Tyla and I cut way back on our TV viewing when Elijah was born, but now we are starting to use the TV a little more with him. I’m trying to avoid buying discs and instead I’m relying on the wealth of content that available for streaming online. We have an Xbox360 hooked up to that TV because that’s how we connect to our Windows Media Center. It has most of the apps that we need, but it takes quite a while to boot it up, cancel out of Media Center, find the right app and then boot it. That minute or two might not sound bad but you’re not imagining the bouncing two year old at your side.
I decided it was time to pick up a Roku device and I went for the Roku 2. I do like the 3 and 4 but I wanted to stick with an infrared remote so that we could use our existing Harmony remote. I really like having only one remote to control everything.
We also have a WD TV Live (don’t buy one), and an Amazon Fire TV (awesome!) in the house. I bought the Roku instead of another Fire TV mostly because I wanted to try it out and this seemed like a good excuse.
The UI of the Roku is a little more primitive than the Fire TV, but it has a great selection of apps and it’s very simple to use. We quickly loaded up Amazon Instant Video and PBS Kids. Those two apps alone will keep Elijah entertained for much longer than we will let him watch TV.
I’d happily recommend either a Fire TV or a Roku to anyone looking for a new device. If you’re a big Amazon Video user than the Fire TV probably gets the edge. Otherwise you can’t really go wrong with either device.