TV Streaming Devices

Blue

Well-known member
Mar 26, 2004
10,043
856
AZ
Looking for advice from the collective...

I have a relatively new (2015) Sony Bravia LED TV in our family room and a 2017 Samsung LED TV in my home office. Both are hooked up to Dish satellite for our main TV viewing enjoyment. The problem I'm having is that the built-in TV apps suck for streaming Netflicks & Amazon Prime video (what we mainly use). Sometimes it streams flawlessly but sometimes it freezes or stalls and continuously tries to load video and then stops altogether. Infuriating. A friend suggested bypassing the TV apps altogether and using a separate streaming device.

I'll probably end up ditching the Dish satellite service too and save myself $84 per month. May look into picking up an amplified HD antennae but I really don't care about the local channels. Our main TV watching habits are pretty much all recorded from the Dish satellite including cartoons for the kids, vanilla stuff like International Househunters or Fixer Upper for Mom & Dad, absolutely horrifying soap operas for Mom, and various car shows like Wheeler Dealers or Chasing Classic Cars for Dad. We rarely ever watch live TV, never watch sports, sitcoms, etc.

My internet is the fastest available in my area, Cox Gigablast, advertised at "up to" 1 Gbps download and upload. I just ran a test and I'm at 249 Mbps download and 70 Mbps upload.

I also have the family room TV hooked up to an Onkyo home theater and I'd prefer to use this as opposed to the TV's shitty speakers. My office TV uses the TV speakers but someday I'll get around to hooking up one of the amps and pairs of speakers I have in boxes in the garage.

I'm looking at the Roku Streaming Stick Plus...any comments or suggestions? We have a little Roku box from around 2015 connected to an ancient plasma TV in our bedroom and it works flawlessly. The menu features and search on the Roku are pretty lame though. That TV really only gets watched when someone is sick in bed so it doesn't much matter. Any opinions on Google Chromecast, Amazon Fire, or any others? We sure as hell don't do any of the Alexa or Google voice control bullshit.

As always, thank you in advance and please feel free to derail this thread with any bullshit you see fit to throw at it.
 

K-rover

Well-known member
Jan 15, 2010
2,163
62
Raleigh, NC
We recently ditched ATT UVerse and went with the Amazon Fire stick. I like what it offers, but we have an issue when watching Sling TV. They both seem to stop streaming and go back to the Home screen for no reason. Doesnt happen while streaming any other apps. Not sure if its the Firestick or Sling TV thats having the hiccups?



Kinda wished I had gone with the Roku. Just for the fact the remote can be programmed to your TV. We have to use two remotes with the Fire stick. The built in headphone jack on the Roku remote is pretty slick too.
 

az_max

1
Apr 22, 2005
7,463
2
...
My internet is the fastest available in my area, Cox Gigablast, advertised at "up to" 1 Gbps download and upload. I just ran a test and I'm at 249 Mbps download and 70 Mbps upload.

Is that from a wired or wireless client?

A lot of time I've seen buffering or glitches is with a wireless device in a room far away from the AP. My Tivo is hardwired for that exact reason.

I've used a Roku, Firestick and ebay-quality streaming box (like an Android device in a box), an Xbox and a Tivo. Wasn't crazy about the firestick or streaming box. The Roku and Xbox were good with lots of features, but the Tivo is still my favorite.

Anything you feed into the TV should be able to use the Onkyo for sound via HDMI.
 

jim-00-4.6

Well-known member
Sep 30, 2005
2,037
6
61
Genesee, CO USA
I used a blueray player for streaming; it had the necessary "apps", and worked perfectly.
it was $50 from walmart several years ago.
then it died, which is unsurprising for a $50 box from walmart.
my son uses his ps4 or 5 or 9 or whatever it is.
we have a firestick in our bedroom which seems to work fine for netfucks, huru & spamazon.
the firestick was about $35.
 
Jan 3, 2005
11,745
70
On Kennith's private island
I like Fire Stick. But not the USB "stick", get the box. The box has a bit of storage to help with buffering. Even though your Internet is fast, you'll probably still have some buffering at times.

The Direct TV app for Fire Stick is like $20mth. Or was. I had it for a while and it worked good. I believe there is a lot of competition now. Youtube, Sling, etc...most have free trials. I just have antenna and Amazon Prime now. There's nothing ever on anyway. I use the Amazon Music app the most.

With Fire Stick you could also side load Kodi. It's flaky, but if you're determined you could find some free movies, movies, TV series, etc... Kodi is a bit of a pain but sometimes it works.
 

Howski

Well-known member
Oct 19, 2009
1,483
209
Alabama
Blue, we had some similar issues with the apps on our Samsung smart tv we got in the spring. Sometimes apps wouldn’t open, other times I’d work fine but very inconsistent. We called Samsung and adjusted some WiFi settings and haven’t had any problems since. Can’t recall the exact fix but worth giving them a call
 

Blue

Well-known member
Mar 26, 2004
10,043
856
AZ
Is that from a wired or wireless client?

A lot of time I've seen buffering or glitches is with a wireless device in a room far away from the AP. My Tivo is hardwired for that exact reason.

I've used a Roku, Firestick and ebay-quality streaming box (like an Android device in a box), an Xbox and a Tivo. Wasn't crazy about the firestick or streaming box. The Roku and Xbox were good with lots of features, but the Tivo is still my favorite.

Anything you feed into the TV should be able to use the Onkyo for sound via HDMI.

I'm all wireless. Distance from wireless to TV is all of 12 feet or so. I ran the test here in my office about 50 feet from wireless.
 

Blue

Well-known member
Mar 26, 2004
10,043
856
AZ
Good info, thanks. Will investigate wireless setting options on the Sony and Samsung. To be honest, I don’t think we’ve ever even tried Netflix or Amazon on the Samsung.
 

SGaynor

Well-known member
Dec 6, 2006
7,148
162
52
Bristol, TN
I've got my big TV (70") hooked up to my BluRay DVD player (Samsung), through my Denon reciever, that I stream everything (Amazon, Netflix, Hulu) through. It's wired directly to my WiFi router which is next to it.

My son has a Firestick on the TV (32") in his room - connected wirelessly - and he's had no complaints about buffering, etc.

My internet connection is through Charter at 100Mbs (just incr from 60Mbs - didn't have any problems at that speed).

As for WiFi - you have checked to make sure that you are in a clear part of the spectrum and aren't getting interference from neighbors' WiFi, right? That definitely helps with faster WiFi.
 

honda50r

Well-known member
Jul 10, 2011
1,208
0
East Tennessee
I want to cut our cable plan but it supplies our wifi ($85/month). What alternatives do we have for wifi-only?








Comast wifi-only options are $90/month (wtf?)
 

AbnMike

Well-known member
Apr 6, 2016
1,218
117
Western Slope, CO
I have a box with a DVD player. The box has Netflix and Amazon Prime apps. It has some others but I ignore them.

We don't have cable or other tv. We have one tv in the house. It's in the living room.

Life is good. I recommend this set up for everyone.
 

Blue

Well-known member
Mar 26, 2004
10,043
856
AZ
As for WiFi - you have checked to make sure that you are in a clear part of the spectrum and aren't getting interference from neighbors' WiFi, right? That definitely helps with faster WiFi.

How would one accomplish this?
 

brian4d

Well-known member
Dec 3, 2007
6,499
67
High Point, NC
How would one accomplish this?

Just use 5ghz and call it a day. Fucking with 2.4 will drive a man mad.

To answer your question, inssider is the best I've found. My neighbors 2.4 signal chased my channel. I turned to 5 it tuned to 5, I tuned to 2 it turned to 2. At one point I thought he was doing it to mess with me. Again, 5Ghz is your best bet. I pull 380 download to the Apple TV all day.

Also, research the good neighbor policy. 20 vs. 40MHZ or both.

https://www.metageek.com/products/inssider/

https://us.hardware.info/reviews/4820/4/how-to-optimise-your-wifi-signal-different-approaches
 

Blue

Well-known member
Mar 26, 2004
10,043
856
AZ
My network is currently 5G, I know that much but not much more!
 

pinkytoe69

Well-known member
Jan 14, 2012
1,689
182
minnesota
I have a box with a DVD player. The box has Netflix and Amazon Prime apps. It has some others but I ignore them.

We don't have cable or other tv. We have one tv in the house. It's in the living room.

Life is good. I recommend this set up for everyone.

How would one watch sports with this setup?