Plex: Roku 3 v Amazon Fire TV

Forums › Online streaming services › Plex: Roku 3 v Amazon Fire TV

Ripper

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#154851 10-Nov-2014 16:22

Hi all,

I've been using the Roku as a means of using Plex on my TV for the last year or so. It's pretty easy to use and does the job well enough, but I've always been a bit sad that the interface is so poor compared to Plex Home Theatre.

I've been considering getting Fire TV to replace the Roku (and will shift the Roku to another TV), what do people think about how the two different devices compare? I'm not really planning on using Netflix etc. in the medium term, but it's something I'd consider much later in the future, so that's not really a big factor in my decision making.

Opinions?

stuzz

352 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 24

ID Verified

Trusted

#1172299 10-Nov-2014 16:30

I have a couple of the Fire TV sticks on order. They look good and I managed to get them at the cheap price of $19 US

EOD

2 posts

Wannabe Geek
+1 received by user: 2

#1173110 11-Nov-2014 20:57

I would give the vote clearly for the Amazon Fire TV here. Having both the Roku and Fire TV, the Fire TVs Plex app is by far the better one. Plex, which is alright, is rather clunky in comparison.

The other advantage of the Fire TV is that if you want, you can mix and match apps from all three Amazon Prime countries, which means you can have Netflix and Hulu from the US sit next to the BBC iPlayer and Demand 5 from the UK and Zattoo from Germany (which has live UK tele). Of course, you will need a Smart DNS service for this to work (VPN isn't good enough as that can only unblock one country at a time) This is impossible to do on a Roku as it must be either set to the UK or US hub.

That said, the advantage of the Roku box is that it currently has more apps - especially for the UK hub which is especially good (It offers ALL of the UK's free-to-air catch-up services, BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport, ITV Player, 4oD, Demand 5 etc) which offers a huge amount of free content - not to mention Netflix as well.

So, if you are after a specific countries hub, especially the UK, then the Roku box may be the best option, even though Plex is not as good.

But if Plex is your main reason and the deciding factor, go for the Amazon Fire TV (or Stick). If you have a good Smart DNS service, you will also get working apps from three different countries on your hub (requires a bit of twiddling to achieve this though).

Oh... One last thing, if you go for the Amazon Fire TV, you may want to consider an Amazon Prime sub. This is like Netflix, but with Amazon. The reason it is worth considering is that the Fire TV is very heavily weighted towards Amazon Prime, so without it, a lot of the UI is useless. Thankfully, the UK allows Amazon Prime on a monthly basis as well as a year, so you can test it out. From memory, the US only allows a yearly sub for Amazon Prime.

Dstarzero

272 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 22

#1175288 13-Nov-2014 16:03

EOD: I would give the vote clearly for the Amazon Fire TV here. Having both the Roku and Fire TV, the Fire TVs Plex app is by far the better one. Plex, which is alright, is rather clunky in comparison.

The other advantage of the Fire TV is that if you want, you can mix and match apps from all three Amazon Prime countries, which means you can have Netflix and Hulu from the US sit next to the BBC iPlayer and Demand 5 from the UK and Zattoo from Germany (which has live UK tele). Of course, you will need a Smart DNS service for this to work (VPN isn't good enough as that can only unblock one country at a time) This is impossible to do on a Roku as it must be either set to the UK or US hub.

That said, the advantage of the Roku box is that it currently has more apps - especially for the UK hub which is especially good (It offers ALL of the UK's free-to-air catch-up services, BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport, ITV Player, 4oD, Demand 5 etc) which offers a huge amount of free content - not to mention Netflix as well.

So, if you are after a specific countries hub, especially the UK, then the Roku box may be the best option, even though Plex is not as good.

But if Plex is your main reason and the deciding factor, go for the Amazon Fire TV (or Stick). If you have a good Smart DNS service, you will also get working apps from three different countries on your hub (requires a bit of twiddling to achieve this though).

Oh... One last thing, if you go for the Amazon Fire TV, you may want to consider an Amazon Prime sub. This is like Netflix, but with Amazon. The reason it is worth considering is that the Fire TV is very heavily weighted towards Amazon Prime, so without it, a lot of the UI is useless. Thankfully, the UK allows Amazon Prime on a monthly basis as well as a year, so you can test it out. From memory, the US only allows a yearly sub for Amazon Prime.

how well will amazon fire tv work with slingshot global mode?

garvani

1873 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 83

Trusted

#1175330 13-Nov-2014 17:00

Dstarzero: how well will amazon fire tv work with slingshot global mode?

Works absolutely fine. I use my firetv on global mode every night. Streaming netflix i get SuperHD within about 5seconds on 100mbit fibre.

Apsattv

2453 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 724

#1175540 14-Nov-2014 03:06

EOD:This is impossible to do on a Roku as it must be either set to the UK or US hub.

That said, the advantage of the Roku box is that it currently has more apps - especially for the UK hub which is especially good (It offers ALL of the UK's free-to-air catch-up services, BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport, ITV Player, 4oD, Demand 5 etc) which offers a huge amount of free content - not to mention Netflix as well.

So, if you are after a specific countries hub, especially the UK, then the Roku box may be the best option, even though Plex is not as good.

I have Roku2XS that someone sent me a few years back for testing a specific service. I pretty much put it away in cupboad after an hour or so as I didn't have a flatrate conection back then.

What do I need to do to get the U.K stuff loading up?

EOD

2 posts

Wannabe Geek
+1 received by user: 2

#1175541 14-Nov-2014 03:15

Apsattv: I have Roku2XS that someone sent me a few years back for testing a specific service. I pretty much put it away in cupboad after an hour or so as I didn't have a flatrate conection back then. What do I need to do to get the U.K stuff loading up?

To be honest, I'm not sure if the Roku 2XS is recent enough to be able to switch to the UK hub. I know it works with the Roku 3 model, and possibly the Roku 1 and 2.

Essentially, you have to create a UK Roku account (free) when using a compatible smart DNS service that is already configured (important bit).

Then, you simply assign the Roku box to that account, and as long as you have Smart DNS on your router working, you will get access to the UK line-up. Many Roku boxes will then have ALL of the UK FTA catch-up services, which is pretty impressive for the enormous range of free content. Some model boxes don't have 4oD though.

Oh, as the Roku box doesn't have proper Network configurations, you will need to place the DNS entries in your router.

I have a full step-by-step guide over at Eye on-Demand, but it would be wrong for me to link that here, so if you are interested, you can easily google it.

That said, if your box isn't really up top it, and you have friends or relatives in the UK, you can order a Now TV box to be delivered (free) to them for £10, and they can pass it on to you. The Now TV box definitely offers all UK FTA catch-up services, but no Netflix.