I simply discovered one of the best ways to make use of a Hearth Stick with out a TV

I’ve all the time been a fan of Amazon’s Fire TV Stick. It’s extremely straightforward to arrange, and you can begin streaming loads of reveals and flicks inside seconds of taking it out of the field. When you’ve got a TV with out sensible options or just need a greater streaming expertise in your TV, Amazon’s Hearth TV Sticks aren’t a nasty choice. They are much cheaper than an Apple TV 4K, and you may usually discover them on sale at a very good value.

I used to be in a position to get my Fire TV Stick 4K Max on sale for $33. For the worth I paid, I’ve completely loved my streaming expertise, and the standard and efficiency have been glorious. Nonetheless, after proudly owning and utilizing a Hearth TV Stick 4K Max for a while, I discovered my favourite use of it had nothing to do with my lounge TV.

Late within the evenings, I often get pleasure from watching reveals or motion pictures earlier than mattress. I typically do that on my PC, which is related to 2 displays, one in all which is a 4K show I exploit for picture enhancing and watching movies. The issue is that when watching a streaming service in your PC, you are sometimes restricted to utilizing your internet browser, like Google Chrome or Firefox, as a substitute of a devoted app. The problem is that almost all streaming providers, resembling Disney+ or HBO Max, do not stream 4K by way of the browser, so I find yourself watching a 1080p (and even 720p) stream on a 4K monitor, which is not precisely one of the best expertise.

To unravel this downside, I devised a easy answer: flip my Amazon Hearth TV Stick into an Amazon Hearth Monitor Stick.

Establishing a Hearth TV Stick on a monitor is simply as straightforward as a TV

Audio could also be your greatest downside

To get pleasure from 4K streaming at my desk utilizing my monitor, I unplugged my Hearth TV Stick 4K Max from my lounge TV and plugged it proper into my monitor. Like my TV, my 4K monitor additionally has a few HDMI ports, so swapping it was straightforward. My monitor has a USB port on the again that I may plug the Hearth TV Stick into for energy, however I do not suppose it has sufficient energy output, so I plugged it into my energy bar as a substitute to be secure.

The one massive downside I encountered was associated to audio. You see, when your Hearth TV Stick is related to your TV, you are often utilizing your TV’s audio system or no matter sound system you may have hooked as much as it to listen to all the pieces. One in every of my displays has audio system, however they suck, and the opposite monitor I’ve simply would not have audio system in any respect, so this introduced an issue. There is no level in watching these reveals in 4K on my monitor if the audio sucks. However then I stumbled upon a characteristic of the Hearth TV Stick that I had no concept it even had: Bluetooth audio.

With Bluetooth audio on my Hearth TV Stick, I used to be in a position to join it to the SteelSeries Arctic Nova 7 headset I exploit with my PC and hearken to each my PC’s audio (related through USB-C) and my Hearth TV Stick’s audio (through Bluetooth) concurrently. To my shock, this labored completely, and I used to be in a position to hear any reveals and flicks clearly by way of my headset, in addition to any audio on my PC, like Discord.

It is value noting that different streaming sticks, just like the Roku Streaming Stick, lack the ability to attach a Bluetooth audio gadget. So, should you attempt to do what I am doing with my Hearth TV stick on my monitor utilizing a Roku streaming stick, it will not work. The PS5 would not even have native Bluetooth audio help, so the truth that Hearth TV Sticks do is spectacular — a bonus I did not even take into account when selecting it over a Roku streaming stick. That mentioned, you probably have audio system wired to your monitor, this is not an enormous deal, however should you use headphones, it is very handy.

Connecting a Hearth TV Keep on with my monitor exceeded my expectations

My fundamental cause for doing that is that almost all streaming providers have subpar browser high quality on PC

That brings me to the unique cause I wished to hook up my Hearth TV Keep on with my monitor within the first place: to look at 4K motion pictures and reveals on my monitor. The crux of the problem is that, whilst you can watch streaming providers in your browser in your PC, resembling Chrome or Firefox, the issue is that primarily no streaming service provides 4K streaming by way of the browser. Take Disney+, for instance. When you’re utilizing Chrome, Safari, or Edge, the absolute best video high quality you possibly can obtain is Full HD, 1080p.

Whereas 1080p nonetheless appears to be like okay, since I am utilizing a 4K monitor, I need to see 4K, particularly when watching massive reveals like Andor or Daredevil. One other instance of a streaming service that does that is Prime Video, which Amazon says can obtain “as much as HD” high quality in an internet browser. Once more, not 4K. Now, Amazon’s ploy for doing this is perhaps to get folks to purchase a Hearth TV Stick, and if that is the case, then I suppose it labored on me. Why most streamers restrict their internet browser high quality is past me, but it surely may very well be associated to bandwidth points or issues about piracy.

Netflix is a standout on the subject of 4K streaming on PC. Though most internet browsers cannot stream Netflix in 4K, you are able to do so by way of Microsoft Edge or the devoted Netflix app for Home windows. Whereas it is nice that Netflix could make this occur, if you wish to watch 4K content material from different streaming providers — which I do about 70 % of the time — you will nonetheless want a streaming gadget like a Hearth TV Stick 4K Max to connect with your monitor.

Contemplating all this, after hooking up my Hearth TV Stick and getting it prepared, it began streaming easily in 4K on my monitor, similar to it could on my TV. And in case your monitor helps HDR like mine, it routinely allows it. I did not want to regulate any show settings on the Hearth TV Stick – it simply labored. I used to be in a position to stream all the standard providers I exploit, like Disney+ and Prime Video, in 4K on my monitor, one thing I could not do earlier than due to the standard limitations streaming providers have with PC internet browsers. One of many first reveals I watched in 4K on my monitor was the second season of Andor, and it appeared superb in comparison with my expertise with Google Chrome on my PC.

Once I first purchased my Hearth TV Stick, I deliberate to apply it to my TV. I by no means thought of utilizing it on my monitor. Nonetheless, since I began utilizing it on my monitor, I’ve turn into hooked. If I need to watch one thing on my monitor, I simply swap the HDMI enter from my PC to the Hearth TV Stick, and I am streaming immediately, with the audio related to my headphones through Bluetooth. It is utterly seamless and as fast as opening a streaming service by way of the browser. When you’re in an identical scenario and in addition use your desktop PC for streaming your favourite reveals and flicks, take into account getting a streaming stick just like the Hearth TV Stick 4K Max. It is an reasonably priced option to get pleasure from high-quality 4K content material and keep away from the poor high quality supplied by streaming providers by way of internet browsers.