Technology

Media Streamer Showdown: Roku vs. Chromecast vs. Fire Stick

<h2>Chromecast&comma; Roku&comma; and Fire Stick are similar&comma; and all have strong streaming abilities&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Looking to join countless other cable cutters&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Streaming media has revolutionized how many of us <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;newsforpublic&period;com&sol;top-best-putlocker-ch-alternativesmovie-streaming-websites&sol;">watch television and movies<&sol;a>&period; For the first time&comma; we can have access to huge media libraries on demand&period; But if you haven&&num;8217&semi; used a streaming device before&comma; you may not know which is best&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">We are here to help&period; Read for our review of popular devices to find the media streamer that is best for you&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">What are Streaming Sticks&quest;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">A streaming stick is a small&comma; portable compact device you can plug into your TV port&period; Once it&&num;8217&semi;s plugged in&comma; you can stream a range of movies&comma; TV shows&comma; and music&period; A little time setting it up will take you a long way&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">To get access to these&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll have to subscribe to a streaming service like Netflix&comma; Hulu&comma; Disney&plus;&comma; or HBO Now streaming&period; There are a ton on the market&comma; but Chromecast&comma; Amazon Firestick&comma; and Roku are dominating&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Chromecast&comma; Roku&comma; and Fire Stick are similar&comma; and all have strong streaming abilities&period; They&&num;8217&semi;ll deliver HD video streaming through your TVs HDMI port&period; Once plugged in&comma; they connect to your Wi-Fi network to bring through clean&comma; crisp picture and sound&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">All have basic models that will support your standard HD and there are more advanced models too&period; Whatever model you have it&&num;8217&semi;s easy to set up and will also match up with Android and iOS mobile apps&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s plenty of content options for Chromecast and Roku&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The devices do have some big differences though&period; Roku will deliver its content via channels and apps&period; Chromecast uses a less centralized method&period; You can cast from different apps on your laptop&comma; smartphone&comma; or tablet&period; It has more voice functions too&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;We&&num;8217&semi;ll break them down below&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Roku<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">We&&num;8217&semi;ll start with the Roku Streaming Stick&plus; which is one of the most respected on the market&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s an all-round stick that will give you access to your favorite services&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Roku&&num;8217&semi;s edge is that it offers a smaller and more niche service&period; But it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t compromise the selection of apps you have&period; You have to subscribe to each service separated&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s a handy device when you&&num;8217&semi;re signed up to a few&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Roku Streaming Stick&plus; is easy to set up&period; And once done&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s got a simple&comma; easy to navigate user interface &lpar;UI&rpar;&period; You connect it to your Wi-Fi&comma; and an on-screen UI pops up on your TV screen&period; You use that to access your streaming services&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Using your Roku remote control&comma; you can browse through the channel selections&period; This remote also controls power and volumes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">It&&num;8217&semi;s a handy little device&comma; as you don&&num;8217&semi;t even need a direct line of sight with the stick to use it&period; If you don&&num;8217&semi;t have your hands free&comma; you can also use the voice control options to search content&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">If you&&num;8217&semi;re using more than one Roku device&comma; but you want them to work off one universal setting you can&period; Roku devices have customizable user sharing setup options&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">All you have to do is sign in using the same Roku account on each device and you can share the setting&period; But&comma; some minor settings and the order of the content will need modifying on each device itself&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Amazon Fire Stick<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Again&comma; with the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;amzn&period;to&sol;2SnpmcQ" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">Amazon Fire Stick<&sol;a>&comma; you plug it into your TV via a HDMI port&period; Then it connects to the device&&num;8217&semi;s platform like other sticks&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">But Amazon&&num;8217&semi;s Fire Stick is different in the fact it centers around the Amazon bubble&period; This makes it a great option for those with Amazon Prime access&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">It might be annoying news to non-members&period; But if you&&num;8217&semi;re signed up for Prime Video&comma; Amazon Music&comma; and Amazon cloud&comma; this should be your device of choice&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Compared to Roku&comma; Fire Stick has better performance&period; If your main question is which is fastest&comma; Fire Stick will win no question&period; Roku will give access to Amazon Video&comma; but it&&num;8217&semi;s not the main feature like it is on the Fire Stick&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The minute you connect your Fire Stick to the TV&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;re greeted with the available content on Amazon&period; This includes all it&&num;8217&semi;s music&comma; shows&comma; and movies for free&comma; to rent or to buy&period; By default&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;ll also link to your Amazon Prime account&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The Fire Stick will offer competitor services like Apple TV&plus; and Netflix&period; Alexa is also integrated into your remote so you can use your voice to search with ease&period; This function works in the same was as Amazon Echo&period; This means you can even ask it for the news&comma; weather&comma; and control your smart tech&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">And if you need an extra bonus&comma; Amazon also lets the Fire Stick be portable&period; You can log in using room details to connect with a hotel&&num;8217&semi;s Wi-Fi network&period; So when you&&num;8217&semi;re away from home&comma; you can bring all that great content with you&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Google Chromecast<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Apart from the Fire Stick&&num;8217&semi;s Amazon focus&comma; Roku and Fire Stick are pretty similar&period; In contrast to this&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;store&period;google&period;com&sol;us&sol;product&sol;chromecast" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">Google Chromecast<&sol;a> works completely different to both those options&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Chromecast doesn&&num;8217&semi;t bring up an interface straight onto your TV like the other two&period; What you do is use it to connect to your laptop&comma; tablet&comma; or smartphone to then play their content through your TV&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">In its basic sense&comma; it &&num;8220&semi;broadcasts&&num;8221&semi; your device&&num;8217&semi;s video and audio content to your TV&period; As long as your app has compatibility&period; You can even get games that are compatible&comma; but at the moment they&&num;8217&semi;re few in number&period; But with this setup&comma; your device becomes the remote control&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">A great Chromecast feature is you can broadcast right off your laptop or computer&period; Using Chromecast&&num;8217&semi;s Plex support you&&num;8217&semi;re you can access your laptop or computer&&num;8217&semi;s media to broadcast&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">With Chrome as your browser&comma; you can broadcast pretty much anything from there too&period; So out of the selection&comma; Chrome is right at the top for multi-functional purposes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">When it comes to speed and processing power&comma; Chromecast can hold its own&period; But&comma; the performance you get will depend on the capabilities of the device you&&num;8217&semi;re using&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re using a slow device&comma; your Chromecast experience will be similar&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The Best Media Streamer For You<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Most services are available on all these media streamer devices&comma; so the real choice comes down to ease od use and streaming quality&period; If you are already used to the Amazon ecosystem and Alexa&comma; then a fire stick will probably be the easiest device for you to use&period; If Google is your ecosystem of choice&comma; then the Chromecast is a no-brainer&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">If you found this article useful&comma; be sure to check out our other blog posts&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Hardik Patel

Hardik Patel is a Digital Marketing Consultant and professional Blogger. He has 16+ years experience in SEO, SMO, SEM, Online reputation management, Affiliated Marketing and Content Marketing.

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