Do you Roku?

[rva]

Meh.  Now that googletv looks like it's getting bogged down negotiating with various networks and providers (and the same thing will happen to any other new competitor), that Roku box is looking more attractive.  At $80+$96 (12 mos. of netflix)=$176.  If you watch 2-3 movies a month in the next year, it's probably worth it.  Plus Pandora, plus MLB.TV is better than the Extra Innings package from Verizon.

[Poncho]

You're still basically paying $80 for a remote control.

We plug the laptop into the TV via an HDMI cable for free and do the same thing.

[rva]

It's actually a crappy remote control (no keyboard, crappy menus), which is part of the problem. A laptop is vastly preferable in terms of content, as you can get to MLB.TV, hulu, Amazon VOD, rhapsody, pandora, slacker, YouTube and everything else.  Plus, there's your bluray player and you can even play PC games.  Only thing is, I like to have my laptop open while watching TV and I just might be willing to pay $7 to do it... if it weren't so annoying.

To be perfectly honest, by far the easiest solution is to simply bittorrent anything I want to see.  My DVR lets me stream any video file from my PC.  It just won't let me stream live from the net via PC.  It's just stupid that the technology is all there, but it's being held back because everyone is so short-sighted and greedy.  Verizon won't support live streaming unless it's through their own store.  Netflix won't support Linux.  CBS wants tons of money from Hulu.  Hulu wants money from Google.  They all want money from Sony/Roku or whatever hardware provider.

It's ridiculous.  With so much pirating going on, you would think these guys would be falling all over themselves to make paying for and legally viewing content as easy as possible.  Instead, they're going out of their way to make it as inconvenient as possible.  I would be perfectly happy to pay Netflix $8.99 a month and toss $100-$300 at Apple, Roku, Sony, or whoever to provide the hardware.  My major incentive to pirate stuff isn't the cost savings, it's the convenience.  That is majorly messed up.

[Cockney Rebel]

So, I am now Roku'd.

All because we got given a 3-month gift certificate to Netflix and the instant queue facility just turned my head.

Easy piece of kit to set up and seems to work a treat.

If it wasn't for FSC (football) and FSOhio (Reds) I think we would deffo be cutting the cable?!

[Poncho]

We were talking about this the other night.  If we could pick cable channels individually, we'd have about 2 dozen-ish channels and that's it.  Unfortunately, no cheap package has all of these options.

Network: ABC, CBS, NBC, CW, Fox  (although to be fair, I don't know that we actually regularly watch anything on ABC, Fox or CW, but I like the option)

We both like: BBC America, SyFy (still dumbest name change EVER), Discovery, Animal Planet, IFC, Nat Geo, Nat Geo Wild, History, GSN

I like: NFL Network, ESPN, ESPNews

She likes: Bravo, Style, Food Network, Cooking Channel, HGTV


Other than that, we Netflix anything we want to see.  With a little creative Netflix'ing or Hulu'ing we could probably take 3 or 4 of those channels away.

[Ella Minnow Pea]

Free month of mog

[Poncho]

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2398338,00.asp

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/story/2012-01-04/roku-CES/52368412/1  (video in this one)

Roku announces a stick.  Interesting.

[Poncho]

I caved, but not on a Roku.  Since it's the same basic concept, I put it in this thread.

Amazon had a $35 lightning deal on a 4-port Internet Bridge.  Neither my blu-ray player nor my DirecTV DVR were wifi but now they both are.  The blu-ray just makes it easier to update, I doubt we will use the crappy BD LIVE "features" (yeah, I tried a couple of times and those are NOT features, just annoying ads) though.  The DVR opens a whole world of programming to me.  They have a lot of on demand channels that we now have access to.  That's nice.  

It solved my Big Bang/Parks & Rec problem.  I took P&R off my DVR scheduling because it's on demand the morning after.  The scheduler just lets me grab any new on demand episodes it put up.  This meant a one-time deleting of the 8 or 9 episodes we had already seen which the DVR thought were new to us, but it's good now.

[Doug]

We went over to Roku last weekend after Dish pissed us off.  We tried to go to a cheaper Dish package and they wouldn't let us without signing another 2 year contract.  They suckered us into the last contract and I'm not gonna' do that again.  So we quit and I spent what I would have for the Dish bill for the month on a Roku 2 XS.

We are enjoying it so far.  We got Hulu+, so I'm not missing any shows and I really like the ability to go back and watch older seasons.  I finally get to catch up on Community.

Anybody have any good suggestions for series or channels?

[Cockney Rebel]

Well, there's the XXX Channel but I suspect M may not want you watching that?

Pub D Hub has a lot of surprising family-friendly fun on it. All of it old, some of hysterically-lame but some of it fascinating

[Kwyjibo]

Amazon Prime Instant Videos has just expanded again.  They've got Nickelodeon, MTV, VH1, Comedy Central and TV Land now.  The Nickelodeon thing may be enough to get us off of cable... keeping programming for Nora and Nichole are big factors for us.

[Doug]

I may have to check that out.  We're on week two of our conversion and so far, no withdrawal symptoms or freakouts.  We have been pretty dependent on Netflix and are able to watch our favorite shows on Hulu Plus.  I was able to download some Cartoon Network shows to a memory stick and play them on the Roku for the boys, so they were able to get their Adventure Time and Regular Show fix.

I have to say that I'm getting pretty spoiled with the streaming.  I doubt I'll ever go back to cable or dish.

[Dan]

I have to say that I'm getting pretty spoiled with the streaming.  I doubt I'll ever go back to cable or dish.

If things stay the same.

Its for reasons like this that internet providers are clamoring for rates or changes in internet providing models. I don't know much about it but I get that some people definitely demand more of their internet than others. Personally I love it when I use it (which isn't much) but I hope that things do stay the same.














*I have no idea why I came in here all doomsday-esque. Sorry about that.

[Doug]

Things always change.  I'm not worried.  It's just television...a slight diversion from my day.  I was looking at how much I used to spend for Cable, Internet and phone 2 years ago (Dish/Roadrunner/CinBell) vs now (Roku/Roadrunner/MagicJack).  I'm now paying 1/4th what I did for about the same stuff.  Actually my Internet speed is better now too.

[Butter]

It's all good until, as Dan said, Time Warner decides to start metering.

Because let's face it, internet options kinda suck around here.