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Reviews (1)
08 April 2018
Excellent Device, Small Remote Troubles
2 of 2 found this helpful I did some research for my apparently either unusual or else underserved needs before getting this. Roku devices seem to support the widest range of various services, unlike several competing products (like a Fire TV or Chromecast, each which has an accompanying service in a competition with other folks), which was important in me picking Roku. Beyond that, I tried to gather what I could about officially stated specs to decide which one to get, and wound up with this.
Wired Ethernet is huge for me, which makes me actually wish that other devices had this. It seems to be moving towards an Ultra-exclusive port, which I find unfortunate because the housing situations that lead to WiFi being spotty probably overlap with the userbase that is likely to be buying cheaper devices. If the Express+ had an Ethernet port, I probably could have gotten that instead and bought new instead of used. (Apartments tend to have flooded 2.4Ghz, and even though 5Ghz is typically clear this is because so many devices only recognize the first one or two channels and that defeats the point of having so many channels and makes its own problems.)
Power is alright, the adapter is 12W. I could wish it were lower, but I doubt the ones powered over microUSB are actually only pulling the 2.5W of the spec (they probably need 7.5-10W draw, so difference is negligible really) and I am willing to have faith that the idle draw is well below that even.
The "Enhanced" remote that this comes with seems to be Bluetooth, which would be fine except I care for neither the "point anywhere" nor the headphone jack, and the remote needs bigger batteries and depairs itself when my Roku falls asleep for more than several minutes (fine for a bathroom break, not fine for initially firing it back up after taking a nap). I have a relative in town with two IR remotes, and I borrowed one to see if that worked better. It did, so I am now waiting for Roku to get back to me on my ticket explaining this crucial troubleshooting information to see if they have official IR remotes for sale still (Amazon is filled with off-brand ones, but if an official one is an option I want one new before I want a used one). If you live somewhere where neighbors are unlikely to abuse security holes introduced by this, the mobile app control might possibly also work, but I shut that off on mine as soon as I got it so I cannot comment on that. It sounds like, at least through the generation out right now, the Roku devices that are meant to stand on a surface (be visible from in front of your television) mostly all support IR remotes, if that is relevant.
The microSD card slot does NOT add local media storage, which is a bit counterintuitive. After looking up in more detail what the microSD card slot does it became apparent that some folks use Roku devices as casual gaming machines(?), which made it make a little bit more sense that Roku would want to reformat the card to something unrecognizable (probably encrypted). The confusing part here is that there is a local media playback app by default, but unless you have a USB port this app is just for if you stand up your own media server. In hindsight I see how this makes sense, but it was a bit disappointing to learn that I could not just make an SD card exFAT (or even FAT32) and just stick local music on it. I guess that will remain a function of my Raspberry Pi for now.
Looking back, I do feel like I got the best possible device I could have, I just have a small wishlist for it. The Premiere+ will not in the coming years fail to be powerful enough for what I care about it doing, I am fine setting which apps can to 480p (my TV is only 720p anyway), and almost wish I could set the Roku itself to output at that so apps might attempt to auto-detect that to reduce bandwidth usage. I could have safely gotten an Ultra (though again that would have been overkill) because if I just get an IR remote then the voice search antifeature would be moot. If the Express or Express+ only came with wired Ethernet, that would have made the difference in that device being more appropriate for my usage, but alas. The microSD card thing is also slightly irritating to me, but not a dealbreaker by any means.
In short, be aware that the remote situation is more flexible than the 1:1 mapping of what you can get with your device (which means you do not have to downgrade the box to flee from voice search), be aware that the Bluetooth remotes are currently unpairing, and the microSD slot behavior might not be intuitive based on the advertising. Beyond that, the Premiere+ is an excellent device, and I imagine other Roku devices can be as well so long as you know what kinds of connectors you need. The software itself works fine and I am basically happy with this.
(By the way, if you care, look up the hidden URL to make your Roku account without having to be forced to provide a credit card. It exists, it's just hidden. Dear Roku: unhide that please?)