How the Roku Streaming Stick Works

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Author's Note: How the Roku Streaming Stick Works

I am a self-confessed entertainment addict who spends an enormous amount of time streaming movies and TV shows to my big-screen television. In my 20s, when I had to use a slider bar to select from whatever was playing at the time on the 30 or so existing cable channels, I dreamt of the day that I could watch what I wanted, when I wanted, rather than having to rush home for prime time. I figured this would come to pass straight through cable one day, which it did with the inception of video on demand. But my expectations were surpassed first with the DVR, and then with all the set-top and other streaming devices available today. Things like the Roku brought my pipe dream to fruition.

I already have a Chromecast that I use to cast content from my phone to the little HDTV in front of my treadmill (it also has an old Roku attached), but I am seriously considering getting a Roku Streaming Stick for the main television. The cross-channel search capability via the mobile app makes it really compelling since I'm constantly consulting canistream.it to find out which app has what I want to watch. Anything to get me out of menus and Web sites and into the content faster sounds like a winner to me. Plus it's always good to have the device with the most channels, even if those include lots of little niche stuff. Who knows? Maybe one day I'll want to watch one of the three fishing channels.

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