A buyer’s guide to streaming devices
Which one’s right for you, and how to set it up.
Buying a streaming media player to watch online video services on your TV makes a lot of sense, especially if you want to watch 4K video and have a suitably fast Internet connection.
Once you decide on one, the set-up is the next hurdle. Here are three tips to help you connect and start using your Internet streaming device, fast.
Connect via ethernet if at all possible. If you have your wireless router positioned close enough to the TV in question and both the router and the player have square ethernet ports, go with a cable instead of Wi-Fi.
That physical network connection should be immune to the drop-offs and cut-outs that still plague Wi-Fi, many of which may be the result of interference outside your home. But if you have a stick-style media player that plugs directly into one of a TV’s HDMI ports, this won’t be an option.
Don’t forget access to your own media files. The combination of an Apple TV and a Mac makes this easy: You can play music and videos from the computer through that little black box using Apple’s AirPlay streaming. But Amazon and Roku players need extra help to do that, and for most people Plex’s apps are the way to go.
To use them, you install the free Plex server app on whatever computers have your media files, then add Plex’s free app to your Fire or Roku player. (The company charges for its mobile apps and for a Plex Pass premium service.) This will also work for Apple TV owners who have a PC and don’t want to install iTunes on it.
Put the player’s remote-control app on your smartphone or tablet. The least pleasant aspect of using any media player is having to type in a search by using buttons on its remote to select letters from a keyboard shown on your TV.
Many of these remotes now allow voice input, but that’s still a lousy way to enter a password or search for names or titles that sound a lot like names or titles you’re not interested in. To avoid those risks, install the free apps that Amazon, Apple and Roku offer for phones or tablets, and you can type your search on the onscreen keyboard you already know too well.
The Apple TV Remote app is iOSonly (what a surprise), but Amazon and Roku each offer both Android and iOS apps. Amazon even makes its FireTV Remote app available on Google’s Play Store, not just its own Appstore — a rare break from the unhelpful squabbling between those two firms.