Just wondering if anyone has gotten out of the cable TV scam by using some other service.


Plus I'd like to know anyones experience using roku.


Thanks.

roku just lets you stream netflix, hulu maybe, and stuff you buy from amazon or itunes.

 

-----signature-----

I got my father Apple TV for this father's day because he hates sitting and watching Netflix on his laptop. It also does iTunes, if you are tied to that service already, it integrates well. It doesn't do Hulu, but it does do YouTube, which isn't that great imho.

I heard the Roku is alright, but I think I want wait and see what Google brings to the table.

 

-----signature-----

google is having a huge problem with google tv being blocked by like.. every company for no reason so i think you'll be waiting a long time to see a proper google device.

 

-----signature-----

It really seems though that with OTA for regular programs, hulu plus and netflix you could keep your self pretty busy with tv for about $20 a month compared to cable wich is 80+ is my instance.

My sister uses the Roku for netflix and pandora mostly. She loves it, but I am not sure she would replace it for television because there are a lot of TV shows that you want to watch the second they are on TV. For example, let's say you want to watch the live taping of American Idol or something.

 

-----signature-----

I'm done with american idol nerded out on it last year when my buddy won it. Honestly though except for football there is nothing I watch live I DVR anything I want to watch.

I haven't quit cable, but I do like Roku a lot for Netflix and Amazon streaming. I consider the Roku more of a supplement to cable / a substitute to buying TV series and movies on DVD than a complete replacement.

 

-----signature-----

I haven't had cable TV for like 10 years. Anymore I just use my PS3 with PlayOn I think their one-time fee is now 80 bucks or 5 bucks monthly or 40 bucks annually (20 bucks a year after the first). When I got it it was 29.99 one-time fee although for us original adopters they want us to pay another one-time fee now for any of their 'Playon Plus' content.

I use Netflix directly through the PS3. PlayOn currently gives me access to Hulu and CBS. There really is a lot of content on PlayOn now that they support directly: PBS, Pandora, Comedy Central, Syfy, tbs, youtube, espn, hgtv. There is also an entire community that develops custom plugins for other sites.

I have 2 main gripes about PlayOn:
1.) It runs as a media server on your PC and your device streams data from it so you have to have a PC turned on with whatever device you are using to watch it. This is my main gripe as I want something that is all-in-one.
2.) It does fail rarely in the middle of watching a show and you'd have to start the show from the beginning as you can't skip through things currently.

Pros:
Works well 99% of the time, quality is decent.

Does not play Hulu as if you are on a 'tv' device. If you didn't know Hulu plus actually limits quite a bit of the content you can watch as content is licensed for internet only in a lot of cases. I think 75% of the shows I watch off of Hulu can't be watched on a tv/mobile device. I had Hulu Plus for about 2 weeks before I realized that was why my shows weren't showing up and cancelled it.

--------------------------------------

Probably could get the same type of services by just using a media PC outputting an HD signal like a mac mini or something. I know my brother really liked just using his mac mini until his daughter thought she'd see how many DVD's it could hold in its one drive

I did, originally just using my PS3, iPad, and computer for Netflix and Hulu+. I later also mixed in some Vudu and Amazon.

I have a Roku now but honestly don't use it that often. I like it for speed and convenience (it's always on and navigation is much faster than it is on the PS3), but I've found that their network gets really bogged down during prime hours. That may just be for me, perhaps it's just a regional issue or my Roku is already going bad, but I do have performance problems.

 

-----signature-----