Top Streaming Media Players 2023

Sling Media's Slingbox M2 is identical to the previous-version place-shifting box in almost every way, with a higher price tag justified by the fact that the Slingplayer apps are now free.

The Roku 2 media hub keeps all of the best features of the excellent Roku 3 and takes out some seldom-used ones to offer an even-more-affordable price.

The Roku 3 adds an interface overhaul along with a nifty remote-mounted headphone jack for private listening, but the Roku 2 is a better buy.

If you want to watch live TV on your mobile devices, the Slingbox M1 is the most affordable place-shifting device yet, even if you need to pay extra for the apps.

The new Roku 3 media hub gets a nice performance boost over the previous version, along with a microphone in the remote for voice searches.

Our Chromecast with Google TV HD review shows that while it is a good 1080p streamer — one of the best, even — it still has room to improve.

There's (almost) no refuting it: Chromecast Ultra offers one of the best value-for-money streaming video devices for 4K TV owners. There's not as much benefit for the 1080p crowd, but if you’re looking for powerful, fast streaming in a device the size of a wafer for your brand-new UHD TV, there’s no better place to find it than with the Chromecast Ultra.

GeForce Now streams lots of games with beautiful graphics and solid frame rates for an affordable monthly fee, but it has room to improve.

The TiVo Stream 4K is an excellent media streamer that uses Android TV and TiVo's own interface for a comprehensive, TV-focused viewing experience.

The Nvidia Shield is a powerful set-top box with 4K streaming and fluid gameplay, but this expensive Android TV device needs more apps.