Choosing between the Roku and the Firestick can be tough. They are both great streaming devices. However, this video we will show you real world reasons for when it is good to pick one over the other.

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42 COMMENTS

  2. I have Rokus and the Firestick on one TV and find the Roku much easier to deal with, the Firestick does have a few advantages like using it to ask Alexa to do things but it doesn't have as many channels and they tend to be more buggy on the Firestick. I have a Roku TV with Roku wireless speakers and a Roku subwoofer and it is a great sound system. I would instead get the Roku soundbar if I had a non-Roku TV.

  5. That's not true. You can ask roku to find the weather and it will give it to you. And unfortunately this guy doesn't know much about audio so he doesn't know how to hook things up correctly I would look to someone who is more advanced in this area.

  6. My girlfriend gave me a TCL 55" Roku Smart TV. I purchased a TCL sound bar and connected it with a ARC HDMI cable.
    Through the ARC cable the sound bar is controlled through the Roku remote that came with the TV.
    Which turns the power on and off and controls the volume.
    The issue with the basic sound bar is that the lip movements it just slightly out of sync by about a quarter second. Most of the time this is not a big deal. And I don't have to subscribe to Amazon Prime to get content.
    I'm able to control many Roku functions through my echo Dot which is part of my home automation controlling the lights, etc.

  8. BTW – if you have a decent soundbar it should have eARC – the soundbar hooks to the eARC port on your TV / Roku can hook into another 2.1 port. You then configure the TV for external speakers and you should have no problems.
    My problem with Alexa – its been proven that it ALWAYS LISTENS to whatever you're saying – privacy concerns abound.

  13. I prefer Roku Ultra, especially over other Roku devices. I had both a Roku Ultra and a Roku stick. The as I added channels to my Roku, the Ultra seemed to be able to add more channels than I really ever needed, at the same time I started having problems with my Roku Stick. The Roku Stick which was on the same account started malfunctioning… I soon realized why. As I added more and more channels to the Ultra, the Stick was also picking up the fact I added those channel to the account and was adding them also. The stick did not have the same amount of memory, so it became overloaded and soon became kludgy and basically inoperable. I started deleting all the channels on my account that I either did not use, or were preinstalled and kept the only ones that I watched. The Stick came back to being a well functioning device once I trimmed the "fat".

    I no longer have a Roku Stick and absolutely love my Ultra. Another thing about the Roku, is that I can add my Amazon account to it and watch Amazon Prime and Amazon Music. I do not need a Firestick for Amazon. The Roku Channel also has lots of stuff on it I might have to pay for other wise, and it is free. The fact that Pluto, Freevee, and other free streaming services make it great as a cost cutter. If I need to I can eliminate all the paid channels and still have as much or more video and audio content than my cable provider gives me. I would like to try a Firestick, but so far I do not have a device like Chrome or Firestick as those two services already know more about me than I would like.

    The reason I would like to try the Firestick is the ability to side load apps. As far as Firestick having the ability to add memory in the form of flash memory as mentioned below, many Roku devices can do the same. Since the Roku Ultra is a box you can place on you TV stand or mantle, It is easier to insert and remove the memory, and not have to fiddle with something on the back of the television. Also my friend purchased a Roku TV. When the internal Roku started having problems, his TV was fine, but he still had to add an external Roku.

    The reason why I never bought a an all-in-one stereo and always bought component system. If something goes bad, you replace one part, not the entire thing. I have been also thinking of adding an Android TV device, There are many different one out there, and being able to add a browser or other android apps to it some thing I wish was easy to do, I even just thought maybe I should get a mini ITX computer, run Android on it and basically have an Android TV box that I custom built with the apps I want. There are some streaming services that can not be added or accessed by Roku or Amazon, but can be accessed by computers, tablets, and cell phones that run Windows, MacOS, Linus or Android.

  15. You are wrong about the Roku NOT being able to control a soundbar. Our 6-year old Yamaha soundbar is NOT connected to our Roku Ultra, but ONLY to the TV and the Roku remote has been programmed to turn our soundbar on/off AND control its volume from the side volume switches. Roku HAS instructions, specifically,to be able to setup the Roku remote to control any make/model of soundbar. Works just fine.

  18. I have two Roku Ultra's hooked up to two different receivers with ARC / HDMI-CEC and both allow me to control receiver volume with the roku remote (also turns tv and receiver on w/ power button)… This gear isn't that new either one TV Toshiba 1080P tv from about 2008~ and a Yamaha RX-V473 that is something like 11~ years old. The other setup is also 3~ish years old and it was no problem getting roku remote to power tv and receiver on and control volume..

    I just bought a Firestick 4K as it was very cheap over xmas… In fairness I have been using the Roku for years..but I kinda hate the Firestick 4K so far… the remote feels cheap and is too small and the buttons feel "bad" … Also I would have to sideload the app for my online only Spectrum TV package….which is "fine" but more hassle than with the Roku… hopefully amazon and spectrum will make the app available from the appstore (or whatever it is called on Firestick?…I don't remember)… but yeah I loath the Firestick remote…

  26. Recently swapped out my cable boxes for Rokus (before seeing video). I have the "simple" setups (no sound bars, receivers, etc.) so it works great for me. One other issue with the remote, however. It might just be me, but I tend to press remote buttons with my right index finger instead of my thumb. Always have, As a result, the way I hold the remote I tend to inadvertently hit the volume/mute buttons on the side of the Roku remote. Not sure why those had to be on the side instead of the face of the remote.
    One quick question: 2 of my TVs are in adjacent rooms (living room and den). If there is a game on in which I have significant interest (or show), I will have both TVs on so I can do things going back and forth between rooms and stay "connected" to the game. When I had cable boxes that were hard wired (not wifi) they were always perfectly synched. Now, with the wifi Rokus there is a SLIGHT lag and one will be, maybe, 1 second behind the other This obviously creates an echo effect which is annoying. Any way to resolve this? Any devices I can add to delay the "faster" one to synch up to the slower one? Thanks!

  28. I have a Roku Ultra and a Firestick…….after about 5 years or so it simply doesn't work. It won't respond to any remote. It has had trouble streaming live events even though it is connected to the internet via ethernet. The Firestick is much easier to find apps to add but the wifi is slow and the audio doesn't want to match the video of Prime videos as a movie progresses. I can watch the same movie via my tv app directly with no problem. Quite frankly I don't much use for either one as my tv downloads apps and works just fine. It also allows me to watch movies via my local pc network. As far as sound my Yamaha surround sound system works just fine.

  30. I have a BOSE sound link speaker that I set up from my ROKU TV headphone out to my BOSE speaker in and that works but that is on the ROKU TV only.
    The ROKU TV has a great feature for antenna tv users as well with the channels line up that transfer to ROKU STREAMING CHANNELS from the antenna mode. The major downfall is that it does not allow picking channels by station numbers which offers close to 1000 channel choices.
    The antenna channel also offers signals strength to help you tune your antenna position plus by adding a large flash drive you can FREE DVR your antenna tv.
    The microphone option helps you find desired show selections and under what app you can find it under as well if it a Free, Buy or Rent option for you.

  32. I also think it deoends on what system you get used to using first I see your typing to search for apps -“channels” to add to your list on Roku and I don’t really see that as any different than the search on Fire stick 4K Max – I’m just more familiar with Fire Stick so of course if I had to use Roku I’d have to pause and think about what I’m seeing and have to do and that might make me question why Roku doesn’t do it “my way” annoy me or frustrate me – but that’s like moving from iOS to android and it’s my problem not the tech.

  33. I use The Roku ultra because it gives you a choice of ethernet or Wi-Fi connection. I Like to use ethernet connection whenever possible. However I do see that the latest fire cube has an ethernet connection. I am a big Alexa user. This video has pointed out some nice features of using the fire stick as opposed to Roku. Fire cube may be my next move.

  37. I like the Roku for its better menus, and because the Firestick has, in effect, too many ads for Amazon products. But the reason I got a Firestick 4K Max for the newest addition to our setup, is that it uses Wifi 6, which I needed for better reach to the basement TV. (And I have to say, it does give us great speeds with the Wifi 6 router.) I wish Roku would move on to release a Wifi 6 product soon. Unless I've missed some Roku news?

  40. I agree with most of the comments except with the Roku remote. My Roku remote can turn on/off the TV as well as change the soundbar volume.

    I do not get why you are having issues with controlling the volume on the soundbar.

    FYI – Neither my TV or soundbar are Roku branded.