ROKU

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I have and sometimes use a Roku stick at home, though I prefer and use more the Amazon Fire TV box and sticks as my primary streaming tools.

 

Actually, though, I also have a new Roku Premiere +, which I bought at a good price in the U.S., because it has both HDR and 4K support -- unlike the Fire TV box right now that only has 4K support but no HDR support.  The Xiomi MiBox also supports 4K and HDR if I recall.

 

One good thing about Roku, unlike Apple, is they do a very good job of updating and refreshing the firmware on their older devices, so they don't become obsolete a year or two after you've bought them. But as SooKee points out above, no Kodi on Roku and not likely to find Thailand local services, since Roku has never been officially supported in Thailand.

 

Also keep in mind, the Thai government announced recently that it was making it illegal to import streaming media boxes that have not been licensed by the NBTC -- which at this point would seem to be every single major streaming box in the marketplace. What's going to happen with that decision, and whether it's going to be enforced or not, is anyone's guess.

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Interesting... in looking at Lazada this morning, I found:

 

--absolutely no Roku players (1 3rd party Roku 3 listing showing out of stock)

--yes Chromecasts in all the several iterations, including audio only

--a variety of Apple TV devices up thru gen 4

--several options for the international version of the Xiomi Mi Box, and sold only by 3rd parties showing just 1 item each in stock.

--One 3rd party listing each for the Amazon Fire TV stick and box, with both listed as out of stock, back in stock soon.

 

Lazada has a category for streaming media players under:

Electronics / Video / Media Players / Streaming Media Players

 

[SooKee]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Interesting... in looking at Lazada this morning, I found:

 

--absolutely no Roku players (1 3rd party Roku 3 listing showing out of stock)

--yes Chromecasts in all the several iterations, including audio only

--a variety of Apple TV devices up thru gen 4

--several options for the international version of the Xiomi Mi Box, and sold only by 3rd parties showing just 1 item each in stock.

--One 3rd party listing each for the Amazon Fire TV stick and box, with both listed as out of stock, back in stock soon.

 

Lazada has a category for streaming media players under:

Electronics / Video / Media Players / Streaming Media Players

 

Quite a few Minix, Beelink and the lower-end boxes still on sale at Lazada, not the same as before though where a search would return dozens if not hundreds of results.  Baht&Sold however recently issued a notice that they were not accepting ads for IPTV boxes at all (e.g. with pre-installs or not) pending legal advice.

 

Much as I really don't like the Fire TVs overall I've pulled mine out of storage pending the delivery (hopefully) of the second Shield mainly as it has Netflix HD, iFlix Android TV and runs Kodi well.

 

Looked at the Mi before but didn't pursue it as I like to have the Plex app available for use (and there's too many problems on the Plex forums about the Mi) and on the Roku you can't install Kodi, well at least not easily.  Very quickly thins out the list of suitable boxes if you want Netflix HD and Kodi.  Given what else I want I'm down to two if I don't want compromises and only one if I want Prime Video (international with no VPN) in HD as well.

 

Not sure the Apple firmware is that much of an issue.  My ATV3s from 2012 still run fine, of course they don't have the UI of the 4 but that's a different device altogether much as a Galaxy S8 is a different device to an S3 with their own differing hardware capabilities.

Edited July 18, 2017 by SooKee