You mentioned wanting to be able to record if there is a schedule conflict. Amazon makes the Fire Recast which I have and use for over the air recordings. They have two versions, one that can record two channels at once and one that can do four. They connect via your WiFi so it doesn’t have to be near your TV. A nice advantage of that is I have mine in a second story room with the antenna in a south facing window (where all the towers in my area are) and I have two big screens in the basement (bar/pool/sports area) and can connect to that to get clear pictures where there would normally be very poor antenna connections.
Some of you have a lot more tech around your TV than I have. Neither my TV nor my antenna talks to my WiFi, so there’s no way a WiFi device is going to record anything, or play it on my TV. 
(And I wasn’t clear, but by “schedule conflict”, I meant, I missed the last democratic presidential debate because I had plans with friends, and I was sort of sad about that. But it looks like I can watch it now on CNN. And the whole of the June debate is available on YouTube. Maybe that’s generally true these days, and I don’t need a DVR.)
I think the $20 boxes lingyi linked to might do it if I want to also DVR, though. I’m looking at a spare hard drive on my desk, and I could also repurpose the back-up drive for one of my prior laptops. I probably don’t need to keep three time machine drives around. (Yes, I have a mac laptop.)
So, the only part of the Roku interface I don’t like is scrolling over a keyboard-on-screen, letter by letter.
- Is that still a “feature” of new Rokus?
- What other interfaces are out there? I suppose a remove with a whole keyboard in it would be large…
You can use the Roku app on your phone as your remote and that has a keyboard mode. If you go with a Fire stick instead (Amazon), you can pair a small Bluetooth keyboard to it and just type your stuff.
I’d honestly just go with whatever is the newest Roku where you’re not explicitly paying extra for 4K support since you’re not planning on upgrading your TV and, even if you did, 4K on a ‘small’ screen isn’t very beneficial unless you sit close to it. Roku Premiere ($40), Roku Streaming Stick ($50 - nicer remote, unit just plugs into TV). Alternately, you could go with an Amazon Fire stick which does about the same thing but with a strong Amazon-bias such as Prime show ads on the home screen, etc. It’s a couple bucks cheaper but if you’re used to Roku and like Roku, might as well stay with Roku. That said, I bought a Fire stick for my mom and she doesn’t have any complaints.
I don’t have anything against an Android box, etc but I don’t think you’re the right use case for it. You (I assume) want to just continue your current experience with plug-and-play modern hardware.
Check your phone’s manual to see if it supports MHL which allows video through you USB port. If it does, you need and MHL cable like this: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=mhl+to+hdmi+adapter+for+android+devices&crid=1WTH9J1A1VMZ&sprefix=mhl+to%2Caps%2C236&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_6
Hmm, we currently have an Ethernet connection to the Roku. My husband wants to retain that… That increases the price of a “Roku” brand a lot, they seem to only support that in the $100 version. Where we’d also be passing for headphones we don’t need. (TV is in den, which has a door and is far from bedrooms.) Maybe i should check out those Android boxes.
Although, honestly, we’ve had this one for, I dunno, maybe ten years. If we keep a replacement as long the difference in cost is pretty minor.
Thanks!
I feel like we may as well get 4k support. There’s not much premium for it, and who knows, we may upgrade the TV in the next 10 years.
But yes, I’m looking for a simple experience. And playing Amazon ads would be a deal breaker.
ooh thanks! My phone does not support MHL, so you’ve saved me some time. I suppose i could get a chrome cast device if i cared enough, but i don’t think that’s worth it. For the few times i want to watch something from a computer, I can hook up my lap top.
An Amazon Fire stick is $40 with a $15 Ethernet adapter if you want to keep it simple.
It doesn’t play ads like a TV ad, it just makes sure that you know that the next season of [Amazon Prime Show] is up via the home screen.
In 10 years you will need 64k support. 
Yeah, that would be a deal breaker. I use the TV to chill, I don’t want my hardware pushing stuff at me. I paid extra to get the Kindle without ads, too. Yes, lots of TV content comes with ads… But mostly not the content I watch these days. Call me a Luddite.
Probably. But I may have an older, smaller TV then, too. At any rate, it looks like 4k support costs between $5 and free, so I may as well.
It really isn’t as intrusive as you are imagining. It only shows on the home screen and it is just the background wall paper. Right now mine has a picture of The Karate Kid and a link to watch it on IMDbTV. Then it has all of my regular channels and apps to watch. Ads never show up anyplace else.
Naw, that’s exactly what I imagined.
My work computer does screen savers advertising my employer’s latest campaign. “Charitable giving opportunity”, “our latest tv ad”, “diversity and inclusion”. They drive me nuts. I mean, I’m not going to quit my job over that, but I really really hate it. There are places where i just don’t want stuff pushed at me.
You’re probably not that far off. 8K consumer TVs are available now and Sony just introduced a 16K display! https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/sonys-massive-new-microled-display-stands-17-feet-tall-and-packs-16k-resolution/
We had something similar happen with our first smart TV - it had Amazon and Netflix apps built in. Then Amazon sent a message saying they were going to quit supporting that version of the TV app. Our other smart TV is just a year or two newer and it still works.
We fixed the first TV by buying a Roku.
Honestly, any one of them would for you - just look for whatever one meets the price and features you want. Things like the remote with a headphone jack sound interesting but we never used that. We ultimately invested in a Logitech 650 (I think) universal remote, because the cable remote could not be made to operate the Roku and we were tired of fumbling with multiple remotes.
Yes, it is still a “feature.” If you have to go with the $100 version anyway (for ethernet), they’re very proud of the voice command feature that also comes with it. Supposedly you can speak your search terms instead of awkwarding around with that keyboard overlay and cursor keys.
The cynic in me says if it works, it only works for the global roku search, not for the individual searches inside netflix, hulu, prime, etc… But who knows, maybe.
According to their claims, the other option is to use their phone app to control the gadget, and there’s a normal keyboard there. A lot of the models support that.
Yeah, my husband bought the $100 Roku (for $80) last night, and today I’m going to buy an antenna splitter, a length of antenna cable, and a $30 DVR. We already have a few unused hard drives knocking around. That may be something we’ll never use (because YouTube has become the universal DVR) but it’s cheap, and it seems nice to have options.
Thanks everyone, this thread has been tremendously helpful.
I’d be curious to hear your feedback on the voice commands, particularly for search: Does it work well for roku general search, and can you also use it for searching inside an app like netflix?
If you aren’t planning on using voice commands regularly and it’s a hassle at all to set up, never mind.
