Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

Going through my Chromebook to stream Flo is getting really old. 

Question(s): Do Roku or Firesticks work to stream races for you guys? Just plug one or the other into an HDMI port on my TV and I'm good to go, or is there something (app) I need to download first?

Finally, if Roku and Firesticks work for streaming, which one should I buy. I have a Amazon Alexa setup that is near my TV...is Firestick the better option? Which level of device should I buy (Basic, top of the line, etc.)

Thanks everyone.

I have experience with Roku and it works great for both Flo and Dirtvision.

Just have to download both the apps to your Roku homepage, login to Flo and DV like normal web app and voila, you're streaming. 

Firestick works great for both apps and is cheaper. I usually get mine while they are On sale for 25-30 bucks. That said, a lot of people swear by RoKu, and that probably has more functionality. Either way, download the apps and you're good to go. 

It's all going to depend on your internet service in your area and how bad heavy usage in your neighborhood affects your internet speed.  We could never get the Firestick or Apple TV to work in our house at all.  It gets old farting around with the laptops, but I'm telling you if your internet service is not great, you will want to take a sledge-hammer to the Firestick by time you're done with it.  I wish you luck, but we, as well as many of our neighbors, have not had any luck with streaming services on Firestick, Roku, or Apple TV during peak hours-----which is unfortunately when all sprint car races are held.  If your internet kicks ass, disregard what I just told you. 

Jeff ,this is how I view the races.Works good for me but I have decent internet.

I use Roku and the DV app and it works very well.  No issues and the sound is better through my TV soundbar than through my computer's speakers as I don't have a subwoofer connected to my laptop.  That and it is easier to see the TV from the couch in case I need to "rest my eyes" during intermission.

Thanks for starting and adding contributions to this threat. All info much appreciated.

Running a Firestick and Roku both (2 different TV's) with Flo. Working great.

Used to stream through my laptop and had buffering troubles on full screen mode. Not so great. Chrome was even worse than Firefox when trying to stream.

The Flo App seems to work much better.

Might be interesting to know our speeds.

Mine shows:

Upload 38.58Mbps

Download 46.77Mbps

Are those dicent speeds? Could I do better if I put a wing on it? LOL

Thanks for helping and adding to the discussion Dan!

Thanks Denny and all others who replied and helped.

Before I switched providers, I would also have issues buffering on full screen mode.  Haven't had that problem after switching services, but still did not solve the Firestick issues for us.  I never tried Roku.  Maybe I should give it a go.  

Working in the industry, I will say this.  AVOID A ROKU IF POSSIBLE.  I know many people have good luck with Rokus and honestly their Roku Ultra is a great device.  The reason I say to avoid them is the software and update process.  Their interface is nice and for most people they work great.  However in the last few years I don't know how many calls we have taken about TV control being broken after an update (TV power and volume), or something else not working after an update due to updates.  However my experience with a firestick has been great.  Add to that they are cheaper and run on a modified version of Android which means you can "sideload" almost any app onto them.  They also have an ethernet adapter available for any of their devices if you want to hardwire it.  But if you want to buy a streaming device for the last time I will say buy an Nvidia Shield TV.  Downside is they're expensive $150-$200 depending on the model but you have a nice remote control, no ads and operates on the androidTV OS and has a kick ass 4k upscale.  And yes they market them for gaming however that doesn't mean that's all they do, they just do everything else much better than either a Roku or Firestick.  For full transparency, I have an iPhone and love it and barring some new change or product I will probably always have one.  I only say this because Apple TV is an option but in my experience the remote sucks and you can't "sideload" apps.  Add to that the Apple app writing and submitting process is much stricter than other platforms as far as adding them so for some apps they are either the last to get them or are they just give up completely.  So I would avoid an Apple TV.  So to be clear this is my opinion,  Apple is great as a phone, if they say you can do it, you probably can, whatever they have is going to work extremely well but it won't do anymore than they say it will.  Android TV is great too and it's customizable add nearly any app to it through sideloading.  As I said earlier the Firestick runs on a modified version of Android so I would give it all the pluses of Android TV other than Amazon's app store is smaller than Google app store but you can sideload almost any android app on it.  In my opinion Roku would be great if you could wipe their OS off and install a version of Android, but last time I looked that's not possible.

PS. if you own a Roku or Apple TV, I'm not insulting you, if it works for you great, I'm only speaking from my experience.

We have ROKU to every one of our TV's.  Either it is a Roku operated TV or we have the Roku box.  We have NO issues here at all.  The only problem I seem to have had in the past, is an older version of a Roku box that would not update or download any more updates so I replaced the box with the cheapest NEW Roku box (like $29.95) and the difference was amazing.  Good to go

Like my reply to egras, I have Roku on every TV.  I do find that there is an issue when the box gets to be a certain number of years old, as the updates do not work anymore.  I replace with the cheapest Roku box and back to lightning fast.  For the cost, I will stay with Roku as that seems to be a cheaper way to go to outfit all of my TV's, than your Nvidia option.

I may give it a go, but we will see.  We live in an area where everyone on Facebook is constantly asking who everyone recommends for an internet provider and it is just a revolving door.  (You've been to my Podunk town Maddog)  We have gotten what I believe to be the best possible option right now, but it still won't support some of these devices during peak hours.  If sprint car races were on at 10:00 a.m., or we wanted to binge-watch Netflix at 1:00 in the afternoon, we have no issues.  But 8:00 at night?  Terrible.  

No, I get it.  I'm just saying that the platform works well for me.  I am sure it would slow down at peak times as well but so far, really no issues.  I had a Roku box that was old and it took FOREVER to load Flo.  Bought the cheapest box from Roku and it flies now.

I have a Roku TV hard wired to Ethernet and a Fire Stick plugged into one of the HDMI inputs.  Since Dirtvision made their Roku app available I have only used the Fire Stick for the web.  I did have to use it for the final night of the Nationals recently because my purchase wasn't showing up on the Roku app.  Internet speed and WIFI can cause issues as well.  I have an Eeros mesh WIFI system and 100Mbps service that is consistent at peak hours.  It took a while to get it all right but now it's rock solid and if there are problems I know that it's not my setup.  

Stan Meissner

Those speeds will handle streaming a race but some homes have dead or weak signal in parts of the home furthest from the router.  Download a WiFi analyzer app to your phone and check the speed in the area where you watch TV.  Get a mesh system if your WiFi speed is to slow or hard wire.  My son installs security systems that are connected to WiFi and need a strong signal so he gave me some schooling on WiFi.  One other thing is if you have a lot of WiFi from neighbors you can check your router channels and log onto the router and change them.

Stan Meissner

Based upon these replies, sounds like the majority of you like the Roku, so I went to Best Buy at lunch and bought one. First test will be Flo's broadcast of the Friday All Star race from Attica.

Thanks to everyone! 

Hardon - I appreciate your reply, and I did take it into consideration. Thank you.

True Stan.  I have a "dead spot" 6 ft. from the router------likely from the metal casing to our gas fireplace/chimney from what my internet tech says.  Go 20ft across the room, almost perfect

The processor is better in the firestick then the roku. In saying that, I have a couple roku's because i like the interface or "home" page. 

The company I work for has a streaming app and the Firesticks have less issues then the Roku's on average. So much so that the person heading it up told me to buy Firesticks when I told him the app froze on my Roku. 

Grain of sand I suppose but... any issues I had with the apps was fixed with a roku power cycle. So how bad can the 1st world problem be. 

We have had the Roku players both the stick type and the desktop $100 version.  After a couple years of that I bought a 55" Roku TV and like that better than the players that plug into an HDMI slot.  I have a Fire Stick I was using before Dirtvision made their Roku app available.  I would say from my experience that if it's possible to hard wire the TV's instead of using WiFi that is the best setup.  WiFi can be problematic but the mesh systems are the best setup if anyone has signal problems and can't hard wire.  Streaming to hard wired Roku TV's are as problem free as when I had satellite and cable before that starting in 1985 when I first got cable.  Now it just always works and if there any issues it's not my setup causing the problem.

Stan Meissner