OT: Question for TV Streaming fanatics

[upstater]

Does anyone know of a TV streaming device that supports WiFi 6?

Hoping some of you are knowledgeable about TV streaming devices and the new routers. We just moved into a new house so we set ourselves up with a mesh system that has WiFi 6. I considered going to Spectrum's Gigabit internet which advertises 1 GBPS. But the salesperson convinced me it was overkill at this point and that I should just go with their 400 MBPS service.

Turns out I'm getting about 500 with their 400. Hmmmm.

Anyway, I just got a notice this morning from NBC SN that I could no longer stream (or watch Premier League) on their app on my Amazon Firestick (which is less than 2 years old). They said it would require an upgrade.

OK, so I'll upgrade. But are there no new WiFi 6 streaming devices?

This is a weird situation where the Wifi 6 routers have been around for 2 years now, the Amazon firesticks are becoming obsolete after 2 years, but there is no WiFi 6 upgrade to a new streamer.

So now I'm forced to buy a bunch of streamers that I'll only use until new streamers come out.

And now I hear that WiFi 6 may even be superseded by a whole new band that's in development!

What a world.

 

[pepband99]

to answer your question - no - not aware of any wifi 6 streamers. You have 3 options:

1) Forget about wifi 6 - streaming won't come close to saturating even a good AC network, much less an AX one. Is the old firestick a non-4k one? If so, just get the 4k one, assuming it satisfies whatever NBCSN is whining about.
2) Get a wifi 6 bridge, and hook up a streamer via ethernet to it (but see 1)
3) Wait it out. There are rumors afoot of new hardware for the Fire Sticks, as well as the Apple TV. I would bet that a new Apple TV would support AX.

of course - there is the obvious 4th option - stop following knee-grabbing-sissy-ball.

 

[pepband99]

aaaaand @upstater i just realized the "upgrade" you're being whined at is probably NBCSN moving to the peacock app, which I'm assuming wouldn't need new hardware at all. same option 4 applies though

 

[polycom]

Wifi 6 doesn't matter for 99% of people. Buy whatever device you like for ease of use and move on by the time wifi 6 has been passed the streaming device you will be broken. For context, I have orbi rpk753s router/mesh system it works no issues but I never even considered it when I purchased my Apple TVs. The only thing you should consider is if the streaming device you are using has the apps you want. For example, I also am unfortunate enough to have the awful ISP that is Spectrum, AppleTV and Samsung TVs are the only two devices that have the spectrum app.....

 

[upstater]

Thanks pepband and polycom. I do have an Orbi the latest version (800?). So I didn't want to shell out for 4 firesticks only to find out I could get better reception with new wifi streamers.

WHy the heck didn't NBC tell us in the notice they were moving NBCSN to Peacock? That would have made things easier. Unless of course Peacock requires the new security package.

I also have Spectrum and I have their TV Choice package (10 channels ala carte for $25 a month). What I do instead of using Spectrum (which is dreadful) is just download the individual apps for each channel onto firestick. Much better than Spectrum app.

Right now, I am overloaded with so many apps and subscriptions they are coming out of my ears. Amazon Prime, Netflix (free with my TMobile), Apple TV+ (free w/ phone), Disney+ (free), Hulu (free with my kid's $4 a month Spotify), Starz (prepaid for $15 for an entire year), Showtime (free with Spotify), HBOMAX (through family shared sub), ESPN+, and Spectrum TV Choice 10 channels. I have TV coming out of my ears at this point but a little mind numbing trying to control it all.