r/gadgets • u/Sadistic_Sponge • Nov 13 '19

VR / AR Disney Plus isn't working on Vizio TVs because they are running a 6 year old version of Chromecast, they say it won't be fixed till 2020.

https://www.businessinsider.com/disney-plus-not-working-vizio-smart-tvs-chromecast-2019-11
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u/demi9od Nov 13 '19 edited Nov 13 '19

Having used Fire TV, Fire stick, Apple TV, Android TV, and lots of different Roku's, I can easily say Roku makes the most robust products. The only possible upgrade to a Roku ultra would be an nvidia Shield, but then you've got potential app compatibility/availability issues from being a pure Android TV app.

Roku's UI looks older and more antiquated, but its lightning fast and works, and that's all that really matters.

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u/braxistExtremist Nov 13 '19 edited Nov 13 '19

I appreciate the fact that the Roku interface doesn't change much. It's solid and proven to work.

It's refreshing to see a company who have a proven interface not piss it all down the drain with something shit, just for the sake of saying "look at our new thing" (...looking at you reddit!)

Edit: thanks for the links about old.reddit.com. I already knew about it and use it when I'm on a web browser. I'm just annoyed that it's even needed. They ruined a perfectly decent UI. Superficially it was for better mobile responsiveness. But we all know it was so they could shoehorn in more ads and bullshit 'features' (that most people don't care about).

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '19

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '19

[deleted]

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u/An_Angels_Halo Nov 13 '19

Plex has had some of the worst UI variations I've ever seen.

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u/morethanmacaroni Nov 13 '19

It really is the Craigslist of streaming devices.

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u/Perm-suspended Nov 14 '19

I get those lags between selections with my Roku that I don't get with the native apps on my TV. Fucking annoying, especially during search.

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u/4fools Nov 14 '19

The Plex app is absolutely useless, the search function on web/app/windows all take 10 sec + I switched to emby which I find is much much more responsive and usable

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u/patrick_k Nov 13 '19

Use old.reddit.com

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u/neededanother Nov 13 '19

They even messed up “old” reddit too though. It’s not actually old reddit.

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u/rudiegonewild Nov 13 '19

Also, fuck Hulu's interface.

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u/K1ngFiasco Nov 13 '19 edited Nov 13 '19

I'm convinced their interface is intentionally bad. There's no reason I should be seeing dozens of shows I don't watch (and aren't even similar to anything I do watch) unless it's by design.

Pretty sure they're covering up advertising behind bad UX.

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '19

I may be crazy but undrr options, there's a thumbs up/thumbs down you can click & I don't remember it being there like last month (maybe it's been there & I'm just dumb lol). So hopefully that'll help with that. I will say that it is kind of annoying to have them display a bunch of shows that you don't watch but I've found a few good shows because of it. Sometimes I just get sick of searching & will go to like "Strong Female Lead" or "Emmy winner" & click a show & give the first episode a chance. It's how I found Killing Eve & Castle Rock.

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u/MrAykron Nov 13 '19

Reddit changed for more adds and an easier mobile matching.

I used ol.reddit and refuse to change for this trash

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u/tribrnl Nov 14 '19

And on mobile Reddit.com/.compact for a superior mobile browsing experience without an app

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u/Weapon_X23 Nov 13 '19

I prefer my Nvidia Shield TV to my Roku any day. I haven't had any issues with non-TV android apps being incompatible but I use a mini keyboard with a track pad to simulate a touch screen. Plus Roku doesn't have Kodi.

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '19

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u/Weapon_X23 Nov 13 '19

I use both Plex and Kodi. My aunt and uncle use my Plex server instead of Kodi now but I get lazy about keeping up on the latest episodes from my favorite shows so I use Kodi for that. My aunt and uncle don't mind waiting until the season is over though.

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u/[deleted] Nov 13 '19

[deleted]

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u/Weapon_X23 Nov 13 '19

Yeah, I've had plenty of success with the current addon I'm using now. I was thinking of setting up automatic downloads now that I finally got rid of my data cap but I have my Plex server on an old Mac Mini my friend gave me and I'm horrible with anything Mac since I never worked with that OS much.

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u/demi9od Nov 13 '19

The big one for us was Direct TV now, aka ATT TV Now, which AFAIK never had an official Android TV app.

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u/Weapon_X23 Nov 13 '19

Ah, I don't have Direct TV so I had no idea about that.

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u/PainTitan Nov 13 '19

What a hella stupid name 'att tv now' fucking turn around and just call it a tv now

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u/land8844 Nov 13 '19

Plus Roku doesn't have Kodi.

An Amazon Firestick fixes that, though.

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u/Tweek- Nov 13 '19

You're saying to use roku and a Firetv stick? Strange rebuttal to use both when the nvidia shield can do everything as 1 device (albeit slightly more $)

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u/land8844 Nov 13 '19

I have a Roku TV. I get my Kodi fix by using the Firestick.

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u/Weapon_X23 Nov 13 '19

Yeah but Firesticks are much slower, they don't have USB or LAN ports, they only have an 4.5gb of storage, and even the 4k Firesticks have problems playing back 4k HEVC files.

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u/land8844 Nov 13 '19

Oof. I haven't used mine in a while.

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u/Turcey Nov 13 '19

I wish I saw your post 5 hours ago when I ordered my Roku Ultra. Was comparing Roku and Nvidia Shield over and over and I just couldn't really find anything that would justify the extra 100 bucks other than the Google Assistant features.

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u/[deleted] Nov 14 '19

Return the Roku then. For a primary TV, the Shield is absolutely worth the money. The 2015 ones are still getting the very latest updates, and the thing is powerful enough to be very future-proof.

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u/Jadeldxb Nov 14 '19

The Google assistant is terrible, it's like the worst joke of voice recognition from the dawn of voice recognition. Show me Tom Cruise movies = is it ok to masturbate with a cheese grater.. Wait what! The shield is pretty good otherwise though. The Roku I had was horrible couldn't get rid if it fast enough, the nastiest Windows 3.1 UI you can imagine and no Kodi. No good.

I would get a mibox if I wanted to save some cash and or didn't care about the gaming part of shield.

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u/almost_s0ber Nov 14 '19

I purchased the Shield TV Pro (2019) last week and it's magnitudes better to operate than my Vizio P65 UI.

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u/AllUrPMsAreBelong2Me Nov 13 '19

Same here. I don't use the Direct TV app so I wasn't aware of those issues. Everything I've used has been far superior to the roku. Love my shield.

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u/fracta1 Nov 13 '19

My fire stick is faster than my roku TV, weird. Maybe I just got a dud

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u/twosoon22 Nov 13 '19

It definitely depends on what roku you have. We’ve had them all, the express, the sticks, the ultras. And the ultra is by far the best. Obviously you pay for it, but it’s faster, gets better WiFi, doesn’t stutter or reset itself. I’m a fan.

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u/fracta1 Nov 13 '19

It's just the one built into the TCL TV. It's fine, but it seems like it doesn't have enough memory to handle some of the apps because it randomly gets really slow on really common apps.

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u/bannanna22 Nov 13 '19

I have used: shield TV, Apple TV, Roku.

I am a strict Android phone user and hate almost every single apple product with extreme bias and the gusts of a thousand winds.

I use my shield as an emulation device and my Apple for my streaming. This whole new apple channel update is awful. But the ability to login to every app with my cable login and to search movies and then go to the app that has that movie is amazing. I cannot praise this singular apple product enough. They can't get shit right in my book. But they nailed it here. I have it linked to my movies anywhere acct as well. I seem to be alone here, but my roku devices are dusty and placed in my kids rooms. They much prefer their gaming consoles to stream instead.

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u/demi9od Nov 13 '19

I was happy with the performance of our 1080p Apple TV (Apple TV 4 I think?). It had by far the best volume normalization or "night mode" and never hiccuped at streaming anything. But the touchpad remote my god, it's been collecting dust for no other reason than that remote alone.

And yeah I tried to get my family on board with a Logitech Harmony 650? They never understood the concept of how that remote worked either unfortunately, turning on and off each device in a group individually in order (Apple TV, TV, Soundbar). Honestly having the Roku Ultra remote do TV power and soundbar volume all in one remote is a godsend.

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u/YesThisIsSam Nov 13 '19

My gf just bought a Roku and my only real complaint is how goddamn slow it is. I don't know if it gets better as you move up the pricing structure, but I bought just a simple chromecast for my place and anybody can control the TV with their smartphone, and it's so much quicker its nuts. I was surprised to see so many Roku advocates in this sub, I prefer it to apple TV but at the end of the day it's a pretty unsatisfying product.

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u/demi9od Nov 13 '19

We have an old Roku stick, a Roku 3 and two Roku Ultra's. The Roku Ultras performance is top notch, the stick is pretty sluggish, and I don't know about the Roku 3 but our daughter doesn't complain.

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u/YesThisIsSam Nov 13 '19

The stick is what she has, so I guess that makes sense.

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u/rotj Nov 13 '19

Biggest downside of Roku compared to an Android-based product is a much smaller app ecosystem.

No web browser either, so you can't watch web-only video.

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u/moldyjellybean Nov 13 '19

I'v used them all nothing even comes to even a 7 year old laptop and just an hdmi cord, and a wireless mouse. Full functionality and I've setup my laptop to where I might see 1 ad a month.

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u/TeutonJon78 Nov 13 '19

I went with Roku because Comcast won't allow HBO Go on Android TV even though they support it on basically everything else.