Roku

Last year I dropped our cable package down to just basic for $27 not including our internet. Our bill used to be $65 with internet we got our current bill and it's $78 and we've made no changes. So I'm looking into a roku now and cut off the cable except our internet of course. I've for a few questions, my 2 year old likes Disney channel and I know roku has it but it says I may need a provider. Does that mean I need a cable company in order to watch? I've got espn on xbox but it doesn't have much live stuff unless you have a major cable provider. Does the roku have more live sports? I've got suddenlink cable, not time warner or other major company. It's just nothing on tv now but we also don't watch a lot of tv. We stream my wife's soap from our laptop that's hooked up to the tv. Also I saw a local channel here in NC (WRAL) has a channel on roku which is pretty cool for news. Just not sure it would benefit us and don't know a lot about these devices.

 

Certain things will require a TV subscription such as Disney, HBOgo etc. Hulu+Netflix and basic TV will cover pretty much all bases. Torrent everything else.

 

No live sports via Roku...still worth it IMHO. Over the air HD tv for local free sports.

Ditching cable and moving to Hulu/Netflix and everything else I get via the Roku and streaming from my PC is one of the best things I've done.

 

I haven't had cable for years but did just get Netflix and am pretty happy with it for the $7.99/ month. Never been a big TV fan and don't have any kids around though.

 

I use Netflix but keep getting hammered by my internet provider for going over the download capacity per month

 

All of our local tv stations are about 40-50 miles away so I'm not sure one of the antennas will work for ota stuff unless I get one of those big ones over top of the house and I don't know if i want to do that. My dad called a local tv shop and they told him that we are in an area that antennas don't get a lot of reception.

 

You'd be surprised. I can pick up Raleigh stations here in Hoke with a 15 dollar walmart antenna.

 

Thanks, what kind of antenna do you have? Is it an amplified one?

 

Check out PlayOn for Roku...it requires some setup but, you can get some live stuff if you know what you're doing. Quality isn't that great though.
Not sure if you're aware but, XBMC is pretty awesome. Do some research and you can find a bunch of awesome stuff.

 

Could you tell me a little bit more about xbmc? Is it free? I looked at the site but was wondering how new the tv shows were and does it work with Windows Vista?

 

Youtube will be your bet here. I could go on and on all day. Yes, it's completely free and it's basically an open source. Don't ask me what that is cause I will have a hard time explaining it.

 

Not amplified. Cheapo RCA I think.

I prefer the Plex Media Server on my PC and the client on my Roku for home network media streaming.

 

Is there a need to have a roku if I have a xbox 360 and I always keep the gold live membership every year. Is there any advantages of roku over xbox if we get either netflix and/or Hulu plus?

 

Roku's high-def is HDMI only if you have an older TV.
I have a Sony rear-projection TV that only has component inputs. It'll do 1080i, but not HDMI.

 

Ours is a newer HDTV bought it probably in 2010 2011 smart tv but never really messed the the smart on it

 

Okay, you're set for that then.
Just something to be aware of. I really need to update mine. My receiver supports HDMI and can upscale from the component inputs, but it can't "downscale" from HDMI to component, so I can run the HDMI outputs of the DTV and BluRay to the receiver for audio, but I still need the 3 component cables connected.
When I upgrade the TV, it's going to clean up a lot of the cabling mess.

 

I believe if you get just internet from your cable provider it will include basic channels. Its that way here I dont do it but have a friend that does. check into that.

 

Yeah right now we just have basic but they are still charging us $28 or $35 a month just for that. I've heard if I tell them I just want internet

 

We still get local channels