Best caching behavior for various streaming sticks (Roku, Fire, etc.)

March 4, 2017 5:48 PM

We have a fairly fast wireless network but our house generates a lot of interference from various systems. Without changing our router, what TV streaming device has the best caching system to cope with intermittent wireless slowness? E.g. I want to watch a movie on Amazon Prime, which systems will fetch and cache as much as possible on the device itself, so playing does not freeze the moment there is packet loss? Currently we have an older model Roku and are considering upgrading. Mostly we watch Plex or Amazon Prime. If this is all mediated at the app level and the device itself gets no say in caching, that would be useful to know.
posted by benzenedream to Technology (7 answers total)

Best answer: 1) If you're having wireless issues, the best way to avoid it would be to run an ethernet cable from the router to the device to eliminate wireless from the equation.

2) If you can't do that and can't buy a new router, you could look to see if your current router has QoS (quality of service) settings would would prioritize your streaming device traffic over other traffic.

3) As to the best caching system, that's a difficult question, since it's not just the specs, but the coding of the app, and one would have to own every single device to give you an accurate answer. But here are some points:

* A streaming box will have more power/cache size than a streaming stick.

* The PS4 has the most power, but the app could still be wonky regardless, and its expensive if you don't want a game console anyway.

* The Roku Ultra and Premiere doesn't state its RAM, but I've seen it quoted as 1.5GB

* The Fire TV 4k box says it has 2GB RAM. It also has the benefit of being designed by Amazon for Amazon Prime, so if the app gets wonky it will get priority in getting fixed.

* This video compares the Roku Ultra and Fire TV 4k box. At about 2 minutes in, he loads the same Amazon Prime video on both devices. It loads much faster on the Fire TV. Obviously, that doesn't necessarily mean it will be more resilient to patchy wifi, though.

So I'd say Fire TV 4k box first place, with Roku Ultra or Premiere as a close second. But if you upgrade and still have issues, I'd try running an ethernet cable.
posted by bluecore at 6:33 PM on March 4, 2017

Another approach would be a PowerLine adapter. They're fairly inexpensive, and use your house's electrical lines to send a signal from the router to your other device. I got a set made by TPLink in order to stream in the basement (which the wifi does not reach) and it works beautifully.
posted by slagheap at 7:48 PM on March 4, 2017 [1 favorite]

Is the issue that you're trying to solve buffering? Does it go away if you reboot the router and come back after a while? If yes, then it means that your router can't handle the traffic for long periods of time and bogs down (sorry I'm not technical enough to know the why's).

If that's not the isse then ethernet is the ideal solution.

I use an Amazon FireTV (not stick) on WIFI and I do occasionally (and predictably) get buffering even when streaming locally (using Kodi and local media server) and 99% of the time it is because in the day or so before I have downloaded or uploaded a lot of data. The other 1% it's because I forgot the babycam applcation open on the either the desktop or one of the phones and that sucks up a lot of wireless bandwidth on its own.
posted by eatcake at 8:13 PM on March 4, 2017

Yeah, for our main streaming box (Roku) I went to the trouble of running an Ethernet hardline. And it WAS a lot of trouble -- I had to traverse the crawlspace under our house (like 18 inches of height, true army crawl, Tyvek suit, bugs, animal bones, yay). But we have no problems with the connection. Other devices are on wireless.
posted by intermod at 9:25 PM on March 4, 2017

Getting someone in to do a wire properly through the wall is likely about the same as the cost of a powerline adaptor btw. I've done it a couple of times now and it's a much better solution Imo.
posted by bonehead at 6:53 AM on March 5, 2017

We used to have massive buffering issues (w Roku 3, Sony blu-ray, Samsung smart TV). No buffering problems after switching to wired Ethernet.
posted by Jesse the K at 7:02 AM on March 5, 2017

I totally sympathize with your desire. As everyone says, wiring the TV streaming device to ethernet is your best option. Even then you can have buffering problems if your ISP connection is dodgy.

One thing I've learned after much careful observation is the buffering behavior depends on the software as much as the hardware. For instance my Roku would stream live Youtube and Twitch just fine, for months. Then for about a month both started buffering and stuttering terribly. Then they worked better again. This is all on a fully wired network with a reliable 100Mbps ISP. Given both apps were failing I assumed it was the Roku system software that was the problem, some update that broke either the decoder or the buffering. But I don't really know. It mysteriously started working fine again.

For Plex you have control over how much bandwidth it needs; you can have your Plex server transcode video to lower quality. Hopefully you don't have to do that, but it is an option.

A Roku is the best TV streaming device, just because it's the most common and has decent support. But it's also the most underpowered. This article claims the Fire TV has more RAM and storage for buffering. But your best bet may be a computer-class device, like an XBone or PS4 or an actual HTPC.
posted by Nelson at 7:33 AM on March 5, 2017