Don't mind the gaps
You've bought a brand new smart TV, only to find that your favourite catch-up apps or subscription services are missing. A video streamer is a quick and easy budget solution
There once was a time when television consisted of three (or possibly four) channels and a fuzzy analogue picture that meant you missed half the action if the wind was blowing in the wrong direction. The technology has moved on significantly, but TV gripes still remain – only these days, we’re likely to feel a little miffed if our brand new smart TV doesn't come with all the latest catch-up apps.
Most new televisions worth their salt have a plethora of streaming options built in, but many sets won’t be able to supply everything you wish for. Missing Netflix and Amazon Prime Video apps? No BT Sport or ESPN+ on your TV? This is where a video streamer comes in.
These clever little sticks and boxes are a single portal to the best the world of video streaming has to offer. And some of them do much more, offering themselves up as a hub for voicecontrolling your system and smart home.
Of course, all the best media streamers will provide many hundreds of hours of TV shows, films and music, but there are performance differences between them too, with some looking and sounding better than others.
Here, we round up the three most popular video streamers on the market, all of them offering the pick of catch-up TV services and streaming options and many other gateways to the video content, 4K or otherwise, you're after.
First up is Amazon’s impressive Fire TV streamer, which offers all this for a bargain budget price. Next, we have the Google Chromecast with Google TV, the name may be a mouthful, but this clever streamer also allows you to cast content from your smartphone or to your TV. And finally, the Apple TV 4K (2021) is the successor to what we called the best video streamer around.
With more competition in the market than ever, prices are low and standards are sky high. So, whatever your smart television fails to deliver in terms of streaming apps, one of these bits of kit will enable you to fill those gaps.