Roku Streaming Stick+ | HD/4K/HDR Streaming Device with Long-range Wireless and Roku Voice Remote with TV Controls

works good. setup was fairly easy. amazon was earlier than expected.

I'm a long-time Roku user, having purchased devices from every generation throughout Roku's evolution. I've had the very original Roku N1100, Roku 2 XD, Roku 2 XS, Roku 3 (2013 version), Roku 4, a TCL Roku TV, Roku Ultra (2016 version)...and now this Stick +. While I've only had it for a couple of days now, this might be the best Roku I've seen from a value perspective. My house is a Roku house. We have 5 televisions but don't have a cable or satellite subscription.. One of the TV's is a Roku TV and the other 4 all have a Roku attached to them. Literally everything we watch is delivered via the Roku. Our OTA material is delivered from a Tablo DVR to our Rokus. Our local media is served up via a Plex server to the Rokus. We also have PS Vue, Netflix, Amazon video, etc. etc. Bottom line, we use Roku a lot, and I'm very familiar with them. I wouldn't consider myself to be a Roku "fan boy", though. While most of the Roku's I've had have been great...there have been some clunkers. The Roku 2XS was a turd that never got any better. The Roku 4 was a turd at the start, but gradually got better with each subsequent firmware update. Unfortunately, the cooling fan in one of my Roku 4s (The 4 was the only Roku model to ever have one) has begun to make the dreaded "grinding" noise in recent weeks, so I decided to try replace it with a stick+. I've generally been leery about all of the "stick" form-factor devices. They've generally lagged behind the more traditional "box" form-factor devices as far as specs go. The Stick+, with its quad-core processor, HEVC support, and 4K capabilities convinced me that the gap may have finally been closed. So, after a couple of days with the Stick+...here are my thoughts on this device - It's snappy and smooth. It's maybe not quite as quick as my Roku Ultras...but it's every bit as fast as the Roku 4. - The new remote is great.The ability to control the TV's power and volume without a second remote or a universal remote is loooong overdue. - Excellent wireless reception. I had two walls between the Stick+ and my router, but was easily streaming 16mbps local media through Plex. - Powering via the TV's USB isn't optimal. Assuming your TV stops providing power to the USB when turned-off, the Stick+ will have to go through the boot-up sequence and then connect to your wireless before you can do anything with it each time you turn on your TV. This can take ~30 seconds. I highly recommend plugging it directly into an outlet using the provided adapter. So, this is a great Roku device. It doesn't have the same bells-and-whistles that my Roku Ultra's have...but then again, I also paid nearly twice as much for those. This Stick+ is much cheaper, provides basically the same UI/playback performance, and also has a remote that will make having to juggle your Roku and TV remotes a thing of the past. That's why I say, absent some deal-breaker that I haven't encountered yet, this is the best dollar-for-dollar Roku yet.

Here are my experiences with the 2017 Streaming Stick+ Roku. First let me specify my setup. I have a slow 2.4 (typically) Mbps Internet connection. Previously I was using a Panasonic BMP110 Blu-Ray player for what little streaming I did. That was mainly used for trying out the Vudu free movies. It was marginal; with my slow connection, sometimes it would work pretty well, and sometimes it would complain and give up intermittently. I have a Yamaha VX-477 Receiver. And it all feeds into a 2011 Panasonic Plasma TV. Setup: It probably isn’t very important, but the remote uses AAA batteries, not AA. I slapped in a couple of Eneloops and it’s happy. I see people complaining about having to give credit card information to activate their Roku. This is not necessary. Go to the page made for this option: my dot roku dot com/signup/nocc, and you can create a Roku account without entering any credit card or PayPal information. I know, because I did it. If you’re wondering about using the Roku with an A/V receiver, that works. I plugged the stick into one of the HDMI inputs on my Yamaha, and it works just fine. 4K wouldn’t cut it, because my receiver doesn’t really support it. But my TV isn’t 4K anyway, so that isn’t a problem. Some people are complaining about HDCP errors. This is probably because they’re trying to use 4K video on a TV that doesn’t support HDCP 2.2. My five year old TV works just fine, because it’s only 1080p. If you want to see 4K video, make sure your TV really supports HDCP2.2. And you need an HDMI connection that also supports HDCP 2.2. On some TVs that’s only one port. If 1080p24 is important to you, Roku says only the 4K devices can do it. I had to turn it off; when the movie would break for commercials, the receiver usually flaked out. I would have to switch HDMI inputs on the receiver, then switch back to the original. The guide says the screen may flash black; mine mainly went to snow, and wouldn’t recover. So I’m doing without 1080p24. It might work better for people who plug it directly into the TV; I didn’t try that. The specs talk about 802.11ac, but it works just fine on my old router without ac. To set this thing up, look at the Quick Start Guide, or just go to the Roku page about your specific device. Basically I just plugged the stick into an HDMI input, plugged the power adapter into my UPS, and connected the cables. It started right up. I haven’t tried different models, so I can’t offer a comparison. But the Streaming Stick+ works great. First you have to pick a wireless network, and provide the password. Then the stick downloads the latest firmware. When it restarted, mine didn’t connect the first time, even though it indicated it still remembered the password. After sitting for a while with a spinning wheel, it finally gave a 014.40 error, and suggested some alternatives. I just unplugged the power cable and plugged it back in. It restarted, and everything was fine. It will go through a few screens, and give you a four letter code. Go back to the page you end up at after creating your account online, or the page they refer you to. Enter the code, and you’re all set. You can select some channel options. Your stick is now busy setting up channels. And things seem to be working great. It does fine showing a movie in standard definition. It has trouble with the commercials; I wonder if they’re a higher definition. But it gets over it quickly. Things like rewind and fast forward are far better than on my old Blu-Ray player. So far I’m just using things that are free. Look around online at the Roku site, and you can see what’s available. So in summary: This thing works surprisingly well with a slow connection. You don’t get 4K video, but it looks pretty good in old-fashioned 1080p (which is probably really a lot less, as in standard def upscaled to 1080). It works plugged into a receiver that then separates out the audio, and passes the video on to the TV. It works with old routers that don’t have 802.11ac. And it works with new routers that have 5GHz ac. You can create an account without providing any credit card information. I recommend this device to anyone that needs a streaming connection.

Update on 7/25/2020: 2 Remotes have quit working within 8 months of my purchase. I have replaced batteries, tried to resync and nothing solves the issue. We now have to use my cell phone and Roku app in 2 different rooms of our home just to use the streaming sticks which are our only source of TV news and movies. I purchased 2 replacement devices about one month thinking I was giving us backup devices and now I am past their return window and I know those remotes are going to crap out on me too...NOT HAPPY with dropping a total of $250+ when the remotes last less than 1 year. Update on 01/07/2020: We now have three if these because our Daughter’s “smart” TV that is just over a year old suddenly decided to have issues with all of the built in apps. This stick is perfect for those who have this happen, or have a TV without built in apps, or those like me who used their game system for streaming until too much use fried an expensive console and caused the loss of hundreds and hundreds of hours of save game data! I recommend these to everyone because they are perfect for our streaming only household. Orig Review: Okay...I absolutely fried my PS4 because as much as I would use it to game on I would also use it to fire up my Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, etc. I never checked into these types of devices before because I guess I just thought my PS4 would be eternal (LOL). As all things tech related eventually do, my PS4 completely crashed and hundreds of hours on my games were lost to me, but in that awful sad moment I decided to replace my PS4 AND go ahead and buy 2 of these to use here at home so that our XBox One wouldn't suffer the same fate in our living room. I know...I'm terrible, huh? Anyways - ROKU. LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT! So easy to setup, easy to add apps to your menu, easy to navigate, quick to load the apps and most important of all I no longer have to worry about using my gaming consoles as entertainment beyond the games they are meant to play! Win Win!!!! I am seriously amazed at how quick the apps launch/load - it's darn near immediate and the interface is clean and easy to use. I love that I can add apps/manage everything from anywhere even when I'm not at home - adding and removing channels is a breeze. It even recognized our TVs without any issues and even some of the universal TV remotes we've bought cannot do that as efficiently as the ROKU did. We are definitely going to be long-time ROKU fans and will buy new ones when needed because they are well worth the price. My husband loves the one in the living room and he has never watched as much TV as he has since I installed the ROKU out there. If we had more TVs we would have more ROKU's.

Works quite well and easy to set up. I mainly only use it for NBA league pass and YouTube. I find the arrow pad on the remote a little difficult to use mainly because I'm used to this part of a remote being lower down so I can't always find the arrows by feel and have to look to make sure i have my finger on the right button. Once I have it in place though, it's fine. I also find some of the preset buttons a bit pointless because I don't use Sling, Hulu or Vue so these serve no purpose to me. Maybe these buttons should be programmable shortcuts? NBA League pass works really well. The interface isn't as clean as AppleTV and there is a little lag when switching between days to view games but this is only a minor thing. Once you select the game to play, it loads quickly and streams at the highest bitrate setting. It's easy to navigate through the stream but I wish the right arrow skipped 10 seconds without pausing the video and bringing up the time slider. Because it pauses the stream, you have to press the right arrow and then press enter so make it play which creates an extra step. This is annoying when watching a game a few hours after it has finished as it makes it tedious to skip through breaks in the game. YouTube works well and pretty much the same as on any smart TV. The only things I don't like (navigating, non-qwerty keyboard etc.) are due to the YouTube app itself, nothing to do with the Roku. Overall it's a great little device and works well for what I use it for (mainly NBA League Pass). Would probably give 4.5 or even 5 stars if the navigation of a stream was smoother as mentioned above.

I have 2014 Samsung 55" curved screen TV I bought when I was working overseas. Since I have been home I have had limited streaming apps I could load due to the regional software package it runs on. But the TV is in good shape and I did not want to replace it just because of streaming ad casting limitations. I decided to try out the ROKU stick as an alternative. The one thing this TV does not lack is HDMI and USB ports. Got the ROKU today. It took about 15 minutes to set up. (Have your phone, laptop or both handy to confirm account creation) I added all the streaming apps I currently use and it took me about 20 minutes to open and logged into all of them (again laptop, phone or tablet devices handy for dual authentication steps where required. Everything logged in successfully. I decided to check out some of the free streaming app options that come with the device. A lot of options. Played a movie and was blown away by the quality of the picture. I hadn't realized how mediocre the streaming quality was running on the TV platform apps that I knew were not the most current. The ROKU has really amazing quality. I did not have to power with a plug, the device was sufficiently powered running from a USB port on the TV (The port is rated at 5V) This is well worth the price and an excellent option for anyone looking for solutions to upgrade their streaming capability of older TVs or those like mine that are from another global region limiting the app and casting compatibility with US stuff.

Interested in "cutting the cord", I researched the best streaming devices, and found that the Roku Streaming Stick+ was consistently in the top 5 and was the best value for the money for our particular family. I was able to choose same-day delivery, and received them in the late afternoon. They were contained in a larger box, so no one could see what was in the package, and the delivery person thoughtfully put them behind a half-wall in our entry court, rather than right in front of the door where they could be seen from the street, which I appreciated! When removed from the box, the items were just as described, in unopened, original packaging. The quick start guide takes you step-by-step through attaching the Roku to your TV and syncing it to the remote, and from that point on, you simply follow the on-screen directions as it walks you through setting up your Roku account (free - but keep in mind that you will need a laptop, desk computer, or phone present in order to access the Roku website to do this), linking your device to it, and starting to use it. It was easy to add the streaming services we already had, such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, and interesting to browse the many free options available and add the ones we wanted - the Western TV & Movie Classics" channel is a big hit with my husband and his dad. Once set up, there are links on the home page to a "Getting Started" with Roku page, and a "Tips and Tricks" to Using Roku page for more information regarding your Roku, in addition to tiles for whatever channels you chose during your set-up. We have been using these (we installed two in our home, and one in my 90-year-old father-in-law's home) for a month now, and have had no issues whatsoever. We have not had any problems with lag, and pictures are clear and bright (any fuzziness in the photos I've provided are the fault of the camera operator!). The user interface is pretty standard for this type of thing - the biggest learning curve we faced was figuring out exactly which apps the shows we normally watched were on. However, between being able to customize which streaming apps appear on your home page, and the two ways to search - you can either type in the name in the search bar, or you can hold down a microphone-iconed button on the remote and, for example, say "Search Criminal Minds", it is fairly easy to get to where you want to be without having to flounder around in the interface. Even dad-in-law, who is somewhat electronically challenged, got the hang of it fairly quickly, and is very comfortable with using the interface at this point. We are all very happy with the device and service. Highly recommended! NOTE: Regarding the stick being at the side of the TV in our photo, in case anyone is concerned about the aesthetics of having this sticking out of your TV - there were other HDMI ports we could have used at the back of the TV, where the stick would have been hidden and only the Roku power cord coming down next to the TV power cord would have been visible. However, these were difficult for me to reach, and since my husband is not very technologically savvy, I am the one who usually deals with the electronics and troubleshoots when there are problems, so I was more concerned with the device being easily accessible that I was about how it looked. Rest assured, if you want a neater look, it is certainly available if you choose to use an HDMI port at the back of your TV. :- )

So here is the deal. I already have a Roku Streaming Stick 3600R (2016 version) in our family room. We liked it so much that we wanted our kids to have it for their play area TV, which was closer to the router. Since the family room now needed a new streaming device, I decided to go with the next logical step, the Roku Streaming Stick+ 3810. I am not new to the Roku experience and interface. It was still very snappy. The great content apps were still there. It's basically waiting for me to do a TV upgrade to 4K, which I don't know when it's going to happen. :) I also did discover that I can actually turn on/off the power to my Sony sound bar and also control its volume using only the Roku remote. This makes it very convenient. To feel good about this upgrade, I decided to do several tests related to the temperature, Wi-Fi signal (both using Roku secret menus) and then a speed test using Netflix. I know the Netflix test is not a pure speed test because it uses the Netflix servers, but it's an acceptable indicator for me. Please keep in mind that this is not a scientific test. It's more of a test to check for systematic changes between the two Rokus given other fixed factors. I did all testing within the span of 1-2 hours so I hope no major changes were introduced that affected the tests. Test Configuration (things that did not change during testing): - I did *not* change any advanced default settings in the Roku devices (e.g. interference mitigation, power, etc.) - For audio/video, Roku devices were connected via HDMI to a Sony sound bar HT-CT380, *not* directly into the TV. Both the sound bar and TV support only 1080p, not 4K. - For power, Roku devices were connected to Dish Network Hopper 3 receiver's USB port, which is nice because it is on all the time, whether Hopper is powered on or in standby. - For Wi-Fi, Roku devices were connected wirelessly to a Netgear Nighthawk R7000 (with custom Tomato Shibby firmware) which supports both bands: 2.4 and 5.0 GHz. Test Results *** Roku Streaming Stick (3600) *** Temperature: 74 C 2.4 GHz Signal strength: 25 2.4 GHz Antenna 1: 29 2.4 GHz Antenna 2: 32 Glitch/sec: 38 5.0 GHz Signal strength: 19 5.0 GHz Antenna 1: 17 5.0 GHz Antenna 2: 19 Glitch/sec: 3 2.4 GHz Netflix Connection Speed: 14.87 Mbps 5.0 GHz Netflix Connection Speed: 15.63 Mbps *** Roku Streaming Stick+ (3810) *** Temperature: 97 C 2.4 GHz Signal strength: 21 2.4 GHz Antenna 1: 32 2.4 GHz Antenna 2: 34 Glitch/sec: 177 5.0 GHz Signal strength: 28 5.0 GHz Antenna 1: 34 5.0 GHz Antenna 2: 32 Glitch/sec: 0 2.4 GHz Netflix Connection Speed: 35.58 Mbps 5.0 GHz Netflix Connection Speed: 75.13 Mbps Conclusions: - Roku 3810 runs about ~30% hotter than the Roku 3600. I hope it's still within acceptable range. I did not receive any warnings or anything during use. - With Roku 3810, 2.4 GHz overall Signal Strength decreased by ~16% compared to Roku 3600. - With Roku 3810, 5.0 GHz overall Signal Strength improved by ~47% compared to Roku 3600. - With Roku 3810, 2.4 Ghz Netflix connection speed improved by an impressive ~139% compared to Roku 3600. - With Roku 3810, 5.0 Ghz Netflix connection speed improved by an incredible ~380% compared to Roku 3600. Comments: - I noticed in one of the tests that the while the Antennas (1 and 2) signal strengths were higher, the overall Signal Strength was lower. Perhaps the overall Signal Strength takes into account other factors such as glitch/sec, interference, etc.? I am not really sure. - Even though 2.4 GHz signal was poorer with the new Roku, I still got faster speeds with Netflix. This tells me that not only the antennas are different, but perhaps the Wi-Fi chipset is improved or something. - In general, using 2.4 GHz band produced way more glitches per second compared to 5.0 GHz, so in my situation, I recommend/prefer using the 5.0 GHz band, especially considering the speed test results in Netflix. Overall, I feel happy about the experience.