May 12, 2020
#385
Gentle reader,
I have written about many things, over the years, but this is a first, a review of a Streaming Device.
Prior to Amazon announcing they were coming out with a series about Heironomous (Harry) Bosch, the legendary LAPD detective created by Michael Connelly and beloved by millions of readers, we had never streamed anything.
Being somewhat OCD and suspicious of Wi-Fi, even though ours is supposedly secure, I wanted the connection hardwired.
Note: All images were gathered from the Internet. Except photos of my installation.
Thus, I looked specifically for a Blu-Ray player that would stream Amazon Prime. Samsung made a number of them, so I bought one and ran a Cat-6 cable through the attic from this room at one end of the house, forty feet to the living room at the other end.
Soon after, one of our daughters gave us a Roku Stick streamer, similar to the one above. Ours is the 3500X.They came out in 2014.
It plugs directly into an HDMI input on the back of the TV. She also gave us a 24" HDTV to use it with. I installed both in our room. But frankly, we rarely used the TV and thus not the Roku stick.
The interesting thing about this is it must use some ultrasonic sound to operate, being that the stick is behind the TV.
Since we were not using the Roku Stick down in our room, I moved it to the living room. It performed much better than the Blu-Ray, but had no way for audio to be passed to the receiver for the surround sound.
Sometime later, I came across a Roku 2 XS which has Angry Birds as part of it, at a thrift store for a few bucks. It uses a special remote that works similar to WII remotes. The remote did not work, but I found a like new one on eBay. It required an Ethernet (CAT) cable to attach to our router which was upstairs. Fortunately, I had run one to that room years ago.
If you wish to find out more about this type of Roku, which I just read uses Bluetooth for the remote:
Roku 2 official: Angry Birds intros casual gaming support - SlashGear
Roku 2 official: Angry Birds intros casual gaming support - SlashGear
Above is everything in the box except the booklets. This type of Roku device requires line-of-sight for the remote. The purple and white strip is clear double-sided tape to secure it to your TV.
The back side with USB power input and HDMI output as well as a 1/8" or 3.5mm audio/composite video output for older SD TVs. IF, your TV has a USB receptacle, then a cable plugged into that will power this Roku.
When it is on, there is a white LED illuminated.
The remote is very similar to the Roku stick's remote we are quite used to but sends infrared signals rather that inaudible ones.
Convenient buttons for Netflix, Hulu, VUDU and sling. Ours has Prime instead of sling.
The device is piano black to match many TVs.
Roku recommends sticking it to the bottom of the screen's frame, but ours has a couple of levels, so I stuck it here.
For the official word on this device which is an update with the addition of A/V output over a previous model, click here:
So, what do we think? It truly is WAY faster in every way! The picture is crystal clear, the audio is clear as well. I have a better audio cable coming, but the thin one from the factory works fine.
We had bought a larger (32") Vizio HDTV for our room which is "smart" but fortunately with no camera. It has their own streaming setup as well as many popular apps built right it. When I saw how much faster it was than the Roku stick, I wanted to replace the living room's 42" TV.
Fortunately, thanks to a half price offer ($15) directly from Roku, there is no need for that needless expense.
So, if you have an older TV that you wished you could stream with or, like me missed the big sound from a receiver and speakers, but don't want to spend a lot of money. Buy one or more. You won't be sorry you did.
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Scott
May 12, 2020
#384
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