californiamilleghia said:
which gives you the most free content ?
Hard to say as I have been Roku on and off for 10 years. I did do a firestick for a while, and my Sister has AppleTV, so I do know a fair amount about the options. If I were to venture a guess (simply by my experience with those three) that Roku probably takes the edge here by a fair margin, if for no other reason than corporate interests and conflicts. For instance, it makes no sense for an Amazon Firestick to include its competitor Netflix. For a while, Disney and Amazon weren't playing nice with each other and there was talk about Disney+ not doing Fire TV, but once Disney bought Star Wars and Marvel, those problems seemed to disappear. It's one of the reasons that I prefer Roku. They are a separate streaming conglomerate, not a streaming service themselves. They are like the non-partisan arbitrator.
There is a caveat, though. Some of the apps borrow from others. The apps Crackle and Popcorn Flix have a pretty good selection of movies for free with unobtrusive ads, but their lineup seems to be strikingly similar to Netflix. I consider it to be Netflix Lite and instead of a monthly subscription, they just insert 50 seconds worth of ads every half hour or so. So, while it may appear that they have more apps, more content, and more options, some of the options may be repeats from other apps.
Some of my go-to apps on Roku are "the Roku Channel." and "4K spotlight." They more or less aggregate content from across all the apps into one guide. Instead of searching for a show and forgetting what app had it, i can just go to Roku Channel and there it is.
Thanks for the info guys, sounds like the Roku Ultra is the way to go
californiamilleghia said: I heard there are secret stations on riku , whats that about ?
There are loads of private channels avaliable for the Roku. Anyone can make a Roku channel, all you need is content and about half an hour to set it up if you know what you are doing. The private channels arent supported by Roku and as such dont appear in the regular channel listings. They must be added via code on your computer when logged into your account. Some of The private channels are actually utilities that let the Roku do things it was never originally intended to do.
ummm well if there are any "secret" channels for automotive stuff and metalworking stuff or CNC please let me know :)
I can get sucked into the TV rabbit hole like everyone and would like to learn stuff if I am watching TV ,
even if its how to "turn Left" with Nascar races..... :)
Yes Roku Ultra. They also have a history of selling at half price in Black Friday if you're into saving some scratch
I bought an LG TV last year, and actually just use the internal apps on it. Honestly it works just fine, has all the latest and gets constantly updated. I did follow a couple of recommendations from here- https://www.consumerreports.org/privacy/how-to-turn-off-smart-tv-snooping-features/ and just really use amazon, netflix and youtube for my viewing needs.
That being said, the last big report I can find on the different TV OSs is from 2018, so who knows how it is these days.
Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:
californiamilleghia said:
which gives you the most free content ?
Hard to say as I have been Roku on and off for 10 years. I did do a firestick for a while, and my Sister has AppleTV, so I do know a fair amount about the options. If I were to venture a guess (simply by my experience with those three) that Roku probably takes the edge here by a fair margin, if for no other reason than corporate interests and conflicts. For instance, it makes no sense for an Amazon Firestick to include its competitor Netflix. For a while, Disney and Amazon weren't playing nice with each other and there was talk about Disney+ not doing Fire TV, but once Disney bought Star Wars and Marvel, those problems seemed to disappear. It's one of the reasons that I prefer Roku. They are a separate streaming conglomerate, not a streaming service themselves. They are like the non-partisan arbitrator.
There is a caveat, though. Some of the apps borrow from others. The apps Crackle and Popcorn Flix have a pretty good selection of movies for free with unobtrusive ads, but their lineup seems to be strikingly similar to Netflix. I consider it to be Netflix Lite and instead of a monthly subscription, they just insert 50 seconds worth of ads every half hour or so. So, while it may appear that they have more apps, more content, and more options, some of the options may be repeats from other apps.
Some of my go-to apps on Roku are "the Roku Channel." and "4K spotlight." They more or less aggregate content from across all the apps into one guide. Instead of searching for a show and forgetting what app had it, i can just go to Roku Channel and there it is.
We have an Amazon Fire Cube. It has Netflix, Hulu, imdb, Crackle, etc.
We just recently bought a brand new Roku (not sure which one) and it worked totes well...until we found out HBO Max wasn't going to be supported.
Ended up getting a new Apple TV dongle? It works quite well with our 2016 Samsung TV. I don't know, my wife is the bread winner and the tech nerd. I just watch the pretty pictures.
Picked up the Roku Ultra at lunchtime
californiamilleghia said:
ummm well if there are any "secret" channels for automotive stuff and metalworking stuff or CNC please let me know :)
I can get sucked into the TV rabbit hole like everyone and would like to learn stuff if I am watching TV ,
even if its how to "turn Left" with Nascar races..... :)
Rather than secret channels for those things. I would reccomend adding the You Tube app if it isnt pre-loaded. Start searching for what you are interested in, and you wont be disappointed. Cheap plug GRM has a channel on You Tube. Much like Netflix and other paid services You Tube learns what you like and begins suggesting things you may be interested in. Much like you I like to learn something when i watch TV. I ditched cable in 2014, I switched to Netflix and You Tube. A year later I ditched Netflix because I wasn't watching it, and now only watch You Tube.
In reply to californiamilleghia :
Followup reply to my last post.
I would like to add this. If using the You Tube app on Roku use the guest account. For some reason when logged in the app keeps recomending videos that you have already watched. I don't know why they would do this but it is apparently by design according to those on the interweb. I only log in to watch age restricted content. But immediately log out. If you use guest mode for some reason it knows you already watched something and rarely re-recommends a video.
pheller
UltimaDork
11/19/20 1:33 p.m.
I decided to try a ChromeCast with Google TV. 4th Gen ChromeCast I guess is what it could be called.
Anyway, I've had 3 Rokus. One Roku 2, died. One Roku Stick, died. One Roku XS that has lived on, but is getting glitchy and slow.
I've had my eye on the new 2019+ Roku Stick, but was pretty disappointed with its reliance on the external wifi receiver cable. Roku wants $20 for that cable, and its impossible to find anywhere else, so despite having a remote and a power block that might work with the new Stick, by the time I buy a refurbished Stick and that cable, I might as well buy a whole new Roku.
Also, Roku's yearly hardware and models updates are getting to be a bit much, and I've noticed in owners forums that often times when a device dies, either Roku has no interest in replacing it, and if it does, it replaces it with a similar device that is just about outdated.
Finally, it wouldn't surprise me if Roku doesn't update the stick next year to the A-55 processor. If I go back to Roku, I'd sooner get the newest model.
I wanted to get the most powerful device for the money, and 4th Gen CC is more comparable to the Roku Ultra at $100.
I don't get too crazy with streaming devices, so I we'll see what its like to live with.
My parents had a Roku 2 I bought them new in '15 maybe, that they never actually used. I recently tried to hook it up for the first time, and I guess it was too out of date to actually update, it got stuck in an update loop, just about finish updating, crash and restart, over, and over, and over. Hard reset many times, did nothing. I gave up, and ordered them a MUCH cheaper new Roku Express, they're actually using it and enjoying it.
Hulu is frustrating the hell out of me on our Roku Express. We've got the cheapest Hulu with ads, when a show goes to ads it freezes up 90% of the time. If we're watching a series we've already watched before, it often won't come back from the last commercial to finish the last few minutes of the show, and instead skips to the next episode, only it skips to about 2/3 of the way into the next episode.
I've uninstalled and reinstalled the Hulu app to no avail. Google hasn't revealed a solution yet. The most up voted "solution" on one of the Roku forums was to pay for full commercial free Hulu. No thanks.
Thankfully when you hit the back button and resume an episode it starts back a few minutes before whenever you hit the back button, so I've gotten pretty good with the back button, and fast forwarding past the next commercial break.
Tldr but are there a decent amount of free channels on Roku?
In reply to dxman92 :
Roku has their own channel, it's free with ads, several movies a lot of '80s and '90s TV series.
Pluto is another channel on Roku with a lot of free stuff.
Crackle & Plex are others with free content.
One big complaint I have with the free series is it's often only one or two seasons and it'll be like season 3 and 4, is all that's available.
PBS app requires an account but is free, all of Ken Burns' documentaries are available, a lot of Austin City Limits concerts, and a bunch of British shows.
CBSN and ABC have free news apps.
NewsON is a free local news app, depending on where you live you may be able to get live streams of your local news, I'm stuck with about a 2 hour delay.
