Top 10 best Streaming Devices 2022 Passed Our Test

I chose this because Magewell products tend to have solid reviews and the company officially supports Linux. My only reservation is that the product and documentation don’t lay out the basic gotchas you might run into, so I’ll do my best to cover those at the bottom of this review.In general, it does what it says. You can give it up to a 4K signal at 60 Hz and it will pass the signal through to the HDMI loop unaltered, and downsample it over the USB to a maximum of 1080p at 60 Hz.Strangely, the box only says it take up to 30 Hz at 4K, but the online description, my eyes, and my TV all agree that it works at 60 Hz.There seems to be a short delay between the source and the USB output. If I were to estimate, it looks like about a quarter second when it’s outputting 1080p60, and I think it may be less at lower settings. I expect this would only be a problem if you’re trying to play action games through the USB capture. I don’t notice any delay on the loop-through output so I’d suggest playing such games through the loop-through.The headphone jack does work, but I’ll caution it is not amplified. If you try to plug headphones without an amplifier in you will have a very hard time hearing it.Technical gotchas:First, be sure you’re using a USB 3.0 or higher slot on your PC. The easiest way to tell is a USB 3 slot has a blue plastic insert. If you try to use a USB 2 slot it will actually work, but you’ll be limited to lower resolutions and frame rates. I did not see any indications from the device when this was happening.Also note this does NOT strip HDCP, and if it receives an HDCP-encrypted signal, it will just output a black screen. Verify that whatever device you want to capture supports non-HDCP output. Off hand, the PS4, Wii U, and most PCs will work fairly easily. Most other peripherals could pose an issue, so be sure to Google a bit to know if your device will work with this.And a Linux-specific note: As far as I can tell, the official drivers don’t do anything, at least on modern kernels. This is a minor deal as the generic V4L drivers seem to work perfectly. I installed the official ones to see if they might allow some more specialized configuration, but they don’t even detect the device.

TLDRadd a 128GB micro sd card or usb flash drive key chain for under $20 fill up with all your favorite titles, and you can take all your favorite videos, music, audio books and play it via hdmi anywhere on the planet you have power. it’s a 100+ DVD disc/VHS player that fits in your back pocket for $70 or less all in no need for internet, subscriptions, accounts and doesnt stalk you….$50 plugged it in, plugged in usb drive, plays back everything pretty much flawless, a child could use and the senior crowd can too without any internet stalking, set ups, accounts, updates, tinkering. For the most part it just worksplug & play.Was an OG Xbox hacker running XBMC almost 20 years ago, used the entire wdtv line, dabbled with the pis and I tend to always have an old notebook around which is easy enough to connect via hdmi so I skipped a few generations of streamers. and I have zero desire for streaming but for a stand alone box this is it.5 stars for the price, size, and doing what it’s supposed to do.If I could make changes.Power on would check sd card and boot from that.So those who like a little more customization or updates could just set up a microsd card pop it in and enjoy.If no sd card then it just boots like it normally does.An internet search for “mypin firmware” brings up a page easy enough with a file from 2020 around 500mb.Played around with it before updating worked fine before and after.Verision 16 of kodi think their on 19 by now. Didnt spend to much time on it, wish it was a little easier to update and add apps, I’m sure I could get into it but not worth the time these days just want it to work and it did.Was easy enough to just add to root of usb drive, but really didnt give any indication it was doing anything, I’m familiar to just let it be for a while, checked the status and it did change. But there was no reason to update. Maybe a system setting to load update file but 99% of people wont bother.Turned on clicking video/music didnt show any files no biggy clicked app and kodi, vlc, and an office app popped up.Thought I’d try vlc it saw files but no sound thought oh boy, clicked app again selected kodi and it played back everything fine. I use a projector.Theres options to have it automatically start playing that are easy enough.Some might complain about some of the apps not working but it 3 button pushes its playing fine, scrolls thru titles fast, app and back button tend to get a user where the need so I’d be comfotable gifting to older relatives or kids.Small footprint microsd cards and usb drives are less than 20 bucks, load em up, store away and go.The Blue Laser Beam is like the luxor in vegas and i’ll never understand why pretty much all electronics need to light up a room when powered off but that’s what black nail polish is for, covered up the light and other spots it leaks and remote still works.Doesn’t come with hdmi or batteries, but I have plenty I use a small 1ft one for this.It came with an extension for ir remote, some old school red and yellow cables and a basic remote.Would and will buy again. Great travel companion, for hotels, projectors, super portable, user froendly, and if it gets lost or stolen no biggy it so cheap.Would love physical buttons on these type of products nothing fancy but redundency for a lost or broke remote, a power button and a way to scroll or select.Maybe another micro sd card slot, it has 2 usb slots, and a file manager so it could double dose as a micro sdcard /usb drive clonerAll 1%er requests but a few tweaks could make this a killer product.Old wdtv is a good comparison expcept this box scrolls thru titles a lot faster. I havent tried with my big drives, I like to use those for serious back up, keep a few usb drives / sd cards loaded and you can carry hundreds of movies/ thousands of albums ready to plug and play anywhere you goTLDRadd a 128GB micro sd card or usb flash drive key chain for under $20 fill up with all your favorite titles, and you can take all your favorite videos, music, audio books and play it via hdmi anywhere on the planet you have power. it’s a 100+ DVD disc/VHS player that fits in your back pocket for $70 or less all in no need for internet, subscriptions, accounts and doesnt stalk you….

Being an all Apple household I have to say this device impressed me quite a bit. I purchased a Firestick Lite over a year ago to take with me for travel but it had a bit of lag and seemed to have network drop outs on hotel WiFi (I know hotel WiFi is less than desired but it was annoying). In December this device was on sale for over half off and I decided to try it out. This was after I had gotten the previous Firestick 4K which was a decent product but I found out it for whatever reason cannot get the latest software (but the “less capable” Firestick Lite can, baffling I know). I purchased this one and sent back the FireStick 4K as the refund on the Firestick 4K covered the cost of this one and then some.Things that impressed me (with caveats):1. Ability to use captive portal internet. Currently the tvOS on the AppleTV does not allow for this unless you go through a process to spoof the MAC address of a device on the captive portal or somehow get a hold of the internet provider’s help desk to have them add the MAC address. A “dance” I successfully completed once but by the time I was complete it was too late to watch anything. Caveat, this will be resolved with the upcoming release of tvOS 15.4 as the beta version has the ability to connect to captive portal internet in hotels.2. Ease of use – plug it into the HDMI port and power via the Micro USB port via the TV or power brick. Then sign into your Amazon account.3. Picture is really good on both 4K TVs and 1080 TVs4. Responsive when going through menus and applications – caveat, if there is enough storage available to make memory and swap cache available. (See below).5. Main screen is customizable and you are able to set your favorite applications there. Especially helpful for use by kids.6. Ability to set multiple profiles. I have two daughters and was able to add the kids profiles that they use on their Amazon Fire Kids tablets. We will not go into the annoyances with the Kids interface. Caveat related to limited storage and having to “download” applications to the Kid’s profile is counts towards the storage limit.Annoyances:1. Amount of storage is only 8GB? It’s 2022 Amazon could afford to add more storage to these devices without adding much to the cost. Even 16GB of flash storage would be better. Having to offload applications in order to make cache available to applications can properly run gets old. Yes, I understand you can attach an external device to this for giving it more storage via a hub for applications but that negates the “throw it in your backpack and go” idea I bought it for.2. Not being able to easily close down applications to make more RAM and storage available (see above). I know this device is more or less running Amazon’s version of Android, but even a quick way to shut down applications from the remote would be convenient.3. The constantly running ads in the main interface and now the ads that pop-up when using live streaming applications like DirectTV Stream. We’ve come accept commercials are annoying enough when watching broadcast TV but an ad that takes over the screen in the middle of the program is a bit too far.4. No geo-location ability. This means applications that have the ability to “know” where it is based on the IP address of the internet will automatically know which channels to load (or allow you to “spoof” your location with a VPN). If this is not present services like DirectTV Stream default to the billing zip code and you are locked to the channels for your billing zip code.5. Kid’s Profile cannot be sorted and customized in the same way the regular profile can. Unlike the AppleTV, it is not a profile set with age restrictions and purchase restrictions and it being there same interface as the adult profiles. It might be cute to have a kids interface but it’s annoying for kids who already know how to navigate the regular interface. It is the same type of profile that the tablet has and more or less shows what “Amazon thinks they would like” based on habits. Applications cannot be pinned and in addition to this they have to be re-downloaded after being added to their profile instead of just appearing on the profile. This counts towards the used storage. Amazon needs to fix this across all of their devices and do what iOS and tvOS does and have a data partition for a user with applications be available to all users so you do not have to re-download applications. The above said, I’ve deleted the kids profiles. My kids only go to the pinned applications and access their profiles continued in those applications.6. All of the privacy settings are automatically set to “allow” – location, watching history, targeted ads, application downloads etc. You have to go into every application as well as the settings for the device and the application setting on the device to turn all of this off. Unless you really “dig” the settings are kinda hidden which is the point as Amazon makes a ton of money off of selling the data provided by the device and applications to 3rd parties.7. Updates are a PITA. Update notifications are given but not for how many or what they are for. Usually it takes several attempts to check for and run all of the updates. Several times I have thought I bricked the device as it seems to hang when “installing”. Backing out of the update, restarting the device and running the scan for updates then shows the update completed and another update is showing. This is a common theme with all Android based devices.Conclusion:If you are an Apple user and looking for something that give you access to your streaming services (Disney+, Netflix, Hulu, DirectTV Stream, PBS etc) on the as well as AppleTV+ this device will do the job. If you are like me this will more than likely be your travel and secondary device that gets tossed in or stays in a bag. DO your due dillgence and turn on all of the privacy settings to “off” or “do not allow” for the FireOS and each application, this usually stops the ads during live TV streams.

I appreciate that I got this at a very good Prime Day price. I now have 3 Fire Sticks and am grateful to have them. This generation seems to work faster than the previous as well — scrolls faster, responds faster. I don’t generally use voice, because the previous version was horrid to even attempt, so I gave up long ago.Now here’s the rub. AMAZON, YOUR NEW FIRE STICK DESIGN IS A FAILURE. Here’s why:The new remote is great for those who never used the previous remote. The previous was more streamlined which made it easy to locate buttons without even glancing at it. The previous had fewer buttons so there was little confusion as to what you were pressing at any given time. The batteries were near the bottom of the remote which is where the bulk of the weight would rest perfectly in the palm of your hand.The NEW remote is the opposite of all of the above. First, there is no way I can find the play/pause button on this remote unless I physically look down at it. Even then, it’s smack dab in the middle of a square of NINE buttons, plus 5 more. The mute and live TV buttons are placed so that it’s easy to feel for them without having to stop to look at the remote (there is blank space below both). I am often pressing the wrong button when trying to play/pause. Yes, I could click the large round Select button at the top, but if on YouTube, it takes two clicks to pause, and the screen menu appears on the screen which takes yet another click to remove. All this means extra clicks (wear and tear) on the remote, extra battery power, and is a general annoyance.Now about the battery.. the batteries on the new remote are at the top which puts the bulk of the weight opposite of where most people hold the remote — either in the palm or with the fingers. I have dropped this thing numerous times already because it feels unbalanced and top-heavy. It is unnatural for the way we’re used to most remote controls. In addition, because I still have two other Fire Sticks with remotes that I still use, it is difficult to retrain my hands to use this clumsy, awkward stepchild of a remote just for this one device.Lastly, the new buttons for streaming services are nice to have, but not the greatest to have. If you truly have — and USE — all 4 services, this remote is made for you. Anything less than 2 or 3, and it’s just another device with useless functions. While I appreciate being able to single-click to Hulu, I would much rather go through the main menu and get rid of these excess buttons. PLUS, most remotes have a different colored Power button at the top. Between the fact that these buttons being at the bottom + the awkward weight distribution of the remote, I frequently mistakenly hold this remote the wrong way and end up clicking incorrect buttons. I’m watching a video on YouTube, and with one errant click, I’m in that wild maze of a Live TV menu, wonder where I went wrong in life.AMAZON, HERE’S WHAT TO DO TO IMPROVE THIS REMOTE:1. Move the batteries back to the bottom right at the area where most people hold the lower half of the remote in their palm. 2. Move the streaming buttons to the top of the remote. 3. Move the mute, volume up, volume down, and Live TV buttons down into a separate section AWAY from the navigational buttons. Leave blank space below the rewind, play/pause, and forward buttons so we can again find these buttons without having to turn on lights and look down at the remote. 4. A more complete transfer of previous Fire Stick data to the new Fire Stick would be appreciated — my transfer of data was incomplete. Why not allow a simply one-time cloning of apps via Amazon AWS so we don’t have to spend an hour reinstalling apps we’re used to?Until then, I’d like my money back or an exchange of this Fire Stick for an older generation like the other two I have. 1 star for the price, 1 star for the volume control, 1 star for speed. I’d take off more stars for the annoyances, however.UPDATE 11/2022:I still have the same bad review regarding the design of the new remote control. I STILL find myself grabbing it and holding it the wrong way which makes me click the wrong button (upside down, the forward button is mistaken for the rewind) and I use it daily. STILL hard to get used to. No product should be this difficult to transition to. NEW COMPLAINT: Actually, this is something I noticed right away, but can verify after extended usage. Occasionally, my Internet cuts out. On my laptop, I see that it is restored in about 1 minute. However, the Fire Stick takes upwards of FIVE additional minutes to have it’s connection restored. Of course, I can EXIT the app I’m using, go to Settings, and go through the network prompts to get it to reconnect, but c’mon… really? The old Fire Stick would reconnect as quickly as my laptop. There is something off with this new device. Please fix, then send me another for review. /// I still greatly appreciate the quick buttons (Hulu, etc.. although if you don’t use those services, the keys are useless and just more clutter) and the volume buttons.

Being able to display a pre-recorded or live demo video wirelessly was a must for us and this device does just that. We did have an issue when connecting it to an older laptop, but that may have been a problem with the laptop since a newer laptop worked fine with no problems. I would purchase it again.

I ordered this device and had it delivered within 8 hours, that in itself is amazing. OK, now about the Roku:The packaging was good, everything was nicely protected and contained everything you need to connect to any TV with an HDMI connector.Connecting the Roku was simple, a small USB wall wart for power, or you can use the USB port on your TV if it has one for power. The included HDMI cable was long enough to place it in a good position but not so long that you have a lot of cable flopping aroundNetwork setup was a breeze, I was able to use the provided APP to scan the network passcode directly to the device, very slick, and very fast.Setting up the Roku was a very simple process, I added the streaming services I use and set them in the Roku in under 20 minutes.The provided remote automatically synced to my TV without any intervention from me, the remote controls the power and volume on the TV so you do not need the second TV remote really unless you are changing settings. The Roku turns on almost instantly.I tested loading Amazon Prime Video first, whereas the Blu-ray player I was using for streaming would take several minutes to connect to Amazon Prime Video the Roku opened the service in under 30 seconds each time I tested.The video quality is excellent. The ease of use is excellent. The size and design are excellent, small, and easy to hide in plain sight, it even comes with its own adhesive strip if you want to mount it to the side of your TV. (The remote requires a line of site to function)The only thing I did not like about the Roku setup was the requirement to enter credit card information.I appreciate the fact that if you are going to purchase content that having your credit card on file makes the process faster, but, I still think there should be an option to only enter your credit card if you want to make a purchase.Overall, for the price and for the performance, you cannot go wrong with this product.

I’ve had a few Fire TV sticks over the years, and generally I love them. For this model, the first one I got was a dud. It died in 2 days. Amazon took me through some reasonable troubleshooting steps, then replaced it quickly and easily. The second one is a lot better.In general, I find the remote has a weird tendency to, I guess “rot” is the word. The case starts to feel like it’s covered in a sticky mess. I don’t know why. I guess that’s why the remote covers are so popular. Not a stopping point – they still work – just a point of note. The optional game controllers do not have this issue.There are ample streaming options. I’ve yet to look for something, even less common things like Wonderium and Funimation, and not find it. The UI is easy to navigate. The device is responsive. I put it through a 7.1 sound system and it can handle that no problem.A few things to note, not exactly faults of the product, but faults you will encounter while using the product.For the Disney+ login, the trick of using the phone just errors out and asks to re-authenticate over and over. If you use a strong password, that can be a pain. Once it works, it’s fine, just a pain to set up.For the Ubisoft+ integration, for many of the games it starts to load then fails. I don’t see the same issue on the same games on PC, so it’s probably related to the app. This was the primary purpose for which I bought the device, so it is a bit of a disappointment. Also note, you need the Luna service for this, which is totally worth it on its own, by the way. Also, at least for me, while the video streaming was fine over WiFi, the gaming required the Ethernet adapter.It’s not perfect, but it’s outstanding for such a low price. I often use it rather than power up my PS5 to watch Netflix because it is so much more convenient, and of identical quality.

I had a 1st Gen Fire TV stick years ago. This new Fire TV stick 4K with Alexa Voice Remote is a marvel by comparison!(Skip to the next paragraph if you want to get right to the product itself…lol)I was having issues with my bedroom TV. It’s a Vizio “Smart” 4K tv and recently it has been freezing up when using certain apps. The Netflix app was the biggest offender. It would freeze up, no remote function worked and I’d have to get up, physically unplug the tv and plug it back in just to reboot it. Apparently, this is a common issue with app incompatability with the Vizio and certain apps. Even with all of the apps and the TV’s software and firmware up-to-date, the problem persisted. I decided the best work-around was to take the TV’s software out of the picture and let the Fire TV Stick be the “Smart” part of my “Smart TV” setup. And it’s awesome!The first thing I noticed was how easy the setup was. It paired effortlessly with my tv, Echo Dot Speaker w/Alexa and even my Blink cameras. Sure, you have to go through all of the usual stuff like download the streaming apps that you use that aren’t pre-loaded and sign in to them all, but that’s an expected pain in the butt and I only had 2 that weren’t already there.The voice commands are also very intuitive. Whether I’m using the remote, my Echo Dot or the app on my phone, I get what I’m looking for.What I wasn’t expecting was the much better picture quality! I have a Vizio 4K Ultra TV and I’ve noticed some of what I watch the quality is definitely not 4K but that’s more to do with the quality of the content not being 4k (like my live TV streams using YouTube TV for instance….I don’t pay for the 4K option). As soon as I got the Fire TV stick up and running, I noticed a much sharper picture (even the YouTube TV). I’m not a techie or videophile by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m guessing there are a few factors at play that contribute to the better image quality: Fewer resources being used by the TV itself having to run the apps whereas the Fire Stick has ample memory and fast processor to handle the bandwidth better, and there might even be some “upscaling” being done by the Fire to emulate 4K. Not true 4K but sharpened to nearly mimic the end result. Whatever it is, I was actually expecting a drop in quality so an increase isn’t an optical illusion on my part. lolAfter a few days, I decided that I needed one thing that this was lacking….a remote with back-lit buttons. I’ve become spoiled by my universal remote with buttons I can see at night in my bedroom (and the remote is now defunct because it’s infrared and doesn’t work with the Fire Stick).So I threw down $34.99 for the Alexa Voice Remote Pro. Yes, I paid more for a new remote than I did for the Fire TV Stick and remote just to have lighted buttons. LOL BUT the remote has a bunch of other features that make it a little more useful and some features are just cool (you can use both remotes so I have a backup now). It has a “Find my remote” feature, additional, programmable buttons that are super easy, etc. so I’m in Fire TV Stick heaven with this remote plus the Fire TV Stick 4k.I highly recommend this Fire TV Stick. I considered getting the 4K MAX even though I don’t have the latest wifi system that it takes advantage of, but I don’t think I’ll miss it even if my ISP upgrades it’s service

I’ve had experience with a number of devices, and this one is my favorite.My priorities:Fast streaming/minimal lagEasy to navigateAccess to shows of interestAbility to preview as i fast forward or rewindApple TV:ExpensiveCan’t preview or issues with some of the apps that was frustrating. it wanted to rewind or fast foward instead of clicking to the screen section you wanted with a preview. This really killed the device for me.Easy to overshoot if you used the finger swipe option to quickly move fast-forward or rewind.User interface, for the most part is decent and fast except for how navigates while playing.Fire TVBuilt to sell products instead of show shows, laggy, and for whatever reason I hated interacting with this device. Not being able to easily access the content I wanted due to poor organization really rubbed me the wrong way.Pro – ability to bootleg shows, but not something I’m into and I only checked this out during the first weeks of covid.I want to emphasize the lag issues. This is built as cheap as possible to minimally meet requirements to function and it shows.RokuSo, now that I have the other devices out of the way, and ignore my LG streaming which is my favorite, I’ll speak to this device and why it has my vote.This device is surprisingly fast. I didn’t expect a device that was almost as responsive as my apple TV and LG TV. This is slightly slower but barely and no lag which is the most critical thing for me.We got this for the British Bake-off access which led to an unexpected cool thing. The discovery of the free shows, if you don’t absolutely hate commercials. For the complete British Bake-off experience, we mute the commercials. So, the additional channels that Roku provides has made it continue to be useful.Roku allows a preview of channels as I fast forward through it.Roku does have an issues with some apps where I need to log out and go back in so the remote works correctly. I’m not sure if that’s a bad app issue or the device but a quick back and in fixes. The apple device has never crashed or become buggy on me. The Firestick has, but it’s cheap.The price is significantly cheaper than apple making the Roku a no brainer.Unlike the apple TV, which requires counter space, this plugs into the back of the TV and is hidden away.Now, an issue I had when I first turned on is that my remote was not communicating with the device. I was extremely annoyed as this was an early Christmas present for my wife, and I wanted it to function within a certain time window so a return and replace would have ruined it. The device showed the remotes power but didn’t communicate. After resetting the device, the remote works fine now. If you run into an issue, try resetting the device.4k streaming? It’s okay. I didn’t do a side by side. It has 4k.Navigation? It’s simple enough but could be made better. I thought the last version of the Fire TV was worse. The apple TV does shine in this area on most apps I played with. My biggest gripe with navigation in Roku is that marking something as favorite and then LOCATING the favorites from Roku’s channels and free shows, was not intuitive. I did eventually find my favorites, but that was frustrating. Additionally, the channel/app/inventory searching involves clicking to the right instead of down.So, speed is slightly less than Apple, but barely. Navigation is slightly less easy based on the layout vs apple, and i think it’s better than the Fire the last time I used that thing. The Roku has a nice access to misc. free channels. Its price is a quarter of Apple. The fire TV? I don’t consider these two in the same league.So, if you’re picking up a streaming device, I’d recommend the Roku over the other devices (except the LG TV native streaming app which is the best I’ve used). Performance and price are good. The only reason to avoid is if it doesn’t have access to what you want to watch. For me, it filled in the gaps and provided baking shows that we otherwise didn’t have access to.

I used to own a 4k Roku but actually got rid of it once I discovered that you can connect bluetooth devices to the Firestick as an Audio source. Now I have my Stereo receiver with speakers and subwoofer outputting rather than my TV speakers and the setup couldn’t have been simpler. Besides the Bluetooth feature I was looking for that my Roku lacked, the streams load faster, the device is more responsive, the remote feels more snappy and responsive while using the search features and it just seems to process things a little faster than the Roku which is a nice added bonus. I also think the voice recognition is better. It doesn’t always get it right but it’s pretty rare and on the Roku it was a little more frequent and generally fickle. A lot of televisions and blu-ray players that have an included streaming hub tend to be very slow and hard to navigate. I could see this being a great inexpensive upgrade option for people like me who want to connect a soundbar or stereo receiver, but I think it would also be a great alternative to the low quality streaming software that comes with most televisions. Either way I’m very happy with this purchase, moreso than I thought I would be.