If you want more affordable, minimal options, you’re free to check out ourstreaming stick showdown.
Roku 4 ($130):The Roku 4 is Rokus newest set top box.
Of course, this is not a comprehensive list.
We left out the Fire TV, after its performance in the streaming stick showdown.
However, if you like a variety of services, read on.
Heres how our top three choices stacked up.
Its going to be a bit of a hassle no matter what you do.
However, certain boxes make it a little easier than others.
Manual setup, on the other hand, isawful.
While this is nice for gestures, it makes typing harder than usual.
God help you ifyou have a long, complex password.
Youll also need to use this process to jump in to your other services like Netflix.
When you first plug in the unit, youll need to connect to Wi-Fi.
Once youre connected to the internet, you’re free to visitg.co/AndroidTVto get in to your Google account.
Unfortunately, support for Smart Lock has to be added by each app developer.
In my testing, only Netflix found my password.
Fortunately, the process gets considerably easier after that.
Your account is then synced to the Roku 4 on your TV.
How different can they really be?
Turns out, quite a bit!
Still, here are some of the big differences.
As I mentioned in the last section, I have mixed feelings about Apples touchpad remote.
Fortunately, the Apple remote has a handy backup option: the Siri button.
For example, if you ask Siri for South Park episodes, it will show you Hulu and iTunes.
Click Hulu and the South Park page in Hulu will appear.
The Siri button worked flawlessly every time I used it.
The remote still has a couple oddities, though.
However, most of the time its used as a Back button.
Pressing Menu again will display the navigation menu at the top of the app.
Its very confusing at first.
Once you get used to it, its easy enough, but its disorienting and inconsistent.
The Nexus Player remote is much less confusing than the Apple remote, as it uses a regular D-pad.
Though if you like the swiping gesture, you might be missing out.
The search results on the Nexus Player were mostly similar to Apples, with a few key differences.
However, I only discovered this when I forced myself to use the voice search function on purpose.
In practice, I used Google Cast to play videos on the Nexus Player much more often.
For me, this was the ideal Chromecast experience anyway.
Unfortunately, its a bit more limited.
you’re free to search for movies, directors, and actors, but thats about it.
Searching for Comedy simply returned movies and TV shows with the word comedy in them.
Musical artists came up with nothing, unless they were also actors.
And as of this writing, the Rdio button is guaranteed to be useless.
Thats kind of a drag, but not a huge deal.
And if you do use any of those other services, its a super handy shortcut.
Ideally, your set top box, with all its grand internet powers, should give you some suggestions.
Heres how the three we looked at stack up in that regard.
Its a little hard to say that the Apple TV really does much to help content discovery at all.
Most content on the Apple TV is siloed in various apps.
Performing a voice search for a genre doesnt even go very far.
If I wanted to really browse around, you had to enter an app.
Voice search was also a bit more useful in this regard.
However, it also showed me videos from YouTube and shows on Hulu that were categorized as comedy.
This isnt a super great discovery tool, but its something.
The Roku platform has a unique feature called My Feed.
Unfortunately, you’ve got the option to add TV shows.
Outside of this, though, the Roku 4 suffers from a similar problem as the Apple TV.
Netflix and Hulu are going to suggest the same things, no matter which box youre viewing it on.
Content Library
Okay, this is a simple one: Roku wins.
Google pushes Google Play.
Amazon pushes Amazon Prime Instant Video.
Each box has most streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and Plex.
Theres not always a lot of variation between services, but theres enough to make shopping around worthwhile.
Of course, thats just the officially sanctioned stuff.
Private channels can include adult content or content from services that dont have official apps.
This time around, its a little fuzzier.
While I didnt care for the touchpad remote, your mileage may vary.
you might buy or rent movies from Google, Amazon, or none of the above.
Ultimately, if you really like Apple or Googles ecosystem, youll probably like their respective set top boxes.
