Posted on 03/07/2012 10:07:55 AM PST by PJ-Comix
I am interested in whatever info you can provide about ROKU. What channels are available? Cost? Which channels are FREE and which do you have to pay for? Picture quality? Etc.
I’ve downloaded the Playon PC application, and also downloded the Android application. The streaming to my Nook Color with N2ACard is terrible. I can get some Fox stuff to transfer, but nothing from CBS/NCIS. I’m using the 2 week trial.
So, as I understand it, with the Roku the feed comes through my router? Or does the Roku have its own router? If it’s through my router, I doubt the bandwidth will be acceptable.
The Roku is used in connection with your router.
I’m not very techno savvy, but did you try a system check on your pc with the playon interface—it’s the second tab? It checks your online bandwith speed, pc processor performance, and disk space and ram. Playon has a recommended minimum amount, and you can see if you are meeting that.
I’m not sure if the devices you are using in connection with the playon software could be affecting it’s performance also. I was fortunate to already own a roku when I stumbled on to playon and was able to do the trial period on my television. I had no issues, but I know some people do.
Did you try playon’s access to hulu? You can probably find many of those cbs shows on it. I mainly use the plugins—superusvox and tv-links.
If you can work those kinks out, it really works well (at least, it does for me!).
I still use cable for my internet. I help a family member manage some rental units, and they pay for my internet access. I use the mid-speed road runner version with time-warner—not the slowest but the next one up.
I’ve taken the software off my PC and Nook for now. I’m going to do some more investigating before I try again. It the Playon settings said my Android connection failed. Yet I could get access to shows, but movies and TV shows would get hung up on buffering. It may be the Nook device, but I don’t want to commit until I know for sure. It may be I have to upgrade to a more powerful router. And I know my Comcast Internet connection isn’t the fastest they offer, but that’s another $29/mos or more. Money, money, money...
You can always purchase a roku player on Amazon for $50-no tax, and then return it if you can’t get everything to work.
If you decide to purchase the playon life-time membership, you’ll get a second roku player to use in another room.
I purchase mine about a month ago, and the deal is still being offered as of now.
If you have a smartphone or tablet you might be able to use the Roku remote control app. There's a couple of them in the app markets, but Roku did release their own.
I did a download speed test that came in at 3.24Mbps. That’s lower than the 5Mbps recommended for 1080p HD streaming. So, I don’t think this would be an option for us. Thanks for the advice, you got me to the information I needed.
I like Roku. Had it about a month.
Was paying $140 for cable with premium channels and $34 for ATT DSL.
Bought low end ROKU box at Walmart for $65.
Watched a movie but it had to reload several times. Wasn’t as bad, if I closed all the browsers on my computer.
Then I did a speed test and found out that my DSL was 1500m/s, which is the low end that ROKU recommends. National average is supposedly around 8000m/s.
So I dumped Cable ($140), but changed from AT&T DSL ($32) to Cable Internet $63. And I signed up for Dish Network family package with Encore and MPlex $58/mo. Much faster. Then I bought a second Better ROKU box. Both work fine, but the second one supports HDML, where the first one has a little lower resolution.
In the end, I figure I’m saving around $50 a month, and I have a much faster internet and I have the ROKU services on two of my 5 TV’s.
About Roku, There are several movie channels but most have older public domain movies. Netflix and Amazon On Demand are the two main movie channels. My Research said NetFlix has about 17000 movies but are about to lose 3000 when a contract expires. Amazon has about 8000.
Amazon usually movies rents for 2.99 with some 1.99 and some 3.99. Some movies are free with Amazon Prime $5.99.mo? But not most.
Netflix is $7.99/mo but won’t take a prepaid debit card, so I won’t do business with them. Some of their movies are DVD Rental only. They want another $7.99/mo for that service.
Lots of News Channels, including overseas news.
Two main music channels Pandora and MOG. Pandora lets you vote on each song, MOG has almost every album of every artist. Signed up last week for $5.99/mo after the free trial, then got email saying it’s now free.
There are several tech channels, but not impressed so far.
There’s a couple of game channels, but my favorite Soduko, just ended their free beta and says they are going to charge when they come back. They hung the ROKU box by the way. Video Poker is still free. Hoping more free game channels will come online.
I obtained one recently and have been pleased.
I previously had bought a Revue, a hardware box that Google and Logitech had teamed to create. It was disappointing for my purposes and I returned it.
If you have a cable box or just limited cable, a TV with a HDMI input, a cable Modem and Router, and a HDMI cable you can use a Roku.
I trust you have visited the Roku web site so I don’t need to describe what it does. The channels available have nothing to do with what your cable service provides. You have access to whatever exists on the Internet
Prices vary, which I did not know when I bought mine. I paid $90 for what turned out to be the high-end unit including the HDMI cable but prices start at $50. Easy install and operation. The “Channel Store” offers both free and play web sites.
I’ve had a Roku box for about a couple of years now. Mostly use it for netflix and Amazon prime. Probably the best totally free movie channel is Crackle. But there are literally dozens and dozens of “free” channels to get.
Look through the private channel listings. For free, they offer, w/o commercials, the main segments of your local TV news. So, you watch the news, usually from the day you are watching, sometimes 1 day delayed, in about 24 minutes. Maybe less...I get my weather from the Internet, and I have no internet in local sports. They have TV news from nearly every market in the country.
The 2 1/2 minute CHOW! clips are interesting, IMO, and free. There are some newer food offerings, but I haven’t checked them out. Crackle is old movies w/some commercials, mostly for Crackle. We watched Lilyhammer. w/closed captions while the DVD is still unavailable. Closed captioning not available on all offerings from Netflix, but more and more do offer them.
FNC offers vodcasts, as do all the other network news shows. FNS, IIRC, available in toto the next day.
Worth the money and you can watch a lot of stuff free. My husband likes Sailing Channel, but the buffering can be annoying.
A lot depends on your available bandwidth. We pay a total of $25/mo for Netflix & GBTV. Our DirecTV used to be $70, w/zero premiums.
So how do you watch Fox News?
I'm going to wait for iTV this Fall and take it from there. The thing is, I currently have a comcast cable TV and internet package. If I drop cable, is there a CHEAP alternative to hook to the Internet?
What plug-in do you have for live streaming? I love my Roku and want took get rid of my cable.
I don’t.
We hate our Netflix-enabled DVD players. They have horrible interfaces. I prefer my 400-disc DVD player and my Roku. :)
Interfaces do vary dramatically. Friend at work with a Roku says the only bad part about it is the Netflix interface. My Samsung bluray has a good Netflix interface, at least until my instant queue gets kind of big then it’s easier to use the search than the queue, but part of that is also that the search has very good interface. My biggest complaint with it is that if I have 45 minutes before I’m due to go somewhere so I decide I want the sneak in a 42 minute show you can pretty much guarantee that’s the time when the Samsung decides it needs a firmware update, and a Netflix client update, and there goes 15 minutes. It doesn’t update itself often, only when it will annoy me.
Could you please elaborate on the differences between playon and roku? Why would you need to add the playon app to your roku box?
Basically, I have an xbox that I can use for playon. Would getting a roku add anything playon doesn’t already provide?
just sent you private reply
thank you for the information. Do you enjoy using Playon with the Roku and is the episodes delayed by several days or weeks? Also, what plug-in would you recommend for being able to access live-tv?
Thank you.
-A
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