5 features that should be standard among all strea...

How often do you find yourself comparing one device to another, when you read about a feature and think, “Oh, that’s cool — but do I actually need it?”

Think of the newest smart home devices. There are washing machines that can send you a push notification to your phone or even to your TV when they are done running. Is that a necessary feature? No. Is it a nice feature to have? Absolutely. You find a lot of those kinds of examples when you’re comparing products, but ultimately you need to have standards for what are must-haves for your needs.

Many people don’t have smart TVs but use streaming devices to turn their regular TVs into ones. They all give your TV the ability to download apps and stream movies and TV series, but all of them have some differences that make them unique. I’m here to say that shouldn’t be the case. Here are five features that should be standard among all streaming devices.

Brand

Roku

Dimensions

3.7 x 0.80 x .45 inches

Connectivity

HDMI

Weight Capacity

26g

Remote

Yes

Video

HDR10+

A slim plug and play streaming stick that includes 4K/HDR support and includes a voice remote. 

1

A voice remote with a headphone jack

Kill two birds with one stone

Let’s be honest: it’s so much easier to speak into a remote than to have to move the arrow buttons around to individual letters and numbers to type in a channel name or scroll through hundreds of channels to find the right one. Just saying the name of what you want to watch is enough if you have a voice remote. For example, you can say “ESPN” and it will open up the ESPN app — you don’t have to scroll to find it among your list of streaming apps.

Having a voice remote may seem like a pretty simple ask, but not every streaming device has one. The same goes for a remote with a headphone jack. If you want to listen to a show or movie with your headphones on, to not disturb another person trying to sleep or read, you may not be able to because there isn’t a headphone jack anywhere for you to use. You’re not going to be plugging in your headphones to your TV and watching from up close.

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2

A free TV button

There’s so much free TV to be watched

Pocket-lint / Tubi / Netflix

Some of the best streaming services out there don’t cost a thing — Tubi, Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, and Crackle all offer solid libraries of free shows and movies. But take a look at most smart TV or streaming device remotes, and you’ll notice the quick-launch buttons are all for paid services.

Where’s the love for free TV? I feel like it’s a missed opportunity. A single button labeled “Free TV” that pulls up a hub of no-cost streaming options would be a game-changer for budget-conscious viewers. Not everyone wants to pay to press play.

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3

High Dynamic Range support

Get up to date with the formats

Pocket-lint / Sharp

High Dynamic Range or HDR involves the brightness of colors on the TV. It’s a format that some televisions and streaming devices support, but it’s not uniform across TVs or streaming devices — mostly because the technology hasn’t always been available. It makes everything look more vivid and lifelike — no more dull or washed-out images.

It’d be great if we could just standardize it already. New smart TVs and streaming sticks should support all the major HDR formats — HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, the works. And while we’re at it, streaming services should stop dragging their feet and make more of their content HDR-ready too. This plead is for the manufacturers to force the issue and make them.

Related

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4

Get rid of secret channels

Why make them hidden?

If you don’t know, there are many secret codes or menus on streaming services. Netflix has a ton of them, and you can access different menus by typing in some codes. It will reorganize your searches and let you search by some very specific parameters, but there are also secret channels within streaming device operating systems that can only be found if you know about them.

Take Roku: you can manually add hidden channels by logging into your account on a browser and punching in a code. These aren’t in the official Roku Channel Store, but they exist. So… if Roku has the ability to let us add them, why not just list them up front? The tech is clearly there. Enough with the hide-and-seek — just let people get to the good stuff.

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5

Make them easy to move

This is so you can bring them anywhere

Amazon / Pocket-lint

Most streaming devices are super easy to plug in and pull out — especially the ones shaped like sticks. But once you factor in the power cables and HDMI cords, things can get messy fast. And if your TV is mounted? Good luck reaching those ports without unmounting the whole thing.

Honestly, the industry’s probably not going to redesign TVs for easier port access anytime soon. So the least streaming device makers could do is keep it simple. Smaller, Bluetooth-friendly devices should be the standard. An Apple TV 4K isn’t quite as sleek as a Roku Stick, but at least it’s not a cable jungle. Don’t even consider getting something like a Roku Streambar if you ever want to bring it with you places.

Thankfully, things like the Fire TV Cube or the Google Chromecast are not in production anymore, as their designs were not conducive to moving. Hopefully, manufacturers will stick to simple designs going forward.