Anyone rocking Roku?

In reply to alex:
You will need to buy or build you a HD digital antennae. Your new TV will have a digital tuner so you should be set. I don't know how big you want but I have a 40" 1080p Dynex from Best Buy and I am happy with it. Plenty big enough.

I had and lost during the move a Roku 2 and now have a Roku 3. You will need a HDMI cable to hook it up.

Search the net for free and unpublished Roku channels.

There are alternatives to Roku and a downside. Roku won't stream YouTube. Licensing issue. Google Chromecast is an alternative but the major networks tend to block Google for fear of the inevitable take over from Google. If you have Apple products or allot of iTunes stuff the Apple TV is the way to go. The ability to broadcast quickly and easily to the TV from any Apple product is nice. Roku can do this but there are some workarounds you need to do.

In the end if you are just getting in, and don't care about having the BEST picture quality, but much better than what you have now, and want to dip your toe in the deep end instead of diving. You could get a Roku Streaming stick, a decent TV, and build you a little antennae.

There are many more but IMHO Roku is the best way to get into OTA/I and drop cable and satellite.

Dude, great stuff. Thanks.

Our house is Apple laptops and Android phones, but I'm generally attracted to the openness of non-Apple stuff (although I do appreciate the fact that Apple stuff just generally works, especially with their own devices).

I'm thinking used TV off CL, a Roku and a DIY digital antenna will make for a pretty comprehensive setup indeed.

Late to the party but I have the first Roku box they made, after seeing my Navy friend's while visiting NM in 2009. Satellite TV was the first thing I dropped after the ex left. Do not miss. (Either one.)

~$17/month for both streaming and 1disk/at a time (for that which is not on streaming) & I'm set.

Meh. Lots of dead Roku boxes out there. Ours lasted maybe 6 months before it went belly up. I think the warranty period is like 30 hours. Beware.

Oh forgot to mention your smart phone will make a better remote for the Roku than the one that you get with it.

FYI, Roku now supports Youtube as of a couple of weeks ago. I've watched a couple episodes of Roadkill on mine.

Tom_Spangler wrote: FYI, Roku now supports Youtube as of a couple of weeks ago. I've watched a couple episodes of Roadkill on mine.

Me and the kids say thank you...Ms. Service says go berkeley yourself.

Mine is a hybrid household. I kept cable on one TV (due to a package promo that was about the same cost as internet only and because we like the ability to watch HGTV and ESPN).

But rather than paying $8/month for a dedicated cable box on four other TV's .. Those each have a Roku serving up Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime. We just moved, and eventually I will add a big antenna in the attic for local (close to a big city) over the air HD channels on the other sets.

Roku works great. I even bought the wired/wireless kind.. but haven't needed to hardwire any TVs since I bought a fairly high end wireless router.

Edit:spelling

Tom_Spangler wrote: FYI, Roku now supports Youtube as of a couple of weeks ago. I've watched a couple episodes of Roadkill on mine.

This was my biggest gripe about mine. Thanks for the heads up!

OHSCrifle wrote: ...eventually I will add a big antenna in the attic for local (close to a big city) over the air HD channels on the other sets.

Is it easy to share an antenna signal between sets?

nderwater wrote:

OHSCrifle wrote: ...eventually I will add a big antenna in the attic for local (close to a big city) over the air HD channels on the other sets.

Is it easy to share an antenna signal between sets?

Just plug the antennae coax into the cable coax that runs through the house. Done.

That's a Yes. Nice!

AngryCorvair wrote: hijack risk: i cut the cable a few months ago and am now jonesing for F1. where/how can i watch F1 without cable? is Roku part of the solution?

I have the same issue. Usually just watch it the next day on gpreplay.com. Lots of other good racing on there too but it's hard not to stumble across the outcome of a race before I get around to watching it.

turboswede wrote:

nderwater wrote:

OHSCrifle wrote: ...eventually I will add a big antenna in the attic for local (close to a big city) over the air HD channels on the other sets.

Is it easy to share an antenna signal between sets?

Just plug the antennae coax into the cable coax that runs through the house. Done.

This. You're probably all cabled up, use that for distribution. You may need a signal booster. Place the booster immediately after the antenna, not further downstream, for best results.

I had this in my old house, 2 miles away.. But haven't gotten the local antenna up yet at the new place. That way, each set has a Roku + a local antenna, for stuff like over the air local sports.

Flight Service wrote:

Tom_Spangler wrote: FYI, Roku now supports Youtube as of a couple of weeks ago. I've watched a couple episodes of Roadkill on mine.

Me and the kids say thank you...Ms. Service says go berkeley yourself.

Ms. Service has changed her mind. Due to the awesomeness of the YouTube app (she was afraid it would be used to watch nothing but Thomas the Tank Engine and Minecraft videos) you can control the search from your phone.

Have you ever seen a sebaceous cyst being removed? My wife is a sick sick woman.

Flight Service wrote:

Flight Service wrote:

Tom_Spangler wrote: FYI, Roku now supports Youtube as of a couple of weeks ago. I've watched a couple episodes of Roadkill on mine.

Me and the kids say thank you...Ms. Service says go berkeley yourself.

Ms. Service has changed her mind. Due to the awesomeness of the YouTube app (she was afraid it would be used to watch nothing but Thomas the Tank Engine and Minecraft videos) you can control the search from your phone. Have you ever seen a sebaceous cyst being removed? My wife is a sick sick woman.

but she's hot! My wife works in surgery and has brought home pictures from time to time. Not cool. She's hot too though! :)

OHSCrifle wrote:

turboswede wrote:

nderwater wrote:

OHSCrifle wrote: ...eventually I will add a big antenna in the attic for local (close to a big city) over the air HD channels on the other sets.

Is it easy to share an antenna signal between sets?

Just plug the antennae coax into the cable coax that runs through the house. Done.

This. You're probably all cabled up, use that for distribution. You may need a signal booster. Place the booster immediately after the antenna, not further downstream, for best results. I had this in my old house, 2 miles away.. But haven't gotten the local antenna up yet at the new place. That way, each set has a Roku + a local antenna, for stuff like over the air local sports.

That was our initial experiment but not all of the tv antennas got all of the channels at the same strength so I need a big one on the roof. When we went back to cable, I left the kid tv attached only to the Roku and they love it. Trying to convince SWMBO that it won't be that bad to have a giant array on the roof. NBC is the PITA, furthest away and in the opposite direction from the rest of the channels. I don't watch a lot of network TV but not having one network really bothers me.

chrispy wrote:

OHSCrifle wrote:

turboswede wrote:

nderwater wrote:

OHSCrifle wrote: ...eventually I will add a big antenna in the attic for local (close to a big city) over the air HD channels on the other sets.

Is it easy to share an antenna signal between sets?

Just plug the antennae coax into the cable coax that runs through the house. Done.

This. You're probably all cabled up, use that for distribution. You may need a signal booster. Place the booster immediately after the antenna, not further downstream, for best results. I had this in my old house, 2 miles away.. But haven't gotten the local antenna up yet at the new place. That way, each set has a Roku + a local antenna, for stuff like over the air local sports.

That was our initial experiment but not all of the tv antennas got all of the channels at the same strength so I need a big one on the roof. When we went back to cable, I left the kid tv attached only to the Roku and they love it. Trying to convince SWMBO that it won't be that bad to have a giant array on the roof. NBC is the PITA, furthest away and in the opposite direction from the rest of the channels. I don't watch a lot of network TV but not having one network really bothers me.

I feel your pain with a single channel being tough to get the signal. Mrs. Dx watches shows on ABC and that has to be at the perfect right angle for the signal for ABC to come in.

Bump this back up.

Reconditioned Roku 1 & 2 are available cheap on Woot! Sellout. http://sellout.woot.com/?ref=gh_so_11

Just ordered a 2 for the garage.

• Lee

I grabbed one of those sub $50 Roku sticks a few months ago. So simple a senior citizen could use it. The interface is as good if not better than the PS3. I really like the thing.

I got a reconditioned 3 for 59.99 or 69.99 through Woot, but this is still a good deal. It's the only thing hooked up to the kids' tv and after almost year of constant use, it still works as intended. I like the 3 because of the ability to hardwire it so I have 2 of them.

I can watch Top Gear in the garage now!

The Roku 2 showed up this evening, set up was simple-ish, user GUI is simple. It took about 15 minutes to enter all of the info it wanted, and update and install the channels I picked. I didn't care for them forcing you to give them a credit card number during set up. I've got a couple old prepaid AMEX gift cards registered with my name and old address, one of them got me through the set up so I didn't have to give any actual CC info to them.

At least now the ancient 15" TV/VCR combo that we've moved to three different houses now since we've quit using it has a new purpose. Only a RCA in for video, and mono audio, but it works.

SWMBO say's she'll never see me again.

Do you have to pay for the channels on Roku?

nicksta43 wrote: Do you have to pay for the channels on Roku?

Depends, some are free, some are not.

There are also plenty of rental/purchase options through Amazon Prime and VUDU for instance. We didn't mind giving them the CC info upfront, anytime I want to rent/purchase something I just click it and start watching.

My Rokus get used for Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu - all free to install. I haven't felt the need to pay for a channel yet.