Which steaming service/stick for catch-up TV?

[98elise]

My mother current streams catch up services like iPlayer and UK TV play through her Samsung Smart Blueray Player. In December it's going to stop supporting iPlayer so she needs a new device.

She doesn't actually use the Blueray bit so she might as well get a smart stick of some sorts.

We use Chromecast but this will be too complex for her as I often find it needs the apps restarting on the tablet or the chromecast restarting.

What she needs is:

Netflix
YouTube
iPlayer
ITV hub
UK TV Play
All4

The only paid service she has is Netflix so doesn't want to be tied into paying for another service like prime.

What would be the best option?

[CzechItOut]

Not sure about UK TV Play, but an Amazon Fire Stick can do all of the rest. It is also much more user friendly than Chromecast, as it has its own remote control, rather than controlling it with a phone/tablet.

[daydotz]

Roku would do all that

[PF62]

CzechItOut said:

Not sure about UK TV Play, but an Amazon Fire Stick can do all of the rest. It is also much more user friendly than Chromecast, as it has its own remote control, rather than controlling it with a phone/tablet.

My Amazon Fire Tv will do UK TV Play so I don’t see why the stick wouldn’t.

[AJB88]

Firestick or Roku can do that, you don't need Prime to get the Firestick either.

[mikebradford]

I have a Roku stick. Basic simple and works well

[AC43]

mikebradford said:

I have a Roku stick. Basic simple and works well

I've tried he catchup servive on a Samsung, a Chromecast dongle, a Now TV box and a Roku and the Roku is the easiest and most straightforward.

[98elise]

AC43 said:

mikebradford said:

I have a Roku stick. Basic simple and works well

I've tried he catchup servive on a Samsung, a Chromecast dongle, a Now TV box and a Roku and the Roku is the easiest and most straightforward.

I thought you had to give your credit card details to Roku even if you don't intend to you the Roku service?

I don't want her to end up paying for a service without knowing about it. She's in her 70's ended up with Prime subscription just buying something from Amazon so I want to avoid any possibility of unexpected bills.

[kev1974]

Recently switched from 2x firestick to 2x Roku boxes, they are so much faster than the Amazon devices when navigating the menus, cheaper to buy, and don't crash every few weeks (found that BBC iplayer on Amazon is particulary prone to just locking up mid-programme on Amazon). Search across all content providers is good on ROku as well. Also the firesticks both had external power needing another power socket (they seemed to crash even more if I just took their power from TV USB). The Roku doesn't need another power socket and seems to work fine off TV USB power.

The Roku remote is better than the Amazon one, it has dedicated buttons for some of the services including Netflix so you can go straight to it, unfortunately though you cannot reprogram them to go to other services such as iPlayer.

If you do have Prime you can still watch it on the Roku device.

Yes you do have to put a credit card into your Roku account, but you can set a PIN to prevent purchases.