This is for my mother-in-law. She’s alright on technology. She’s got an iPhone and copes pretty well. Navigation and ease of use should be top priority, and maybe using the iPhone to fling.
For me the Roku is the clear winner. As far as which one goes, any of the Roku 2, 3 or the newest stick are fine and even the most costly is cheap for what is does.
I would avoid the Roku 4 because there are still issues that some folk are having. It is getting better than it was at release but I still would not recommend anyone get one until more work has been done by Roku to fix the problems.
I second @Elijah_Baley when he says almost any of them. I have a Roku stick on the TV in the living room and it’s flawless. Now, going on 2 years so yeah it’s an older version. It is just bullet proof, IMO. Install the app and just go!
You forgot the Raspbery Pi which is also a big contender IMHO. It beats at least the Chromestick and the FireTV.
I go pretty much with only Roku’s for all my family and friend recommendations. Plays my media flawlessly without transcoding needs and the interface is about as easy as you can get so anyone can really use it. I recently had 2 of my family members get the new Roku sticks and they seem to be working really well. I have some that are on Roku 3s and older (no 4s yet), all work great with Plex.
@OttoKerner said:
You forgot the Raspbery Pi which is also a big contender IMHO. It beats at least the Chromestick and the FireTV.
The pi is just daunting! If I can have plug and play, I’d choose that. I also discounted the Fire TV, just thinking that the ATV and Roku would be the same but better.
@OttoKerner said:
You forgot the Raspbery Pi which is also a big contender IMHO. It beats at least the Chromestick and the FireTV.
As good as the Pi is I cannot recommend it as it is not near as simple to use, with any remote I have tried, as the Rokus and its picture quality is also not quite as good.
Also the OP said that “ease of use” is a top priority and while the Pi is not hard to use it is not even close to as easy as the Rokus or even the vastly inferior Apple Tv.
But I do agree that it is better than the Chromcast. Almost anything is better than a device that cannot even operate without another device running it. That is search and finding content on a small screen and then sending that content to your TV is not a good experience for many.
I’d also recommend the Roku, especially if she plans to use other services, such as Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc. Roku, in my opinion, is the simplest and most straightforward set top box right now. Getting to your content is usually very fast and easy. I’d probably recommend the Roku 3 and the new Roku Stick. The only reason I wouldn’t get the Roku 2 is because it doesn’t have a WiFi remote. It’s just nice not having to point in any particular direction when using the remote. You could be eating with messy hands and maybe you want to play the next episode or something and you have to use your knuckle or something. You don’t need to worry about which direction it’s pointing. Idk, I do that a lot. 
Speaking of the remote, it’s a super simple remote and feels good in the hand. No need to look down or anything. Everything is accessible from the thumb by touch. The dedicated channel buttons (Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, rdio) at the bottom on the Roku 3 remote are just about perfect too. If only the deprecated rdio button was Plex, it would be the perfect remote.
I believe you can use the Plex app to “fling” content to your device. I know that on Roku, you first have to actually have Plex open first though. Also, with the Roku app you can do things like that, but with other channels. For instance, you can search a movie and if it’s on a service that you use (say Netflix), you could open it from the phone. Also you can cast videos and photos from the phone to the Roku using that app, plus some other things.
By the way, I bought my parents a Roku 3 for Christmas and they love it. They really aren’t tech savvy at all and they do just fine. Even my little sister navigates it very well, Plex and all.
Thank you everyone for your input. Roku stick ordered!
