones, and scrolling through the available shows &/or movies is slower & more tedious using the remote. And searching is really a pain. Voice controls, e.g. Alexa on Amazon's streaming devices may help. While the apps themselves work differently depending on the device, those differences are in how well they work, and in the quality of video you see -- the HBOGO app for example is the HBOGO app, regardless what you use to run it.
So when you read a complaint of a streaming device having bad or terrible menus &/or navigation, don't take that at face value -- if that's the only device that person has ever used [in other words it's not a comparison], their opinion is useless to you. This one's harder -- if someone complains about a streaming app on whatever device, one, they may not realize it's an app, & just say whatever channel is messed up; & two, their complaint may be about how the app is designed & coded, so it'll be the same regardless where it's used. Here's an example of when you should pay attention to a review of a streaming device that centers on one or more apps [hint: look for specifics] -- video from the TNT app looks great using a Chromecast Ultra, but it can't do CC [Closed Captions or subtitles]; the TNT app on a Roku can't be activated; video quality using the TNT app on a Fire TV is somewhat poor, & CC works, but not well. Complaints about the way that you use the TNT app's menus across the top of the screen however are useless, because they're the same regardless the device.
Now to the streaming devices themselves...
If there are any TV shows or channels that you want to be able to watch streaming, make sure that you can return whatever you buy. My wife really likes a few shows on the TNT network, but she works some evenings, often missing them. They may or may not show up on our provider's on-demand service a week later, & may only be there a day or two. The best way to get the episodes she misses is $4 a pop on Amazon Video. I thought that if I'm going to get a streaming device, I want to avoid that cost. After buying 3 devices & returning 2, the best I could do is that TNT is watchable -- video quality is less than watching the show when it airs, & less than buying it from Amazon, while Closed Captioning only almost works, but it's watchable for free.
Most brands of streaming devices are available in different models. One of the features they use to try & sell you a higher priced model is 4k. My experience is that streaming 4k video is between slightly better & no different visually than regular HD at 1080p, and usually shy of the quality from a regular Blu-ray. That's because they more heavily compress 4k video to reduce the bandwidth it uses. Add to that there's really not much 4k content available for streaming, and buying a 4k capable device just for that 4k capability doesn't make much sense. That's not to say stay away from higher priced devices, because they can have worthwhile features & *perhaps* a better picture, but rather don't buy one just because you imagine you'll have this great 4k experience.
One thing I wish that I'd found on-line is some sort of reviews &/or ranking concerning the quality of video you'll watch with whatever device. And it does vary noticeably. Watching a movie on HBO looks pretty good using our digital cable service, but not nearly as nice as watching the same movie on Blu-ray. Watching that same movie using Amazon's newest Fire TV, the picture looks a slight bit better than cable overall, but if you pay close attention to the background, in some scenes you'll see artifacts from the the video compression that aren't there with cable. That very same movie streamed from HBO to a Chromecast Ultra looks closest to the quality of the Blu-ray, but with a bit more color tint or saturation. Using a thirty some dollar Roku [their top model is $100], that same movie looks slightly washed out, & is the 1st time I've watched anything on our 4k TV that looked like I was watching a regular HD TV. Again, be prepared to return whatever you buy if you're not happy with the quality of the picture.
Some people want the ability to play video files in addition to or instead of streaming. For just playing files a Windows PC, maybe as a miniPC or stick, is probably the safest bet, because whatever type & format of video file you have, there's going to be a way to play it. There are negatives... Updating a low powered Windows device is a PITA & takes too long. And the TV needs to have a PC mode, bypassing most if not all of its internal processing, or else things like mouse lag will threaten to make it unusable. Only the latest CPUs support HDMI 2 or newer -- without that the best you can do is 4k @ 30 Hz, which probably won't work so well much of the time if connected to a 4k TV... while the latest versions of Windows 10 solve a lot of problems you'd experience with earlier versions, 4k @ 30Hz is still only good at playing 24 to 30 fps video. Better to set it up as 1080p @ 60Hz, & let the TV upscale.
Now a quick note -- if you connect a PC/laptop/tablet to a TV, if you also plan on using that device without the TV connected as a 2nd display, you might want to use a HDMI switch. That's because even if you switch the TV to a different HDMI input, as long as the TV's turned on, your Windows device may still see it and activate that 2nd monitor in Windows. That's more overhead at the least when you don't need it. Using a switch & switching to another HDMI input with that switch can tell the PC the TV's off.
Some Android devices share that limitation re: 4k @ 30Hz. Some won't do 4k at all. Usually I don't think that's too big a problem, since most 4k TVs work at 1080p just fine. What's more problematic is the various file formats &/or encoding settings that you can get with video you found on-line, since Android isn't nearly as configurable as Windows. The graphics chip these ARM-based devices use just isn't as adaptable as a Windows PC's GPU, so there's more of a chance that slightly oddball video won't play.
The cheapest devices you can buy are no-name Android boxes & lower end Roku devices, both starting in the $20 range on sale -- while Roku models top out around $100, you can spend over $150 on a higher end Android box. More money generally gets you better processors, more RAM & storage, more input/output options, & unless you're buying a brand name like Roku, Google, or Amazon, where every model comes with support, you might need to spend more money to get some level of support &/or updates.
Better hardware specs mean the device is likely more stable & usable, but it's not a guarantee that video will look any better. A cheaper, no-name Android device more-or-less mirrors the experience of buying a cheaper, no-name tablet, but since it doesn't require the latest & greatest chipsets, simply playing video might [or might not] work just fine. App availability can vary -- if the device doesn't meet Google's requirements to list & access their Play Store, adding an app you want may involve sideloading & how easy or hard that is depends on the device.
Some Android boxes are sold with Kodi installed, which is a media player geared toward TV screens & using a remote. Since Kodi is just another app, you should still be able to run apps for whatever channel or streaming service. Kodi is (in)famous for the plug-ins people have created for it -- Kodi boxes were in the news a while back, especially in the UK, because so many came with plug-ins designed to play unauthorized video content.
Most Android boxes will play video files on attached storage, e.g. a USB stick, might play files shared over your network, and can run apps like HBOGO for streaming video. Where you can find all those capabilities in a no-name box starting at less than $30, you often have to buy a more expensive, higher end version if you want a name brand device. Amazon doesn't currently make one -- their new model is supposed to be out next year. Google TV died, while Apple's 4K TV [running their OS rather than Android] can cost you $200. The 2017 model of Roku's highest end model is going for $100 currently. Lower end models from Amazon, Roku etc. are basically stream only -- they'll stream the video you want to see to your TV, but won't do anything with your video files.
Google's Chromecast & Chromecast Ultra take a different approach... You use another Android device as the interface, while the Chromecast connects directly to the source you want to stream. You can also cast the screen from a tab in Chrome, using your PC/laptop etc., & mirror the screen on your Android device, but quality suffers [a lot] compared to the Chromecast connecting directly to the streaming site. Android hardware compatibility varies [also by a lot], so you might well find it unusable with your Android tablet or phone.
Using a Chromecast to stream on-line video is more work if/when you know what your looking for, e.g. a network series using that network's app. If you want to scroll though what something like HBOGO offers OTOH, it can be faster than trying to move through the same long chain of thumbnails using a remote control & your TV screen. Once you find what you want & get it playing on your Android device, tapping the cast icon triggers the Chromecast to get the video & start playing. By default the video will stop playing on your Android device, e.g. tablet or phone, replaced by a timeline you can skip around on, plus a pause icon. When you're done, tapping the cast icon brings up a disconnect window -- tap OK & the Chromecast goes to screen saver mode.
Whichever device you use, the bit rate or bandwidth required for the video you want to watch is important. Some devices, whether running Windows or Android, cannot handle higher bit rate video. While there are always negative or bad points for whatever Blu-ray player, if you get one that can play files as well as Blu-ray discs, you can be sure that higher bit rates won't be a problem, since those discs have the highest bit rates you can get your hands on.
If the video you want to watch is going to travel over your network, then you have to make sure that end of things is good enough. Wired Ethernet is better -- Wi-Fi is easier because you don't have to run wires, but it can be more problematic... IMHO if you don't have a wired Ethernet connection where your TV is, it's worth it to try a powerline adapter -- depending on your home's wiring, they may or may not work well however. With Wi-Fi the signal coverage varies depending on the router, its placement, the antennas used [when replaceable], & sometimes, since more than one band is common nowadays, compatibility between your device & your router. One possible example [I use wired Ethernet so I don't know for certain], judging by a lot of very recent customer reviews, the new Fire TV has Wi-Fi bandwidth problems with some routers. Some routers are strong in only one Wi-Fi band, & I suspect the Fire TVs prefer another.
You can also have Wi-Fi congestion issues, when there are other Wi-Fi routers broadcasting their signals into your home or apartment, &/or you can have network congestion issues, if you've simply got a lot of traffic on your home network. It's common advice to add a simple network switch connected to your router, & run just video traffic through it. Add last but by no means least, your Internet connection needs enough bandwidth for streaming video.
Myself, I started out with a cheap miniPC connected to the 4k TV in the living room. Several years ago I got a cable card tuner that, together with win7's Media Center, let every PC watch &/or record anything available on cable. And for a year or so there was a working mod that let you add win7s Media Center to win10, & I thought Life Was Good. But with a later version of win10, Microsoft removed some of the stuff needed for Media Center to work, the cable company started charging rent for the cable card, & at about the same time the cable card quit working. It had taken about two weeks to get the cable card working in the 1st place -- support from our provider was far less than dismal -- so this time I just decided to abandon the whole thing, & gave them back their cable card.
So I use the miniPC strictly for playing video from files, & my wife uses it very occasionally for games. With no streaming apps available, I tried streaming in the web browser, but gave that up after a couple of tries -- smooth, high quality video just wasn't there. I tried the same thing using this PC, making sure it wasn't just the lower powered miniPC at fault. I have a Pioneer laptop Blu-ray drive attached via USB 3.0, & with PowerDVD Ultra that works great, though there can be slight bandwidth issues on some discs -- the video bit rate on Blu-ray discs varies, & on some discs there can be a few, very brief pauses at the very beginning of the movie... a solution is to copy them to a Very Fast USB stick, which is why I say that it's caused by limited bandwidth.
I have an ATI [AMD] TV card in this PC that still works in win7 [sadly not in 10], so I record a few shows on CBS when my wife has to work. CBS is a broadcast network, so I can save the HD stream. CBS does have the same shows on-demand, but a week later, so it's simpler to record them to watch when she gets home. These shows aren't available on Amazon the next day, like those on TNT, & CBS charges for on-line viewing or streaming -- you have to buy a subscription, whereas all the other channels let you watch as part of your cable subscription. So I use ccextractor on the recorded file, turning CC into a .srt file for subs, stick it on a USB stick, & use PowerDVD to play on the miniPC.
When it comes to playing files on a USB stick, if I had it to do over, I probably would not have bought & set up the miniPC, but got an Android box instead. OTOH & AFAIK, there's no way to watch a Blu-ray disc with an Android box, which with the miniPC is trivial. Then again I don't collect video files found on-line -- lots of people do, and as I wrote earlier, a Windows device can play just about anything, vs. Android which cannot, so miniPCs are popular.
I got the miniPC a while ago, before HDMI 2 support was added to Intel's mobile CPUs, & without that the miniPC is incapable of 4k @ 60Hz display. In my experience, doesn't matter, but then I don't have a 4k Blu-ray drive, so I don't have any 4k video files -- if I did it'd probably be a different story. This PC will do 4k @ 60Hz, & playing the same Blu-ray on this vs. the miniPC [set to 1080p @ 60Hz display], I can't see a difference.
For streaming other than Amazon & Netflix, which are built into the TV, I knew I needed an Android box or stick of some sort. I'll tell you 1st off that, knowing what I know now, I was wrong. Based on reading countless reviews, plus my experience with cheaper Android tablets, I decided I'd probably spend around $50 to help make sure there weren't usability issues... they are more common in the lower price range, and since I'm disabled, returning anything to the seller is an issue for me. I wanted more of a sure thing -- I didn't get it.
Since I have the miniPC I didn't need something else to play video files, so I bought a Chromecast Ultra on sale. Hookup was easiest out of the 3 devices I tried -- plug in the HDMI, plug in the micro USB to USB cable, plug that cable & an Ethernet cable into the power supply, & plug the power supply in. I had to add the Home app to my tablet, so it would see the Chromecast. One problem was that the TNT app wouldn't display CC using the Chromecast. The other was that my lower end Samsung tablet apparently isn't 100% compatible, or isn't powerful enough or whatever -- tried it a few times, & by the end of a movie using the HBOGO app, the app itself had crashed on my tablet, so I had to restart the app to disconnect the Chromecast, so it would disconnect from HBO & eventually go back to sleep. Not a Huge deal, but it takes a few moments for the app to start up, a few more to realize that it's casting to the Chromecast, a few more to pause & disconnect, and was altogether enough of a PITA that my wife would never, ever, use it. My wife returned it to Walmart when she picked up a couple of other Xmas orders.
Next up I tried a cheaper Roku that was on sale, also at Walmart. Plugged in the Roku's HDMI, & plugged in the cable to the power supply, & plugged that in. It only did Wi-Fi, so I turned off MAC filtering on the router [I know it doesn't help much], found the MAC address, added it to the filter list, & turned filtering back on. Setting up the Roku you need a PC or phone or whatever to connect to the Roku site to activate it. You also need to give them a credit card number in case you buy anything. Then you visit their store & add the apps you want -- you can [allegedly] do this online in your web browser after setting up an account & activating the Roku, but that didn't work for me.
To activate the apps I added they show you a PIN number & give you a URL -- you visit that URL in whatever device, sign into your cable provider using a pop-up window, enter the PIN the app gave you, & it should activate the app so you can watch whatever. [With the Chromecast, since the apps were on my tablet, I activated them there by entering the username & password for my cable provider. The Fire TV came pre-activated using my Amazon account, but activating apps worked the same way.] The TNT app refused to activate, despite showing activated over a dozen times using 4 different browsers on this PC. Video quality also wasn't as good -- I have no idea if that's an issue with all Roku devices or just their lower end. So I gave up on the Roku.
The new Amazon Fire TV isn't a direct replacement for earlier versions -- it's now their mid-range device, with the top end version allegedly coming next year. It can use wired Ethernet, but that requires an adapter -- the one Amazon makes just for this cost $15 & was backordered, as was the 3rd party adapter made for this. Devoting some quality time to Google search, I found that you can use a special type of Y cable [they start at just $1.50] & at least some USB wired Ethernet dongles. I bought one of those dongles a few years back, took a gamble & ordered the Y cable with the Fire TV, & it works! It doesn't look as neat as if I'd bought the Amazon adapter, but it didn't cost me $15 & I didn't have to wait a month. Judging by the number of reviews where I believe people are having problems with the Fire TV & Wi-Fi with their router, I might have dodged a bullet(?).
The Fire TV has a short cable with an HDMI connector, & a micro USB port. By default you plug a micro USB cable in, & the cable's other, full sized USB connector plugs into the power supply [it looks like any other cable you'd get with your phone or tablet]. The Y cable plugs into the Fire TV, has a micro USB female connector where the cable from the power supply plugs in, & a full sized USB female plug where I connected the network dongle. The Ethernet cable plugs into that dongle or adapter.
And the Fire TV works well enough. The video quality is a little less than using the Chromecast, but still acceptable. If this had been the 1st streaming device I'd tried, I'd probably be very enthusiastic because it was my 1st experience with a streaming device, & they're kinda neat, but after fooling with 2 other devices, then going through the BS of finding out how to & then getting a wired network connection working, my reaction is more: it works, cool, now I don't have to screw with this stuff any more. The TNT app doesn't work perfectly, but by this time I figure I have to be satisfied if it works at all -- @#$*!! app. Not all of the apps & games Amazon lists for the Fire TV & Fire TV sticks work with this latest generation of devices... some are not included in the list you see using the Fire TV, & if you try to use the web browser on your PC, phone etc. to add something not on that list, you're told it won't work on your Fire TV. IOW you can't just look at the list on Amazon's site & figure you'll run everything they list there.
Because the network dongle works, that means the Fire TV has more of a full fledged USB port, rather than just a connector to power the device. If that's the case, you can buy USB network dongles that include a USB hub -- I use one for my Windows tablets -- and that means that you *might* be able to access & play video files on a USB stick, though you'd likely have to side load one or more apps to do it.
