Alternatives to Firestick

[towser]

I've a non-smart TV that I plug a Firestick into.....it's fair to say that every Firestick I've had over the years has slowly but surely got more and more laggy to the point that it's almost unusable.

The one I currently use is probably 2 years old.

Any thoughts on a better alternative - Roku?

Are current gen Firesticks any better?

Any tricks to kick my existing one back to life??

Thanks..

[LuS1fer]

It depends what you are streaming. The Firestick Max has far more storage although the lovely screensaver might take up some room.

I find it is usually the source, not the Firestick, that is the weak link.

[towser]

LuS1fer said:

It depends what you are streaming. The Firestick Max has far more storage although the lovely screensaver might take up some room.

I find it is usually the source, not the Firestick, that is the weak link.

An example from this evening.....streaming some educational video from Vimeo via the inbuilt Silk browser....painfully slow navigation and web page rendering time.

Hopping back to the Firestick homepage from the browser took about 30 seconds....laggy buttons thereafter until it "caught up". Just feels like it's low on memory or just underpowered...

Any thoughts on this as an alternative??

https://www.amazon.co.uk/fire-tv-cube/dp/B09BZVGR7...

[s p a c e m a n]

I like my Roku stick, it runs through my VPN so I watch loads of American crap on it as well as the usual stuff. Also have a Chromecast hooked up though as that seems to allow me to cast almost anything to it where the Roku/TV/fire stick are a bit picky.

[Bonefish Blues]

We find Roku much more responsive than Firesticks

[Ham_and_Jam]

If you are wanting a device just to stream all the main providers you can’t beat Roku.

I’ve got four of them, never had an issue.

[Cupid-stunt]

I had an older Firestick - perhaps 5yrs old.

I changed to a newer 2024 version during Black Friday and it was completely different.
Fast response and minimal lag.
Just try it out - if it doesn't suit, send it back.

[littleredrooster]

Bonefish Blues said:

We find Roku much more responsive than Firesticks

x2

We've had three Firesticks and all were prone to lockups and freezing despite updates and reboots. After migrating to Roku, we've had no further problems. Nicer UI, too IMO.

[stemll]

Failing all of those suggestions, Google TV streamer. I have the preceding Chromecast with Google TV and it has been faultless for the last four years.

£99 and includes an Ethernet port to wire direct to router if nearby. Even has a button on the back to make the remote make a noise if you lose it.

This from an Apple house. The Apple TV is closer in price now that it was at the time.

Edited by stemll on Thursday 27th March 22:51

[camel_landy]

There was a similar thread not so long ago on this... IIRC - The AppleTV appeared to come out top.

HTH

M

[wyson]

I’d get whatever eco system your other devices are in. If mixed, ie Apple and Android, you can get a Roku which is agnostic.

Amazon’s Fire whatnots would be my last choice.

It’s not such a massive deal what you choose, they all broadly do the same thing. Compatibility with the other devices you use is probably the biggest thing.

Edited by wyson on Friday 28th March 07:13

[towser]

Thanks all…..having done some research it looks like Roku and AppleTV lack a browser which is a must have in this case - so it looks like a Firestick 4k Max might be the only option.

[wyson]

You can cast webpages using your mobile devices on Google TV and Apple TV.

[towser]

wyson said:

You can cast webpages using your mobile devices on Google TV and Apple TV.

Ah….hadn’t thought of that. How well does that work nowadays? last time I attempted it quality / upscaling was really poor.

[Richtea1970]

We've probably got 5 or 6 firesticks in the house, all varying models and ages, they still all work well.
The problem for you might be the amount of 'apps' you have open as one of the issues with the FS is that you never actually 'close' an app you've been using (Netflix, Prime, Browser etc). So they all sit in the background still using your limited processing power and memory.
I have this free app on all my devices and run it periodically. Make sure you force stop everything and also clear the cache, it will have a positive effect on your experience, I'm certain.

[lizardbrain]

I use a combination of Apple TV screen mirroring and a 2TB hard drive for 4k

Apple screen mirroring is good enough for most browser based streams.

For higher quality I’ve gone back to torrents. Even if I have genuine access to a film through Netflix or whatever I’ll still get a torrent as it’s often a superior experience in most respects

[.:ian:.]

I've got basic firestick and it's quite underpowered, Strangely the prime video app is the most affected, its borderline unusable. Most of the other apps are 'ok'

Nvidia shield is probably the best android based media player, plenty of cpu power.

Or maybe stick android on a decent SBC, maybe a pi5 or one of the many clones. Not a simple plug-n-go option though.

[Bluevanman]

I've never had a firestick but I've had,and still use, various android boxes.
More versatile than a stick,higher specs,more ram etc.The only negatives is no security updates but they have Google play store and that supposedly checks every app before installation.
If you do your research you can get a pretty decent box for £50 or so

[nyt]

I use one of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Xiaomi-Box-2nd-Gen-Built/...

I think that it has a built in browser - not at home to check.

It works as well as any smart TV that I've used

[Ridealong]

towser said:

An example from this evening.....streaming some educational video from Vimeo via the inbuilt Silk browser....painfully slow navigation and web page rendering time.

Hopping back to the Firestick homepage from the browser took about 30 seconds....laggy buttons thereafter until it "caught up". Just feels like it's low on memory or just underpowered...

Any thoughts on this as an alternative??

https://www.amazon.co.uk/fire-tv-cube/dp/B09BZVGR7...

You should download Google Chrome, it is definitely faster than the Silk browser and clear cache from all your apps which should improve speed/performance of your Firestick.