Any good solutions for Dad and his old TV?

[opentoe]

My Dad has an older TV. Just a couple years short of when Smart TV's were out. It is a beautiful Sony XBR 50" TV that has full back light technology and has a better picture then most sets I've seen anywhere. Anti-glare Gorilla glass helps. I actually have the same TV in my bedroom but it just has simple built in apps like Amazon/Netflix. I recently shared my Plex libraries with him and he's now able to remotely watch anything he wants now but only on his computer or iPad with PLEX. He wants it on his TV. He bought an Amazon Firestick TV which has the Plex app but was a horrible option. The Plex app on there is from 2011 and crashes all the time and Amazon doesn't care to update it...as their benefit it their own streaming service. I heard Roku devices are great and also have an updated Plex app. Looking to find a solution for dear old Dad so he can watch my shared stuff in his TV. Anyone recommend anything out there? I'm thinking old school, maybe an HDMI cable directly from his laptop to the TV? I'm willing to try the Roku, and the Firestick is going right back to Amazon.

[garycase]

I like the old-school solution => just run an HDMI cable from the laptop.

 

If it happens to be a newer laptop that supports Intel's WIDI you can even do it wirelessly with a simple WIDI adapter for the TV (~ $45).

 

[interwebtech]

Roku 3

brain dead simple to operate once you set it up for him. Heck, a Roku 2 would be enough for Plex and @$50.

 

PS I just bought FireTV Stick (HBO Now app not available on Roku) and I think the real problem with them is the Wi-Fi is weak. I get stuttering and buffering errors claiming my 30 mb internet is too slow.

[sureguy]

Roku 3

brain dead simple to operate once you set it up for him. Heck, a Roku 2 would be enough for Plex and @$50.

 

PS I just bought FireTV Stick (HBO Now app not available on Roku) and I think the real problem with them is the Wi-Fi is weak. I get stuttering and buffering errors claiming my 30 mb internet is too slow.

 

Agreed on the roku, for a better experience use ethernet rather than WiFi if possible

[garycase]

... Agreed on the roku, for a better experience use ethernet rather than WiFi if possible

 

Agree ... wired connections are always better than wireless.  BOTH, however, are Ethernet 

[BetaQuasi]

The Roku's are great.  Perfect for this use case, they 'just work'.  The plex app on that platform is great too.

[bobbintb]

I've used a number of these devices, Roku, AppleTV, Chromecast, SmartTV, Raspi+Kodi, and and a few others. Amazon Fire TV is by far the best. I have the stick and the original and have never had an issue with either. They have the best performance and interface of all the devices I've tried. Maybe yours is just faulty. Actually, now that I think about it, I did have a slight issue with Plex on the Stick but that was because I was trying to use USB power and the TV did not supply enough power to the device via USB. Once I gave it its own power source, all my issues went away.

 

PS: I hate the Roku interface. It's just awful, especially on the Plex app. It's better with the newer version, but I still don't like it. Just my personal opinion.

[hernandito]

 

PS: I hate the Roku interface. It's just awful, especially on the Plex app. It's better with the newer version, but I still don't like it. Just my personal opinion.

 

I would rather have root canals without anesthesia than use the Roku Plex interface.... I assume you want Plex so you can share your library remotely.

[archedraft]

 

PS: I hate the Roku interface. It's just awful, especially on the Plex app. It's better with the newer version, but I still don't like it. Just my personal opinion.

 

I would rather have root canals without anesthesia than use the Roku Plex interface.... I assume you want Plex so you can share your library remotely.

 

lol I read this and thought "yeah and after about 30 seconds into that root canal you would be begging for the Roku..." 

[dirtysanchez]

Another vote for the Roku.  I have 3 of them myself for the non-smart TV's as well as numerous remote family members that use them to stream content from my Plex Server.

 

They are dead simple to use and they just work.

[unevent]

Roku 3

brain dead simple to operate once you set it up for him. Heck, a Roku 2 would be enough for Plex and @$50.

 

PS I just bought FireTV Stick (HBO Now app not available on Roku) and I think the real problem with them is the Wi-Fi is weak. I get stuttering and buffering errors claiming my 30 mb internet is too slow.

 

Agreed on the roku, for a better experience use ethernet rather than WiFi if possible

 

...or if stuck with WiFi, should be 5GHz.  2.4GHz just doesn't have the bandwidth needed.  I have a FireStick on 5GHz and no buffering issues, 20Mbit cable.

[johnodon]

The WiFi on the Fire Stick was a deal breaker for me.  When plugged into the TV right next to my router (~5 feet) it worked perfectly.  I moved it to a TV one room away (one wall) about 20 feet from the router and can no longer stream lossless BDRIPS without constant buffering.

 

I stuck in a cabinet and haven't used it in 6 months.

 

John

[sureguy]

Roku 3

brain dead simple to operate once you set it up for him. Heck, a Roku 2 would be enough for Plex and @$50.

 

PS I just bought FireTV Stick (HBO Now app not available on Roku) and I think the real problem with them is the Wi-Fi is weak. I get stuttering and buffering errors claiming my 30 mb internet is too slow.

 

Agreed on the roku, for a better experience use ethernet rather than WiFi if possible

 

...or if stuck with WiFi, should be 5GHz.  2.4GHz just doesn't have the bandwidth needed.  I have a FireStick on 5GHz and no buffering issues, 20Mbit cable.

 

5GHz has penetration/range issues, 2.4GHz has bandwidth/crowded channel issues.  Pick your poison.  At least you can throw money at 5GHz to fix it.

[unevent]

Wireless is never the way to go for consistent trouble-free full bitrate media streaming.  I don't stream at those bitrates over wireless, I use the Plex app on the FireStick to stream @ 10Mbit (32" LCD back room TV).  Full bitrate stuff goes to the wired 60" LG Plasma using DLNA app to Plex.

[switchman]

I have two Fire TVs and they work fine.  I have the new plex interface on them now.  I purchased them before the Nexus was out.

 

My kid has a Nexus player and it works well also.  It has a limitation that it is wireless only.  He also has kodi on it and is fine.

 

I purchased a Roku 3 for my mom last year and used it this summer when I went to visit.  I prefer either the Fire of Nexus device.

 

 

Edit:

The downside of the Fire TV devices are that they tied so heavily into the Amazon ecosystem.  I only use them for Netflix and my plex client. and knew basically about the limitations going in mostly.  What I did not really realize was the plex app on amazon is not updated at the same time as the one on the play store.  They finally updated it, but it took a while. I never bothered, but I believe you could side-load the play store version.  But I want the launch icon on the main screen without messing with behind the scenes trickery.  WAF approval factor was key.

[dirtysanchez]

I thought I'd add that I agree with what has been said about wired vs wireless.  If it can be wired it should be wired in my opinion, much more robust and reliable connection, especially when it comes to media streaming.  Every Roku I have ever purchased I made sure it was a model with Ethernet.  I guess I'm just old school in that I think wireless is for phones, iPads, and laptops (when you need to be untethered), otherwise hardwire that stuff.  I'm sure being a network engineer by trade only reinforces that.  Wireless has it's place, but too many people today think wireless is for everything and get frustrated when things slow to a crawl when you have 10+ devices all hammering the same access point.  Unlike wired, wireless is a shared medium and only a single device can "talk" at the same time.  Great for web surfing, email, etc.  Horrible for streaming media.

 

Granted in some situations you can't hardwire it, or you don't have the ability/access/etc to run cabling, then it is what it is and you'll have to use wireless.  Just don't expect it to work as well as wired.

[johnodon]

I always go wired when I can...but...I have a Asus Chromebox a floor above and at the other end of the house from my router.  I am able to wirelessly stream the same BDRIPS without issue.  Granted...it's pricey...but it certainly gets the job done.

[garycase]

... Granted...it's pricey

 

A Chromebox ??  Is there a higher-end model that I'm not aware of?  As near as I can tell they're only $150 or so just about anywhere.

 

[dirtysanchez]

I always go wired when I can...but...I have a Asus Chromebox a floor above and at the other end of the house from my router.  I am able to wirelessly stream the same BDRIPS without issue.  Granted...it's pricey...but it certainly gets the job done.

 

Oh, don't get me wrong, wireless can work and work well under the right conditions, I'd didn't mean to imply it can't/won't. 

 

A single device streaming a 20Mbit BDRIP with minimal other traffic on the wireless will work fine if you have a decent connection, possibly even more than 1 stream.  I was more referring to the questions I usually get from others that have no idea how WiFi works.  They want to know why they can't stream Netflix on 3 different TV's simultaneously while someone else is online gaming and 2 other PC's are downloading or torrenting (all of it wirelessly), even though their Internet connection is sufficiently fast to sustain all that simultaneous data.  People that don't understand how it works (not implying anyone here is one of those people) think a wired and a wireless connection are equivalent, but nothing could be further from the truth.

 

 

[johnodon]

Hmmm...I never considered a possible bottleneck on the wireless router side.

[garycase]

Agree ... folks sometimes seem to think that if you buy the latest, greatest router you can completely forget about wires.    To some extent that's true ... a quality 802.11ac router can indeed stream high-quality video at reasonable distances very well.    But a few things are easy to overlook:  (1)  the wireless device you're streaming to also needs to support the ac standard; and (2) as dirtysanchez noted the bandwidth is shared, so performance degrades rapidly as you connect multiple devices; and (3) as with all wireless devices, performance drops rather rapidly as the distance from the access point (router) increases.

 

The biggest thing folks seem to forget is that both ends of a wireless connection have to use the same standard to get the full benefit => I've known quite a few folks who call me up and don't understand why their wireless performance hasn't improved markedly after they bought a nice new 802.11ac router that had all kinds of great performance promises on the box.    Meanwhile, they still have an old 802.11g laptop or wireless adapter and the distance from the router hasn't changed.    [in general it IS true that if they update to an ac adapter they'll get much better performance.]

 

[switchman]

@opentoe

 

Bestbuy has the Google  Nexus Player currently for $49.99.

 

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/google-nexus-player-streaming-media-console-black/2445015.p?id=1219542308629&skuId=2445015

[mr-hexen]

If wired is a problem get homeplug adapters, problem solved.

[garycase]

If wired is a problem get homeplug adapters, problem solved.

 

Powerline adapters can help, but 60HZ power lines aren't very high quality data transmission lines, and these have bandwidth issues of their own.  They're not a bad way to resolve distance issues, but they're FAR less robust than actual wired Ethernet cables.

 

[BRiT]

If wired ethernet isnt suitable and powerlines arnt working well, there is always coax if the home is already wired with coax to every room needed. The equipment is known as MOCA.