Experience with Roku, etc.?

[JewelFreak]

Our cable bills for internet & tv are just going out of sight. And I HATE Time Warner cable with a passion; worst service and equipment I've ever had.

Is Roku or something similar less expensive -- once you pay for it, plus, I guess, subscriptions to Netflix et al., and is it convenient? We watch a fair amount of tv, lots of news & political shows & my favorite ghost show, lol.

If you have it, how do you like it? Or not?

--- Laurie

 

[zoebartlett]

We like Roku a lot. It allows us to watch Netflix, Hulu, etc. upstairs in our room. It's convenient for us, and it's not a big machine that takes up a lot of space on our dresser. My husband purchased it a while ago, so I can ask him more questions if you'd like, JF.

 

[Sparklelu]

We love ours. Bought new ones for DS and DD for Christmas. Cut out most of the Direct TV extra channels. My DS in NYC has no cable just streams stuff on his and loves it!

 

[liaerfbv]

Love the Roku. We don't have cable anymore and pay less than $25 a month for Netflix, Hulu+, and Amazon Prime streaming. Do it!!

 

[vc10um]

Another plus one that loves their Roku!

 

[asscherisme]

I have roku and love it too! The device is tiny! I have 3 of them. One in the family room my where my kids tend to watch TV most . one in the basement where I work out and my teenagers tend to hang out more. And one in my bedroom. I got them on amazon for $40something each. I did not get the latest model to save $. I use it with Netflix. Fantastic if you have kids or even without kids.

 

[missy]

We also love Roku. We got them last year because our TIVOs kept having trouble interfacing with Netflix (which seems to be a common problem with TIVO and Netflix) so we bought a few Rokus to watch Netflix streaming more easily and haven't had any issues since. They are small and easy to use.

Definitely recommend Roku. We bought ours on Amazon midsummer and paid about $100 each. My dh said it is the more advanced model. One of the features is it has a headphone jack in the remote so you can watch the movies with headphones on and not disturb anyone.

Happy Rokuing Laurie.

 

[JewelFreak]

Thank you, everyone, for the feedback. Our cable bill just increased again: 2 tvs, one w/DVR box, the other just a standard one; 2 desktops w/modum & one w/Roadrunner -- $175/month! I called to see if I could get a better deal & they said that was already their "special" rate. For heaven's sake!

We had satellite earlier & it was cheaper but reception was awful -- too many trees. In a world where people, other animals & plants can be made in a lab & little go-carts roam around Mars, wouldn't you think someone could come up with a way to send satellite signals through trees? I'm sure the NSA manages!

I'll look into a Roku. Had planned to wait till we move in a year or so, but this expense is nuts. Thanks again for goosing me!

--- Laurie

 

[iLander]

Which satellite did you have? We had DirectTV for a while, and it was awful. We have Dish now and it's great. They have a rabbit DVR system, our DD can watch it off at college, it's got something like 7 tuners, ton of features, it's really quite remarkable. We pay about $110 for all that, then we have Netflix and Amazon Prime (which comes with a bunch of free movies not on Netflix)

We've had Time Warner in the past and hated them and their "service". Don't forget Time Warner and Comcast are merging, so it will only get worse with this near monopoly.

But we also have an LG smart TV, so switching between services is easy as pie.

 

[JewelFreak]

We had Dish, iLander, and they were just AWFUL. I'm surprised your experience is so good -- maybe they sell through franchises? Our picture (& internet) disappeared whenever there was even a little breeze. Why didn't they tell us our trees would interfere w/the signal?

They sent somebody out to re-aim the dish -- he was so fat, he could not get onto the roof & bent our gutter trying, finally gave up without doing the job he came for. They charged us over $100 for the "visit" -- the small print I should've read in the contract says you buy the equipment, so fixing anything is on your nickel. We threw all their crummy stuff away when I canceled the contract.

I'm glad to hear you like them -- I've thought somebody must be happy or they wouldn't stay in business.

--- Laurie

 

[soocool]

We have 3 Roku's (the ones with the earphones that plug into the remote). One for the kitchen (since there I can only get 3 stations with rabbit ears), one for our bedroom, one for the family room. Love it!

We used to have Dish (the basic package from over 15 years ago) and I really did not watch much, so even though we were paying around $55/month (2 receivers) we got rid of it and kept Netflix ($7.99/month) I really do not like Hulu Plus and had a free trial for a month and got rid of it.

In case anyone was wondering, we get all the local stations, plus more because we have an antenna in our attic which is hooked up to our tvs (except for the one in the kitchen). So basically free tv.