Anyone using Chromecast or Roku?

[46Tbird]

I bought the Chromecast for myself for Christmas and it did not work out. After struggling with why it would not connect to my wireless router (which frankly I would have been happy if it just connected to my laptop and not my router) I discovered it is not compatible with most AT&T home routers. Research on the web shows this is apparently a common issue so I returned it. Now I am thinking of the Amazon Fire TV stick with remote. Anyone use this? Who is your ISP?

When I researched these things a few months ago, the reviews out there said Chromecast, Amazon Fire, and AppleTV were all okay but annoyingly try to direct you toward content provided by the parent company.

I settled on Roku because it is highly rated. I got the Roku 3 at first, but the HDMI on my ancient Samsung plasma refused to play nice with the Roku. The Roku setup and menus worked perfectly, but I was getting a purple HD handshake error every time the actual content streaming began. I swapped cables, bought a powered HDMI bus, all kinds of shit to get it working, all to no avail.

Finally I just stepped down to a Roku 2 and it's working. The HDMI issue is still around, but the 2 allows component output so I'm using that for now.

In the near future I will be getting a projector so this crummy plasma setup will go to a bedroom and I'll get another Roku 3 for the living room. The menus on the 3 were FAR better and it was faster than the 2. The 2 and 3 both have a cool feature that allows you to plug ear buds into the remote so you can watch TV without bothering other people.

[Frank]

When I researched these things a few months ago, the reviews out there said Chromecast, Amazon Fire, and AppleTV were all okay but annoyingly try to direct you toward content provided by the parent company.

I settled on Roku because it is highly rated. I got the Roku 3 at first, but the HDMI on my ancient Samsung plasma refused to play nice with the Roku. The Roku setup and menus worked perfectly, but I was getting a purple HD handshake error every time the actual content streaming began. I swapped cables, bought a powered HDMI bus, all kinds of shit to get it working, all to no avail.

Finally I just stepped down to a Roku 2 and it's working. The HDMI issue is still around, but the 2 allows component output so I'm using that for now.

In the near future I will be getting a projector so this crummy plasma setup will go to a bedroom and I'll get another Roku 3 for the living room. The menus on the 3 were FAR better and it was faster than the 2. The 2 and 3 both have a cool feature that allows you to plug ear buds into the remote so you can watch TV without bothering other people.

Good stuff. Yeah, my concern was all the pushing toward pay-for content. I just want to do what I do on my laptop basically. As for Amazon Fire TV, I was reading that there has been numerous complaints, 12 pages worth on Amazon's on support page regarding the Fire stick losing its connection to the router requiring you to unplug and plug it back in. Reading through, it seemed like people had tried all sorts of things with mixed results and no solid solution from Amazon. I may look into the Roku 2.

[lincolnboy]

Roku 3 also does casting from phone.

[Gasser64]

Not familiar, but subscribing.

My issue with leaving cable is football.

Same here. I was about to start a thread on how to ditch Dish for good but I'll just pay attention here.

[Chili]

I bought the Chromecast for myself for Christmas and it did not work out. After struggling with why it would not connect to my wireless router (which frankly I would have been happy if it just connected to my laptop and not my router) I discovered it is not compatible with most AT&T home routers. Research on the web shows this is apparently a common issue so I returned it. Now I am thinking of the Amazon Fire TV stick with remote. Anyone use this? Who is your ISP?

We got the fire tv a little before Christmas and I really like it. Navigation is fast, ours has a mic on the remote to use voice search, which works great. You can also get Amazon apps on it for all of the other streaming apps. I rarely used the chromecast but use the fire tv pretty frequently.

[Chili]

One of the kids has either Xbox 360 or PS3, because Austin sent me a friend request a long time ago. You can stream Amazon from both.

Yeah, Austin has a PS3, but it's in his room. Does us no good in the living room.

We've got it covered now though..

I will say, lea found ours for like $60, but they usually go for like $99.

[Chili]

Good stuff. Yeah, my concern was all the pushing toward pay-for content. I just want to do what I do on my laptop basically. As for Amazon Fire TV, I was reading that there has been numerous complaints, 12 pages worth on Amazon's on support page regarding the Fire stick losing its connection to the router requiring you to unplug and plug it back in. Reading through, it seemed like people had tried all sorts of things with mixed results and no solid solution from Amazon. I may look into the Roku 2.

We haven't had one issue with our fire tv. Not the stick, granted, the bigger box.

Btw, the fire tv doesn't "push" pay content, but when you use voice search it will include both prime and pay content. Not intrusive, you just look for the prime logo to know what's free. We have actually bought a couple movies on Amazon for road trips and such, and we can access those on it too, with no separate set up. You can buy and rent content, as well.

[lincolnboy]

Also the Roku owner that just got the Roku there aee some channels that are giving you free 3 mths trail if your a new roku owner. Visit Roku on specials.