BECOME A FILM BUFF DO IT TOGETHER
■ Flick through flicks
Letterboxd gives you several
entry points into finding films
to watch: a news feed, a grid
of popular items, reviews, and
a search function for browsing
by various criteria. Pick a film
and the app will tell you which
services are streaming it.
■ Avoid repeats
You can go full-on Mark
Kermode if you want,
smashing out full-length
reviews and a film-watching
diary. Alternatively, ensure
you don’t watch a duffer for
a second time by tracking
what you’ve viewed and
giving each flick a rating.
AMAZON
FIRE TV CUBE
You could shove a Fire
TV Stick 4K into the back
of your telly for half the
price and get most of the
same features; but the
premium choice is more
powerful and lets you
bellow across the room
to start playing your
favourite show.
£110 / amazon.co.ukCHROMECAST
WITH GOOGLE TV
A solid ‘plug it in and
forget about it’ option,
Google’s dongle is a
great buy. Chromecast
combines all your
streaming apps on
a single screen, and
you can control it all
via a dinky remote with
voice capabilities.
£60 / store.google.comROKU STREAMBAR
Clever Roku: sticking its
streaming smarts in a
soundbar means you’ve
got one less box to worry
about. HD, 4K and HDR
content with pleasingly
beefy sound is simply
sensational at this
price, and it doubles
as a Bluetooth speaker.
£130 / roku.com57
GOGGLE
BOXES
■ Be a Disney rascal
Want to watch the MCU’s
latest with distant friends?
Assuming you’ve all got
Disney+, you can kick off
a stream together. Prod the
GroupWatch icon and invite
others to join. Then use
WhatsApp to gripe about
the risible plots.■ Be a social animal
If you fancy fully mashing
social networking into your
streaming, try the Rave app
(rave.io). The top bit of the
screen plays videos and the
rest becomes a chat thread.
Just don’t drop spoilers if you
want to keep your friends.■ Account for yourself
You don’t have to create an
account to use JustWatch,
but you’ll get more out of the
service if you do. So sign up,
tell it what country you live
in, and outline the streaming
and on-demand services you
care about.■ Serve up services
Know you absolutely have to
watch something, but don’t
know which streaming service
it’s on? Search for it and
JustWatch will – based on
your account – list where
you can stream, rent or buy
it, in SD, HD or 4K.■ Get on the list
Earlier we mentioned using
JustWatch to track viewing
habits. The service integrates
a watchlist, to which you add
TV series and movies. There
are settings to filter lists that
have raged out of control.DON’T JUST
WATCH...