Current state of the art: Chromecast 2 vs. Amazon Fire Stick vs. Amazon FireTV?

Not yet. I don’t have any 4K TV’s at the house and the list of other items that are needed supersedes my TV budget currently, unfortunately. After enjoying the built in Roku model above, I’ll probably just do the same when my living room TV gets updated anyway.

I do have a mix of devices though. Roku for the channel apps, and a Chromecast to simplify streaming from mobile or tablets.

AndroidTV would do both in a single box. MiBox is $70 sold at walmart only.

What are you streaming from mobile? I only tend to stream Youtube and the Roku app for Youtube does the passing off from mobile seamlessly.

If you want to mirror the screen, I’m not sure about that. I think it supports it but Google has been limiting their implementation in Android for a while and borking screen mirroring on FireTV and Roku the last few times I’ve tried it.

Edit: Looks like mirroring may work for you too: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/roku-screen-mirroring-tutorial,review-3575.html

Yeah specific apps will work on Roku, and YouTube is one of them. FireTV and Roku don’t use the Chromecast protocol so it depends on those apps. Roku screen mirroring is miracast, which generally doesn’t work very well (although I have not tried it on Roku specifically.)

Porn? Seriously, videos we take from the phone but want to watch occasionally. Also an unnamed app to watch shows we no longer have access to via streaming. Not naming the app because that kind of thing isn’t kosher on the forums here but there are a number of apps that do the same thing.

The roku YouTube app is okay, not the best but works for the occasional use when we watch something there.

I also (used) to stream from the NHL app via PC to my TV using chromecast. Basically they just made it easier at the time to be able to connect PC/mobile/tablet over to each of my TVs.

You probably want to keep the Chromecast then, nothing streams as effectively as that

I agree, with the newer ones I picked up last year, it seems much heartier as well, with fewer issues while streaming.

Also regarding the current state of the art, Amazon is phasing out the 2nd gen FireTV box, so it looks like a 3rd gen is right on the horizon.

Not entirely sure what they’ll change. I mean, it’s already fast enough to do anything you want on a streamer box. Maybe it’ll just be cheaper to produce.

Or the remote could control TV and receiver power/volume! That would be awesome. Pisses me off that nothing does this.

Great discussion, very helpful. Honestly, if Chromecast worked with Amazon Prime Video, I probably wouldn’t have started looking.

@Skipper, Plex works great for streaming media like ripped movies, home movies, etc.

I’m such a cheap bastard. We use a FireTV stick and have no issue with it for our usage (Prime/Netflix/Plex/Kodi). We had a Roku 2 before, so the stick was quite the upgrade at the time. Somehow lost the remote in the first week, but the smartphone app works just fine.

I may end up doing that again. I had a server upstairs I used to host my old DVD rips off of but it took a nose dive about 2 years ago. I still have most of the data, and all the DVDs to re-rip if that mattered. At this point, we get most of the stuff we need from Amazon/Netflix/HBO-NOW streaming and probably 95% of our viewing time comes from those. I’m really the only one in the house that likes to re-watch old movies, and even then, not often.

Probably the most uttered phrase in front of the TV these days is, “what series are we watching next?”

not much to say other than, we also love our Roku. Better than our old Chromecast. Once in a blue moon I wish I could still cast a browser stream, but, meh.


Might want to be cautious of Google or Amazon devices while they’re fighting. Losing the YouTube app from my Fire TV is going to be annoying.

You can side load it still, right? Just drop the YouTube apk on the stick? I saw this news yesterday but was wondering why it’s an issue, unless Google has some way to know what device the apps run from, which they may.

My reading of the coverage is they’re blocking even web access using device IDs.

It actually is web access; the FireTV literally loads https://www.youtube.com/TV. Google is actively blocking a specific web browser from accessing their site.

This isn’t about Google no longer building a FireTV app-- there is no FireTV app, just that website which is otherwise freely available on the internet. Load it in your browser, that is exactly how it works on the FireTV too.

Welp this majorly sucks, I hope they resolve whatever dispute they have. I can still use the Kodi YouTube app without getting any messages or errors so hopefully that will still work after January next year. Otherwise I guess I’ll have to dust off my PS3 and use that instead. Ugh

Looks like there’s another reason to add when I recommend Roku over Amazon devices now. Fewer dick fights.

I’ve only ever used my Chromecast to watch Youtube on the TV. To be honest, I have no idea what it actually does. I have a Firestick that I use for Netflix for my son. Does Chromecast have netflix? Is it any better than the Firestick Netflix app? Actually forget it, I forgot that the nice thing about the Firestick is that it has a remote control which means that I don’t have to worry about having my phone around just to control the darned thing.

If you can do it in a browser, you can do it in Chromecast, more or less.