Roku Players

[nesser1981]

Tell me about them.

I know you can get Netflix, Amazon, & HuluPlus streaming, but tell me about the other channels, are they free?

[origami]

Some are free. Some require a subscription.

[origami]

You can browse channels here:
http://www.roku.com/channels#!now-playing

Some channels cost to add. Others are free to add, but you might need to have a subscription to that page in order to view all the shows. For example, you can add Netflix for free, but you'll need a subscription to Netflix itself. The Smithsonian Channel is a good example of an entirely free channel.

Between Netflix and Hulu+ and a few other channels, we can generally always find something to watch. We simply could not justify the high cost of cable anymore.

[kelley]

Yep, some are free. We use ours 90% of the time for netflix, hulu plus. We didn't do the amazon thing. You can also listen to music, upload and play vimeo videos (home movies that you upload), and other things. I don't know that there are tons of other good channels really.

[MamaBee]

I LOVE ROKU!!!! It's my favorite techie device I own... I use is daily.

We only use it for Netflix, HuluPlus, and pandora. We also have a subscription to Playon - which allows us to get streaming directly off network channels like CBS that aren't a part of Hulu - and to get the hulu shows that aren't included in HuluPlus. I really don't venture from those channels. Hubby will sometimes watch NASA and CNBC... and kiddo likes playing angry birds on the "big screen." We do have Amazon because hubby has prime - but since most of the shows I watch are on netflix, too, I find using netflix easier.

[ripal]

Originally Posted by MamaBee

I LOVE ROKU!!!! It's my favorite techie device I own... I use is daily.

We only use it for Netflix, HuluPlus, and pandora. We also have a subscription to Playon - which allows us to get streaming directly off network channels like CBS that aren't a part of Hulu - and to get the hulu shows that aren't included in HuluPlus. I really don't venture from those channels. Hubby will sometimes watch NASA and CNBC... and kiddo likes playing angry birds on the "big screen." We do have Amazon because hubby has prime - but since most of the shows I watch are on netflix, too, I find using netflix easier.

Ditto on everything except hubby watching NASA and CNBC. We also watch the channel CHOW, which is cooking channel.

Oh.. and I don't have playon.. have thought about it, but didn't get around getting it.

I bought mine last year from Costco and came with 2 months of free subscription to HuluPlus.

[origami]

You can use your iPhone or iPad (and I presume your Android, check first) as a remote! Love that!

[ripal]

Originally Posted by origami

You can use your iPhone or iPad (and I presume your Android, check first) as a remote! Love that!

Really? I never knew this! Off to check!

[JenniferB]

My FAVORITE thing about our ROKU box is the PLEX app... I can have movies downloaded on my computer and play them on the TV without plugging my computer into it!

I'm on a HULU Plus trial but thinking of giving it the boot - don't like the commericals.

[ripal]

Originally Posted by JenniferB

My FAVORITE thing about our ROKU box is the PLEX app... I can have movies downloaded on my computer and play them on the TV without plugging my computer into it!

I'm on a HULU Plus trial but thinking of giving it the boot - don't like the commericals.

I'm learning more and more in this thread! Please tell me more about this one! Are you talking about home videos or from YouTube/itune or something?

[Jenn Barrette]

I now know what I want for Christmas

[nesser1981]

Originally Posted by Jenn Barrette

I now know what I want for Christmas

They're really cheap too, $50 for the cheapest model. I'm thinking I want one too.

[MamaBee]

You totally will fall in love!! We haven't had cable in like 2.5 years because of this... and outside of Bravo, I don't miss it at all...

It has been a long time since hubby got ours - but just double check the different model features... some are only wireless or only work on HDMI output tvs...

[Sherri Tierney]

I have been trying to sell my husband on Roku for MONTHS now (like almost a year!). He saw some ad for Boxee and is convinced that Boxee is 100 times better than Roku. *rolling my eyes* We saw an RCA streaming device cheap on Black Friday so we picked it up. It sucks with HuluPlus. It stops every 30 seconds to buffer so you can't play a real show at all. It works great with Netflix but we haven't tried any of the other things it works with and there is no free content.

I would LOVE to get rid of satellite entirely. We are paying $62 a month and, for me, that's about $42 a month too much for TV. DH is worried about not being able to watch sports. Not being able to watch History channel and not being able to get local channels. He also doesn't want to give up our DVR. I explain to him that if we go with this and we are streaming everything then it is all ON DEMAND, we wouldn't NEED the DVR. He still shakes his head. *rolling my eyes again*

The RCA device does not have the UHF remote. You have to point the remote directly at it in order for it to work. I hate that because it means it has to sit in front of my TV. The Roku is better in that regard for sure.

Hey... by the way, what is it with half the shows on HuluPlus saying they can't stream to a device? We get a message saying we can watch them on the computer but not on the TV?? Stupid. I am cancelling my trial for sure.

Can some of you who are familiar fill me in though... how do you get current episodes of TV shows like Grey's or CSI? DH won't give up his CSI/NCIS type shows. How do you get sports? Is there a channel or package you can add? Does streaming eat up a lot of your internet bandwidth? We have a cap of 150 GB a month and because I am backing up to two different plans (long story, won't be this way forever though) I already come close to using up my bandwidth every month. Another 50 GB is only $10 but still... if we give up cable and switch to Roku and then pay for Netflix plus extra GB usage plus sports or whatever, it all could very well add up to what we're paying for satellite, right?

[ashersmommy]

I'd like to know more about this, too. Our current satellite (no cable in our area) bill is over $100 and that's waaaay too much. I already have prime and Netflix. My husband is getting closer to acceptance of this idea but still wants local channels and HAS to have Nascar races still available to watch (I believe those are all on local TV though). Also, we don't have HDMI outputs on a couple TV's and Wifi doesn't reach his garage with one of the TV's. Does anyone know if there's a way around these issues?

[origami]

The Roku box is a one time expense. You can get it as a box or as a thumb drive. The cheapest option is $50.

We have Netflix and Hulu+ and most of what I watch is on those channels. I mostly look for interesting series and then just follow one or two at a time. I have queues and just keep them loaded with movies and shows that I haven't seen. Both Netflix and Hulu are less than $10 each. Buffering is NOT an issue. It really works great!

For local channels we went out and got one of those antennas that they kept on talking about when everything switched to digital. Honestly, we weren't really watching much network television anyway, but for those times when we feel like we need to watch it, we have the antenna. When we do switch over to local, it's usually for PBS. BUT most of what we want to watch on PBS is on the internet anyway.

We have an Xbox 360 and the only show that my husband MUST have is "Walking Dead" and so he will probably buy a subscription to that as a Christmas present to himself there. My husband doesn't really care about watching sports at all, so I can't answer that question.

Our cable bill was literally eating us alive and when we really reasoned it out, we realized that it was not a justifiable expense for us. We don't have a cap on our internet.

Yes, there are shows that don't stream to Hulu Plus, but we just watch them on the computer if we really must watch them.

We don't miss the DVR. It's exactly as you are trying to explain it to your DH. It's all streaming and on demand. Honestly, like I said, we just couldn't stand handing over all that money to the cable company each month. We have other things we need to spend our money on that are necessities and cable just had to go. My husband was very happy to take our DVR and cable remotes in to the local cable company and tell them that he wasn't going to spend all that money on their service anymore. They called us and they sent expensive mailers to us trying to woo us back.

To be honest, we probably don't watch as much TV as before. I do watch TV, but it's more planned out and less just turning on the TV to have something in the background.

[origami]

It occurs to me that my husband's lack of interest in televised sports is saving us a LOT of money!

[Ronisdragon]

I'm totally lost. Can someone please tell me what Roku is? I've never heard of it. Can you get regular TV? Is it just for movies like Netflix?

[ashersmommy]

Does anyone know if the Plex channel on Roku allows you to watch full episodes that are available on the internet? Like would I be able to go to CBS or Food Network's web site and watch full episode shows that they have available? My Kindle Fire restricts it.

[MamaBee]

Originally Posted by Ronisdragon

I'm totally lost. Can someone please tell me what Roku is? I've never heard of it. Can you get regular TV? Is it just for movies like Netflix?

Roku is a device to allow you to stream certain tv/movie sites to your existing tv through the internet... from sites that have either have shows (hulu/netflix, etc) or internet tv channels. You can get regular tv if using a subscription to playon, which also goes across the internet, but I use a digital conversion box and just switch to that to see live broadcast tv.

[MamaBee]

Originally Posted by ashersmommy

Does anyone know if the Plex channel on Roku allows you to watch full episodes that are available on the internet? Like would I be able to go to CBS or Food Network's web site and watch full episode shows that they have available? My Kindle Fire restricts it.

I'll have to check on Plex... we have playon that is the same concept. It runs off the old desktop computer downstairs that just makes the system requirements... so for watching off CBS, it's pretty choppy... but for hulu it works great!!

[MamaBee]

Originally Posted by ashersmommy

I'd like to know more about this, too. Our current satellite (no cable in our area) bill is over $100 and that's waaaay too much. I already have prime and Netflix. My husband is getting closer to acceptance of this idea but still wants local channels and HAS to have Nascar races still available to watch (I believe those are all on local TV though). Also, we don't have HDMI outputs on a couple TV's and Wifi doesn't reach his garage with one of the TV's. Does anyone know if there's a way around these issues?

I hear you on the price of cable!! It was getting way too much - we have been cable free for 2, almost 3 years...

We use a digital converter for local channels - so when want to watch that I just change setting on the tv. There are different ROKU models that are for non HDMI tvs and wired ones, etc... at least that is what hubby has told me. He is the tech guy in the family... haha

[JenniferB]

About PLEX - from what I understand, it doesn't stream it's own content, only yours... I think.

I have a bunch of movies that I've copied onto my hard drive and eliminated the DVD, with PLEX I watch them wirelessly on the TV.

Here's the website - I'm sorry I don't have more technical information!!!

PLEX for Roku

[origami]

The main thing you lose when you drop cable is a level of convenience. We have found that most of what we want to watch is available via Netflix, Hulu, Xbox or iTunes. But we are not big sports fans. The only CBS show we consistently watch is The Big Bang Theory and so we have to to remember to watch it on CBS Thursday nights or on the official CBS site if we miss the broadcast. I think it would be the same situation for CSI. But the nearly $200 per month cable bill was too much. That is $2400/year! I think you have to ask your DH if he realizes how much he is paying for something that he can still watch over the air on network TV or on demand for a limited time on his computer at the official CBS site. Usually, they only keep the most recent episodes on CBS. So he will have to remember to watch before they take down the episodes. And of course, he can't fast forward through commercials on CBS either.

Again, I don't know what to say about sports and NASCAR and football since we are sports-free in the sense that we don't enjoy watching them on TV.

[Sherri Tierney]

I am so tempted to buy that one Jenn posted about... the sports thing is a deal breaker though. If DH can't get football and golf then we'll continue to pay the $60 a month. Seriously, the guy works almost 80 hours a week these days. Sports on TV is the way he unwinds. He deserves it.

[nicolelogg]

Do you have to have wifi for it to work, and we have a old tv, do you think it would work with it?

[Sherri Tierney]

I think there are places to plug in an ethernet cable if you don't have wifi.... I don't know about older TVs, I know some models will work, from what I've read. The RCA streaming device we got would work with older TVs.

[MamaBee]

Originally Posted by nicolelogg

Do you have to have wifi for it to work, and we have a old tv, do you think it would work with it?

I think that is dependent on the model you get - the one that is on sale at One Sale a Day that Jenn posted is for the newer tv and wireless. We had a ROKU box that we were using on a tv that I had in college - and I was in college in the 1990's.

Even though we have wireless, we have the boxes wired - to get a bit faster streaming... if you don't have wired in the room you want to put the tv in, you can get this nifty box that plugs into an outlet and somehow gets to the router - that is awesome and hubby didn't have to put in a jack - if anyone wants more info on that, let me know - I'll have to ask my hubby about the details.