Roku?
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Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 55
Likes: 0
From: Atlanta
Netflix/ and with that box, with my wireless blue ray which I bought to watch blue ray movies and cost only 65 dollars I am set, as I can watch anything I want, huulu, youtube, crackle, etc
Last edited by Beastly Angel; Dec 26, 2012 at 02:50 PM.
Road Captain
Joined: Oct 2012
Posts: 553
Likes: 46
From: Canton, GA
I am pretty "up" on streaming players like Rokus and such and have several in my house. Here's what I can tell you.
The little box you buy and stick next to your TV is a streaming device. It can be a Roku,an AppleTV, a GoogleTV device, or a generic brand. Basically they are just the technology that converts **** coming over the internet into what you see on the TV. Many Blu-ray/DVD players have streaming capabilities,too.
Rokus are good, but are a good just like iPhones are good for some people. It works out of the box but there's only so much you can do with it. Devices that run GoogleTV (there are several brands...GoogleTV is like an OS) are much more configurable.
If you are only planning on STREAMING from the INTERNET, quite honestly, almost any streaming appliance will be fine for you. However, if you have media on your computer that you want to connect to or copy to a drive and plug into the streaming appliance, you need to make sure you get something with a USB port AND that can play the video format files you have without hiccuping. I have a WDLive Plus that works well for this purpose although it's interface is not as good as the Roku and is a little clunky to maneuver through menu-wise.
Likewise, you can STREAM files from your computer to most streaming appliances if you run a media sharing server on your host computer. I use PLEX which is pretty robust and foolproof because I that thousands of TV shows and Movies at home on my server.
Streaming services that are good are:
Most of these services have overlapping content, but Hulu Plus tends to have the newest TV shows available before Netflix or Amazon.
If you are tech savvy, you can get by without any of those above. Check out Sickbeard, Couch Potato, and SABnzbd. If you delve into those, it's worth it but not for the faint of heart to get setup.
I also have a HD antennae for one of my TVs and it's OK. I'm 12 miles from Manhattan and I fight getting signal. Granted, I don't have a rooftop mount, but if I want to flick on the news in the morning, it's functional.
The biggest thing about going off the grid is changing your TV watching style/habit. It's different than being on a broadcast schedule. I tend to find a show I have never watched before and marathon through all the episodes until I get to the end.
The little box you buy and stick next to your TV is a streaming device. It can be a Roku,an AppleTV, a GoogleTV device, or a generic brand. Basically they are just the technology that converts **** coming over the internet into what you see on the TV. Many Blu-ray/DVD players have streaming capabilities,too.
Rokus are good, but are a good just like iPhones are good for some people. It works out of the box but there's only so much you can do with it. Devices that run GoogleTV (there are several brands...GoogleTV is like an OS) are much more configurable.
If you are only planning on STREAMING from the INTERNET, quite honestly, almost any streaming appliance will be fine for you. However, if you have media on your computer that you want to connect to or copy to a drive and plug into the streaming appliance, you need to make sure you get something with a USB port AND that can play the video format files you have without hiccuping. I have a WDLive Plus that works well for this purpose although it's interface is not as good as the Roku and is a little clunky to maneuver through menu-wise.
Likewise, you can STREAM files from your computer to most streaming appliances if you run a media sharing server on your host computer. I use PLEX which is pretty robust and foolproof because I that thousands of TV shows and Movies at home on my server.
Streaming services that are good are:
- Netflix
- Hulu Plus
- Amazon Instant (if you have a Prime membership, much of the content is FREE
Most of these services have overlapping content, but Hulu Plus tends to have the newest TV shows available before Netflix or Amazon.
If you are tech savvy, you can get by without any of those above. Check out Sickbeard, Couch Potato, and SABnzbd. If you delve into those, it's worth it but not for the faint of heart to get setup.
I also have a HD antennae for one of my TVs and it's OK. I'm 12 miles from Manhattan and I fight getting signal. Granted, I don't have a rooftop mount, but if I want to flick on the news in the morning, it's functional.
The biggest thing about going off the grid is changing your TV watching style/habit. It's different than being on a broadcast schedule. I tend to find a show I have never watched before and marathon through all the episodes until I get to the end.
Last edited by Greg Di; Dec 26, 2012 at 03:01 PM.
Thread Starter
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Elite HDF Member
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 4,571
Likes: 121
From: Mpls, MN
I am pretty "up" on streaming players like Rokus and such and have several in my house. Here's what I can tell you.
The little box you buy and stick next to your TV is a streaming device. It can be a Roku,an AppleTV, a GoogleTV device, or a generic brand. Basically they are just the technology that converts **** coming over the internet into what you see on the TV. Many Blu-ray/DVD players have streaming capabilities,too.
Rokus are good, but are a good just like iPhones are good for some people. It works out of the box but there's only so much you can do with it. Devices that run GoogleTV (there are several brands...GoogleTV is like an OS) are much more configurable.
If you are only planning on STREAMING from the INTERNET, quite honestly, almost any streaming appliance will be fine for you. However, if you have media on your computer that you want to connect to or copy to a drive and plug into the streaming appliance, you need to make sure you get something with a USB port AND that can play the video format files you have without hiccuping. I have a WDLive Plus that works well for this purpose although it's interface is not as good as the Roku and is a little clunky to maneuver through menu-wise.
Likewise, you can STREAM files from your computer to most streaming appliances if you run a media sharing server on your host computer. I use PLEX which is pretty robust and foolproof because I that thousands of TV shows and Movies at home on my server.
Streaming services that are good are:
If you are tech savvy, you can get by without any of those above. Check out Sickbeard, Couch Potato, and SABnzbd. If you delve into those, it's worth it but not for the faint of heart to get setup.
I also have a HD antennae for one of my TVs and it's OK. I'm 12 miles from Manhattan and I fight getting signal. Granted, I don't have a rooftop mount, but if I want to flick on the news in the morning, it's functional.
The biggest thing about going off the grid is changing your TV watching style/habit. It's different than being on a broadcast schedule. I tend to find a show I have never watched before and marathon through all the episodes until I get to the end.
The little box you buy and stick next to your TV is a streaming device. It can be a Roku,an AppleTV, a GoogleTV device, or a generic brand. Basically they are just the technology that converts **** coming over the internet into what you see on the TV. Many Blu-ray/DVD players have streaming capabilities,too.
Rokus are good, but are a good just like iPhones are good for some people. It works out of the box but there's only so much you can do with it. Devices that run GoogleTV (there are several brands...GoogleTV is like an OS) are much more configurable.
If you are only planning on STREAMING from the INTERNET, quite honestly, almost any streaming appliance will be fine for you. However, if you have media on your computer that you want to connect to or copy to a drive and plug into the streaming appliance, you need to make sure you get something with a USB port AND that can play the video format files you have without hiccuping. I have a WDLive Plus that works well for this purpose although it's interface is not as good as the Roku and is a little clunky to maneuver through menu-wise.
Likewise, you can STREAM files from your computer to most streaming appliances if you run a media sharing server on your host computer. I use PLEX which is pretty robust and foolproof because I that thousands of TV shows and Movies at home on my server.
Streaming services that are good are:
- Netflix
- Hulu Plus
- Amazon Instant (if you have a Prime membership, much of the content is FREE
If you are tech savvy, you can get by without any of those above. Check out Sickbeard, Couch Potato, and SABnzbd. If you delve into those, it's worth it but not for the faint of heart to get setup.
I also have a HD antennae for one of my TVs and it's OK. I'm 12 miles from Manhattan and I fight getting signal. Granted, I don't have a rooftop mount, but if I want to flick on the news in the morning, it's functional.
The biggest thing about going off the grid is changing your TV watching style/habit. It's different than being on a broadcast schedule. I tend to find a show I have never watched before and marathon through all the episodes until I get to the end.
Thanks, not ashamed to admit when I try new stuff on the computer it's usually accompanied with a lot of swearing and searching for what went wrong..
I'm hearing a lot of people who have Netflix and Hulu plus are happy, I'll look into amazon too.
I should be able to get the local channels for weather and some sports off an antenna, so I'll buy one of them too.
Appears the Xbox I got for Xmas has some streaming ability too, still playing with that.
Thanks much all.
Al
Road Master
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 988
Likes: 8
From: Clinton IA
Even if it works out to be as much than cable, just to be able to miss the 800+ channels of crap it'd be worth it.
Somebody at work suggested looking at the Redbook channel, but haven't had a chance to look at it yet.
Might grab a indoor antenna and see what's out there too.
Al
Somebody at work suggested looking at the Redbook channel, but haven't had a chance to look at it yet.
Might grab a indoor antenna and see what's out there too.
Al
Now I'm waiting until my DirecTV contract runs out so I can dump the service. I've got 5 more months. Once the snow melts, I'm going to install an outdoor antenna and I should get around 20 channels.
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 46,845
Likes: 22,534
From: Land of the Free, Home of Jack Daniel's
My TV does Netflix and a few other goodies. It came with the wireless dohicky in the usb port. Although we have cable, I use the Netflix in the TV, too. Also, if I wanna watch something off the laptop, I hook it up to the TV with the HDMI ports.
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 66,948
Likes: 4,573
From: TOAK western branch
Another +1 for Ruku. $4 for WiFi from the comp and like $6 a month for Netflix and we are considering doing Amazon for another $6 a month. Been happy so far. Been using it for 2 years now.
Road Captain
Joined: Oct 2012
Posts: 553
Likes: 46
From: Canton, GA
Your Xbox will do everything and more a Roku would do FWIW.
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