MARK
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.
I’m going to ping LVDave into this thread, as there’s definitely cross-functionality between his HDTV Ping list and this topic.