OT: Question for the Cord-Cutters

Submitted by wolfman81 on

I have a question for you cord-cutters out there.  When I want to stream things to my TV, I basically hook up my laptop to the TV via HDMI and then stream.  This can be...problematic as it ties up a laptop whenever I want to watch sports or the kids want to watch amazon/netflix.  So I've been looking into streaming devices.

My first thought was to use a Raspberry Pi (rPi).  I had an extra rPi 3 lying around, but that...sucks because Amazon/Netflix are not supported on ARM (astute readers will realize that I'm utilizing the word-soup technique a bit here -- I'm tossing around buzzwords but am not totally sure what they mean).  So that means that I need to find another option OR go the third party route (I'm told that there is hope with playon.tv...but that is $30/year or $50/lifetime...Streaming sticks are cheaper, and streaming boxes are about the same--once you add in the cost of the rPi...This defeats the purpose of using the rPi for this task.)

So I'm looking at streaming sticks, and I'm interested in what the forum thinks of these:

  1. Roku Stick
  2. Chromecast
  3. Fire Stick 

(All of these seem to be about $40 on Amazon.com.  I'd shop around, of course because Amazon doesn't seem like an impartial party in this venture...)

They all seem to solve the Neflix/Prime Instant Video problem.  So let's ask more important questions.  Will any of these tie up a laptop/tablet while in use? Will any of these work to stream sports?  (Especially first row sports and it's ilk).  Will these work with Playstation Vue (and if so, how well does it work)?  (I'm thinking about moving to this service when the budget allows to avoid cable...)

 

I'm especially interested in finding out if anyone has experience with multiple devices so that I can get a bit of a compare/contrast feel.  And I'd be interested in hearing if anyone has a strong case for a set-top box instead.  Even that would beat the headache that my rPi has already become...

SamirCM

May 19th, 2016 at 10:22 PM ^

And love it, I had a Chromecast as well, but that requires you to use a laptop or your phone as a remote and I prefer the remote that comes with the Roku. 

LSAClassOf2000

May 19th, 2016 at 11:00 PM ^

I kind of have the opposite preference actually - I think part of it might be that I have two kids that have a bad habit of losing Roku remotes (although you can get replacements easily enough and I think they are interchangeable, sort of). I kind of enjoy being able to control the Chromecast from my phone, although for some reason Chromecast occasionally times out on me if I've got something running for an extended period - could just be Comcast's ever-variable downlink speeds though.

Tater

May 20th, 2016 at 12:28 AM ^

I had a Roku but couldn't get Playstation Vue. In NOLA, Vue gives me a 70 channel "Popular channels and sports" package that includes four ESPN channels, FS 1 & 2, local Fox Sports, SEC, Golf Channel and Big Ten Network for $35.  I am paying $42 for 18 mbps internet, but I would be paying for internet anyway.  Still haven't deicded whether I want Amazon Prime or Netflix for my "movie channel."

The main problem with the Fire Stick is that it has half the processing power of Fire TV.  I have read reports and reviews that it "lags" and "freezes" sometimes.  

truferblue22

May 20th, 2016 at 12:22 PM ^

I absolutely LOVE Vue. All the sports channels I want for $35/mo. The DVR isn't perfect but I'm very glad it exists and except in rare circumstances, the picture is amazing and is better than what I got from ATT.

This is Michigan

May 19th, 2016 at 10:39 PM ^

Roku 2 and Chromecast. No difference in quality as far as I can tell even with the Roku directly hooked to Ethernet. Roku 2 has the added convenience of not having to stream through a phone.
I took advantage of the Sling TV offer and bought a 3 month subscription to get a free Roku. Cancelled after the 3 months but will re-up once college football starts.

M Go Dead

May 19th, 2016 at 10:49 PM ^

I have a cable subscription with every add on that I send through one of those old school 8 foot diameter satellite that shoots the signal to space that then bounces back down to my DISH tv receiver.

Works well enough, unless it snows, rains, is cloudy, or a large flock of geese fly overhead. And only 400 bucks a month.

The Mad Hatter

May 19th, 2016 at 10:49 PM ^

And it works pretty well. There's a little lag sometimes, but you're going to get that with any device that uses wifi instead of a wired connection. The interface also pushes Amazon content over everything else, but that's not a problem if you have Prime.

Also the remote is very small and spends most of its time lost in the couch cushions. So download the remote control app to your phone or tablet for when you eventually lose the thing.

/not a cord cutter. I'm one of the few people that like cable because it's easy to use and I and think it's a pretty good value.

Bigku22

May 19th, 2016 at 10:51 PM ^

I am still a cable subscriber. For $120/month I get 3 boxes, HD, HBO, all the sports channels, and nice internet speed. Friends I have that cut the cord pay on average around $50-75/month for internet and their subscriptions. I watch A TON of live sports (I'm a pretty intense degenerate when it comes to sports gambling, watch football usually 30-40 hours per week during college/pro season) Is the $50/month savings really worth it? Could it be more? I dont think I can justify the hassle for $50/month, at $100 maybe. Can somebody sell me on the cord cut?

The Baughz

May 20th, 2016 at 8:10 AM ^

I have been a cord cutter for almost 2 years now and Im happy with the decision. I have a ROKU 3 which is awesome and an Amazon Fire Stick which isnt the best, but still gets the job done. I also bought a Mohu Leaf 50 HD antenna and that takes care of all sports that are broadcast on ABC, NBC, FOX and CBS. As far as games on ESPN/BTN I do use my parent's log in info for those games. If I did not have that then I would probably still have cable. 

 

I pay $57 for internet and I have Netflix, so I am saving a good amount of money per month. The Roku, Fire Stick and HD Antenna were all one time payments.

Blue Mike

May 20th, 2016 at 9:51 AM ^

What are you DVR'ing?  The only thing I watch live is sports.  Everything else is watched delayed, either through a network's app, or Plex/Kodi.  No commercials if you watch through Plex or Kodi/XBMC/whatever it is called now.  You have to wait a day for the network to make the content available, but that probably isn't that different from your experience DVRing stuff.

kman23

May 20th, 2016 at 5:58 PM ^

Can start a football game around halftime and can catch up by the end of the 4th quarter. Same with hockey. Hate ads and how they kill the flow of games. If I can catch up to the live stream by the end of a game AND save 90 minutes, that's worth the anxiety of missing a kickoff.

turtleboy

May 19th, 2016 at 10:51 PM ^

I really like my Chromecast. Stream from laptop or phone, I notice no difference in quality. Roku is absolutely the way to go as well. Had 1, it was very cool but 2 and 3 are great improvements.

LJ

May 19th, 2016 at 10:54 PM ^

FireTV has been great for me -- if you have amazon prime it's a no brainer.  A little more power than the Fire Stick, so the menu operation is smooth.  I also have a hard drive filled with goodies that I can connect via USB, which you can't do with the stick.

If you want to stream sports via less-than-legitimate means (i.e. firstrow, stream2watch, etc), the Kodi app will handle all your needs, if you're willing to spend an hour or two learning how to get it set up.

tdcarl

May 19th, 2016 at 11:02 PM ^

Chromecast is great because anything you can find on the internet can be streamed through a tab onto your TV. It doesn't really tie up a phone/computer because you can just hide the tab and continue on using your computer as normal. The apps are great, but being able to cast a tab is lovely.

copacetic

May 20th, 2016 at 1:46 PM ^

Yep this is why I go with Chromecast as well. Like you said the apps are great and anything else you can directly cast the tab (so any website that doesn't have an app, and the quality has improved greatly since it was first released). You can even cast your entire screen, if you needed to show a power point or something for work. 

They also have an audio device now too, where you can plug it into your speakers and cast music to it anywhere. 

cozy200

May 19th, 2016 at 11:00 PM ^

Get PlayStation Vue, a fire tv (not the stick) and a Western Digital NAS with my cloud. You can lol whatever content you download on the WD and access via your TV without plugging anything else in except the FireTV.



So you can stream content you download AND get great channels for 35 a month. Oh and a free cloud DVR. No brainer

sdogg1m

May 19th, 2016 at 11:04 PM ^

I have built several HTPCs and really Roku takes all the guess work out of streaming TV. Buy a Roku 3 for 1080p TVs or a Roku 4 for 4k TVs.

The services I have are Amazon Prime and Sling TV. Sling now has a $20 multistream device option. Get an antenna for your air channels.

Gameboy

May 20th, 2016 at 12:02 PM ^

I have been using HTPC for over a decade now and, I will never go back. There is nothing out there that can give me the size (20tb of space), quality (HD with surround sound), and flexibility (access my content from anywhere).

willow

May 19th, 2016 at 11:11 PM ^

Any suggestions?  Stream2watch.me has an obnoxious block trying to require you to disable the adblockers.  If I do, I get ads that never end because they want my email for a login. Others I've tried have the same block. Help.

VBSoulPole

May 19th, 2016 at 11:13 PM ^

And can say that based off your description and the fact that you own an rPi (so do i), I'm going to assume that you are somewhat technically savvy.

That said, I can highly recommend none of those 3 options. I would recommend your spend an additional $20 and buy a Nexus player or the full fire TV box and load Kodi on it. Just Google it and you'll get all the info you need. The reason I recommend these is that the hardware bump truly makes a big difference. I find myself wanting to murder my fire TV stick and Roku. And Chromecast of course involves being a bit dependent on your phone(which I'm fine with but you may not be).

Anyway, I cut the cord about 4 years ago now so if you have any questions at all, hardware, software, or UI based I'm happy to help.

wahooverine

May 19th, 2016 at 11:36 PM ^

Interesting. I appreciate your expertise on the subject. I have a Firestick, Amazon prime, Netflix account, and an ex girlfriends parents premium cable package account password to access all the cable networks. It's all the content I'll ever be able to handle and then some. I agree the Firestick can be janky in that it apps crash and is sometimes slow. Despite that it's a setup that works for me (a single professional male) fine. Is there any benefit to upgrading the hardware outside of speed?

wolfman81

May 20th, 2016 at 11:58 AM ^

I hear you on the hardware thing.  I may do a cheaper option (streaming stick) as a pre-cursor to a more expensive option (streaming box).  I probably have enough devices (for now) that I can handle letting it saddle a device if needed.  Or maybe I should put it this way, when I upgrade my dumb phone to a smartphone, I will have at least one old tablet (iPad) which can send things to a chromecast or fire stick.  All I really know is that I don't want to reserve a laptop for full-time streaming purposes...

As far as "tech savvy" goes, I'm tech savvy enough to be dangerous.  I've found that there is little that you can't accomplish when you spend some time thinking, working, tinkering, and reading stackexchange.  I use lots of open source tools for work (R, LaTeX, Markdown) and run a linux box at work (Ubuntu-Gnome), but that makes me a picky user (I just hated it when MS or Mac products made decisions for me) and not quite a hacker/coding genius.

vulture

May 19th, 2016 at 11:14 PM ^

FuboTV is available on Roku and Amazon Fire Stick but it is better on the Fire Stick because you can DVR a game when you use the Fire Stick and you can't DVR anything when you use Roku.  FuboTV is cool because it gives you BeIn Sport, BeIn Sport Spanish, Univision, etc...  You can see most Barca games as well as a bunch of US youth national team games.  It's only $9.99 per month which is way less than Sling TV.

B-Nut-GoBlue

May 19th, 2016 at 11:25 PM ^

What in thee fuck is raspberry pi when not in the form of a dessert?!

ROKU 3, though, for me.  Works great.  Bought it with the (humble brag) Samsung JS-8500 back in March.  The ROKU 4 I assumed but also read wouldn't be very advantageous for a while, so I went with the 3.

1329 S. University

May 19th, 2016 at 11:41 PM ^

Get yourself the FireStick or the Firetv and put Kodi on it. Get a VPN service installed on your router. Now you can watch anything you want, including all the live sports without the uneasy feeling that someone is watching you do something illegal. You could also get a debrid service if you want to watch movies or tv with more reliable links.



FireTV has the benefit of being wired so you don't get much buffering if you have fast internet and the VPN is good. FireStick has the benefit of being portable so you can move it from TV to TV if necessary and of course it is wifi.you can get all your Netflix Amazon prime HBO go etc on here too if you don't want to go the Kodi route.



$40 fire stick $50 VPN for a year $30 debrid for a year. $120 for the year is waaaaay less than I was paying for cable for a month.

reshp1

May 19th, 2016 at 11:51 PM ^

Sling TV used to give you a free roku stick or $50 towards a roku 3 if you signed up and prepaid for I think 3 months. That was a pretty good deal and gets you access to ESPN channels and some other good ones for 20-25 a month depending on package.