Which is best - Chromecast or Firestick?

[lofty100e]

As you may know lovefilm is shutting down at the end of October, as a result I will be moving to streaming.

In addition to lovefilm I am also signed up to Netflix. So I intend buying a device to enable me to bounce both amazon prime downloads and Netflix to my television

I am wondering if anyone can give any insight into which the best product would be please? Thanks in advance.

[sidthelamp]

As you may know lovefilm is shutting down at the end of October, as a result I will be moving to streaming.

In addition to lovefilm I am also signed up to Netflix. So I intend buying a device to enable me to bounce both amazon prime downloads and Netflix to my television

I am wondering if anyone can give any insight into which the best product would be please? Thanks in advance.

i have netflix too, did no know you could download content, i ust browse find some thing to watch and watch, dont have a telly just do it over the internet onto a big screen

[lofty100e]

Hi Sid you can download some netflix content now, they recently introduced it. Although I have not done that myself yet, my intention though is just to bounce the signal to my TV while streaming it on my laptop.

I think the downloads are something they are piloting with the idea of increasing it eventually.

[sidthelamp]

Hi Sid you can download some netflix content now, they recently introduced it. Although I have not done that myself yet, my intention though is just to bounce the signal to my TV while streaming it on my laptop.

I think the downloads are something they are piloting with the idea of increasing it eventually.

ahha i see, so you need bouncy box to the tv, i dont know about stuff like that, i shall watch and learn

[hurryb4itsgone]

Hi Sid you can download some netflix content now, they recently introduced it. Although I have not done that myself yet, my intention though is just to bounce the signal to my TV while streaming it on my laptop.

I think the downloads are something they are piloting with the idea of increasing it eventually.

Last Christmas we bought a dvd/blu-ray player with wi-fi and all a converter... this did the trick to stream movies from Amazon Prime and Netflix to our dinosaur of a tv.

[Maelbrigda]

i have a firestick and i can recommend its ease of use and choice of programmes

[lofty100e]

i have a firestick and i can recommend its ease of use and choice of programmes

The thing that concerns me is that both google and probably amazon as well are very proprietoral and tend to make their products in such a way that they do not lnteract with other systems easily.

Thanks

[cambrensis]

I have the Mk I Chromecast which proved to be the proverbial pain in the neck, which is why Google produced the Mk II so quickly! Both versions simply stream.

I have an Amazon Fire TV, a small box which is big brother to the Firestick. The advantage it has over its smaller brother, is that it may be connected to your hub via ethernet rather than wireless. This gives greater speed, and you do need a good speed for streaming. I do NOT have hundreds of feet of cable running around my house for this - I simply use a system called "Powerline", whereby the ethernet connection is made over the mains. I do not use Netflix, but it is on my Fire TV as a portal. All you would do would be start it up, enter user name etc and away to go; no need to stream from your PC. I'm sure the Firestick has this as well; if not it can be downloaded from Amazon as a free "app". (Yugh!! How I dislike that "word"!! )

If you are using Freeview with a box which records, check that out carefully. I discovered that my Humax box has Netflix as well as YouTube, BBC iPlayer and all the others (ITV etc) - it also allows streaming from a PC. I say "discovered" as I rarely read instructions except as a last resort! My guess is that most other Freeview recorders have these functions, so it's worth checking, if you have one.

The comments about Google and Amazon are quite right. Amazon does not allow you to download programs from Google Play. However, if I want something from Google Play I simply download it to a PC and then save it to a micro SD card and sideload it on to the Amazon Fire.

The Chromecast is much too limited; go for one of the Amazon toys; they are great fun!