For my wife’s Christmas present I decided to up grade her Roku 2 to a Roku Ultra. Slick so far. The Ultra really takes advantage of the router that I bought to replace my cable company router. It looks like a lot of my slow down issues were probably caused my trying to make due with the old Rokus. I bought a second Ultra for the living room and I will move the Roku 3 to my TV. So now it will be the end of March, instead of the middle of February before I recoup the cost of my cord cutting.
Today, I ordered a Roku Ultra and a Roku Express. This will allow me to replace the Roku Stick from 2014, and the Roku HD (model 2500) from 2012. I will still be using two Roku 2’s from 2015.
I am hoping that the new Roku’s will have vastly improved wireless capabilities and faster processing.
My thoughts also. I made the choice because my router exceeded the options availale with my older model Rokus. I have tried the new Roku Ultra at several TVs in various locations throughout the apartment. The Ultra loads quicker and has smoother fast forwarding via wifi than the old Rouku 2. Over all the upgrades to the Ultra are a pleasant change, that make for a pleasnt viewing experience. It looks like the upgrades are going to be miney well spent.
My only complaint with the Roku Ultra is the the audio is erratic with the headset. I get good audio if I move the Roku forward to the edge of the self & set the remote, stationary, on the table beside me. I don’t use the headphones that often and overall I am satisfied with the upgrade
Tried that, maybe the audio will clear up with use. I am trying to locate my can of compressed air. I have had good luck with compressed air, especially on HDMI connections. Just have to hope that you don’t blow something loose.
You do know that that has no impact on Tablo’s wireless capability, which is still fixed in the 802.11 a/g/b/n framework, with whatever antenna built-in it has? I watched a video of a Tablo teardown (posted some of the detailed internal specs somewhere) and the WiFi chip is a run-of-the-mill Atheros chip. No MIMO or any of the other, newer technologies, no 5GHz capability…
Explains why Tablo experience is better when the Tablo is Ethernet connected to the network, and the overall experience is still better when the Roku is also connected via Ethernet.
Ah, I did not communicate well. My Tablo is wired/ethernet. My Roku’s are wireless and one of them at the far end of the house some times reports a poor signal. Maybe 50 feet away. Wireless router is in a closet. I am hoping that the Ultra can grab that wireless signal better than my current Roku 2.
It took me a whole screed of typing before I understood. yea, since the Roku’s signal to the WiFi router may be better, that might get you over the hump.
The Roku Ultra performance on Wifi is vastly, smoother and faster than with the Roku 2 and noticeably improved over the performance when viewing with the Roku 3 on wifi. A distance of 30 feet from the router does not seem to make that much difference with the Ultra but increasing the distance from the router with the Roku 2 made a noticeable difference In the performance from performance of the Roku 2 on wifi. The results with the Roku Ultra hard wired to the router is less dramatic from the performance of the hardwire Roku 3. The Roku Ultra wired to the router is possible not as fast when the Roku Ultra is when connected via wifi. I will still connect the living room Ultra to the router via eithernet because I think it is more dependable and any difference in perfomance on the Roku Ultra wire or connected via wifi is hardly noticeable.
Bottom line that I think is the upgrade from the Roku 2s to Roku Ultras was worth the cost.
My new Ultra just arrived. Set it up. Remote has a lot of features that we will have to explore. Especially the part about powering the TV and controlling the TV volume. The mobile app looks great, too. Of course, that is available for most Roku devices. It just does more for the Ultra.
Ok, now to signal strength. I just measured and the distance from Wifi router to Ultra is 57 feet. My Wifi Analyzer app shows a signal strength of about -71 dBm. Roku reports a signal strength of Excellent. In this location, my old Roku 2 reported Good to Poor.
Problem is not my router as it is a new Netgear Nighthawk X4S R7800. Just to see how good the signal is, at 30 feet the signal is -51 dBm.
Conclusion: Roku Ultra has a much stronger wifi radio than some of its predecessors.
I experienced the same improvements when moving from a Roku 3 to a Roku Ultra. It will well worth the upgrade, wifi performance in particular is much improved.
Today, my new Roku Express arrived. I just used it to replace an original Roku Stick, which was “as slow as molasses”. The Express is pretty good. Clicks of the remote are acted upon instantly whereas the old stick was whenever it felt like it. Signal in this location was never an issue.
Now I am emboldened to replace at least one of my Roku 2 with an Ultra.
Since this is a Tablo website, let me say that the new Roku’s work great with Tablo.