Roku Premiere - HD and 4K UHD Streaming Media Player

Roku finally gave me a good streaming experience. Thank you Roku company! I tried Sony Blu-ray and got super slow and tons of Netflix lag. Then was a combination of Samsung Blu-ray and Chromecast. Samsung Blu-ray Netflix app stopped working and caused the player to freeze and then Google did some update to Google Home and I couldn't get it to work on all our Apple I this and that. So I was major frustrated. Then came Roku! I can get my Netflix, Amazon Prime, VUDU and the various free channels that are mostly fillers for me without any issues. The handy remote works - all the time! No crashes after a couple of months. No embarrassing Frankenstein TV if a kid comes into the room and they're doing something unmentionable on Game of Thrones while I scramble for my phone and try to log in and then restart the app and then oh it won't stop so I just turn off the TV and then spend five minutes trying to get back to the exact moment of the unmentionable greatness of GOT. I no longer have any buyers remorse after I told the cable company to stop jamming it to me and cut the cord because of this device. Roku works, this version is intuitive; it's quick; it works. Spend the extra $30 and make yourself happy and buy the Premier version rather than the stick.

Update 6 years laterStill using this constantly. I have dropped netflix and do have youtube subscription for no ads and free music streaming which I do use driving to work. I also setup a plex server and stream my server of tv and movies to the roku. I can with this setup lower my bills further by dropping gaia and youtube if need be. Also roku has several live services and channels and as of right now getting a live news feed with president Biden speaking about Hamas.. I do NOT miss tv at all and certainly don't miss the loss of money or the contracts dictating to me to pay no matter what. if I need to drop things I can easy.---Very good roku! I get good signal were the stick was having wifi issues. Works great---updateIt has Been a year sense I bought the roku. This has been a great player that I use constantly. I was able to cut out my cable for about $120 a month savings and really pair down what I pay for entertainment which is about $20 total for netflix and gaia. And if I happen to not watch tv because I am working a lot no big deal. also no contracts!! I do wish I could order remote with my choice of buttons. I don't need hulu, vudu and sling buttons. Would be great if they had gaia, youtube, netflix and amazon on a controller.

This Roku player is ok but it has one missing feature that most people will want. It does not have the RF remote. It has an infrared remote that requires holding the remote straight at the box to perform any action. This is a pain, you cannot just put the box anywhere it needs to be right up front at about the same level you expect to use the remote. I have not used a remote with IR in a long time. All my remotes are RF and I'm used to using them. Using the IR remote is like going back to the early 90's. It usually takes several tries to change a channel or do any operation. I usually have to make a point of aiming the remote right at the box. I would highly recommend getting the box with the RF remote. Way nicer and it is what most of us are used to using. There is a android app to control the box, which works well. It responds to the actions about as fast at the remote and does not suffer from the IR directional issues. Only issue using the android app is that it takes a few seconds for the app to come up.The other missing feature that may be useful to some is the lack of an Ethernet port. It does use wifi, which sounds like a great way to go. But with streaming TV, the ethernet port is the way to go. Wifi works but there will be an occasional delay during viewing. Not really bad but given the option to use an Ethernet port, it is the way to go. You can see a difference using Ethernet over wifi. Ethernet is faster and has reduced latency. This is noticeable with streaming TV.The Roku streaming box is great. It has access to Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Sling, etc. It has everything. One big advantage over other boxes is the Roku search. You can search for a subject and Roku will list everything it finds. Not all vendor products do this and you miss out not having that capability. You could search on the internet for content but that is slow and not well organized. If you have not seen or used streaming TV yet, you will be surprised what is available and most of it is free. You will likely drop cable after using streaming TV. There are streaming services that charge, like Hulu, Sling, etc. Most cost $40 for what could be called the basic setup. Some have lower cost options but not enough available in my opinion. This biggest setback with Streaming TV is the lack of local stations, no ABC, NBC, CBS, etc. But these $40 services like Hulu have these stations and others available. You can get everything you get on cable plus a lot more with streaming TV and for about $40. The amount free content is amazing. So many free movies and many are great. The free movies typically are not the latest movies but there is so much you are likely to find something you have not seen. The clarity of the picture varies by source but in general it is very good, better than cable.You can test out streaming TV using an android app on your phone or tablet. Obviously not something great for watching TV but will give you an idea what is available.