Streaming devices/boxes/sticks/__?__ for older folk

As a mature viewer, I've tried several streaming services. I do indeed find them cumbersome, and sometimes confusing to use. The younger generations have been brought up using this technology and know the ins and outs of using it.

One of the biggest issues we find is the delay between pressing a button on the remote and seeing the result on screen. The buffering times can also be annoying. There is also a problem getting the channels you want. You sometimes have to subscribe to two or more services to get them all.

Of the several I've tried, YouTube TV would be my choice. It offers most of the channels we watch but not all. When I add up all the subscription costs coupled with the inconvenience, I don't save that much over satellite TV, so we haven't switched to streaming yet.

Another problem with streaming is, some services only have off site editing & storage of programming. That means when the internet is down, which happens frequently here, you have nothing to watch. With satellite, programming is stored locally on a DVR and can be viewed & edited locally without using the internet.

Satellite is faster, less confusing, with no delayed responses to commands, has all the channels we watch, programming is stored locally and the cost is just slightly higher than streaming services. I see no reason to switch at this point.

Thanks for the comment.

The buffering isn't much of an issue here - we have fiber internet and wifi pretty strong (300+ mbps) nearly anywhere on the property.

The biggest challenges I've run into myself is the different apps (with some overlapping free channels between them) UI's. While similar they're all different.

While mom is used to interacting with youtube on the pc via keyboard. It's different on a streaming device. My goal was to try to expose her to all the other free content out there. Flipping through the channels on android tv, there must be over 200 of them.

The dvr aspect is a good point. Lots of these free channels are called "live tv". Meaning they stream just like ota content does. No way to record it. I didn't even consider this point. Maybe I should be looking into a tablo device.....

I find the interfaces on the various streaming platforms to be user hostile most of the time. I muddled my way through one service on my android tv and set up the local channels and my wife's favorite cable ones. These she can handle with some issues. We are both in our 80's and I've worked with computers since the used tubes.

If you have to enter any amount of text, the interface is extremely annoying and cumbersome. I had an old bluetooth keyboard from a longago-discarded samsung android tablet. It surprisingly still charged up and connected to my Sony android TV. That helps a lot, but the user interface is still annoying and cumbersome especially when trying to move the cursor and make a selection. These devices should have a standardized consistent interface in their licensed apps for attaching a keyboard/touchpad/mouse device and doing input and screen navigation.

We've been through this with both sets of our parents, a family member with a developmental disability, and people to whom we deliver meals on wheels. Your relative is absolutely right. The UIs are horrible. The devices (whether sticks, add-on boxes, or streaming built-in to new TVs) are bad enough, but the streaming services themselves (like Disney+ or Netflix) are even worse, and they're getting worse as they consolidate and get bigger. They fight you rather than help you in that they all try to feed you content *they* want you to watch while apparently hiding content you were watching yesterday and know you're looking for. It's a nightmare. (Many of these folks can't use search boxes while navigating an on-screen keyboard. Forget it. Not gonna happen in a timely and reliable fashion.)

Rant over, but in answer to your question, no, I haven't found anything that's easy to use, the way an older person is used to accessing broadcast or cable TV.

My library has movies that you can stream so I cam looking for a way to do so. I dont have a smart TV so was thinking of a Fire Stick or
Google Chromecast. Would appreciate input on whcih would be better with espect to ease of use and reliablity.

@Lost Anyway

She gave up on the roku and android box. It's back to youtube and the occasional kodi stream (used to be powerdvd but found kodi plays just as well without all the bloat on the new pc) that I initiate from content on the nas.

We have hbomax included with the isp service. She'll watch that via browser (albeit at 720p) on occasion too. Something about using a keyboard and mouse to locate stuff than a remote with l/r/u/d/ok.

@bsp131

Find out what devices they support. You might not need anything, just a pc/browser.

If you do need to get a box, I'd say go with the walmart onn 4k pro. It's a $50 android tv box (w/ widevine L1 support - necessary for drm for some content providers), supports a bunch of apps and is more customizable than either of the ones you mentioned. Not to mention, it's not tied to any particular provider.

https://www.meetion.com/a-can-i-use-wireless-keyboard-with-s...

I use the Google Chromecast attached to my TV. Once you set it up, pretty simple to use. I also have the Roku but don't really use it that much anymore. Roku can now be found on PC for streaming. Many free streaming channels can be found doing a google search and also many paid ones.. I cut my cable cord years ago and put up a outside antenna. With antenna and streaming I am good to go. Instructions https://robots.net/tech/how-to-cast-movies-from-pc-using-chr... also https://youtu.be/3X_tXZVnV8E

Wow. I used an IBM 1620 in 1965 when my high school math teacher got a local company to let us have time on their IBM 1620. But that was already a transistor machine (no ICs).

Where did you use a tube machine? Do you remember make and model?

For youngsters who may not believe that there were tube computers, here is a link to a list of IBM tube models.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:IBM_vacuum_tube_compu...

I'm gonna hazard a guess here and say Box Car was thinking picture tube, aka CRT monitors. Of course I could easily be wrong.

Tubes - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_tube

While you made the outside antenna work for you there are many times that they won't work. The main issue being the need for line of sight to the broadcasting towers. I tried and while it did somewhat work it wasn't consistent enough. It is a great way to break the cord though. We lived on a hill and had an antenna of the roof that had a rotary setup to it. We could point it towards the towers. We got so many stations from local to 60+ miles away.

gave us a Disney + gift subscription years ago.

Well, we didn't have any device capable of streaming that.

So I bought a Fire Stick that was "on sale" for about $23. We used it for a year. Left it alone not powered up.

My wife decided there's a Netflix series she wanted to watch, so we took it out and started using it again. She got some minimal Netflix for < $7/mo. So good, the Fire Stick gets additional use for it's purchase price.

I think Fire Stick is cheap and easy imho. And I'm not a streaming genius. I'm not into tech, so go figure. My job today has me dealing with AGVs.

I have fond memories of the 1620. Fortran II, SPS, variable word length,,, and,,, and actually a decimal machine.

Core memory that was knit together by "old ladies" in the factory! My geriatric memory can't come up with the reason that "record marks" were so important. Delimiters for the variable word length?

for the link