This holiday shopping season, Black Friday to Cyber Monday and beyond, you'll see a lot of "Smart TVs" on sale. What makes a TV smart? Usually it's access to streaming apps such as Netflix, Pandora, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu+ and the like. But did you know you can turn your old "dumb" TV into a smart one, just by adding a streaming set-top box? It's true!
The Roku 3 and Amazon Fire TV both sell for $99 and are both available on Amazon.
Here are the links (click to see current pricing and availability):
What are the differences, you might ask? Well both devices connect to your existing TV using an HDMI cable. So you will need an available HDMI port. And both devices support the most popular streaming apps such as Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu+, VUDU, Pandora and more. Both also support surround sound up to 7.1 channels (or more if its' Dolby Atmos-encoded content) from select apps. Both include support for voice-based search in case clicking around with a remote to find specific content is too cumbersome for you. But there are some significant differences between the two set-top boxes.
In addition to 1080p high definition content compatibility, the Fire TV supports native 4K (Ultra HD) content from select apps including Amazon Instant Video (naturally). You could say the Amazon Fire TV is a "Trojan horse" for Amazon's audio and video ecosystem. Or that they're "giving away the razor" (low price on the set top box) and charging for the blades (the movies and music, including Prime). Either analogy is appropriate.
If you are an Amazon Prime customer, the Fire TV is an excellent way to stream Prime Video or Prime Music to your TV and home entertainment system, all the way up to 4K resolution on compatible apps (and compatible Ultra HD TVs, of which there are many). But its support for additional streaming apps suffers by comparison to the Roku 3.
The Roku 3, on the other hand, is more platform-agnostic. Roku currently claims over 2,000 distinct "channels" (streaming services) including all the big ones (Netflix, Amazon VOD, YouTube, Hulu+, VUDU, etc.) plus more obscure but equally useful channels. For a good comparison of app availability on Roku and Fire TV (as well as some other streaming boxes) see David Katzmeier's excellent article on the topic. The Roku 3 does not support 4K content (its big brother the Roku 4 holds that honor (for about $50 more)
The Roku 3 has one really cool feature: a headphone jack built into the remote. If you want to watch your shows or movies late at night without disturbing the neighbors (or the rest of the family), simply plug a pair of headphones or the included earbuds into the remote control, and you're good to go. Genius!
Check them both out and decide which one is right for raising your TV's IQ.
Related Articles:
