Woot has a special today for the Roku 3.
http://www.woot.com/offers/roku-3-s...il&utm_term=0_c5ca76da11-fe8cbb0a2c-278543814
http://www.woot.com/offers/roku-3-s...il&utm_term=0_c5ca76da11-fe8cbb0a2c-278543814
Roku 3 for $64.99 Today
- Thread starter Scott Greczkowski
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Rey... put it this way.
I have one and if it were up to me, i'd have one for every TV in the house.
I have one and if it were up to me, i'd have one for every TV in the house.
I own an Roku 3 for myself and I also bought a older model Roku HD for my dad.
Trust me, buy the Roku 3. It’s FAST. The older model I bought for my dad is sluggish and annoyingly slow.
For my dad it’s ok, he can’t deal with zipping through menus and lists like I do. He can barely understand it so it’s ok for him.
But if you have no patience for sluggish equipment, get the newest model, the 3..
Also, I subscribed to Netflix, Hulu+ and have been a long time Amazon Prime member. This is great, after sooooo many channels died off on FTA, this more than covers the losses.
I even dumped the BB@Home from my Dish package. Plus, there are tons and tons of free “channels” on the Roku, there’s more stuff than you can possibly watch.
I’m watching Trailer Park Boys, the entire series, uncensored, no watermarks, no logos, no commercials. Apparently it was all recorded in SD but that’s cool.
I watched ALL of the new series of Doctor Who, most of it was recorded in SD, Season 1-4, (2005 up to 2009) and from 2010 --> it is in HD. Even so, the SD was made to fit my screen without distortion and it didn’t look like it was zoomed or messed with, it looked pretty good.
Playback is smooth as butter. The WIFI remote is wicked cool, I can carry it all around the house (Everything I have feeds into a distribution hub from a central room.)
I do not like that the WIFI controller shows up on my neighbors laptops and phones but Roku swears that it’s 100% secure and nothing to be concerned about. I still wish I could disable it’s SSID.
I can control the Roku with my iPad and my iPhones. Can’t beat that!
It’s a great little gadget and well worth the money.. If you see one on sale, get one.
Trust me, buy the Roku 3. It’s FAST. The older model I bought for my dad is sluggish and annoyingly slow.
For my dad it’s ok, he can’t deal with zipping through menus and lists like I do. He can barely understand it so it’s ok for him.
But if you have no patience for sluggish equipment, get the newest model, the 3..
Also, I subscribed to Netflix, Hulu+ and have been a long time Amazon Prime member. This is great, after sooooo many channels died off on FTA, this more than covers the losses.
I even dumped the BB@Home from my Dish package. Plus, there are tons and tons of free “channels” on the Roku, there’s more stuff than you can possibly watch.
I’m watching Trailer Park Boys, the entire series, uncensored, no watermarks, no logos, no commercials. Apparently it was all recorded in SD but that’s cool.
I watched ALL of the new series of Doctor Who, most of it was recorded in SD, Season 1-4, (2005 up to 2009) and from 2010 --> it is in HD. Even so, the SD was made to fit my screen without distortion and it didn’t look like it was zoomed or messed with, it looked pretty good.
Playback is smooth as butter. The WIFI remote is wicked cool, I can carry it all around the house (Everything I have feeds into a distribution hub from a central room.)
I do not like that the WIFI controller shows up on my neighbors laptops and phones but Roku swears that it’s 100% secure and nothing to be concerned about. I still wish I could disable it’s SSID.
I can control the Roku with my iPad and my iPhones. Can’t beat that!
It’s a great little gadget and well worth the money.. If you see one on sale, get one.
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Here's an interesting article from April on Forbes.com
http://www.forbes.com/sites/larryma...-roku-3-could-it-kill-cable-and-satellite-tv/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/larryma...-roku-3-could-it-kill-cable-and-satellite-tv/
I might be the king of refurbs,half of everything electronic I have is refurbished,very happy to say that all the refurb stuff is still running great.
Now to the roku,dish sent us one during the AMC dispute last year,I wasn't sure I would want to keep it after AMC returned,now I wouldn't think of getting rid of it.We use plex to stream all of our network shares,and keep an subscription to netflix,the roku gets a lot of use.
Now to the roku,dish sent us one during the AMC dispute last year,I wasn't sure I would want to keep it after AMC returned,now I wouldn't think of getting rid of it.We use plex to stream all of our network shares,and keep an subscription to netflix,the roku gets a lot of use.
On the question of can it kill satellite and cable? Simple answer, no...
Very little content through the Roku is “live”, so to speak..
So far I’ve found three “channels” that are essentially “live”.. EBRU, AMGTV and RT (Russia Today). They provide a live feed of whatever they are broadcasting over satellite/cable.
There may be more but that’s all I’ve found at the moment.
If you want to watch current seasons of pretty much *anything*, Roku probably will not have it.
A few months ago someone told me I should watch Doctor Who. I was like “Eh, it’s stupid, I don’t care.” but I caught a few random episodes on BBC America and decided to give it a go.
I was advised to go to either Netflix, Hulu+ or Amazon Prime and start from 2005’s Series 1, episode 1 and go forward from there.
I was able to watch every single episode plus all the specials without commercials, watermarks or other annoyances up to last year’s series 7.1 (2012) (they split series 7 over two years, ARRRRGH!)
but when I went to watch series 7.2 (2013) it was not included in any of the base subscriptions I have and they wanted $2 each (plus sales tax) or $14 for the current season (plus sales tax)..
I was very unhappy about that. Especially considering that if I wanted to be very, very patient I could catch them all being rerun on BBCA (very sporadic)..
This is also the case with pretty much everything else. You just can’t watch the recent season without choking up more money.
And in some cases, you just can’t watch recent seasons or episodes at all, period. If you want to stay current you can’t do it through Roku unless you like spending more and more money.
And really, who does? Not me..
Game of Thrones? $4+tax per episode and about $40 per season.. Even for Season ONE. NOPE...... And they don’t offer season 3 at all.
Breaking Bad? $3+ per episodes but it varies wildly and makes no sense how they price it, Season 3 & 4 are more expensive than the final season. WUT??
Netflix is notorious for having missing episodes in the middle of seasons and even entire seasons missing.
I really, really wish I could get BRITISH BBC content but I know you have to buy a license (my daughter lived there a few years) but as far as I know you can’t outside of the UK.
BBC America is not my cup of tea outside of Doctor Who, Torchwood and Gordon Ramsay. They are the rerun kings. And waaaaaaaay too many commercials.
There is NO WAY Roku is a satellite/cable killer. No way, no how, not going to happen.
It is a great supplemental source though if you want to catch up on older shows/seasons.
You can nickel and dime yourself to death on Roku so I strongly suggest setting up a PIN on every purchase (an option in config) so that you don’t accidentally press the buy now button.
One thing I deepy despise, and this is something common to the video game world and the Apple app market is “in app purchases”.. A lot of the “channels” on Roku say they are free but after you install them they will tell you it’s a free preview and that you need to choke up some ca$h to watch it past the free preview.
Another thing that is EVIL about these people, and a warning you should be aware of.
I bought a Roku for myself and I really liked it. My dad and I both have FTA systems and both of us have experienced the loss of a lot of great FTA channels.
Anyway, when I got my Roku I was given a free 30 days of Netflix. Cool. I have been a long time subscriber to Amazon Prime so all I had to do was log in.
Hulu Plus gave me one week free preview. One week? Cheapskates..
So then I decided I would give one to my dad for his birthday. I bought him a Roku HD as I figured the only real difference would be the WIFI remote. Eh.. It’s very slow though.
So when I gave it to him I took it to his house and connected it up. It came up and said there was a one month free preview of Netflix and one week of Hulu Plus.
Cool. But it said of course that we had to create an account for my dad. Ok. So I go start the process and I wanted to have all the billing come to me. I was planning on paying his monthly bills on those two accounts.
So I put my email and Visa card info into it and it came up and said “Sorry but you’ve already got an account, you’ve already had your free previews, we’ll just start billing you right now, today for this new device.”
WHAT???? ARRRGH!!!
So I backed out of the sign up process and I tried to do it over again using my dad’s email address and my Visa card. Same messages from both services, again.
So then I decided to just reboot the stupid thing and start over. Same thing again. And it also locked up and I had to pull the power plug on it twice during this sign up procedure.
Then I went to the Netflix website and bought a gift certificate for my dad and tried to enter that. It still rejected my attempts to get the free 30 days.
Finally I had to concede defeat and just set up the device under my name as if it were in my house. So I could pay the bills for it.
My dad, being a cheapskate would never pay to subscribe and he’s ultra paranoid about doing any online transactions of any kind for any reason.
In the end, I was OK with that because it was my intention to pay the bill from the git-go but I was really p*ssed that they cheated my dad out of his free previews.
But then here’s where it gets bad. When I got home that evening I checked my email and found a message from Hulu that my account was suspended for non-payment!
Um, do what?
:
I log in to my Visa account and discover that Hulu and Netflix charged me multiple times and depleted my Visa card. Every single time I tried to sign my dad up for the services, they hit my Visa card for $8 each.
Netflix hit me three times ($8 each) plus the gift certificate and Hulu hit me FIVE TIMES ($8 each) before my Visa debit tanked out. Then they also tried to charge me for MY account on my Roku 3 in my home (which was legitimately due) and by now I had no money left to pay that bill. So they turned of Hulu in my house.
Needless to say, I was more than p*ssed !
It was a sunday evening so there was nothing I could do about it until the next day. But I slept on it and decided that I would just let it go, that my dad now has his stuff prepaid for the next several months and it wasn’t worth the aggravation of fighting with two different companies over the phone over small change.
Be aware, during the sign up process, there is NO CONFORMATION PROCESS! When you click, you’ve been charged! It doesn’t tell you you’ve been charged, it doesn’t double check with you before you’re charged, it just does it.
To me, this is a shady, slimy, snaky way of doing business. It smacks of deception and greedy capitalist scum trying to bleed you to death, one penny at a time.
They should be investigated for unfair and deceptive business practices or something like that because that was just low and slimy the way they did me.
I don’t know if you can avoid doing the setup through the Roku but if you can, do it through a pc or tablet and be extremely careful, they can and will charge you multiple times without conformation!
Anyway, that aside, I really like my Roku 3. I won’t be shutting off my Dish subscription because I want to see current stuff and “live” channels. I want to see Whale Wars and Doctor Who NOW, not two years from now.
As for my dad, he was tickled to see that he can watch PBS, X-files and MacGuyver, and old westerns among other things. He hasn’t seen X-files in a long time and MacGuyver was one of his favorites (go figure..)
I set a PIN so he can’t accidentally make a purchase but I told him to otherwise just click and explore because there is a LOT of stuff on there for free.
Despite all these things, I would still recommend a Roku to my friends and family, as long as they understand the shortcomings and gotchas up front.
Very little content through the Roku is “live”, so to speak..
So far I’ve found three “channels” that are essentially “live”.. EBRU, AMGTV and RT (Russia Today). They provide a live feed of whatever they are broadcasting over satellite/cable.
There may be more but that’s all I’ve found at the moment.
If you want to watch current seasons of pretty much *anything*, Roku probably will not have it.
A few months ago someone told me I should watch Doctor Who. I was like “Eh, it’s stupid, I don’t care.” but I caught a few random episodes on BBC America and decided to give it a go.
I was advised to go to either Netflix, Hulu+ or Amazon Prime and start from 2005’s Series 1, episode 1 and go forward from there.
I was able to watch every single episode plus all the specials without commercials, watermarks or other annoyances up to last year’s series 7.1 (2012) (they split series 7 over two years, ARRRRGH!)
but when I went to watch series 7.2 (2013) it was not included in any of the base subscriptions I have and they wanted $2 each (plus sales tax) or $14 for the current season (plus sales tax)..
I was very unhappy about that. Especially considering that if I wanted to be very, very patient I could catch them all being rerun on BBCA (very sporadic)..
This is also the case with pretty much everything else. You just can’t watch the recent season without choking up more money.
And in some cases, you just can’t watch recent seasons or episodes at all, period. If you want to stay current you can’t do it through Roku unless you like spending more and more money.
And really, who does? Not me..
Game of Thrones? $4+tax per episode and about $40 per season.. Even for Season ONE. NOPE...... And they don’t offer season 3 at all.
Breaking Bad? $3+ per episodes but it varies wildly and makes no sense how they price it, Season 3 & 4 are more expensive than the final season. WUT??
Netflix is notorious for having missing episodes in the middle of seasons and even entire seasons missing.
I really, really wish I could get BRITISH BBC content but I know you have to buy a license (my daughter lived there a few years) but as far as I know you can’t outside of the UK.
BBC America is not my cup of tea outside of Doctor Who, Torchwood and Gordon Ramsay. They are the rerun kings. And waaaaaaaay too many commercials.
There is NO WAY Roku is a satellite/cable killer. No way, no how, not going to happen.
It is a great supplemental source though if you want to catch up on older shows/seasons.
You can nickel and dime yourself to death on Roku so I strongly suggest setting up a PIN on every purchase (an option in config) so that you don’t accidentally press the buy now button.
One thing I deepy despise, and this is something common to the video game world and the Apple app market is “in app purchases”.. A lot of the “channels” on Roku say they are free but after you install them they will tell you it’s a free preview and that you need to choke up some ca$h to watch it past the free preview.
Another thing that is EVIL about these people, and a warning you should be aware of.
I bought a Roku for myself and I really liked it. My dad and I both have FTA systems and both of us have experienced the loss of a lot of great FTA channels.
Anyway, when I got my Roku I was given a free 30 days of Netflix. Cool. I have been a long time subscriber to Amazon Prime so all I had to do was log in.
Hulu Plus gave me one week free preview. One week? Cheapskates..
So then I decided I would give one to my dad for his birthday. I bought him a Roku HD as I figured the only real difference would be the WIFI remote. Eh.. It’s very slow though.
So when I gave it to him I took it to his house and connected it up. It came up and said there was a one month free preview of Netflix and one week of Hulu Plus.
Cool. But it said of course that we had to create an account for my dad. Ok. So I go start the process and I wanted to have all the billing come to me. I was planning on paying his monthly bills on those two accounts.
So I put my email and Visa card info into it and it came up and said “Sorry but you’ve already got an account, you’ve already had your free previews, we’ll just start billing you right now, today for this new device.”
WHAT???? ARRRGH!!!
So I backed out of the sign up process and I tried to do it over again using my dad’s email address and my Visa card. Same messages from both services, again.
So then I decided to just reboot the stupid thing and start over. Same thing again. And it also locked up and I had to pull the power plug on it twice during this sign up procedure.
Then I went to the Netflix website and bought a gift certificate for my dad and tried to enter that. It still rejected my attempts to get the free 30 days.
Finally I had to concede defeat and just set up the device under my name as if it were in my house. So I could pay the bills for it.
My dad, being a cheapskate would never pay to subscribe and he’s ultra paranoid about doing any online transactions of any kind for any reason.
In the end, I was OK with that because it was my intention to pay the bill from the git-go but I was really p*ssed that they cheated my dad out of his free previews.
But then here’s where it gets bad. When I got home that evening I checked my email and found a message from Hulu that my account was suspended for non-payment!
Um, do what?
:I log in to my Visa account and discover that Hulu and Netflix charged me multiple times and depleted my Visa card. Every single time I tried to sign my dad up for the services, they hit my Visa card for $8 each.
Netflix hit me three times ($8 each) plus the gift certificate and Hulu hit me FIVE TIMES ($8 each) before my Visa debit tanked out. Then they also tried to charge me for MY account on my Roku 3 in my home (which was legitimately due) and by now I had no money left to pay that bill. So they turned of Hulu in my house.
Needless to say, I was more than p*ssed !
It was a sunday evening so there was nothing I could do about it until the next day. But I slept on it and decided that I would just let it go, that my dad now has his stuff prepaid for the next several months and it wasn’t worth the aggravation of fighting with two different companies over the phone over small change.
Be aware, during the sign up process, there is NO CONFORMATION PROCESS! When you click, you’ve been charged! It doesn’t tell you you’ve been charged, it doesn’t double check with you before you’re charged, it just does it.
To me, this is a shady, slimy, snaky way of doing business. It smacks of deception and greedy capitalist scum trying to bleed you to death, one penny at a time.
They should be investigated for unfair and deceptive business practices or something like that because that was just low and slimy the way they did me.
I don’t know if you can avoid doing the setup through the Roku but if you can, do it through a pc or tablet and be extremely careful, they can and will charge you multiple times without conformation!
Anyway, that aside, I really like my Roku 3. I won’t be shutting off my Dish subscription because I want to see current stuff and “live” channels. I want to see Whale Wars and Doctor Who NOW, not two years from now.
As for my dad, he was tickled to see that he can watch PBS, X-files and MacGuyver, and old westerns among other things. He hasn’t seen X-files in a long time and MacGuyver was one of his favorites (go figure..)
I set a PIN so he can’t accidentally make a purchase but I told him to otherwise just click and explore because there is a LOT of stuff on there for free.
Despite all these things, I would still recommend a Roku to my friends and family, as long as they understand the shortcomings and gotchas up front.
Personally, I could make the Roku a very legitimate replacement for my sat service, I do not because of trying to convince the wife and kid.
The shows I watch that are not OTA or streamed through the network apps on android or windows, I could catch next day on a pay per episode basis (be it through amazon, vudu, ect), and come out way ahead versus paying a $70 a month sat bill year round to watch just those specific shows.
Sports I would get OTA and through Watch ESPN, which roku offers.
The rest would be filled up with a subscription to netflix and my amazon prime streaming.
The shows I watch that are not OTA or streamed through the network apps on android or windows, I could catch next day on a pay per episode basis (be it through amazon, vudu, ect), and come out way ahead versus paying a $70 a month sat bill year round to watch just those specific shows.
Sports I would get OTA and through Watch ESPN, which roku offers.
The rest would be filled up with a subscription to netflix and my amazon prime streaming.
I use my roku 2xs for netflix and my laptop hooked to my tv with a wireless mouse with free hulu. No OTA. No cable. No satellite for years now. I work from home splicing rope and usually have the tv running while I'm working, 4-8 hours a day, 6 days a week. I've been doing this for 6 years and haven't run out of stuff to watch yet. You can do without cable or satellite. When I had cable or satellite I spent most of my time channel surfing. Now I actually watch what I want, when I want.
My Roku paired with the Plex app and I have something always available to me to watch.
I love my Roku's and they just keep getting better.
I love my Roku's and they just keep getting better.
There's quite a bit more than those you've listed. Not to mention all the MLB, NBA, and NHL games. Plus, games via ESPN 3. I'm guessing you're not a sports fan.
There's quite a bit more than those you've listed. Not to mention all the MLB, NBA, and NHL games. Plus, games via ESPN 3. I'm guessing you're not a sports fan.
Definitely not.. I wasn’t aware that sports are available on the thing, my brain just blanks that stuff out as I scroll through the channel store.
But yeah, I’m not surprised that there’s more “live” channels.
Also, I stumbled upon a little gem of a list of unlisted channels yesterday..
http://rokutv.blogspot.com/p/roku-tv-channels.html
I have no idea how old this list is and there’s no way I’m going to try to verify all the channels, most of them are of no interest to me.
But certainly there’s something in there for everyone.
