Do you Roku??

[Maine-i-ac]

Just curious. My wife and I got rid of Dish a year ago and have been getting our programming through the internet and Roku? Anyone else? Favorites?

Well, we do subscribe to Netflix and Hulu Plus. Still a LOT cheaper than satellite.

And with nowhereman and Mummy Box there are more channels than what we know to do with. Our favorites through the nowhereman channel have to be Weather Nation, History Channel, Red Green Channel and Challenge (the UK's version of GSN).

Plus with Video Buzz we can stream all the YouTube videos you want. Crackle has a decent lineup from the Sony library and we think Jerry Seinfeld's original series "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" is great. Loved the Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks episode.

700 channels and growing. We'll never go back.

 

[KeithE4]

You also get (if you want to pay for them) MLB.TV and the equivalent NBA and NHL packages. No WatchESPN or ESPN3. For news, it's CNN International, BBC's national news channel, and a few others, but only podcasts from the American networks.

Overall, I'm very happy with my Roku boxes (I have two). I dropped cable 3 years ago, and the only thing I miss is live sports. That means I just have to go to my local sports bar more often. ;D

 

[anotherguyTN]

Is the Red Green channel a separate channel or is it through You Tube? I can get Red Green videos through You Tube on our Wii, but it's difficult to get to specific episodes. If it's a separate channel you've sold me!!!

 

[benale]

After our cable bill jumped to over $100 a month, we downgraded to the very basic service which includes the local stations for $20.If we lived in an area that received local over the air channels we would have dropped cable entirely.

We got Roku about two months ago and love it. We do subscribe to Hulu Plus and Netflix,but we are saving a lot. Not being a sports fan, I won't miss the live events on cable. I also sold my complete DVD sets of several sitcoms, after finding all the episodes on Netflix, and we can still watch Leno and Fallon's shows a day later. I only wish Hulu had CBS shows on their site.

 

[Maine-i-ac]

@anotherguy

If you have a Roku, do you have thenowhereman channel? It's a private channel but PM me and I can get you the code or it's available on the web. I digress. Go to thenowhereman, go down to the entertainment line, scroll through and you'll see Mr. Green's smiling face between Ellen and Jimmy Fallon. All 15 seasons, 300 shows are there in commercial free glory.

@benale
A lot of people have success with Play On. It will stream stuff like CBS.com and anything else from your computer to your Roku.

 

[anotherguyTN]

@anotherguy

If you have a Roku, do you have thenowhereman channel? It's a private channel but PM me and I can get you the code or it's available on the web. I digress. Go to thenowhereman, go down to the entertainment line, scroll through and you'll see Mr. Green's smiling face between Ellen and Jimmy Fallon. All 15 seasons, 300 shows are there in commercial free glory.

I don't have a streaming player yet, but have been planning to get one. THis is a definite plus for Roku for me.

 

[philosofy]

Maine-i-ac,

Just a small heads up, History Channel got removed from nowheretv a few days ago. Posters on the Roku forums think it may be due to a DMCA complaint from History.

And I found out today that two channels I really liked, PBS and Mummybox, no longer work either.

 

[KeithE4]

For news, it's CNN International, BBC's national news channel, and a few others, but only podcasts from the American networks.

I should elaborate: It's mostly podcasts and individual story segments from the American news networks. Rachael Maddow's show is available in its entirety via MSNBC, with commercials removed, on a one-day delay.

 

[Maine-i-ac]

Thanks for the heads up about History, didn't know that. Yeah, bummed about MummyBox. But the thing is, that there's so much out there and so much potential, that it's like being on the ground floor. Can't wait to see what's next.

PBS and PBS Kids will return as it's own channel in the Channel Store sometime in this quarter.

Also this article from CNET talks about new channels coming including Lifetime, History in some form or another:

http://ces.cnet.com/8301-34444_1-57562232/roku-surpasses-700-channels-adds-roku-ready-tv-partners/

 

[Darth_vader]

Do I *use* Roku? No. I have a normal PC that does that job just fine. Wouldn't mind getting my hands on a used one, though, so I can try to hack it!

"Crackle has a decent lineup"

Yeah, "crackle" is the sound Youtube makes when your video file totally refuses to load, no matter how much you sit there hitting F5.....

 

[KeithE4]

TuneIn is available for internet radio, but the CBS-owned stations are blacked out. AFAIK, there is no Radio.com app for Roku as yet.

 

[whit979]

Got a Roku LT for Christmas in 2011 and have not missed cable one moment since. A few thoughts:

- The Nowhere TV channel is an absolute must to get the most out of a Roku. I really enjoy the live stream of BBC World News, which to me does a better job of reporting American news than American TV does. It's worth visiting the Nowhere TV website to see what is being developed, because there are several other channels (including UStream, among others) they also make available.

- I share a Netflix subscription on it and also subscribe to Amazon's Prime Instant Video, which has a decent but growing list of movies and shows available for streaming. If you're a Star Trek fan, an Amazon subscription is an absolute must. Hulu Plus is probably a better deal given the size of its video archive, but it's hard to beat the other perks included with Amazon Prime.

- While the cheapest model (Roku LT) is available for $49.99, it's worth spending another $50 to get the Roku XS for its game functionality. I've also recently discovered that some channels, such as the new Spotify channel, are not compatible with the LT model. There are a lot of channels for free music streaming on Roku, including Shoutcast, Rdio and TuneIn, as was already mentioned.

- Apart from Roku: If you have an HDMI-compatible TV and computer, it's worth getting a cable to hook the two together. I have a Vizio HDTV and a MacBook Air, and I recently purchased an HDMI cable to connect the two (along with a Thunderbolt-to-HDMI adapter, $3 on Amazon). It opened up access to YouTube, free Hulu and general Web browsing.

 

[KeithE4]

- Apart from Roku: If you have an HDMI-compatible TV and computer, it's worth getting a cable to hook the two together. I have a Vizio HDTV and a MacBook Air, and I recently purchased an HDMI cable to connect the two (along with a Thunderbolt-to-HDMI adapter, $3 on Amazon). It opened up access to YouTube, free Hulu and general Web browsing.

I have a nettop PC as well as a Roku box on my TV. The PC is used mainly for audio - listening to CBS-owned radio stations (as I mentioned earlier, they are not available via Roku but are on a PC, both via TuneIn and Radio.com), as well as listening to live college sports on CBS ULive. The wireless keyboard & mouse are a big help. But the more services that will become available via Roku, the greater chance of me putting this PC to other uses.