Now a days many media streaming players are available in the market, sometimes its is difficult to opt the best for yourself. Usually if we take any product it has its pros and cons, that is obvious. If we talk about some popular ones like Chromecast, Roku 3, Apple TV, Fire TV, Google Nexus Player and Android TV.
Here are some players summed up, check out their details and select a good one for yourself.
Roku 3
It is one of the most popular set top boxes. It has won a CNET Editors Choice Award. Though it has released earlier in 2013 but still it delivers overall experience than any other boxes or sticks, with the most apps and the best search, as well as a lightening quick interface.
Price - $50 to $80
Features :-
- a faster processor than its predecessor.
- More than 1700 apps
- Dual-Band WiFi support
- revamped user interface that should make discovering content from its 750 partner channels a lot easier.
- Ports - Ethernet, HDMI up to 1080p support
- microSD slot and USB with support for H.264 MKV video files.
Pros :-
- New remote with a built in headphone jack
- Great new interface
- Faster processor
- Very responsive
- Cross platform search that scours major TV and movie services to find content.
Cons :-
- No YouTube Google Play support
- Gaming selection limited
- It's not great streaming your personal digital media collection.
Google Chromecast
Chromecast is an easy way to stream internet video to your TV from almost any source.
Price - $35
Features :-
- It beams videos from your mobile device or computer directly to you television.
- Chromecast is about the size of a USB flash drive and attaches to a spare HDMI port on your TV.
- It supports Android and iOS on the mobile side and Windows 7 / Mac OS 10.7 and higher on the computer side.
Pros :-
- Very much affordable
- Supported apps work well
- Chrome tab casting is very useful
- Easy setup
- Works on multiple platforms
- Good Netflix and YouTube streaming performance
Cons :-
- App support limited to Netflix, YouTube and Google Play.
- Tab casting offers pixelated video for now
- No central playback controls
Apple TV
The company positioned as Apple's "hobby" project, the Apple TV evolve into a key product as Apple works to revolutionized the television industry through revamped content delivery systems and hardware.
Price - $69
Features :-
- a digital media receiver designed to play digital content like iTunes Store ad NetFlix.
- A micro-USB, HDMI, optical audio and an Ethernet port.
- allows you to sign in to your WiFi account and use the remote to navigate around.
Pros :-
- Full 1080p HD
- Incredibly easy setup
- User-friendly icon-based interfaced
- New features, at $69 price
- Supports 1080p output
- Clean, attractive, easy to use interface
- Excellent iPad, iPhone and iPod touch integration.
- Dead-simple user interface and setup
- Attractive, unobtrusive design
- Airplay makes screen mirroring a snap.
Cons :-
- Can't add more content channels or customize interface
- Can't connect it to a TV without HDMI
- Content is limited to iTunes and select partners
- Could use a Qwerty keyboard
- iTunes Match account required to access cloud based music.
- similar priced boxes offer more streaming services
- can't remove or rearrange icons in main menu
- 8GB storage is for caching only and you can't side load content through the microUSB port
- Remote is too simple
- Streaming media services are too limited
- No Hulu plus
Amazon Fire TV
It is a digital media player and microconsole developed by Amazon.com. It is a small network appliance and entertainment device designed to stream digital audio/video content to a high definition television.
Price - $39 to $99
Features :-
- Boasting a quad-core processor with dedicated graphics
- 2GB of RAM
- built-in voice controls
- powerful little set top box with a growing ecosystem
- backed by Amazon's own Instant Video content library
Pros :-
- Very responsive
- elegant design and interface
- lots of content and apps available
- voice search is functional
- flexible port array
Cons :-
- Highly curated Amazon interface limits out of the box Android flexibility.
- Game performance is not spectacular.
Google Nexus Player
Price - $99
Features :-
- powered by 1. GHz quad-core Intel Atom processor with 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of internal storage.
- imagination PowerVR Series 6 graphics
- 2D/3D Engine
Pros :-
- competitive hardware under the hood
- Google Play Store integration
- conversational voice search
- combines traditional native apps and casting
Cons :-
- Limited app selection at launch
- Inconsistent and limited voice search - only works with Google services
- No Ethernet
- Tied too closely to unpopular Google Play Movies and TV
Bottom Line
All the streaming devices are good enough to attract consumer in one or the other way round. They have got good rating by the consumers as per their experiences with the different devices. A die hard user can get a lot of functionality out of the Google Chromecast and an Android fan can get a lot out of an Apple TV.
If we talk about the present scenario Roku 3 is still the best option for most buyers, it has got the highest ratings in comparison to all other devices. But it is quickly evolving space as the Chromecast, Nexus Player and Amazon Fire TV continue to add more apps, and Apple is working on Apple TV to make it better. So wait and watch.
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