Roku box, who has one?


unknown

unknown

New Member
Seriously, between this, my WDTV box and the internet i'm seriously considering cancelling cable. I get almost everything I need without having to pay for it anymore. Streaming sports, weather, news, movie channels.. hell even porn, all free.:lol: I slept on it for a long time but you really can't beat it. With netflix and hulu plus being the only 2 channels I pay for i'm only spending $14 a month now IF I do decide to drop the cable. The only thing keeping me from doing it is I need the cable for my HBO Go. Check the box out though, for what you get you can't beat the price. There are hella free channels.

Our complex has free wifi hotspots throughout it so I don't have to pay for internet... i'm seriously debating on doing this though. It streams in 1080 and there's an antenna you can use to get the local channels.. in HD.

http://www.roku.com/

Some of the channels
http://www.roku-channels.com/
 
unknown1 said:
Seriously, between this, my WDTV box and the internet i'm seriously considering cancelling cable. I get almost everything I need without having to pay for it anymore. Streaming sports, weather, news, movie channels.. hell even porn, all free.:lol: I slept on it for a long time but you really can't beat it. With netflix and hulu plus being the only 2 channels I pay for i'm only spending $14 a month now IF I do decide to drop the cable. The only thing keeping me from doing it is I need the cable for my HBO Go. Check the box out though, for what you get you can't beat the price. There are hella free channels.

Our complex has free wifi hotspots throughout it so I don't have to pay for internet... i'm seriously debating on doing this though. It streams in 1080 and there's an antenna you can use to get the local channels.. in HD.

http://www.roku.com/

Some of the channels
http://www.roku-channels.com/
Click to expand...

It's definitely a good alternative...

however, there are a couple of things they need to add before I can honestly give up the cable package...The HBO Go service is great if you have a subscription through a specific cable provider....if you aren't on that list, you can't use the app on the device, which stinks.

The line-up of channels has to develop a bit more to really make it a good replacement platform. I've got one for my kid's room and the guest room to supplement the basic cable that's in there, but I've got my home server that loaded with the Boxee client (which I downloaded for free), which essentially turns that server into a BOXEE entertainment center. the channel and app selection for BOXEE kills roku right now...NBA.TV, NCAA.org, SEC TV, etc., and that's just sports. as roku gets more 3rd party sponsors under their belt, they'll become REALLY attractive as a viable, CHEAP, smart/internet TV option. It's already a very popular one.


Even so, Boxee computer is a great alternative if you want to centralize all of your media. I use mine in conjunction with Windows Media Center on my Server and it does everything I need. there are ALOT of internet TV/Media Center options out there. Here are a few of them:

http://www.boxee.tv

http://www.google.com/tv/

http://www.xmbc.org

http://www.sagetv.com

http://www.snapstream.com/products/beyondtv/ (BeyondTV)

and of course, Windows Media Center.


Heck, if you have a PC that you can connect to your network, toss a TV/PCI card in your machine, load some of the aforementioned TV/Media Center software and go for what you know. You can also get an M-Card extension for your computer (the cable companies rent these cards for 5 dollars a month) and do away with extra cable boxes all together. If you don't want (or can't) crack open your box, the HomeRun series of products are a good alternative:

http://www.silicondust.com/


There are a ton of ways to mitigate the cost of cable; depends on how you wanna go.
 



I just ordered this think last night.

Never had cable...so this will be a win/win for me. Currently, I stream Amazon through my bluray player. Looking for all the optional streams that I can send to the Roku box.
 
pv_symbiotic said:
I just ordered this think last night.

Never had cable...so this will be a win/win for me. Currently, I stream Amazon through my bluray player. Looking for all the optional streams that I can send to the Roku box.
Click to expand...

The Roku box has tons of streams and content.
 
crazylegs said:
It's definitely a good alternative...

however, there are a couple of things they need to add before I can honestly give up the cable package...The HBO Go service is great if you have a subscription through a specific cable provider....if you aren't on that list, you can't use the app on the device, which stinks.

The line-up of channels has to develop a bit more to really make it a good replacement platform. I've got one for my kid's room and the guest room to supplement the basic cable that's in there, but I've got my home server that loaded with the Boxee client (which I downloaded for free), which essentially turns that server into a BOXEE entertainment center. the channel and app selection for BOXEE kills roku right now...NBA.TV, NCAA.org, SEC TV, etc., and that's just sports. as roku gets more 3rd party sponsors under their belt, they'll become REALLY attractive as a viable, CHEAP, smart/internet TV option. It's already a very popular one.


Even so, Boxee computer is a great alternative if you want to centralize all of your media. I use mine in conjunction with Windows Media Center on my Server and it does everything I need. there are ALOT of internet TV/Media Center options out there. Here are a few of them:

http://www.boxee.tv

http://www.google.com/tv/

http://www.xmbc.org

http://www.sagetv.com

http://www.snapstream.com/products/beyondtv/ (BeyondTV)

and of course, Windows Media Center.


Heck, if you have a PC that you can connect to your network, toss a TV/PCI card in your machine, load some of the aforementioned TV/Media Center software and go for what you know. You can also get an M-Card extension for your computer (the cable companies rent these cards for 5 dollars a month) and do away with extra cable boxes all together. If you don't want (or can't) crack open your box, the HomeRun series of products are a good alternative:

http://www.silicondust.com/


There are a ton of ways to mitigate the cost of cable; depends on how you wanna go.
Click to expand...

You're talking my language. I run both WMC, XBMC, and Boxee on my HTPCs. One in the living room and one in the bedroom. They're great!!
 
I pulled the trigger on that Roku 3. I'm kicking myself in the ass for sleeping on the Roku for so long. This thing is off the chain!!
 
ToPdOg said:
I pulled the trigger on that Roku 3. I'm kicking myself in the ass for sleeping on the Roku for so long. This thing is off the chain!!
Click to expand...

Man who you telling, I actually did end up cancelling my cable... cable free for almost a year now and I don't miss it at all. If you have a roku box you need to get familiar with PlayOn. Pay $30 for that lifetime membership and you can basically watch live cable through your roku if you have a pc. With a roku you need just a few things in my opinion now to go completely cable free.

http://www.playon.tv/playon
http://www.playonscripts.com/?w=view&id=639
http://www.playonscripts.com/?w=view&id=327
http://www.playonscripts.com/?w=view&id=909
http://www.playonscripts.com/?w=view&id=187
http://www.playonscripts.com/?w=view&id=832
http://www.playonscripts.com/?w=view&id=815


With just those scripts alone you can watch pretty much any cable network, including NFL network, and most movie channels for free. Keep in mind though, the streaming quality is based on how good of a pc processor you have so if you have a crappy pc it's not going to work well. But if you have an on point processor it's damn near HD quality. I mostly watch movies now but whenever I want to watch live cable I can. I watched every game with NFL Redzone on there every weekend all day long. College games too and then you can use the roku espn app to watch college games on 360. If you're willing to spend a few bucks youll save a lot in the long run... i've easily saved over a grand already by ditching cable. And I swear on everything, that 1channel site channel has nearly every single movie ever made lol...new movies included. And when TV shows come out, if you dont watch them on the live stream they usually get posted like 20-30 minutes after the show goes off.
 
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