{"id":83369,"date":"2025-06-28T19:43:02","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T19:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2025\/06\/28\/rokus-latest-streaming-stick-is-great-but-the-latest-os-update-has-flaws\/"},"modified":"2025-06-28T19:44:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T19:44:17","slug":"rokus-latest-streaming-stick-is-great-but-the-latest-os-update-has-flaws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2025\/06\/28\/rokus-latest-streaming-stick-is-great-but-the-latest-os-update-has-flaws\/","title":{"rendered":"Roku’s latest streaming stick is great, but the latest OS update has flaws"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Roku has actually modified its OS with the newest replace and I\u2019ve been utilizing the brand new Streaming Stick Plus to check them each out. General, there are some good enhancements, however they appear to come back at the price of among the simplicity that made Roku so particular within the first place.<\/p>\n

Streaming Stick Plus<\/h2>\n

There\u2019s not so much to say concerning the new streaming stick that hasn\u2019t been mentioned. Roku has been making incredible reasonably priced good TV sticks since I began on this beat six years in the past and the identical is true right now. The Plus mannequin I\u2019m testing is pretty priced at $50 and can play all of the high-end content material from any main streamer.<\/p>\n

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out of the field that is what the Dwelling Display screen is like.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This mannequin caps out at 4K HDR10+ so there\u2019s no Dolby Imaginative and prescient assist, however actually, it\u2019s not one thing anybody searching for a Roku Stick Plus ought to care about. In the event you don\u2019t care sufficient to know what Dolby Imaginative and prescient is, you most likely aren\u2019t seeking to get one in every of these. That mentioned, I do know what Dolby Imaginative and prescient is and I don\u2019t care. HDR10+ and Dolby Imaginative and prescient are just about equivalent and each look extraordinary. Except you\u2019re evaluating them side-by-side you received\u2019t discover a distinction.<\/p>\n

In the event you\u2019re like me and run a Plex server, you\u2019ll be glad to know that this little machine holds up decently properly. After I tried streaming a 4K HDR Blu-ray rip of Interstellar<\/em> with a median bitrate of 56mbps, the Streaming Stick Plus virtually acquired the job finished. Monitoring the playback on my server, the video would even peak at bitrates round 96mbps. The video held up for about an hour earlier than crashing out, however this received\u2019t be a problem for the common particular person streaming 4K from Netflix and Applt TV+.<\/p>\n

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The distant is similar as at all times, which is to say it feels first rate, it\u2019s mild and the button structure is kind of easy. There\u2019s no headphone jack on this distant although so if you’d like that you should improve. The most important change on the stick is that it lastly takes energy over USB-C. However don\u2019t fear it comes with a USB-C to USB-A cable within the field so it\u2019s simple to run off your TV\u2019s built-in USB ports because it solely attracts round 2.5 watts of energy.<\/p>\n

What 4K Roku stick must you get?<\/h2>\n

There are 4 choices: the Roku Categorical (4K), the Roku Streaming Stick Plus, the Roku Streaming Stick 4K, and at last, the Roku Extremely.<\/p>\n

In my eyes, there are solely two actual choices now: the Streaming Stick Plus, and, in case you actually care about specs and need to be hardwired in, the Roku Extremely. In the event you actually need the distant with the headphone jack, it’s also possible to purchase it individually.<\/p>\n

RokuOS<\/h2>\n
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That is how the house display screen appears whenever you flip all of the extras off.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

That is the actual improve I used to be enthusiastic about, however sadly it\u2019s let me down.<\/p>\n

To begin with, there are a ton of latest sub-sections within the sidebar that I wanted to disable. I discover issues like beneficial channels and stay TV distracting and I needed to dive into the settings to disable them. As soon as I did, the Roku residence display screen went again to the way in which it was once.<\/p>\n

I desire this as a result of it\u2019s simple and one thing I\u2019ve discovered individuals of all ages can study tremendous simply. Including all this further stuff isn\u2019t inherently dangerous, but it surely erodes one in every of Roku\u2019s conventional strengths of simplicity.<\/p>\n

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The subsequent difficulty is with the brand new Backdrops characteristic. That is alleged to be a extra refined screensaver expertise for the system, however as an alternative, it\u2019s a very janky app that\u2019s not even constructed into the OS.<\/p>\n

To get it, you should seek for Backdrops within the Streaming Retailer. Then you possibly can set up it, and as soon as inside there are a ton of superior high-resolution artwork choices, a sensible system for customizing your choices and even the power to load a customized album proper from Google Pictures. It\u2019s good, besides you should manually flip them on which defeats the entire function of a screensaver.<\/p>\n

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Artwork appears nice on fashionable TVs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

There’s a little shortcut on the prime of the app residence display screen, but it surely\u2019s actually insane that this isn\u2019t constructed into the common screensaver performance. I’ll say one good perk of those backgrounds is that the Roku stick routinely detected that my TV was OLED and set the background rotation to each 5 minutes to stop burn-in.<\/p>\n

General, it looks like these work extra flawlessly on Roku TVs and never as properly on the streaming sticks, which is a disgrace. If Apple could make it work with the Apple TV and the Roku Metropolis screensaver performs on a regular basis then I\u2019m certain the corporate can determine this out.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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