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After using an Amazon Fire TV Stick for streaming online video to a TV for the past three years, I picked up two new devices last month: a Roku Streaming Stick+ and a 2nd-gen Fire TV Stick.
We’re using the new Fire TV Stick in the basement of our house and the Roku in the living room and it’s been pretty great so far. It boots much more quickly and supports more channels than Amazon’s media streamer. Now I can watch Google Play Movies & TV without switching to a Chromecast. And I’m not worried that the YouTube app will disappear anytime soon.
WiFi performance is also great, thanks to the WiFi booster built into the charging cable.
While the Fire TV Stick takes longer to load, it does have a few advantages: the Amazon Video app looks nicer and does a better job of handling subtitles. When I’m watching a video with Plex, it takes longer to buffer when I skip forward or back in the video on the Roku. But overall, I’m glad I picked up the Roku Streaming Stick+ when it was on sale for $20 off during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend.
Oh look… it’s on sale again this week for the same $20 off.
The 2nd-gen Fire TV Stick is also on sale, but it’s only $5 off at the moment.
Here are some of the day’s best deals.
Roku devices
- Roku Streaming Stick+ 4K media streamer for $50 – Amazon
- Refurb Roku Premiere+ 4630B 4K media streamer for $45 – Woot
- Roku Streaming Stick (2017) for $40 – Amazon
PCs and accessories
- Lenovo X1 12″ 2-in-1 tablet w/keyboard + pen for $500 and up – Woot
- D-Link DIR-859 AC1750 WiFi router for $65 – NeweggFlash
- WAVlink AC1200 WiFi range extender for $30 – NeweggFlash
Other
- Aukey AudioLink Bluetooth speaker with multi-room support for $75 – Amazon (coupon: AUXMAS17)
- Aukey Bluetooth earbuds for $20 – Amazon (coupon: AUXMAS16)
- 16-track Mute 2017 MP3 sampler for free – NoiseTrade
You can find more bargains in our daily deals section.
Roku also has a PlayOn channel, and for that matter even its Roku Media Player channel can play those videos as well as videos and music from a home server that supports streaming media (TwonkyMedia, etc.), USB flash drive, etc. That even works if you have lost your Internet connection – handy during ice storms, power failures, and other ISP outages.