How a lot do you worth just a few additional buttons?
That’s the principle query you have to ask your self when deciding between the 2019 Roku Ultra and cheaper Roku streamers. At $100, the Ultra is by far the most costly Roku participant, and it stays the one one with each a USB port for exterior drives and an ethernet jack for wired connectivity. This yr, the Ultra additionally has a brand new distant, which for the primary time features a quantity mute button and two programmable keys.
Compared to the $60 Roku Streaming Stick+, which additionally helps 4K HDR video, these additional buttons make the brand new Roku Ultra a barely extra engaging improve than it was once. But looking over your entire streaming machine panorama, Roku remains to be behind the instances in just a few key areas. If you’re thinking about voice management, sensible dwelling integration, broader 4K HDR format help, or straightforward searching throughout totally different content material sources, venturing exterior the Roku ecosystem will get you a extra succesful streamer.
Improvements inside
From the skin, the brand new Roku Ultra appears no totally different than final yr’s mannequin. It nonetheless has a USB port for enjoying media from exterior drives, a microSD card slot for storing extra apps, an HDMI port, and an ethernet jack that helps speeds as much as 100Mbps. (The Ultra from 2016 additionally had optical audio output for sound methods that require a Toslink connection, however Roku eradicated it from subsequent upgrades.) In a pleasant contact, a button on prime of the streaming field performs a sound on the distant that can assist you discover it.
Jared Newman / IDGThe Roku Ultra stays the one Roku participant with all these ports, together with USB, microSD, and ethernet.
While Roku doesn’t give out precise tech specs, new Ultra has extra reminiscence and a better clock velocity on its quad-core processor than earlier fashions, all in service of loading apps quicker. With these {hardware} enhancements and a few software program optimizations, the corporate claims that it’s seen a median 17 p.c enchancment in app launch instances for the highest 100 streaming apps, and a 33 p.c enchancment for live TV streaming apps particularly.
These claims held up in a number of the apps I examined. PlayStation Vue, Sling TV, and Tubi TV all launched roughly a pair seconds quicker on the Ultra than they did on a Roku Streaming Stick+. Vue’s channel grid additionally loaded a few second sooner on the Ultra, and it was a split-second quicker at refreshing program knowledge when scrolling down the grid information.
Still, the velocity will increase aren’t common. I couldn’t discern any efficiency variations between the Ultra and Streaming Stick+ whereas utilizing Hulu, Pluto TV, and Plex, and whereas Netflix launched a few second quicker on the Ultra, navigation velocity and content material loading instances had been about the identical.
Testing the Roku Ultra in opposition to Amazon’s new Fire TV Cube, the outcomes had been a wash, with some apps loading quicker on the previous and others loading quicker on the latter. Keep in thoughts, nevertheless, that Amazon doesn’t fully shut down apps once you shut them like Roku does, so it may possibly soar again into latest apps a lot quicker in comparison with the Roku Ultra.
For videophiles, Roku’s insistence on solely supporting HDR10 on its streaming gamers, reasonably than HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, additionally stays a disappointment. If you may have a 4K HDR TV, you’ll nonetheless get extra vibrant colours in supported content material, particularly in shadows and highlights, however you gained’t get the per-scene colour changes that these superior codecs present. And whereas the Roku Ultra will move Dolby Atmos over HDMI for sure streaming providers, Netflix isn’t amongst them.
It’s all concerning the distant
The larger adjustments on this yr’s Roku Ultra should not on the within, however on the distant that comes with it.
While the earlier Ultra had TV quantity and energy buttons on its distant, the brand new model provides a mute button as effectively. As earlier than, the distant use both infrared or HDMI-CEC to regulate a TV, soundbar, or A/V system, and Roku’s preliminary setup course of ought to detect your gear routinely.
Jared Newman / IDGUnlike different Roku remotes, the Ultra’s has a mute button on the facet and two programmable buttons on prime.
The distant additionally has a pair of programmable buttons. Hold both one down for a few seconds, and it’ll map to no matter voice command you entered final via the Roku distant’s separate microphone button. The most blatant use for that is launching particular apps, however you could possibly additionally program a seek for your favourite TV style or have a button that launches music straight in sure apps, akin to Pandora. It’s a neat characteristic, although it’s inherently restricted by what Roku let’s you do with voice management on its platform. (More on that shortly.)
Also price noting: While the Roku Ultra nonetheless has a headphone jack on its distant and a pair of JBL earbuds for personal listening, Best Buy will quickly promote a special version of the Roku Streaming Stick+ that additionally has a headphone jack (and non-JBL earbuds), and it prices the identical $60 as the usual Streaming Stick+ obtainable elsewhere. You also can use the Roku cell app to hear via headphones with any fashionable Roku participant.
Same software program (principally)
If you had been hoping for Roku to make massive adjustments on the software program entrance this yr, the Ultra’s new Roku OS 9.2 software program can be a letdown. Conversely, in case you admire Roku’s app-first strategy to navigation, you may relaxation straightforward realizing little has modified.
Jared Newman / IDGAn enormous grid of apps remains to be the principle method you’ll get navigate on the Roku Ultra.
Roku does proceed to dabble in content material discovery. There’s nonetheless a “Featured Free” part on the house display screen that surfaces ad-supported motion pictures and exhibits from throughout totally different apps, together with a “My Feed” part that tracks new episodes and value drops for TV exhibits, motion pictures, actors, and administrators. With OS 9.2, Roku has additionally began curating search outcomes pages for sure genres, akin to comedy and horror, with subsections for brand new releases, free content material, 4K titles, low cost leases, and extra.
Roku“Zones” are a brand new characteristic in Roku OS 9.2, displaying up once you seek for sure genres.
For probably the most half, although, you’ll watch issues on the Roku Ultra by searching via particular person apps, organized in a grid on the house display screen. The strategy stands in more and more sharp distinction with Amazon’s Fire TV gadgets, whose dwelling display screen gives fast entry to recently-watched Amazon Prime movies, stay TV channels from providers like PlayStation Vue and Fire TV Recast, and proposals from apps like Netflix and HBO Now. Apple TV has additionally made massive leaps on this space, with its TV app offering suggestions, information, stay sports activities, and a watchlist that works throughout apps.
Roku stays a laggard on voice management as effectively. While you should utilize the Ultra’s microphone button to go looking, launch apps, and management sure features akin to closed captioning, solely a small number of apps help launching motion pictures and exhibits straight by voice. Netflix and Amazon Prime aren’t on that listing, and I even had bother getting some supported apps, akin to Hulu, to work correctly. You can’t launch stay TV channels by voice on Roku gamers both, and whereas Roku OS 9.2 provides help for enjoying native media information by voice within the Roku Media Player app, this solely works with private media information, not motion pictures or exhibits that you simply’ve acquired via different sources, akin to an over-the-air DVR.
For hands-free voice management, Roku does have the benefit of supporting each Alexa and Google Assistant audio system, however the implementation is cumbersome and restricted. I couldn’t efficiently arrange Alexa with the brand new Roku Ultra, and with Google Assistant, I couldn’t get direct playback to work. Besides, having to say “on Roku” on the finish of each Google Assistant or Alexa command is a mouthful.
Jared Newman / IDGHelping you discover free stuff to observe remains to be one in all Roku’s strengths.
None of that stops me from recommending the Roku platform to streaming newcomers. The software program stays straightforward to make use of, it helps a variety of apps, and its choice of free movies through The Roku Channel and the “Featured Free” dwelling display screen part is sweet to have. But in case you’re spending upwards of $100 on a streaming participant, you may want a tool that doesn’t really feel as stodgy, just like the Apple TV 4K or the brand new Amazon Fire TV Cube.
That is, except you actually care about these buttons.