Which streaming box to get

[vodad]

I am looking at getting a streaming box for one of my kids. the boy has an xbox for netflix, so looking for something for out little girl. Which one would work best, the Roku, or the Boxee. I am leaning toward a Roku, cause it has angry birds included and she loves to play that game, and it looks like it has a few other games. do the games work very good and would it be easy for a 6 year old.

Thanks

 

[mike123abc]

The roku is not going to replace an old smartphone for game play... But, it is a good streaming device.

 

[king3pj]

I've never used a Boxee but I am happy with both my Roku and Apple TV. For a young kid I would think the cheapest Roku model would work fine. I believe it is about $40 but I'm not sure if that model works with games.

 

[navychop]

And yes, I think it will be relatively easy for your 6 year old to teach you the system.

 

[Mochuf]

I've never used a Boxee but I am happy with both my Roku and Apple TV. For a young kid I would think the cheapest Roku model would work fine. I believe it is about $40 but I'm not sure if that model works with games.

Only the bluetooth models can play games. I think those would be the 2XD and 2XS.

I would also say that the Roku player would be the best bet and a 6 year old shouldn't have any problems using it.

 

[Blindowl1234]

I've got the Roku XS which came with one Angry Birds games. There were two others they showed available and we got those which I think were $4.99 each. We like the Roku but haven't looked into other games except one which was a fun bowling game.

 

[stardust3]

Some games require the roku game remote which can be purchased from.....

http://www.roku.com/accessories#4

 

[Claude Greiner]

I love my Roku

 

[PopcornNMore]

I love my Roku 2 XS. Attached ia a nice chart showing the various streaming devices.

 

[truckracer]

Roku XS here. I am very happy with it. I am just not happy with my frontier DSL

 

[Medsport]

I ended up getting a Roku 2XS. Its alright I guess, I just should have searched more on what you can really watch. I was under the assumption you could watch anything that you could stream on the computer. It turns out you can't watch the current season of many newer shows (like the walking dead) without paying per episode.

Anyway, I was just wondering how long you can unplug it if you want to move the wires and stuff without having to configure the network and setting it up for a wireless network? I had to run mine 3 times before it finally took. Also, what if you buy a new computer-do you have to set everything up again or just your router to the new computer?

 

[Tampa8]

Roku does not lose any settings when unplugged, and has nothing to do with your computer. It of course has to connect again to your system. Are you asking a completely different question about your computer? A new computer will require you to set up that computer, not make changes to your router unless you use exclusion Wifi connections, which it sounds like you don't.

 

[Medsport]

What I meant was will I have to let the roku find the router again to connect if I unplug for a few seconds? Yes, the second question had to do with if I get a new computer, I guess it doesn't matter with the roku, but I'll have to load the router up to it so I hope it doesn't mess any settings up that way. I'm new to a lot of this technical stuff. I just got the router and roku a few days ago. I'm not sure what you meant by exclusions. I just used an ethernet cable to connect the computer to the router. I just needed the router for the roku.

 

[vodad]

bought a roku 2 xs last night, finally decided on it when I seen the twc tv app. it works pretty good, and our daughter loves playing angry birds on it. It was on sale at Best Buy for 80 bucks. was thinking of the roku 3 but she does not have a HD tv yet. so that one would not work.

 

[Medsport]

I still don't understand what the use of the TWC app is if you already have the cable service? From what I understand it won't work if you cancel your cable service. Is there something to it can replace the digital box from TWC and thus saving you the rental fee, which is what around $8/month? Are there any other advantages?

 

[Teehar]

I think the idea is this,you can take your roku box on the road,and still have TWC available to you.Or,you can use the roku in another room that doesn't have a cable box.

 

[Blindowl1234]

I still don't understand what the use of the TWC app is if you already have the cable service? From what I understand it won't work if you cancel your cable service. Is there something to it can replace the digital box from TWC and thus saving you the rental fee, which is what around $8/month? Are there any other advantages?

If you have only standard or basic cable there is no box fee. Anything above that and you pay the box fee no matter what. You could add another Roku in another room and not pay additional box fee I believe. Without cable it won't work, you're correct. No real advantages as I saw it. I dropped TWC and the app in less than 24 hours. It cost more than dish was costing us...$20 more per month with same channels

 

[vodad]

I cant get dish right now because of line of sight issues. I have been working on that. Just got to TWC, the roku does replace the cable box, so no fee for her room, and gives me Netflix and Hulu for her room as well. What it gets her is Nickjr, disneyjr, and nicktoons. which are in the tier that requires the box to receive. Right now we also have 3 HD drvs from TWC, these suck so bad we are ready to throw them out the window. The plan now is to try a Tivo and see if it makes things better. If so we will replace all the DVRs with Tivo units, it will not save us anything with the cost of the Tivo subscriptions, but at least we will be closer to having what we want.

I am not sure you can take the Roku with you and use it somewhere else, the way it is worded the Roku must be connected to a TWC modem in order to work.