How to use Roku stick on laptop? This is a widely asked question that has got so many obscure answers.
The Roku Stick is a high-end HD streaming video device offered by Roku. It’s a small yet compact streaming dongle that when connected to your TV will add thousands of active streaming channels. It provides a range of video mainstreaming services such as YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu. It’s simply an HDMI dongle that doesn’t contain portable storage memory.
Roku stick connects to virtually any device with HDMI input ports. Laptops and computers do have output HDMI ports, and so the process of connecting your Roku stick to your laptop may not be straightforward.
How To Use Roku Stick On Laptop—What Exactly is Roku Stick
Roku Stick is a pocket-size HDMI dongle that’s easy and super convenient to operate. It runs on a powerful quad-core processor that has dual-band wireless to deliver smooth streaming. It works seamlessly with most TV and movie streaming services such as YouTube, Netflix, and Google Play. The dongle gives you access to over a hundred thousand TV episodes and movies.
The stick will save you money and time, as it provides unique and quality search results, ensuring you can find your preferred movies, TV episodes, kids’ programs, sports, music, and news. The best thing about this app is its sleek and portable plug-and-level design alongside Full HD 1080p compatible resolution.
How To Use Roku Streaming Stick?
The Roku streaming stick uses the same working mechanism as other Roku streaming devices. But then, the Roku Ultra and Roku Premiere are boxes that can be placed anywhere in the house. The Roku streaming stick is a self-contained plug-and-play dongle that connects to your TV or computer monitor’s HDMI input port.
The Roku streaming stick comes with remote control. You can operate it using the remote control or your smartphone’s Roku app. Sadly, it doesn’t have a headphone jack, meaning it won’t support 4K televisions.
The process to get your Roku streaming stick started isn’t complex. You just need to plug in the stick in any of your TV’s or computer monitor’s HDMI input. Power on the screen and then set it to load from HDMI. Insert the batteries on the availed remote control and then follow the on-screen instruction to link the device to your household Wi-Fi. Once done, create a Roku account and then add all the channels to start watching your favorite channels.
So How to Use Roku Stick on Laptop?
The fact that the HDMI ports found on laptops output rather than input content means that you cannot connect Roku directly to your laptop. Link your Roku Stick to your laptop following these simple steps.
- Launch any browser installed on your laptop
- Enter http://www.plexapp.com/getplex/ on the search bar and click enter on your keyboard
- The Plexapp website will be opened, presenting 3 options on its home screen
- The three download options are Plex Media Server Download for Linux, Plex Media Server download for Mac, and Plex Media Server download for windows
- Click the option that suits the windows installed on your laptop
- Allow the download some minutes to complete
- Once completed, click on the downloaded file to initiate the installation process
- Click the install button and allow the installation to complete
- Once the file has been installed on your laptop, you should launch it
- Now, login in your Roku account and head directly to the Roku Channel Store
- Search the Plex App on you’re the Roku Channel store and subscribe to it
- Get your laptop connected to a strong Wi-Fi internet network.
- Connect your Roku streaming stick to power and Wi-Fi
- Now that your laptop and Roku streaming stick are paired, you can start streaming content on it
How to Use Roku Stick on Laptop—Is It Worth It?
The Roku streaming stick is chiefly created to be used on devices with HDMI input port. Laptops have HDMI output ports and connecting the Roku streaming stick may not always be a straightforward task. Considering how long the process to use a Roku stick on a laptop is, it will not be worth it to invest so much time and money to connect your Roku streaming stick on a laptop.
Why not just watch Roku on your laptop via the web? It’s no longer the era when someone needed to have the Roku hardware to watch their favorite Roku content. Roku has been in the streaming media entertainment business for some time and has been advancing every day. Recently, they introduced the Roku channel that provides a great range of ad-supported movies, which are offered for free on Roku TV, stick, and box.
The Roku channel can now be accessed without using hardware. You can access it via any internet-connected device that has any of the everyday used web browsers. However, it may not be suitable for users outside the US.
You can watch Roku online but only after you have created a free account. Creating a free Roku account unlocks all Roku TV shows, movies, and any other video content.
And if you’re using a Roku device, you’ll have access to the “Featured Free” feature on the menu. Here, you can access the latest in-season episodes, full past-season catch-ups, and everything else new in the Roku content’s package. That said, I wouldn’t advise you to waste all the time and money trying to link your Roku streaming dongle to your laptop, while you stream Roku content right from your laptop.
Conclusion
In the quest to know how to use Roku stick on laptop? You’ve by that far got an idea of how you can go about it and whether it’s worth it. Obviously, I wouldn’t recommend you go this long way to access and watch Roku content. Why not just create a free account on Roku and access all the movies and shows you want free of charge on your laptop browser? It is not easier and fun compared to going through the extensive and complex pairing process?
