Streaming Devices They Dont Want You to Know About
The inquiry
- Why yous should trust us
- Who this is for
- How we picked and tested
- Our pick: Google Chromecast with Google TV
- Flaws but not dealbreakers
- Runner-upwardly: Roku Streaming Stick 4K
- Security and privacy
- The competition
Why you should trust usa
I've reviewed TVs, Blu-ray players, and domicile theater equipment since 2008. I'm ISF-trained for evaluating image quality, and I'm up to date on all of the current and future HDR standards and what to await for when evaluating that content on media players. I've been testing media streaming devices for Wirecutter since 2012, and I own all the current platforms for comparing.
Who this is for
If you use only i or two streaming services—say, Disney+ and Netflix—you probably don't demand a separate media streaming box. Almost all current TVs have born support for the most popular streaming services, as do many cable and satellite boxes, gaming consoles, and Blu-ray players.
The chief reason to go a defended streaming device is to gain access to streaming services and apps that you lot wouldn't otherwise be able to access—and to have all that content presented to yous in the way you find near intuitive. Typically, streaming media players include more than channels, a more responsive user interface, and improve search and organization features. Also, support for newer streaming services often comes to streaming boxes before it comes to TVs. With such a broad selection of streaming services, as well as admission to alive TV through services like Sling, a media streamer can allow you lot to cutting out cablevision or satellite Television receiver completely. Some cable companies let you supplant a monthly cable-box rental with a streaming device. With cablevision-box rentals costing $10 a month or more, a streaming device can pay for itself pretty apace.
A streaming box can likewise give y'all easy admission to the video and music content you already ain and let you play it on any Tv set in your business firm. You can access and play media stored on your home network (either on a computer or on a NAS device) without needing to hook a computer up to your brandish.
Some streaming boxes likewise offer the ability to play games, though avant-garde gamers are likely to prefer a gaming console.
How we picked and tested
The single almost important matter any media streamer must do is play dorsum the content y'all desire to watch. If you get most of your content from a service that a particular streaming device doesn't support, that device will not work for you lot. A streaming box with a wide option of content sources is a ameliorate choice than one with a limited selection. These days most services are available on every device, simply some popular services are missing on sure devices.
Another essential thing to consider is how the streaming device integrates all the different services together into a user-friendly interface. If you apply only a couple of streaming services, information technology'due south easy enough to launch a specific app and discover what y'all want to watch. But if y'all subscribe to a variety of services, you lot may prefer to have all that content integrated on the dwelling screen so that you can see a list of everything you lot've recently watched without needing to launch the specific app to find where you left off.
A practiced search feature also makes it easier for you lot to find the content you want. Many media streamers search across a limited number of services or prioritize content from a source where they earn income. For instance, Amazon's Fire TV prioritizes search results from Amazon's own streaming service, even if that isn't your preferred service. A streaming platform that looks beyond more services and provides both complimentary and pay options helps you notice your desired content at the everyman price.
Your streaming box should also allow you to customize the interface and prioritize the services—or, ideally, the content—you scout the nearly. An system that places your favorite services or shows upwards front lets you lot more easily get to what you want to sentinel. An platonic streaming device is ecosystem-agnostic and allows y'all—rather than the device manufacturer—to make decisions.
Most every new Goggle box has a 4K resolution and supports high dynamic range (HDR) video playback, so your streaming box should, also. The more than HDR formats a streaming device supports (Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HLG), the more compatible and futurity-proof information technology is with newer HDR TVs. At this point, the toll divergence between 4K and 1080p media streamers is $10 or less, and so at that place isn't much reason to get a 1080p one.
A growing number of streaming services also support Dolby Atmos audio (which adds overhead and peak furnishings to create an even more than immersive surround-sound feel), so we prefer media streamers that can output Dolby Atmos audio to your Atmos-capable AV receiver or soundbar.
We test every media streamer in a basic system with only a TV, besides as in a complete abode theater organisation with a Dolby Atmos soundbar. We examination all of them over Wi-Fi, though some support Ethernet as well. All of the TVs we use in our tests support 4K HDR to accept full reward of the streaming boxes, and many of them are compatible with Dolby Vision.
During our tests, nosotros access a wide variety of content from services including Netflix, Amazon Prime number Video, Disney+, Movies Anywhere, Sling TV, and YouTube, and we compare the systems' integrated search and organization features.
Our pick: Google Chromecast with Google Television
Our selection
The Google Chromecast with Google Television set is the best media streaming device because it supports a lot of streaming services and presents your choices in a more modern, unified interface that lets you find what you want quickly. Information technology supports 4K HDR video (including the HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision formats) and Dolby Atmos audio, for the highest-quality picture and sound you tin can get from streaming services. Its compact size allows it to hide behind your Goggle box, though you practise need to connect it to an external power supply (equally opposed to your Tv set'south powered USB port). Unlike with previous Chromecast models, which relied on your phone for control, Google finally has included a handheld remote with phonation control via Google Assistant; the remote likewise allows yous to control power, volume, and input selection on your TV.
The Chromecast supports every major streaming service. If at that place is a service you want to watch that Google doesn't support natively on the Chromecast, you tin oftentimes stream information technology directly to the thespian from your computer or mobile device using the Cast pick congenital into the app.
For this thespian, Google updated its Android Telly platform and renamed it Google TV. The best feature of this updated platform is how it gathers together, in a modernistic interface, all the content you watch. Instead of forcing you to switch between different apps to find something to sentry, the dwelling house screen presents everything you've recently watched or added to your watchlist, organized in a single location. You can select a recently watched show and go straight to the next episode, for instance, or pick up where you left off in a movie more speedily than yous can with other streaming devices. The menu besides offers recommendations pulled from across all the different services, instead of limiting the recommendations to a single service.
When you select a prove or picture show, the Google Television receiver menu also gives you a lot of information about the title, including the Rotten Tomatoes rating, cast info, dissimilar sources you can stream information technology from, and related content. You tin can rate a show to better your recommendations or add it to your watchlist so you can come up back to it later. Since this functionality works across all the different streaming services, information technology delivers a more consequent experience.
Searching for content with the Chromecast works peachy. It consistently plant what I was looking for across various services and sources, including titles from my digital movie library (which another competitors don't search). Contextual searches such as "Oscar-winning comedies," "movies with Brad Pitt," or "movies with the adult female from Amelie" pull up the relevant results speedily, though sometimes you might need to rephrase your query to get improved results.
Like a streaming stick, the Chromecast dongle plugs directly into a TV'southward HDMI port (no additional HDMI cable needed). With this new Chromecast, Google finally decided to include a remote command—and a nice i, at that. It's simple to utilize and easy to hold, and it includes direct buttons for Netflix and YouTube. A microphone allows for voice search, and the remote tin command your Television set, as well, offering the power and volume controls that near competing remotes have only also an input control so you lot can switch to the correct input for the Chromecast without needing the Boob tube remote. It supports TV control via both HDMI-CEC and IR. Regrettably, it isn't backlit, so you tin't easily see the buttons in the nighttime.
If you happen to go your live TV service from YouTube Tv set, the Google Tv interface adds a Live tab that integrates this service so you don't need to launch the app to see what's on. This feature isn't proprietary to Google and its services; Sling TV and Philo recently updated their apps to support this feature, and others tin can in the future, every bit well.
I take multiple streaming devices hooked up to my primary TV, representing every major platform, and I proceed coming back to the Chromecast with Google Television receiver considering the interface makes it so much easier to find what I desire to watch and offers superior recommendations.
Flaws only not dealbreakers
As useful as the Google TV interface is, y'all tin't fully customize it as yous tin can some others. A imprint at the top contains four suggested movies or shows, which might come up from a service you don't subscribe to and can't be deleted. You also have no manner to completely ignore a certain service. In my case, the content recommendations were almost always from services I used, then this wasn't a big issue for me—but it probable will annoy some people.
Although the Chromecast uses a USB-C–to–USB-A power cablevision, the device tin't describe power from a TV's USB port because the connexion doesn't provide plenty juice, so you lot need to connect the Chromecast to an AC outlet. Streaming sticks from Amazon and Roku typically can run on the USB outlets on a TV, saving you from needing to connect them to a nearby power outlet and making them more convenient travel companions.
The search recommendations that work so well on Google Idiot box exercise so merely because you're sharing your browsing data with Google. You can disable this function in the device's privacy settings, but doing so means losing out on a lot of what makes the Google TV platform so effective. The other streaming platforms use this same information to brand recommendations to you—their recommendations just aren't as good as those that Google TV offers right now—so this is an outcome affecting every device.
The Chromecast doesn't support the Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG) HDR standard, though currently very lilliputian content uses that standard compared with HDR10 and Dolby Vision.
At this writing, Google Telly doesn't have apps to replace your cablevision TV box from companies like Xfinity, so you need to cast such content from your smartphone or figurer instead.
Some owners have complained that the corporeality of storage in the Chromecast is rather limited compared with the capacity of some other players; somewhen you might accept to redownload less-used apps. We didn't run into this problem, but once Stadia and other gaming platforms that demand more space migrate onto the Chromecast, this limitation might get an consequence for some people. Nosotros don't think most people volition have a problem in this regard, but we volition keep an eye on it.
Runner-upward: Roku Streaming Stick 4K
Runner-up
The Roku Streaming Stick 4K is a great choice if you want the widest selection of services presented in a simple, albeit somewhat dated, user interface. This media streamer, which recently replaced the Streaming Stick+, supports 4K HDR video (in the HDR10, Dolby Vision, HDR10+, and HLG formats) and passes through Dolby Atmos sound, and it has an external antenna to potentially provide meliorate Wi-Fi reception. The inclusion of AirPlay 2 makes it a good selection for streaming music and movies from Mac and iOS devices. This is an HDMI stick that plugs directly into an HDMI input and can draw power from a compatible USB port, so you can easily add together it to a multifariousness of TVs and other home entertainment systems.
Roku notwithstanding has a larger option of content than anyone else—including most of the major video and music services—and information technology continues to abound. But recently we've seen Roku get into more disputes with content providers than the other platforms. The company had an extended dispute with Google that resulted in the removal of the YouTube TV app for a long time (the dispute was finally settled in December 2021). DirecTV's app was missing for the first half of 2020, NBC's Peacock service was non available for a long time, and HBO Max only became bachelor on the Roku platform five months after it launched. The fact that such conflicts seem to be occurring more than often than they used to makes the states less confident in Roku going forrad.
For cable and satellite customers, Roku has apps from Xfinity and other providers that Google TV currently lacks. The apps can take the place of a cable or satellite box. Since rental fees for those boxes can easily be $five to $10 a month, replacing them tin can save you money every month. In contrast, well-nigh of these apps are available for older Android Television systems but haven't moved over to Google TV yet.
The Streaming Stick 4K improves upon the prior version past adding support for more avant-garde HDR formats with dynamic metadata like Dolby Vision and HDR10+. Dolby Vision and HDR10+ provide actress information for every scene, so highlights and shadows can accept more than preserved details, and I typically notice that colors are more saturated and authentic. The addition of HLG back up also will be useful equally more than TV content, like live sports, becomes available in HDR.
Roku's home screen consists of a grid of individual streaming apps. Y'all can customize the carte to place your favorite apps first. If you use Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Sling Television the nearly, for example, you lot tin put those three apps at the top. If you don't use Netflix or Amazon Prime number Video at all, you can remove those apps entirely. Merely Roku's interface is not as helpful at finding and organizing titles as Google Telly is. You can't hands see all your recently watched movies and shows across platforms, so you have to launch individual apps to reach them. The search function on Roku does a skilful job of finding shows beyond the different platforms, but it lacks the rich context and related-content information that Google TV offers, so it feels far more express.
The vocalism remote uses RF to communicate with the Roku Streaming Stick+ (so it works through walls and furniture), simply information technology adds an IR output for controlling ability and volume on your Tv set or projector, and it also has a mute button, something that many competing remotes lack.
Roku'southward private-listening feature allows you lot to listen to shows and movies using headphones. However, the remote lacks a headphone jack, so you have to utilise the Roku app for iOS or Android to play your content. (If you spend $xx more than for the Roku Streaming Stick 4K+, it includes a remote with the headphone jack built-in.) If you're using Bluetooth headphones with your smartphone and the private-listening feature, you may notice lag between the video and audio, but we didn't with wired headphones.
The addition of AirPlay ii and Apple's TV app gives the Streaming Stick+ a lot of the perks of an Apple Television set at a much lower price. If a certain channel that's important to you is missing from the Roku platform, equally a Mac possessor or iOS user you lot tin stream content from the app to the Streaming Stick 4K. However, this system requires yous to go along the Mac or iOS device streaming the whole time and can sometimes be a heavy drain on the bombardment.
The Streaming Stick 4K can deliver Dolby Atmos audio, simply simply pass it through from services that transport Dolby Atmos. It cannot do any processing of Dolby Atmos audio itself, and so there is no Dolby Atmos logo on the box, but from services with Atmos support similar Netflix and Disney+ it will pass that Atmos audio to your Television receiver.
For $20 more than the standard Streaming Stick 4K, the Streaming Stick 4K+ includes the Roku Vocalism Remote Pro. The Vocalization Remote Pro has a built-in rechargeable bombardment (though information technology uses Micro-USB and not USB-C), a microphone that tin be ever-on or push-to-talk, two buttons you can program to be custom shortcuts, a remote finder, and a private listening mode with a headphone jack. If whatsoever of these appeal to you, then it might be worth getting this instead of the standard Streaming Stick 4K, but this model doesn't amend upon the performance of the Streaming Stick 4K in any mode.
Overall we all the same like the Roku platform, as the things that fabricated information technology a selection for over eight years are still present—but it simply isn't as intuitive every bit the Google TV interface, and Roku's recent issues with content providers cause us some worry.
Security and privacy
Wirecutter takes security and privacy issues seriously and investigates, as much as possible, how the companies whose products we recommend deal with customer data. Nosotros reached out to the companies that produce our tiptop picks and asked them to provide information that nosotros recollect is of primary concern for any potential buyer. Here'southward what we learned:
How our picks compare
What specific user information do you collect (location, phonation requests, user data, etc.)?
Google: We collect information nigh activity in our services, which can be used to tailor and recommend content on the home screen. This can be viewed in the privacy policy. The user is able to visit their Google Account at any time to manage activity data used for content recommendations.
Where is that data stored and what measures are taken to secure it?
Google: Google stores the information, and it is encrypted using 256-bit keys by default; Google uses standard NIST-recommended crypto algorithms (similar AES CTR + SHA1 HMAC, AES GCM).
What, if whatever, information is shared, sold, or accessible to third parties or affiliated parts of your system, including via API and other integrations?
Google: None of this data is sold outside of Google.In select instances, we share express user information with 3rd-party apps to optimize the user experience—for example, to enable seamless login across devices. In these instances, a user must consent to sharing their data equally office of the onboarding procedure, and they have the option to alter their preferences and opt out at any fourth dimension. Only the information required to enable the product experience is shared.
A user can also choose to link their Google Business relationship to Movies Anywhere for access to purchased and rented content from other platforms. Past doing then, the user is sharing their content library with Movies Anywhere.
Users tin unlink their accounts at any time.
If customer data is shared or sold, are customers notified, and are there provisions to secure that data subsequently it has been transferred to a third party?
Are your customers able to opt out of sharing some or all of their information—and if so, how?
Google: Yes, this is built into the setup procedure. At any time, the user is able to visit Privacy in the Google Tv Settings to manage permissions or visit My Google Activity to view and delete captured scout history. There is also an apps-only manner on the device that people can use to plough off personalized recommendations entirely.
Does your device contain inactive or agile only unadvertised hardware integration such every bit sensors, triggering always-on microphones, or location services?
Google: There are no unadvertised hardware integrations. You lot tin observe more information via Google Back up.
The competition
Roku
The 2020 Roku Ultra was the first Roku device to support Dolby Vision and offers improved Wi-Fi support. Information technology as well has a private-listening mode on the remote, along with Ethernet, MicroSD, and USB connections to go far the well-nigh flexible Roku streamer available, but it'due south overkill for most people. In improver, it supports AV1, an improved streaming codec that services will employ in the hereafter to offer improved paradigm quality. The shortcut buttons allow the device to larn your phonation commands, and so "Open Amazon" or "Listen to Radiohead," for case, causes the appropriate apps and radio stations to outset, only that functionality seems useful for only 1 person. Since the shortcut buttons are labeled only 1 and 2 on the remote, well-nigh people won't know what the buttons do until they try them; the shortcuts can't exercise complex tasks, but they are easy to reprogram. Compared with the Streaming Stick+, apps do load noticeably quicker on the Ultra, just you're withal saving but a 2d or two in almost every case. Considering the Ultra is nearly twice the toll, we think the smaller size and lower price of the Streaming Stick+ make that model a meliorate option, but Dolby Vision users might want to opt for the Ultra.
The 2021 Roku Limited 4K+ is very compact, which makes it easy to mount behind a Idiot box, and now includes a remote that doesn't crave line of sight. The Express 4K+ supports HDR10+ but has lower-quality Wi-Fi. Right now, very few services back up HDR10+ (only Amazon and Paramount+ currently), and many brands of TVs still don't back up it, so nosotros retrieve the lower-quality Wi-Fi is a bigger outcome.
Roku recently introduced the $xxx Vocalization Remote Pro, which combines all the best features of the various Roku remotes—including a headphone jack and programmable buttons—with a rechargeable battery. There is besides an always-on banana for using phonation commands with your Roku, but you tin disable this if you don't want it. It works with about Roku devices and TVs, and feels remarkably calorie-free due to the integrated battery weighing less than AAA ones. As nice as the rechargeability is, you should only buy it if your current Roku remote lacks other features like the individual-listening headphone jack or vocalism control, since buying rechargeable AAA batteries does the aforementioned thing and they tin can be used in other devices. The remote also recharges over Micro-USB while nigh devices are shifting toward the superior USB-C connectedness.
Apple tree TV
The Apple Telly 4K (2021 version) supports almost every service, tin can handle Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos content, and has a simple user interface. Apple's Telly App continues to become meliorate and lets you combine content from nigh services (other than Netflix) into one unified menu. This actor tin also back up an external TV tuner for cord cutters and run more than powerful games and apps than other streaming devices. Apple finally redesigned the remote, after years of client complaints, past calculation a standard directional pad that makes navigation easier. Only the Apple tree Television receiver costs far more than than the contest, and that extra processing power isn't actually used when streaming content. If you lot plan to take reward of other features that the Apple Tv set offers, like playing lots of games on Apple Arcade, then you might need the increased power, but it only costs as well much if you lot're simply streaming.
Amazon Fire TV
Amazon'south Burn down Television receiver Stick 4K looks virtually identical to the Roku Streaming Stick 4K, with a compact size that allows it to hide behind the TV and a remote that can command the TV volume and power, too. Information technology supports 4K HDR video, including Dolby Vision and HDR10+. Amazon completely redid the Fire TV interface, just it notwithstanding prioritizes Amazon content while relegating Netflix and others to also-ran status. The search results are less authentic than those on the other platforms and show fewer results. The Fire TV interface as well has ads on every page, including a new head banner with full video and audio. Integrated Alexa support is nice, merely we'd rather pair an Repeat or Dot speaker with 1 of our picks.
The updated Burn TV Cube combines a Burn TV Stick, an Repeat Dot, and an IR emitter in a single box. It is almost identical in streaming functioning to the Burn TV Stick 4K, though it can handle Netflix in Dolby Atmos. If you also want an Alexa speaker and the ability to control your cable box and Blu-ray player with your vocalism, this model might be worth looking at, but it typically costs far more a normal media streamer. You can add an Echo Dot and the new Amazon Burn down Tv set Blaster to become the same functionality from multiple other streaming boxes.
Amazon introduced the Fire TV Stick Lite in 2020, merely since information technology'due south capable of only 1080p, we recommend that people spend a piddling actress coin to go the 4K model instead.
Gaming systems and congenital-in TV apps
The gaming console, Blu-ray player, or smart Tv set you lot already own probably streams Netflix and plays some local files, too. These devices are just as capable and typically offer a lot of the same content as about streaming devices do. However, most of them lack the all-encompassing choice of content that dedicated streaming boxes provide and omit cross-app searching—they're fine, but a streaming device offers more.
Android TV
The Nvidia Shield Tv set has e'er been our favorite Android Television receiver device, thanks to powerful hardware that is way alee of the competition. It supports Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos and has upscaling applied science that makes non-4K content look much improve on 4K TVs than the competition can muster. Information technology has been a proficient option for people who similar to use the GeForce Now platform for gaming, or for people who want the Pro model to use with a Plex server or emulator. But right now information technology doesn't take the updated Google TV interface, so information technology doesn't integrate services like the Chromecast does, and the search feature isn't as powerful. At some betoken the Shield TV should get upgraded to the newer platform, and so it might exist a meliorate choice since it's more powerful, and equipped with more than storage, than the Chromecast.
The TiVo Stream 4K is an Android Television set–based HDMI dongle that incorporates software from TiVo, making it easier to observe content from the services you lot subscribe to, but information technology simply supports sure services for this. As a result, if you're looking for content that TiVo's app supports, yous can stay inside its app, but you lot need to go back to the standard Android TV interface for other apps. The search feature shows the different platforms that a championship is available on, but it can't show the prices, then you don't know which selection is best for you. When I establish a title I was interested in, instead of offer a page with data near that show (for case, Bojack Horseman), it would merely launch Netflix to prove that information. This ways a lot of going into and out of apps as y'all effort to find something to scout, which is jarring.
The Xiaomi Mi Box S is an Android Tv box that offers Ultra Hd support but isn't as capable as the Shield Television set. The Mi Box S isn't as powerful for local content as the Shield Television is. The interface isn't nearly as responsive equally those of other devices, and in our tests, when we set it to select a TV mode automatically, it indicated that all of our 4K HDR TVs were capable of only 720p resolution. Yous can manually fix such an error, but it will go out people disappointed if they don't realize it'south happening. On top of all that, the remote lacks the Telly controls for power and volume that have go standard features over the past year.
Sling's AirTV Mini is designed to integrate Sling Television with Android Television, likewise as to integrate with a networked TV tuner so that y'all get Sling Idiot box channels and your local over-the-air channels in a unified TV guide. For people who desire this Sling Television set integration, the AirTV might be a reasonable pick, just for people looking for a general-purpose media streamer, in that location are cheaper, more full-featured options that don't automatically kick into Sling Goggle box every time y'all power them on.
Android (just not Android Boob tube)
A number of companies are making boxes that run Android, non Android Boob tube. The advantage to these boxes is that they can run a wider diversity of apps, including Kodi (formerly XBMC). The downside is that traditional Android is designed around a touchscreen, then these boxes are difficult to use without 1, or at to the lowest degree without a mouse and keyboard. A TV remote doesn't cut it, and these boxes are harder to use from the couch, anyway. You're likewise using apps designed for a different screen format than your Television set's. And because such a box costs more than a dedicated streamer, this category doesn't make much sense for most people.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-media-streamers/
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