Alternative to firestick

[Widge]

Hi,

I am looking at an alternative to a firestick.

I have had ongoing reliability problems trying to use both my firesticks on fiber broadband, using both hotspot shield or smartdns, this has been driving me mad on and off for months.

I have tried all the usual things with little success, so i want to try a different device, but it is difficult, i bought a box recently that had google tv, it listed a number of the usual programs, then said and thousands more via google play.

But when i set it to uk playstore it said incompatible device for iplayer itvx channel 4 channel 5, U was ok.

And in France it wasn't much better for french tv channels.

Do i need something that has all the usual uk terrestrial tv apps available. It is easier to find something in the uk, and a friend will be there next week so I want to order something for him to bring back.

I don't want to pay a fortune, so apple tv is out,
Has anyone any expérience with an Android box or stick, eg roko.

Dave

 

[RowleyBirkinQC]

We used Roku stick some years ago now, back then it worked well in the uk if it had the channels you want. Didn’t test it abroad with uk channels though.

 

[zac]

We use an nvidia shield pro same as we do at home, have one in dining area and one in the back, plays everything including all file formats from my 5tb drive that is attached to each of them . Not cheap though, but i won't use anything else now as its been rock solid. We even take it on the boat and plug it into the tv in our room as the hard drive has 100s of films and tv shows on them so never short of something to watch when no signal.

there are plenty of android tv boxes out there though that are cheap and will work just fine

 

[whisky walker]

Like above, we use a 4k Roku stick both in the van and in the house, no problems at all.

 

[Bolti]

Are you buying these devices in France? If yes they have different software restricting the installation of UK specific apps.

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[Widge]

Are you buying these devices in France? If yes they have different software restricting the installation of UK specific apps.

It does depend, a firestick if you hide it behind a vpn and register it on Amazon.co.uk, you can download all the usual uk apps, it was the same with the android box I tried, after connecting to the uk appstore, the uk tv apps were available it was just that they didn't support the hardware.
But a friend is in the uk next week so I will get him to pick something up.

 

[Widge]

Like above, we use a 4k Roku stick both in the van and in the house, no problems at all.

Hi
I presume everything is free unless you pick a pay for view channel/film etc.
Dave

 

[Widge]

We use an nvidia shield pro same as we do at home, have one in dining area and one in the back, plays everything including all file formats from my 5tb drive that is attached to each of them . Not cheap though, but i won't use anything else now as its been rock solid. We even take it on the boat and plug it into the tv in our room as the hard drive has 100s of films and tv shows on them so never short of something to watch when no signal.

there are plenty of android tv boxes out there though that are cheap and will work just fine

I did look at them, they look good, but the firestick used to work fine for what we needed, but I am now getting various issues that I cannot track down, so want to try a different device to see if that is the same, hence not wanting to spend too much at this time.

 

[starquake]

Firesticks vary massively in their CPU and power requirements.
For example the 4k max one we have (with near the best cpu they do) does NOT work properly connected to the TV's USB power, and requires a socket USB port supplying 1 amp of USB to work (ie, a decent charge brick). Without this, it does boot and display things, but it performs like a dog (it's like really slow).

If you have the standard cpu firestick (the non 4k model) I would note we get serious issues on ours when combined with the VPN. Iplayer and legit stuff with VPN works far better on the 4k model. We've now retired our non-4k firesticks. I would note NONE of our TV's in the van are actually 4k, the 4k ones just have a better cpu.

 

[Carpmart]

As above, the 4K Max Firestick are a big step forward in terms of overall usability and performance. They are obviously more powerful from a CPU perspective but also have more memory which with good internet means no buffering!

We do have a 4K TV in the Motorhome which is also useful!

We’ve switched all our Firestick over the Max version now!

They are relatively inexpensive during Spring sale, Amazon days, Black Friday etc

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