Posted on 06/09/2019 4:22:12 PM PDT by Allen In Texas Hill Country
My daughter has been paying an unbelievable amount to a cable co for TV, internet and phone. Won't say who. She lives on SSI only, very limited income. So she wants to try Netflix. She has two TVs. The big one readily connected to Netflix and works. The smaller/bit older needs an external box to get Netflix. She was told by Netflix to get a Roku box. So I did and was going thru the installation instructions. No problem,,,,,,,,,,,,,, till I get to the on screen instructions.
The paper alluded to having to set up a Roku account. On the one hand I guess setting up an arbitrary account is no big deal. But then it suggested/alluded to putting in a credit card number.
Question, has anyone here installed a Roku box without setting up an account? Can one set up an account without a CC?
I may have given them a cc card number but they’ve never charged me. It’s for use if you want to subscribe to something that requires you to pay extra. Also, mine is set up so that I have to put in an additional PIN # before the transaction goes through. I’ve never used it.
Also, the Roku Channel offers free movies (with commercial breaks), so download that. Others that offer free movies include Tubi an Crackle. And then there’s Pluto, which has all kinds of free stuff.
You need a credit card. That’s in case you want to watch something you need to purchase. They have my cc number and I’ve never charged a dime on it because I use my Roku to watch Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube and my own in-house music streamer. In fact, our credit card number was stolen a few months back and I never updated Roku with the new one. If I try to charge something on my Roku account, I’m sure it will come back with “Invalid card number.”
Not a big deal. Unless you don’t have a credit card.
Wow, what a bunch of kinda conflicting answers. Tomorrow will be an adventure.
Thanks all.
The credit card I used to setup Roku has long since expired. No issues yet, never purchased anything anyway.
You can buy a Chromecast for $35 (has WiFi + HDMI output), install the Netflix app on your phone and then instruct the Netflix app to send the stream to the Chromecast device.
You have to setup the Chromecast to your WiFi first but it works great. FYI you can’t do this with Amazon Prime - the app doesn’t let you (even though you can also beam your smartphone screen to the Chromecast while watching AP, the video doesn’t transfer).
I’ve had a ROKU Premier+ for 2 years - no problems whatsoever.
You are required to input a CC/DC...just in case you purchase/rent a movie or pay-to-view channel.
Please note there is a LOT of free stuff with a ROKU including their own “channel/app” that has LOTS of free movies.
Finally, “Amazon Prime” has a free channel to watch movies and TV shows. “imdb-free” is a great free resource and, if you’re a “Fringe” fan, you can watch the entire series free with limited commercials.
no. streaming is watching a youtube video.
Using Roku you can get way more stuff then cable can give for free other then the cheap box and your internet access with less ads then cable. If you add Netflix you get no ads for their video's but that is $12 a month I think.
I’ve had a Roku for years, and don’t ever remember having to give credit card info to them to set the unit up. If I did at the time, no big deal, since whatever credit card or debit card I used expired years ago, and they’ve never asked for a new one. I pay Netflix each month by recurring transaction. It’s $28.68 for unlimited streaming, and receipt of one DVD at a time. For just streaming, the current rate is $8.99 a month.
Shocked that no one on this thread suggested that his daughter do without.
SSI/limited income!
I work (minimum wage). I pay my bills and have nothing beyond my monthly minimum online data. Why? ‘Cause I can’t afford it!
It’s been ages since we first set up a Roku account, but we’ve never had a moments’ worth of problems with them. We got tired of paying a king’s ransom for digital service, 95% of which we never watched, and cut the cable about six months ago. We set up Roku boxes in several rooms, and Amazon Fire in the others. We love it. And if your daughter is getting broadband Internet service from this company, she can still log into a lot of networks on her PC (AMC, TNT, etc) and watch whatever shows she likes. She just has to put up with all the commercials if she’s just a regular subscriber and doesn’t have the premium service, but that goes with the territory. We also have a reciprocal login setup with our son-in-law - we have his Netflix account login, and he has our Hulu. We’re happy, they’re happy, and it keeps the grandkids entertained.
I tried Roku, didn’t like it. Bought an Amazon Firebox and have never looked back. Pluto TV is a free tv app, although very Left. Crackle is free,as are others for some movies and tv shows. I installed Kodi and it was over to the the dark side from there. Running a VPN now, and can pretty much stream (live watch) whatever I want.
Kodi rocks
Gave them a number have never had unauthorized charges. The cc expired after several years and the new number exp. date never changed with them. Still have ROKU (no pay for view channel apps loaded) Still able to watch every selected channel as we’ve done in the past. One problem with the new exp date on cc! There is no phone number listed which can be found to amend these changes. We’ve moved with new ISP - never notified ROKU of the move. Again, no number/no contact; still plugged in just as we were
ROKU has a great deal of garbage channels; however there are always adding more channels and scenes of interest. Their ROKU CHANNEL (a FREE CHANNEL) shows a number of movies which though they are not just released, do have a following and popularity.
Don’t give ANY money to the globalist media corporations.
Get an Android TV box for $30 and Kodi with Scrubs2 and CCloudTV.
With that you can watch way more than what is on Netflix and stream cable channels like Fox News, all for free. All you need is a DSL or higher broadband Internet connection.
I didn’t realize it, but you can install Kodi on Roku.
https://www.ivacy.com/blog/install-kodi-on-roku/
You can install Kodi on ANYTHING.
Are you aware you can add these channels from your TV screen?
No need to remember your account when visiting Add from your HOME ROKU page
To order on the net:
https://blog.roku.com/
https://blog.roku.com/category/us-roku-channels
I dropped Netflix after the Obama and his beard were signed by Netflix.
I have several Rokus with no problems. Also have an Amazon box and an Apple box. I like Roku the best because they seem to keep track of what the viewer is watching and where they are in it better than the other ones. I also prefer the controller to the others.
I am aware of that. But ROKU also has the ROKU channel where you can subscribe to other premium services like HBO, Showtime, EPIX, etc. and you can do that all in one place instead of several different ones.
Never had an issue with Roku. Now I will limit my comments about people on welfare using 2 TVs including one a smart tv. We are so screwed.
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