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schnapps
Legend 5
Legend 5

New Roku Players Hitting the UK 18th October 2017

According to this Engadget article, Roku will be officially offering to us in the UK two new players from the 18th of October 2017 Smiley Happy

 

There will be the Roku Streaming Stick + with 4K & HDR at RRP of £80, together with the Roku Express for a RRP of £30 Smiley Happy

 

Not sure how accurate the article is, if so i might be purchasing a Roku Streaming Stick + to replace my ageing Roku stick Smiley Happy

 

https://www.engadget.com/2017/10/11/roku-uk-4k-streaming-stick/

265 REPLIES 265
commanda6
Legend 5
Legend 5

@commanda6 wrote:

@caseyb1993 wrote:

 

Do you think I should just buy on Amazon and wait? (I won't get charged right?) 🙂

 


 

@schnapps on Amazon. There is a shorter wait time on the Roku streaming stick plus by the looks of it


I'm a bad influence aren't I @schnapps Smiley LOL


I do not work for Now . I am simply a Now customer trying to help I am a Community Contributor This means that I know a lot about the service. But just like you I am still a customer. This means I cannot help you with issues that would involve looking into your account directly. A member of the now TV forum team or live chat will need to assist you with these issues.
Andy
Legend 5
Legend 5

Blimey you lot are eager! 😄 Hope you don't have to wait too long!

 

Roku's never been a big seller in the UK so not surprised it takes a while to ramp up stock. I'm still baffled by their choice of players though. Can't understand why they went for the Express rather than the basic Streaming Stick for the base model, not much difference in price but better wifi on the stick and voice search. The Express is still a great step up for UK users of the laggy old streaming stick, but I'm interested to find out if such a small light device ends up being difficult to position without being dragged around everywhere by the HDMI cable, I suspect you'll have to use the sticky tape provided whether you want to or not.

 

As for the Streaming Stick+ it's a bit of a harder sell anyway. Most 4K TV owners are going to be perfectly well served streaming Netflix, Amazon etc direct from the TV, and virtually all the other apps the Stick offers won't be streaming in 4K anytime soon anyway (by the time they do we'll be on the next gen Rokus, or the gen after that!) Also if you did prefer to stream from an external device I'd much rather want an option for Ethernet rather than being forced to use wifi, so the Ultra set top box would have made a better premium model choice. The stick doesn't even have an optional Ethernet adapter like the Fire TV box does. 

 

I think they could have served us UK users better.

 

Edit: and I think my iPad could do a better job of predictive spelling! 😄

commanda6
Legend 5
Legend 5

@Andy wrote:

Blimey you lot are eager! 😄 Hope you don't have to wait too long!

 

Roku's never been a big seller in the UK so not surprised it takes a while to ramp up stock. I'm still baffled by their choice of players though. Can't understand why they went for the Express rather than the basic Streaming Stick for the base model, not much difference in price but better wifi on the stick and voice search. The Express is still a great step up for UK users of the laggy old streaming stick, but I'm interested to find out if such a small light device ends up being difficult to position without being dragged around everywhere by the HDMI cable, I suspect you'll have to use the sticky tape provided whether you want to or not.

 

As for the Streaming Stick+ it's a bit of a harder sell anyway. Most 4K TV owners are going to be perfectly well served streaming Netflix, Amazon etc direct from the TV, and virtually all the other apps the Stick offers won't be streaming in 4K anytime soon anyway (by the time they do we'll be on the next gen Rokus, or the gen after that!) Also if you did prefer to stream from an external device I'd much rather want an option for Ethernet rather than being forced to use wifi, so the Ultra set top box would have made a better premium model choice. The stick doesn't even have an optional Ethernet adapter like the Fire TV box does. 

 

I think they could have served us UK users better.

 

Edit: and I think my iPad could do a better job of predictive spelling! 😄


Hi @Andy @caseyb1993 @schnapps

 

I'm going to play devil's advocate now Smiley Very Happy

 

I'm not overly worried about the Roku streaming stick plus being Wi-Fi only, but that said, I'm a rather unique case because we have something similar to the piece of equipment shown below our unning our Wi-Fi. (We are using the previous generation equipment, but I can't find a picture  or details for that) . It's a ceiling mounted access point which is in the loft and I'm sitting right underneath it. Smiley Very Happy none of that cheap ISP stuff here. 

 

Also, in my case the stick will be plugged in the back of my AV receiver. So if the Roku express made no sense. My TV also supports 4K and HDR, which is yet another reason why the Roku express made no sense. I'm also a big fan of a point anywhere remote as you never have difficulty getting equipment to respond. Apparently Google play movies and TV is going to start providing 4K movies soon. I use my current Roku for Google play movies and TV, as well as crunchyroll, TVplayer plus and I  of course will use the Roku streaming stick plus for NowTV course will use it for NowTV 

 

In essence, if you're somebody like me where the kit the Roku will be connecting to is high spec, and you want access to absolutely everything then the streaming stick plus is perfect and in my personal experience. NowTV works better on Roku/NowTV hardware better than it does on smart TVs.

 

Your iPads predictive spelling is almost as bad as my dictation software. Just like my dictation software, it gets completely the wrong words Smiley LOL


I do not work for Now . I am simply a Now customer trying to help I am a Community Contributor This means that I know a lot about the service. But just like you I am still a customer. This means I cannot help you with issues that would involve looking into your account directly. A member of the now TV forum team or live chat will need to assist you with these issues.
chilli2
Elite

in my opinionhey would have been better offering the following

 

Purple stick replaced with black stick as entry level

Roku 2 with Stick+ as mid

Roku 3 with Ultra as top of the range, all singing and dancing model.

 

Heres another review, its for the US Ultra, but mainly talks about the UI and expeirience slightly more neggative than beofre https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/10/28/why_are_we_disappointed_with_the_best_streaming_media_box_o...

Andy
Legend 5
Legend 5

 

@commanda6 Ah well, I don't think we are really at odds, perfectly happy for there to be the 4K model, but surely you'd agree you'd have preferred them to offer the Ultra as the top-end option? I know you always like to recommend Ethernet where it's available.

 

Plus  I think the streaming stick model is perfect for people who just use their TVs to watch (stick it in the back, out of sight, out of mind) whereas people who like their AV setups already have a big amp, a load of speakers, disc players and various other boxes stuffed into the living room, they won't mind another box to add to the collection.

 

And if your amp is anything like my amp there's no way I'd be able to squeeze a streaming stick into one of the HDMI inputs, never mind have the dexterity to squeeze myself round the back and navigate the jungle of cables, I'd have to use a HDMI cable/extender anyway.

 

I think @chilli2 is right, give us three models to choose from, after all the US get a choice of 5! Us Brits always suffer! 😞

caseyb1993
Legend 5
Legend 5

@schnapps I hope Santa brings me an echo dot. 😉

 

@commanda6 As fantastic as Crunchyroll is, FunimationNow has two of my favourites from high school. 

 

  • Kanon
  • School Rumble

 

I use the fire stick app but it is buggy on that too. It freezes and jumps ahead a lot. 😞

I am not staff, I am a customer that likes to help,
so please click the Thank You/Thumbs Up button if I helped you out and maybe even accept it as a solution? 🙂
caseyb1993
Legend 5
Legend 5

Ughhhh, was going to do a click and collect from tesco as they confirmed they didn't have it in my local.

 

Out of stock online. 😞

I am not staff, I am a customer that likes to help,
so please click the Thank You/Thumbs Up button if I helped you out and maybe even accept it as a solution? 🙂
pauline1769
Expert

hi sorry to hear tesco has sold out in one day  they hopefully will get some more in  

caseyb1993
Legend 5
Legend 5

@pauline1769 Hopefully not too long of a wait. I wish I did it in the first place. 😞

I am not staff, I am a customer that likes to help,
so please click the Thank You/Thumbs Up button if I helped you out and maybe even accept it as a solution? 🙂
Anonymous User
Not applicable

I’ve got the basic box ready to collect from my local Tesco so looking forward to having a play later.

Would have preferred a basic streaming stick but not being released here; wondering if it will emerge in the form of a Now Stick?