We had a very disappointing experience using Google ChromeCast, and decided to give Roku a try. We are extremely pleased with the quality of this product and the price cannot be beat! Highly recommend the Roku Stick to ANYONE for these reasons and for the ease of use.
I've had the streaming stick for about 3 months and overall am very satisfied. It's easy to stream Netflix, Amazon, ESPN, and pretty much all other services you use (except Apple of course). The quality of the video is very good and only rarely does the stick have to cache (a big problem with my old BluRay player's streaming).
A few things that could use improvement, but are not deal breakers: -Startup time is extremely long, sometimes 2-3 minutes. -It would be nice if the shortcut buttons were configurable. I understand that the companies on there are probably paying a lot of money to have buttons, but Blockbuster is not something use so the button just takes up space.
I bought the Roku Streaming Stick a week after it was released to add to my small kitchen television. My son often likes to watch cartoons and other Netflix shows while we are making dinner, or sometimes on weekend mornings. I quickly found out that the stick has trouble keeping connection to our WiFi, even though none of our other devices seem to have problems. I finally ended up having to move the stick to our downstairs TV and moved our previous Roku 2 device upstairs. I also noticed I needed to re-authenticate various channels on the device, such as ESPN and the Disney Jr. channel. Overall we have been happy with the device considering the low cost, but I think I would be more likely to buy a Roku 2 or 3 instead.
I love my Roku Streaming Stick! It was easy to install, even for someone who is not good at electronics. I love that there are no wires hanging down and it is easy to use. Now I lay in bed and watch movies from Netflix. Deanna Storms