![]() On the Roku Express or Premiere, you have to navigate from one app tile to another to search through your available content. If the “tile-by-tile” browsing format of the Roku operating system annoys you, you may find that TiVo is a real step up in how you search for content. TiVo Can Aggregate All Your Streaming Content That makes them easy to use but somewhat lacking compared to TiVo’s offering. Roku has always taken a minimalist approach to its lower-end remotes. The TiVo remote has volume and change controls, a power button, guide button and numerals. Next, you’ll see that there are just more buttons, and that means more choices. Roku does offer voice-activated remotes, but you have to upgrade to either the Roku Streaming Stick+ or Roku Ultra to get one. This means you can control many functions of the device by simply pressing the button and speaking your command into the remote. Here’s a side-by-side look at the TiVo remote (left) in comparison to the remote that comes with both the Roku Express and Roku Premiere (right).įirst, note that the TiVo remote has integrated Google Assistant. TiVo’s Remote Is Much BetterĪfter just a few hours of handling the TiVo remote, I found I liked it a lot better than the basic Roku offerings. ![]() TiVo has some strengths over its chief competitor. 3 Areas Where TiVo Stream 4K Is Better Than Roku Express From there, the final step is to answer a series of “this show or that show” questions to help it learn your content preferences. ![]() Once you sign up through your Google account, you’ll be prompted to sync your apps from other Google devices to the TiVo Stream 4K. If you already have an Android phone, tablet or Chromebook, you’ve probably already established a Google account to use those products. Since the TiVo device operates on the Android TV operating system, you need a Google (or Gmail) account to complete the setup process. From there, you put the batteries into your remote and then follow the instruction to link the dongle and remote together. Then connect the dongle to the provided cord, connect the cord to your power adapter and plug the adapter into your wall outlet. You start by placing the dongle into an open HDMI port on your television. Sling TV only others available via app downloadĪs you can see in the picture (above) I took after unboxing the device, you’ll get six items:Īssembly was a breeze for me: It took less than two minutes. Here is a quick rundown: TiVo Stream 4K: What You Need to Know TiVo hopes to take market share away from its competitors with a “unified guide experience,” which lets you sign into all of your streaming subscriptions at once and consume them through TiVo’s platform. It’s a streaming dongle that operates on Google’s Android TV platform (and thus uses apps from the Google Play Store). Let’s start by explaining exactly what you’re looking at with this new TiVo device. If not, stick with us for a quick tutorial to get you up and running. So if you’ve already used one of those low-cost streaming TV devices, you’re probably going to have an easy transition to using this TiVo dongle. Though it carries that legacy brand name, this HDMI dongle actually is much more like Roku Express, Amazon Fire TV Stick and Google Chromecast. Well, this isn’t your parents’ TiVo machine. When you think of the name TiVo, you probably have visions of a big, clunky machine that helped you record shows back before the built-in DVR was a mainstream idea. ![]() Here’s what we found out: TiVo Stream 4K: Fast Factsīe honest. He cites its functionality, compatibility with major streaming TV services and reasonable price tag ($30 retail but often on sale for $25 or less).įor the purposes of this review, we recently purchased the new TiVo device and put it to the test against a couple of the low-cost Roku devices already in our streaming arsenal. Money expert Clark Howard has long held the opinion that the Roku Express is one of the top streaming devices on the market. Team Clark has set out to answer that question with this review of the Stream 4K, which touts the versatility of Google Chromecast plus an Android TV-powered operating system. Now the company has its sights set on beating streaming industry leaders with a promotional $49 price tag (plus free shipping) on its 4K-capable machine.īut can it hold its own in a market space that is dominated by Roku and Amazon? The TiVo Stream 4K is the latest value streaming dongle to hit the cord-cutting market. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |