We are currently traveling and will be going to various stores today that will sell these devices? Which device is:
All of my Media is HEVC or H.265 and some is HDR.
Thanks in advance.
I’ve used the best and the cheapest Rokus and I have used Fire Sticks. IMO the experience with the cheapest Roku Express beats all the Fire Streaming devices. The UI is so simple, you can turn off annoying new features to keep it simple.
From a codec perspective I don’t know, I’ve had a beefy GPU for years and none of my users ever complain about not being able to watch something. I recommend Roku to everyone who joins my server that asks for advice on which streaming box to get.
With that said I haven’t played with Shield, and I have a buddy that swears by his Apple TV. I just don’t want to spend the money on one. I have roku 4k sticks on 6/7 TVs here in the house and one Ultra in our living room.
Following this. I use a google chromecast (the pro version with the ui and installable apps like plex), though I’m keen to know other options too.
Firestick. You can install a VPN client on a FireStick (maybe even TailScale, haven’t tried), but not a Roku.
specifically for plex
fire tv cube > roku ultra > fire 4k max > roku express > fire 4k.
but as an overall device i prefer roku ultra over fire tv cube.
I just bring my MacBook. It has 1TB of storage, so I’m not limited by hotel Internet or 5G availability. I just plug in my Thunderbolt-HDMI cable and I’m good to go. I mean, I’m bringing the MacBook anyway…
I’ve never had a Roku fail at hotels. They make it pretty simple. As soon as you go into connect to a network it says, “Are you at a hotel?” You say yes, fire up the Roku app on your phone and do the authentication to the hotel WiFi and you’re off and running. I’ve not tried this with a Fire or Android TV device, so I don’t know what that experience is like from a hotel WiFi network, but I can’t imagine anything easier than Roku for this application.
I was very glad I had packed our FireStick on our recent Vegas trip. I had no trouble connecting it to an HDMI input and enjoying both Plex and Tivimate.
I think on both of these, you’ll need to make sure to set it up at home so it can work on hotel WiFi that uses captive portals.
I don’t have enough experience with either to know which one has a better experience on hotel WiFi.
Also make sure to jot down the MAC ID. Some hotels can allow your device by the MAC ID.
Following, I tried a fire stick at a Marriott and it didn’t want to work.
I had a small portable router and a fire stick. Had a VPN on the router to connect back home so I could bypass geographic restrictions. Eventually just went to using an iPad mini and an HDMI cable and adapter. Less to carry.
for traveling, I use my iPad, with a lightning to HDMI adapter. it works pretty flawlessly, is not a whole “extra device” to have to carry, and also has the benefit that you can have content downloaded directly, which is great for flights and horrible hotel WiFI. iOS with the HDMI adapter is smart enough to just display the video on the TV instead of double-scale it, so it works quite well.
I don’t go on holiday without my firestick. I now have a spare cheap Firestick Lite who’s sole purpose is for use when I’m away including the Camper Van (I do this in the event I forget it it’s not my 4K Max that I have left behind)
I travel with my Roku Premier I got in 2020. It has never let me down on a single trip. Supports all the formats of your media. UI is stupid simple (my 70-something yr old mother in law can use it). It isn’t a part of Jeff Bezos empire to farm your information. It’s not part of Googles empire to farm your information.
I’d recommend the one I have for under 30 bucks or a Streaming Stick+ for under 50.
I always travel with a Roku Streaming Stick+. I tried other “stick-like” client devices, but I use the Roku Ultra at home, and the UI for the Stick is identical. The Plex app works great.
I don’t worry about codecs because my server can handle any changes that my client devices need, but I mostly see in Plex Dash that Rokus direct stream a lot (H.264 the gold standard for Roku), and almost always an audio stream that’s AAC. Most servers could handle that pretty easily. So since most your stuff is HEVC your server might be busy if you go Roku for traveling/remote streaming needs.
Rokus work okay with captive portals. It requires connecting with a phone, and then connecting the Roku to the phone with a special bluetooth code, then the Roku “borrows” the connection information from your phone, then it disconnects from your phone and connects to the captive portal on its own. The Roku menu is really good about showing the next step to take, and it’s not difficult at all, and takes only a couple minutes. On the RARE occasions I couldn’t get that to work, I just used my phone as a wifi hotspot connected to the captive portal, then connected the Roku to the hotspot, and everything was fine. But again, that’s rare.
LG Hotel TVs (specifically hotel models) are the bane of my existence. Last two hotel stays for work- impossible to switch to HDMI input to use my trusty Firestick. The presence of these gimped TVs seem a bigger problem than which portable streamer to use.
We used to travel with a roku and chromecast just in case one or the other wouldn’t work. We also travel with a wireless repeater. This is for those places that limit how many connections you have.
So what I do is get the repeater going and logged into the hotel wifi then sign in phones, laptops, tablets, streaming devices to the repeater. This way we share 1 connection. Never had any issues streaming this way - even with multiple devices accessing the internet at the same time
I personally use the Roku streaming stick 4k and it’s been bulletproof much to my surprise. I also have a cheap universal remote to pair with the TV to make it easier to switch the input.
A lot of hotels disable their usb and hdmi ports.
I am legit doing that right now. While traveling for work, hotels never have smart TVs. And I don’t wanna be logging into my server on them anyways. Ran to target and got a Roku stick 4k and leave it in my luggage!
Love it!