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Comment by inthewoods | Hacker News Reader

The big winner in this would seem, to me, to be Roku - one of those rare cases where being independent actually helps.

roku is freaking terrible. have you even used one? compared to the seamlessness that chromecast plus the price, why would you use anything else.

>>seamlessness that chromecast

how is it seamless, I want a independent device to watch videos on, not a device that have to connect with my phone, tablet or pc then "cast" video to it.

I want a self contained video streaming device with its own physical remote, processor and OS that does not need anything else but a internet connection

Roku and FireTV are different classes of Devices than a ChromeCast

The cool thing about chromecast is that you can drag and drop a video file into chrome and it will play on your tv. I don't want to see ads on youtube, so instead of using the built in chromecast support i just stream the window to my tv with ublock origin installed -- no ads.

That's actually all i want, a wireless hdmi cable. But I'm in a tiny minority.

>>I don't want to see ads on youtube

That is what a PiHole is for ;)

holy shit this is awesome, thank you

you're in like .01% of the population that wants that. the menu's and remote with the roku are horrendous, everything about a roku is terrible. You have log into an account within the 'roku os'. you also have to have the remote on you. I almost always have my phone on me. I'm already signed into all the apps that i want, with a much easier to use keyboard for searching. i tap a button on my screen and it's playing on my tv. The entire experience is 'seamless' just because you like to have 47 extra steps to watch a video doesn't mean that anyone else would like that. Roku is for people who don't know better or are technologically challenged. I mean, if you compared it to the appletv Roku is probably good?

> you're in like .01% of the population that wants [a self contained video streaming device with its own physical remote, processor and OS that does not need anything else but a internet connection]

Then why is Roku the most popular brand of streaming device?[1]

> You have log into an account within the 'roku os'

...and with Chromecast you have to log into an account within the Google Home mobile app. In both cases you only have to log in that first time.

> you also have to have the remote on you

No, you don't. You can use the Roku app on any iOS or Android device.

Most people who buy a device like this are trying to watch Netflix or Hulu; not trying to cast video files from a local storage medium. Note that the marketing copy on Roku.com[2] focuses on everything _except_ casting. And it's the same for Amazon[3].

[1] http://www.businessinsider.com/roku-vs-chromecast-amazon-fir...

[2] https://www.roku.com/how-it-works

[3] https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Fire-TV-Family/b?ie=UTF8&node=...

And even though it's not a focus, Roku still has a perfectly usable Miracast/WiFi Display implementation that works with any Miracast source. I've used it successfully from both my android phone and win10 laptop.

No expierance with the Roku, I have several FireTV's

I also have my phone on me, I still have no desire to use it to control the FireTV when I can just use the arrow keys on the remote, select the video and press play.

if I want to search i will use an actual computer and create a playlist or use the 'watch later" flag on youtube and play from that list on the firetv...

it is not "47 steps" I find using the phone to be cumbersome and battery draining

ohh and I doubt I am in the .01% of normal consumers that want that. I maybe in the .01% of Silicon Valley type Tech people that want that. But your every day consumer, every day moms, dads, grandpa's etc want exactly what I describe, which is why the FireTV is so successful

I'm pretty technically savvy, and I almost never want to use my phone as a remote control. Yes, it's almost always with me, but it has to do a lot of stuff. A Roku remote has a big "Netflix" button on it. I press that button. If my phone had a big Netflix button on it, it would be in the way of dealing with Email, texts from my wife, my work calendar, getting the weather, showing me traffic, etc.

I always have my car keys handy too, but if I had to tap out morse code on my key fob to watch a Seinfeld rerun, I'd kill a hobo just to feel something again. A dedicated device is sometimes far preferable than a general one.

Chromecasts are a non-starter for families with children. How are they supposed to stream to the TV when they don't have a phone?

You can use your phone with roku too.

I love Roku and use it alongside my AppleTV. Haven’t used Chromecast or FireTV as comparisons but I have nothing bad to say about Roku.

Or nvidia. Shield tv is awesome. They inked out separate deal with amazon for prime video and other amazon stuff on android.

Sadly not available outside of the US.

I know it is at least available in the UK and France.

UK here. I have several Roku devices.

Hmm. Did you buy it officially or did you import it?

It’s 100% available in the UK. Bought one officially from Amazon. Not imported.

It did not use to be 100% available, Roku denied for a long time ship their Roku Streaming Stick 3600 to the UK. So you had to find a person that had bought it in the US, or trick them into sending it to you.

When I asked support about it they said "The 3600R is not supported in the UK, so I'm afraid it will not work", however it is now selling on Amazon.

Some believed that it was because of Sky having a deal with Roku (Sky has invested in Roku), and because of that they wanted to brand their own Rokus, or something like that.

I am glad that they have since come to their senses and agreed to sell Rokus in the UK.

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