Roku Express 4K | HD/4K/HDR Streaming Media Player, Black

Our old Roku box was showing its age being slow and no longer getting firmware updates. So, when we upgraded our lounge TV, we also purchased this 4K Roku box. Wow, what a difference - both in terms of speed of response and picture quality! Our main APPs are NowTV, the Roku Channel, PLEX, Discovery+, Pluto, and Prime Video. All work perfectly with no issues. Picture and sound quality are stunning. To be fair, modern smart TVs have many of these APPs inbuilt. However, they often don't include the Roku Channel, Pluto and PLEX. PLEX is particularly important to us as we have a large media database on our home NAS. It also supports a lot of interesting "live" streaming TV channels. Set up is straightforward and it took just a few minutes to get our favourite apps sorted - and the others removed. The WiFi connection is also much faster as dual band wireless is supported on this device (HD Roku boxes only support 2.4GHz WiFi). Getting a power adapter is handy too. The remote is simple to use. It is IR rather than Bluetooth but I have had no issues - as long as the Roku box is in line of sight. Indeed, my only minor gripe is that the supplied HDMI cable is rather short to ensure this line of sight visibility for the remote control. Fortunately, I had a spare 2m HDMI 2.2 cable that works a treat! All in all, at less than £30, I am very impressed with this little device. Indeed, I am about to buy another for our bedroom TV! The whole family is rather chuffed! 😁😁😁

Cheap, good quality, and with a simple to use and speedy interface that I've found is much easier for an elderly relative. It's not marred by ads. I've found the Wifi is perfectly adequate, but as a bit of a techie, I've also found that UGREEN USB to ethernet adapters are compatible with this to connect it to a router. The remote control is also very simple, and the HD video quality is up to par. Roku are very well regarded - what's not to like for the price?

I have only had it for a few days so I have only just scratched the surface of what it can do. The first time I tried the BBC iPlayer app I was impressed by how smooth and fast it worked compared with the same app built into my old Panasonic TV and my TalkTalk YouView box. I can finally seek forward and back with confidence. The Roku is certainly a cheap way to upgrade an old TV that is otherwise still working fine. Apple AirPlay and Android casting also work well. Now comes the not-so-good points: To activate the device you need to provide a payment method. This is a source of irritation even though the payment method can be removed from the account afterwards. The accompanying smartphone app has a keyboard feature that is supposed to give you an easy way to enter text. It did not work when I tried to use it to log into apps such as All4. The search feature is supposed to search for content across the myriad of apps that the device supports. Unfortunately, the results are incomplete. For example, at the time of writing, Battlestar Galactica and Pretty Little Liars are available for free viewing on the BBC iPlayer, Nashville is on ALL4, yet a Roku search for these programmes only shows options that require subscription or payment. This has immediately made the optional Roku Voice Remote so much less appealing. The Roku Media Player is the app that plays videos from a DLNA server. While it handles mp4 content reasonably well, all transport controls fail when playing ts files (ts is the typically format for videos that are recorded from over-the-air broadcasts).

Roku Express is the type of device that you install forget about but when you remember - it is well worth it. Let's be honest there are a lot of junk channels, quirky channels and some excellent "must-see" channels. Which are which? Well, my junk may be your essential and vice versa but there is so much - on-demand, premium subscription, sports, religious, entertainment... basically, you name it, it is probably somewhere on Roku. This is my third Roku device: original set-top; USB and now this HDMI 4K version and I have watched it move from ok to excellent. The selling-point on this one is that it is 4K - and great 4K at that. It will check your equipment and stream at the highest quality manageable so that means get a good quality HDMI cable that can handle a 4K stream. It is a bit quirky, it may display a menu at 720p but goes to 1080p when you start streaming. On the right channel a black screen flashes and suddenly it is broadcasting in 4K with 5.1 surround sound and you are in your own cinema. The Roku menu is fairly intuitive and customisable. It is worth spending some time looking through the channels and putting them on your home screen, reorganising the order to suit your preferences and, off you go. The menu is a little bit clunky but, honestly, who cares? It's all about the content, baby. It is currently discounted and so the price is good. It comes with all cables and a cute little remote that can be lost down the sofa in an instant. If you are thinking about buying a streaming device stop thinking and click 'buy now' - definitely worth it.

My TV is a 2017 Sony Bravia. Had lots of issues when it came to memory and online apps. I could only watch amazon til I had a memory error message and couldn’t update my TV. This Roku box has extended the life of my TV and I no longer need to consider replacing the aged Bravia because this Roku box has given it a new lease of life. Great value for money. The Picture is superb. Easy to set up to my wifi and join. The remote is easy to navigate and speed is perfect, I use Amazon, YouTube, Netflix,ITVx and I player all thru this and everything is how it should be. I should have brought one sooner and have been giving these as gifts to family members because it’s so good.

Excellent product. Added to an older Samsung non-smart TV. Does everything I want and more. Large range of streaming channels including all the popular ones. Will connect to local media streaming server - I use with Windows media server to serve foreign satellite TV recordings from a computer on the LAN. Just need to convert them to best format for Roku - which I'd say is MKV - simple and quick with MKVToolNix which can also embed subtitles. Means I no longer need to have a PC squatting in the living room. Simple to use IR remote, plus the option to use an app on your mobile as a remote, so you can type and issue voice commands to Roku. It is probably better than the options provided on many smart TVs, and for a small fraction of the price! Be sure to get the Express 4K model, because this one can also connect to a usb stick via a simple OTG splitter Y cable, to play direct from the stick. You can also get one of the ethernet adapters mentioned on the Roku support pages as working with the Roku Express 4K. I purchased the inexpensive UGREEN adapter to avoid any vagaries that a WiFi connection brings. Works well.

After my Virgin Tivo box discontinued Netflix Basic Plan support I was forced to investigate streaming devices. I'm glad I did as the Roku experience is so much better. I was particularly keen to use a wired ethernet connection which is harder to achieve than you would think as most devices (Roku or Firestick) don't have the necessary ethernet port (the Roku Ultra not officially being available in the UK). But I'm pleased to confirm the Roku Express 4K (the + seems to be dropped now on the latest models) works with an adapter (I'm using the Ugreen Micro USB 100 mbps adapter). Everything was easy to set up through the remote control and through registering your Roku account on their website via your email. The wired connection was found immediately (note that this adapter provides 3 connections - to the Roku Express, to your internet modem or switch, and to your mains power which now connects through the adapter not the Roku - none of this was obvious doing my research before buying where there is much conflicting advice, even from the manufacturers themselves - see picture). The only additional item you need is a RJ45 cable. Netflix basic works fine and there's loads of interesting looking free channels you can download via the remote or the online account. Some like Youtube you have to search for but it is there. You can also remove apps if you aren't going to use them or pay for them (including the bbc iplayer).

Turns your TV into a smart TV able to pick up all the free streaming channels like BBC iPlayer and ITVX plus the paid-for services like Netflix and Prime via your wireless Internet connection. Brilliant piece of kit and very easy to set up. No subscription needed for the device itself but you will need separate subscriptions for any paid-for streaming channels. Needs an HDMI input on the TV.

Works perfectly and very simple to set up. So far so good.

I got this Roku only because it supports apple airplay to TV which many smart tv don’t have.

El dispositivo es muy pequeño, viene con un cable HDMI, un cable microusb y un cargador con tres tipos de clavija por si el televisor no tiene USB. Muy fácil de instalar, funciona muy bien y rápido. La única pega que le he visto es que no trae por defecto todas las plataformas en España y no pude descargar el prime y hbo nada más instalarlo. Buscando información encontré la forma de instalar el prime descargando una aplicación de vpn en el móvil y registrándome el la página de roku como si estuviera en Estados Unidos, de ese modo apareció la aplicación para descargar. Supongo que añadirán hbo con el tiempo. Por lo demás funciona muy bien, con buena calidad de imagen y sonido. Justo lo que quería.

very easy to setup

It's really quite good, both as a media device and for screen mirroring. The batteries it came with leaked after a few months and killed the remote, so perhaps don't use them.