Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I purchased my first Roku Streaming Stick (actually first streaming stick ever) for use with our bedroom TV. I usually avoid purchasing "new" products until I do my research and am confident the bugs have been worked out but thought I would take a chance with the this $50 stick. Upon receipt, I plugged the stick into the HDMI port, did the install, and was surprised to see it worked great and provided smooth uninterrupted streaming of all the channels I tried. Great, I thought, at this price I will purchase another one for our main family room TV. Fast forward one week later and I received my second stick. Plugged it into the downstairs TV (which is actually closer to my Asus RT-AC68W 1900 Mbps router), did the install, linked to my Roku account, and waited for the same great results I had with the first one. Lo and behold the streaming was much slower and the remote did not work consistently. I disconnected and reconnected power, removed and replaced remote batteries but still had no better results. I dd notice in the settings menu that the Roku was indicating poor signal strength. Very frustrating since this TV is actually closer to my router in distance. Thinking I had a "bad" Roku stick I went on their website for support/advice before I sent it back to Amazon. I noticed they suggested ordering a (free) HDMI extender cable if signal strength was poor. I figured I could give it another chance before sending back so I ordered the extender cable. I received the extender in a few short days and plugged it into my Roku and TV. Voila, the signal strength was much better and the device worked as well as the first one. Our upstairs (Vizio) TV's HDMI port is configured so that the Roku sticks out perpendicular (away from) to the TV. With the downstairs (Samsung) TV the Roku stick was a tighter fit and actually sat parallel to the back of the TV, close to the cabinet and to other cables. The extender cable enabled the Roku to stick out further, past the TV and probably allowed greater room for the antenna. If you are having issues with poor signal strength and/or inconsistent remote pairing, you may want to try this extender cable first before giving up or trying a replacement. Perhaps Roku should just ship these with every stick.