Unpacking and using experience of Roku Stick Overseas in 2020

Roku Stick discounted to $ 34.99 for the Christmas season, plus direct mail, a total of $ 38.07 to the country, very good value. The speed of Amazon direct mail has always been very unstable, just like this time, it took a total of 17 days from the Roku Stick arrival of the domestic warehouse to the completion of customs clearance, and almost thought it would not be received this year.

Unpacking

The packaging of the Roku Stick is green, and the color is different from other models. After opening, Roku Stick interior is divided into two layers, the first layer is the Roku Stick , the second layer is the remote control and the matching two AAA batteries, power adapter, USB power cord and some manuals.

Power adapters are generally not used unless the TV model is very old and Roku Stick has no USB port.

 using experience of Roku Stick

The body of the Roku Stick is very small, but if the space behind the TV or monitor is particularly compact, it still seems a bit laborious to plug it in.

 using experience of Roku Stick

This Roku Stick remote control has changed a lot in appearance from last year. The original bright black has been changed to matte black, but the buttons have not changed much. The communication between the remote control and the Roku Stick uses wireless connection technology, so you don't need to face the Roku Stick TV or the monitor to control it remotely.

 using experience of Roku Stick

Roku Stick activation process
  1. Go to roku.com and enter the activation code that Roku displays on the screen
  2. Register a Roku account
  3. Bind credit card / paypal
  4. All done!
installation
Install Roku Stick on TV

The installation process of the Roku Stick TV is relatively simple. Find the HDMI port and plug in the TV stick, and find the USB port and plug in the power supply.

Install on the monitor

There are more steps to connect the speakers to the monitor than to the Roku Stick. Here we take Dell U2415 as an example, plug Roku Stick into one of the two HDMI ports on the back, and connect the USB power supply to the USB charging port on the back. Purchase a 3.5mm audio dubbing cable, connect one end to the 3.5mm audio output port on the back of the monitor, and the other end to the 3.5mm audio input port of the speaker. If you share a speaker with the computer, you will need an audio splitter that drags two, but in actual use, it is found that the use of the audio splitter will affect the sound output of the computer. Therefore, it is best to use the speaker amplifier with dual audio source input. You can switch the audio source through the remote control.

If the monitor does not have an audio output port, then there is no way to use the Roku Stick. You need to purchase a Roku Stick model with its own audio output port.

use
Channel blocking issues when used outside the US

After comparing with the main interface of introducing videos online, I found that many channels are blocked when using Roku Stick. For example, the four channel shortcut keys on the remote control are only available for Netflix. Google Play is blocked.

This phenomenon does not only exist in Asia. You can find that this phenomenon occurs in all regions other than US by searching with the keyword Roku Outside US.

Roku Stick judges not only the region where the account is registered, but also the location where the Roku Stick device is connected to the network, so in addition to using the US proxy and US address when registering the account for the first time, the method for solving channel blocking must also connect through the proxy when the first activation of the Roku Stick device Network to the US region.

No VPN or proxy
Without using a VPN or proxy, except for the Youtube application that cannot be opened and cannot be played, any channel that can be opened and played cannot play video content smoothly. That is to say, without a VPN or proxy, Roku is There is no way to use it domestically.

Use VPN or proxy
Since Roku Stick does not support setting up a network proxy locally, you must use a gateway-level proxy service. At present, the more mature solution is to use R7000 + merlin_8wan_firmware + Shadowsocks. After setting, Roku Stick can play other channels except US blocked channels more smoothly.

Play local content
There are many applications in the Roku Stick application market that support playing local videos, such as DS Video. The experience is similar to that of ordinary TV set-top boxes.

to sum up
Roku Stick may not be suitable for domestic use, because Roku has the advantage of subscribing to content, the experience of the next American drama is even simpler than searching and opening a channel on Roku Stick.

All in all, if there is a demand for Roku Stick, it will not set up a proxy, it will set up a proxy, and there is no Roku Stick requirement.
 
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