Roku's new Streaming Stick is a great bargain, but it does have some rough edges.
I reviewed the new digital media player for my column this week. As I mentioned, I love its vast selection of channels, its small size and its low cost.
But the gadget's interface could use some polishing. In particular, I found Roku's built-in search to be disappointing and, at times, frustrating to use.
Search would seem to be one of the Streaming Stick's standout features, at least compared with its chief rivals, Google's Chromecast and Apple TV. Unlike those devices, the Streaming Stick (and other Roku players) allows users to search for movies or television shows across multiple channels. On Apple TV, if you want to know where you can watch the 'Walking Dead,' you have to open up each particular app - iTunes' movie store, Hulu, Netflix - and search them one at a time. With the Streaming Stick, you can simply type in 'Walking Dead' in the universal search box and it will instantly tell you what channels have the program and will take you directly to it.
Unfortunately, because Roku's channels aren't well integrated with its main interface, the search feature doesn't always work as well as it should. Each channel has its own search function, but they aren't at all connected with the one in the Streaming Stick's main interface. So the channel search features are unaware of what you may have searched for in Roku's search box.
Let's say you searched for 'Doctor Who' in the Roku search box. You see that its available on Netflix, so you click on the Netflix icon. But once you get there, you realize that you are looking not at the current run of 'Doctor Who,' which is what you wanted to access, but the earlier series that started in the 1960s. If you want to slightly reword or modify your search - say to specify the current series - you'd have to go four or more steps back in the interface to Roku's search box. If you were to try to use Netflix's own search box, you'd have to completely retype your search, which isn't much fun if all you have is a remote and an onscreen keyboard.
The search experience on Roku's app for smartphones and tablets is similarly disconnected from other features. Like the Streaming Stick's own search feature, the one on the app can look across many of Roku's channels to find particular movies. But the feature doesn't know what channel you are viewing on the Streaming Stick, which can cause problems if you try to tune in a video on channel you are already watching.
If you're watching, say, 'New Girl' on Hulu and then use the app search to find and try to tune in 'Arrow' on Hulu as well, nothing happens. You simply stay on 'New Girl.' To get to 'Arrow,' you'd have to use your remote to browse Hulu's titles or navigate to its own search feature.
Roku's smartphone and tablet app has another bug: It doesn't automatically activate its keyboard feature, even when you select a text box in the on-screen interface. Instead, you have to manually tap a button in the app to bring up the keyboard. When you're done typing, you have to press another button to dismiss the keyboard - and then navigate through the on-screen keyboard to get to your list of search results.
That's a much more convoluted process than you use with Apple's Remote app for Apple TV. That app automatically brings up a keyboard on your phone if you select an on-screen text box. And once you hit 'done' after you finish typing, it removes the keyboard and takes you to the top of you search results.
While these bugs and interface issues can be annoying, they're not deal breakers. Even with them, the Streaming Stick's a great deal, particular for $50. But they do mean that while the Streaming Stick offers far more channels than Apple TV, using it on a day-to-day basis may be a bit more frustrating.
Troy Wolverton ( 225 Posts)
Troy writes the Tech Files column as the Personal Technology Columnist at the San Jose Mercury News. He also covers the digital media, mobile and video game industries and writes occasionally about Apple, chips, social networking and other aspects of technology. Previously, Troy covered Apple and the consumer electronics industry. Prior to joining the Mercury News, Troy reported on technology, business and financial issues for TheStreet.com and CNET News.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment