Roku and Friends: Can You Cut the Cable? - Comments Page 1

ROKU is a great thing and I love the 3 with the earphone connection. It does not bring in the network channels. And CBS shows are not in the mix very much. I wish there was better news/real time broadcast network access. So far I still have the basic cable but dropped all the rest.

I bought the Roku 3 last October and have not used it much. My wife watched The Hallmark Channel on it until we upgraded our TV service to Century Link Prism. Like you, we have had no problems with it, but with so many channels on our Basic Prism to watch, we just don't need it.

PS. Enjoy your newsletter. Please keep up the good work. By the way, I also bought a couple of your books which were excellent.

Bob, Last newsletter - I assume it was meant to say Roku is "NOT" the only choice - instead of "Roku is the only choice", yes? Best to you -

EDITOR'S NOTE: Oops, quite right, thanks. Fixed now.

We gave up TV a year and a half ago , went to a Roku box , and there is plenty of content but we learned allot along the way , we added playon and playon later , with playon I have access to all web sites and all episodes online of nearly every show , playon later lets me tape to watch later , most main channels provide the last five episodes of a series , I tape bi weekly and now have all episodes from the beginning of the season , Hulu became totally unnecessary and we stopped it , Amazon prime does not offer much that Netflix doesn't have , so right now we paid for Roku and Playon for life and added Netflix , Vudu puts up some good movies of 99 cents one a day , so we have access to all the major channel shows and can tape them , the only cons are food network , bravo , discovery channel and espn do not put up full episodes , espn is available but you have to take the service and that costs , My husband found NFL rewind which gives you the complete game of every game after midnight , he has changed his viewing habits and really enjoys picking the games he wants to see, and he can watch the full game or condensed version which has every play beginning to end but no 30 seconds between plays and no commercials he can watch every play of an entire game in 45 minutes

My wife and I have given some thought to cutting our monthly cable & phone costs. Switching back to off-the-air free TV along with streaming from the Internet is one thing we've been considering. But...judging by your newsletter article I'm not sure streaming is ready for prime time. I guess I need to do more research on what networks are available. We are not big movie watchers. So their availability by streaming is not very important to us.

There is always "Justin TV" for free &/or $10.00 a month with no "Advertising".

There are several more, some with advanced features too players available in the market. I have five different streaming media devices and they all have their own unique problems like dropped connections, intractable buffering and just plain does not perform as claimed. Maybe in time someone will make a 'box' that just works.

Bob
One item that has not been commented on that I would like to learn is how to record the stuff that comes in from the net. For instance michelle
mentions her husband has a NFL channel that replays each game after midnight. Is it possible to record them (easily) so it happens unattended (I still like my beauty sleep).

I have seen some comments about apple TV having a better picture that ruku. Is there anything to this. I have some ios stuff and am thinking apple tv. But I understand Ruku has much more stuff easier to get to. I am trying to decide if that really matters and whether I should just go with the apple because of the ios stuff.

I record and view HD broadcast TV on my PC, but I've been using my PS3 for all my streaming video since the day I installed it, so much that the PS3 got the powerline connection rather than my PC.

We gave up DirecTV about 5 months ago. I removed the dish and used the mast and cabling for an antenna. The reception is terrific for the off-the-air channels. We broke down and bought a Tivo unit and subscribe to the TV guide service for $15 a month so we can record shows to watch later. We have a Samsung smart TV, so I can use the All Share program to view programs that are stored on my computer on my TV. I also have Chromecast which I use occasionally to send web streams to my TV. We also have a Roku which we don't use at all since we bought the smart TV.

We LOVE our Roku and usually watch a couple movies every night but we can't cut cable because that's how we get internet. We've tried satellite and phone internet and NOTHING compares to the speed and dependability to our cable internet, especially for $35.00 a month!

What you fail to mention is that Netflix, Hulu+ and Vudu are not free. Some Cable Providers include Netflix and Hulu for free with a subscription. Hulu+ is extra.

With my Comcast I get hundreds of movies for free and Streampix offers many new movies at low cost and very many free ones along with Sports news and more, So many free I can't even keep up, but you can record five channels and watch one at the same time. The thripple pack with Internet and Phone costs less than a cup of Starbucks Coffee or Big Mack daily.

One thing I don't like about Roku is the constant upgrade of hardware and their limiting their new listings to the newer hardware. I have a two year old 1080P ROKU box (I think XD). I was very excited when ESPN 3 became available on Roku. Unfortunately, my box will not display ESPN3. Roku wants me to upgrade to a newer box to get ESPN3. I ended up getting Chromecast instead.

though reluctant to comment on this, i felt to correct AI.S when it said bob failed to say some streaming services are accesible by paying an extra monthly fee.
besides the fact he's mentioned this several times in the past, he also mentioned this fact in this article when he wrote it "supports" these services, which is a word which implies optionality. he didn't say "includes", which is what you were suggesting.

I refuse to pay $250/month for cable with Internet, so I've had Roku for about three years and I love it. I have Netflix and Amazon Prime, having recently given up Hulu Plus (although I'm still on the fence about whether I want to resubscribe). I have a Leaf antenna for local broadcast TV.

I've become an addicted binge-watcher and now I can't imagine watching TV shows any other way. I also watch movies and enjoy the variety available. I don't care about the latest megahit so I'm happy with the choices I'm given. I might watch a comic book movie one night and a French movie the next.

I don't own a streaming device, but I know some people who swear by the gbox midnight, which uses the xbmc program for viewing media. It links to all sorts of online sites (crackle, project free tv, etc). The downside is it's really slow unless you have an ethernet or cable connection.
http://www.gboxpower.com/

Thank you, Bob, for all of this timely information. NetFlix was recently installed on my TV so I am in the experimental stage. My new TV's are all "over-the-air" and so far, I have no regrets about cancelling that portion of my cable service. If I could find a less expensive way to get e-mail, etc. I would do it. So far, my experience with NetFlix and Roku is quite limited but so far, I am happy with my decision. I do not expect entertainment to be free all the time. I used to run back and forth to Blockbuster and pay to rent each movie. My former cable TV provider had eliminated CNN and the program guide among other things when I reduced my service. Only time will tell but so far, I am pleased and look forward to more evenings with Roku.

I cut the TV portion of my cable service a few months ago and upgraded our cable internet service. Our bill is now less than half what we used to pay for TV and internet combined. I'm fairly happy with my Roku 3 boxes. Annoyances include having to re-pair the Roku remotes with their boxes every couple of weeks and very spotty/fickle reception from the antennas I use to watch over the air channels.

Thanks Bob, I too find your articles very informative. I'd like to know if the new outdoor digital antennas are any good. And, if so, what do you recommend. I am thinking of replacing my direct tv service and using a digital antenna for the local channels, and getting a streaming device like Roku or Hulu for movies.

These units all sound very good; will they work in Africa?