I have a Sanyo 40" Roku TV, and recently Roku has been failing to connect, or disconnecting shortly after, the internet. Is it possible to hook up an external Roku device to my Roku TV, or will complications ensue?
Go for it. It’ll just be another device on an hdmi port.
IME, using an external Roku device provides a better experience than using the Roku feature(s) built into your TV. I have a Samsung TV that is about three years ago. We used the “embedded” Roku for about two days, but we much preferred the “tried and true” external Roku device(s) we already had. Weuse the HDMI output from the external device, route it through an A/V receiver, and then feed the HDMI output of the receiver to HDMI 1 on the TV. Turn off the TV speakers and VIOLA!!
A Roku TV is different than having a Roku app on a Samsung TV. A Roku TV interface is just like the external device.
Not the ones I’ve seen in stores. (And I’m specifically referring to the Sanyo Roku TVs, which we considered when we bought the Samsung.) The interface differs from the Roku devices I have. Now, I’ve had these Roku devices for several years, so that may account for some of the differences. But they get regularly updated by Roku, so I’ll assume that they are as current as they can get.
Yes, that works fine. I have that same setup myself, although with a TCL TV. The built-in streaming support is typically terrible in TVs. It always seems to hang and crash. The experience is much better with an external streaming device.
One thing that not everyone is aware of is that some TVs can auto-change to a device’s input when that device is actived. The feature is called HDMI-CEC. If your TV has that capability, then pressing the Home button on remote of the external Roku will turn the TV on and it will switch to that input. You don’t have to use the TV’s remote to turn it on and switch to the HDMI port. It makes it really convenient to use the external Roku.
One other thing to be aware of is that sometimes the stick Roku’s are too long to fit into the HDMI port. The port itself is fine, but sometimes the HDMI ports are in a recessed area and the the length of the stick is too long to fit into the recessed area. If that’s your TV, you can either get a non-stick Roku or get a little Female-to-Male HDMI cable so that the stick Roku doesn’t have to go into the recessed panel.
One more other thing to be aware of is that some of the Roku’s are powered by USB power. If your TV has a USB port, then you can power the Roku from the TV’s USB port. One caveat is that sometimes the port doesn’t have power if the TV is off. If that’s the case, then the HDMI-CEC power on feature won’t work because the external Roku won’t have power unless you turn the TV on. But often the external Roku remote will have a TV power button for this situation. You can use the external Roku’s remote to turn on the TV and then press the Home button to go to the Roku.
WHOA! That is very interesting! I have a TCL Roku TV, but I still have my original little Roku box. I’m gonna try that!
That works great for me when I turn the Roku on.…it turns on my both my TV and AVR. But turning everything off via the Roku remote doesn’t work quite so well-- it turns of the TV but my AVR will turn back on within a minute or two (sometimes more than once) and I have to use the dedicated remote to power it off. I’ve never found a combination of options to fix that.
Hmm. I have a TCL Roku TV, and have never had a problem. I did use a Roku stick for a while on an old TV, and I didn’t notice any difference when I got the new one.
There was one place on the BritBox app where it hung, but could be worked around, but since the problem went away I’m betting it was a BritBox, not Roiku, problem.
The built-in streaming platform in the TVs may have less memory and slower components. That’s more likely the case in the cheaper TVs as they are skimping on components to get the price as low as possible. Slower components will mean that the platform will not be as responsive and the less memory means things like apps are slower to start and FF/REW may be clunkier. Depending on the app and your watching habits, you may or may not notice it. Even the networking aspect seems to be affected by this. My TCL TV kept losing the wifi but the Roku stick I have attached to the TV never has a problem with the wifi.
One other advantage to an external device is that you can take it with you if you go on vacation. Plug it into the HDMI port on any TV and you can watch all your stuff. TV’s in vacation houses will often have streaming platforms, but you’ll need to log in to watch your Netflix or whatever. Then you’ll have to remember to log out of whatever apps you logged into when you leave. Just make sure you don’t leave your Roku stick in the TV when you check out.
The vast majority of the software is identical between a Roku TV and a standalone Roku device. There are some differences in the very low level drivers, and there is some extra software in the TV to handle TV-only stuff like channel tuning, volume control and picture settings. But as filmore notes, the hardware is different. That could account for the difference in experience.