Does Flixy need a separate power adapter or just the TV USB port?

Mine’s been on the TV port for about three months with no cutouts so far.

I’d plug it into a wall adapter myself. TV ports can be handy, but I’ve had a streaming stick act up when the TV was doing too much, and a proper adapter just removes that from the equation.

Plugging into the wall is what I’d do, just because a TV port feels a bit like borrowing someone’s phone charger when you have your own sitting right there. Mine ran off the TV for a while and was fine, but I moved it to a spare adapter anyway since it was easy enough.

Using the TV port is a gamble on the TV, not the stick. My old set cut power to USB whenever it went into standby, so anything plugged in would die mid-show. The newer one keeps it live fine. So it really depends on the model. If you want one less thing to think about, a cheap wall adapter is the safer bet. I’d rather not have the thing dropping just because the TV decided to save a watt.

I’ll go against the grain here and say the TV port is probably fine for how most people actually use this thing. Mine has been on the TV’s USB since December, gets used a few nights a week, mostly apps and the occasional cast from my phone. No random reboots, no freezing, nothing. The stick is cheap and low power, it’s not exactly pulling a gaming console’s worth of juice.

What I’d actually question is whether a wall adapter is some magic fix. If your TV port is cutting out, that’s the TV being cheap or lazy with its USB, not the stick needing a dedicated power brick. People act like a wall adapter solves everything, but if the device is unstable it’s unstable. I’ve seen enough cheap gadgets to know a plug doesn’t make bad hardware good.

That said, I don’t think the TV port is some sacred thing either. If yours dies the second you open too many apps, fine, move it. But swapping to a wall plug preemptively because a forum thread scared you? Eh. I’d rather find out with my own setup than buy a charger for a $30 stick that’s been behaving.

Long term I have no idea if the port will wear out or whatever. Two months in and mine’s the same as day one.

Depends how much the TV port can actually give out. I tried a similar stick on an older set and it would reboot every time I opened the browser, though regular streaming was okay. A cheap wall adapter solved it for me, so I’d lean that way if you plan on using apps and casting much.

I’d rather not gamble on whatever the TV feels like outputting. Mine rebooted mid-show once and that was enough for me to dig out an old phone charger.