CHAT A side benefit of getting the Roku Stick

Dennis Olson

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
_______________
As I was setting uo the Roku Stick last night, I noticed that OANN is one of the available channels. It's $5 a month for the subscription, but I don't mind.

Dish is almost hysterically harrassing me to "come back!! Please!!!"

Anyway, the best thing about Roku is that I finally get....


Wait for it....













A LA CARTE PROGRAMMING!!!!!




If Dish or any cable company offed it, they'd get my business.
 
S

smokin

Veteran Member
I have heard of folks who dropped their satellite service that was costing them over a hundred dollars and then the companies would call with offers for only $19.99 a month!!!

I guess they were overpaying about $80 each month.
 
Dennis Olson

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
_______________
Setup takes about five minutes. What takes an hour or so is deciding what channels you want. Many of them I'd never heard of, so I had to pull the description for each one and then decide. Many were self-explanitory of course, but many were not as well.
 
Blacknarwhal

Blacknarwhal

Let's Go Brandon!
smokin said:
I have heard of folks who dropped their satellite service that was costing them over a hundred dollars and then the companies would call with offers for only $19.99 a month!!!

I guess they were overpaying about $80 each month.
Click to expand...

That offer comes with more fine print than a monk writing on a grain of rice. $19.99 a month, for the first six months. You then agree to stay with them for two years at the regular pricing after the introductory $19.99 period is up.
 
BetterLateThanNever

BetterLateThanNever

Veteran Member
Dennis Olson said:
As I was setting uo the Roku Stick last night, I noticed that OANN is one of the available channels. It's $5 a month for the subscription, but I don't mind.

Dish is almost hysterically harrassing me to "come back!! Please!!!"

Anyway, the best thing about Roku is that I finally get....


Wait for it....













A LA CARTE PROGRAMMING!!!!!






If Dish or any cable company offed it, they'd get my business.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info on the Roku stick as the only thing I miss about dropping At&T is no OANN.
I will definitely check into that.

I got a email today from AT&T wanting me to go with Direct with a 2 year deal at $50.00 per mo.

:mad:Fat chance!
 
Dobbin

Dobbin

Faithful Steed
Owner has Roku. I've watched it. Its ok.

It does not have "local" news though. I have to watch WMUR Manchester news via their web-site - and sometimes they screw up the program feed: it will go to commercial (VERY LOUD) and then revert to the beginning of the news program.

This may be due to Owner's 4g internet stream.

Dobbin
 
RB Martin

RB Martin

Veteran Member
Dennis Olson said:
Setup takes about five minutes. What takes an hour or so is deciding what channels you want. Many of them I'd never heard of, so I had to pull the description for each one and then decide. Many were self-explanitory of course, but many were not as well.
Click to expand...

Does this rely on cable internet or phone data or something else? In other words how does it stream?
 
naturallysweet

naturallysweet

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I get oan through my amazon fire stick . I'm watching it now. The one thing I really worried I'd miss was 24 hour news. Oan is better than fox.
 
Dennis Olson

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
_______________
The local news channel is "on News". I think it's based on your ZIP code or something. Pulls in a couple of my local news channels.

I also have a couple of the "radio" channels, such as "Texas Liberty Radio". I have two dedicated weather channels, several tech channels, and the "Looney Tunes" and "Popeye" cartoon channels. I have A&E, Syfy, Classic Radio Broadcasts, sling (we had a recent conversation about that channel but I haven't activated yet.) Also Netflix Streaming, Hulu, Prime, Vudu, Pluto and many others. 57 in all, from an a la carte selection of hundreds.

So far, my only cost is $5 a month for OANN.
 
goatsrus

goatsrus

Senior Member
Dennis Olson said:
The local news channel is "on News". I think it's based on your ZIP code or something. Pulls in a couple of my local news channels.

I also have a couple of the "radio" channels, such as "Texas Liberty Radio". I have two dedicated weather channels, several tech channels, and the "Looney Tunes" and "Popeye" cartoon channels. I have A&E, Syfy, Classic Radio Broadcasts, sling (we had a recent conversation about that channel but I haven't activated yet.) Also Netflix Streaming, Hulu, Prime, Vudu, Pluto and many others. 57 in all, from an a la carte selection of hundreds.

So far, my only cost is $5 a month for OANN.
Click to expand...

Dennis, I had some trouble with Sling on the Roku stick. It froze a lot, especially during the walking dead which drove me crazy. Found some info on the internet that the stick was causing the problem. I traded my son for his Roku two and haven't had anymore trouble. Sling may have fixed it by now. I liked the stick better than Roku 2 but I like to watch sling too. I'm going to check out the news channel. I'll never go back to cable or satellite.
 
Dennis Olson

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
_______________
How long ago did you get the stick? They came out with a new one about 6 weeks ago that's as fast as a Roku 3, so reviewers say. Model 3600.
 
Blacknarwhal

Blacknarwhal

Let's Go Brandon!
Dennis Olson said:
The local news channel is "on News". I think it's based on your ZIP code or something. Pulls in a couple of my local news channels.

I also have a couple of the "radio" channels, such as "Texas Liberty Radio". I have two dedicated weather channels, several tech channels, and the "Looney Tunes" and "Popeye" cartoon channels. I have A&E, Syfy, Classic Radio Broadcasts, sling (we had a recent conversation about that channel but I haven't activated yet.) Also Netflix Streaming, Hulu, Prime, Vudu, Pluto and many others. 57 in all, from an a la carte selection of hundreds.

So far, my only cost is $5 a month for OANN.
Click to expand...

Are these the actual channels or the apps? Some apps have content, but not all of it.
 
packyderms_wife

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
smokin said:
I have heard of folks who dropped their satellite service that was costing them over a hundred dollars and then the companies would call with offers for only $19.99 a month!!!

I guess they were overpaying about $80 each month.
Click to expand...


About a year ago I was listening to Kim Kommando interview a young guy from the Minnie St. Paul area who had started up a company called something like "cut the cord" which helps people become awre of what their options are for a nominal fee, and if they help to set it up (which they do for a lot of not so tech savvy folks) another fee. His services save his clients on average $350 a month.

When asked how he came up with the idea he was a friends house (college roommate) and his parents had unwittingly signed up for two different versions of satellite service AND cable tv, they were spending something like $450 a month on these services and when he asked them what they were watching it was only one cable channel and the rest was PBS! They bought the cable and sat companies likes hook line and sinker. He acted as the intermediary and got rid of everyone, taught them how to use their smart tv, and set them up with Hulu, because the one show they were watching was on Hulu.

He commented that there are a lot of elderly people out there being taken advantage of, my dad was one of them btw, because they're not on the internet and don't realize that there are other options available.
 
Blacknarwhal

Blacknarwhal

Let's Go Brandon!
packyderms_wife said:
About a year ago I was listening to Kim Kommando interview a young guy from the Minnie St. Paul area who had started up a company called something like "cut the cord" which helps people become awre of what their options are for a nominal fee, and if they help to set it up (which they do for a lot of not so tech savvy folks) another fee. His services save his clients on average $350 a month.

When asked how he came up with the idea he was a friends house (college roommate) and his parents had unwittingly signed up for two different versions of satellite service AND cable tv, they were spending something like $450 a month on these services and when he asked them what they were watching it was only one cable channel and the rest was PBS! They bought the cable and sat companies likes hook line and sinker. He acted as the intermediary and got rid of everyone, taught them how to use their smart tv, and set them up with Hulu, because the one show they were watching was on Hulu.

He commented that there are a lot of elderly people out there being taken advantage of, my dad was one of them btw, because they're not on the internet and don't realize that there are other options available.
Click to expand...

I thought of a book about that once, but then it seemed like everyone and his mother put one out before I could even get to it.
 
O

OldArcher

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Thank-You, Dennis! Just signed-up with OAN, through my ROKU 3... Looking forward to it. Also have CBS All Access, as well as Netflix and Hulu (w/o commercials...). May well nuke my cable subscription, as I have SiriusXM on my two computers, in my car, and in my living room... I'm a news junkie, so will probably be looking at other overseas venues as well...

GBY&Y's

Maranatha

OA
 
D

Displaced hillbilly

Veteran Member
Question for you all who are way more tech savy than me. We have three tv's, would we need a Roku for all of them? And would a Roku work on an older flat screen tv, or does it have to be a smart tv? We are so sick of paying thru the nose for channels we dont watch.
 
Hfcomms

Hfcomms

EN66iq
That is one drawback to living in the boonies. No high speed Internet. If I had that I would drop the DirecTv in an instant. I'm paying close to one hondo a month for it and really don't watch it that much. I'll watch Faux snews occasionally to see what is trending but other than that I have it to catch baseball and football games for the most part. I do have a motorized FTA satellite dish which is good for catching satellite news gathering wild feeds and unfortunately where I live I can't even get over the air TV when they moved to digital a few years ago. Too much high ground betwixt me and the transmitters. I have a satellite Internet setup and although I can download youtube's and stream some lower bandwidth radio feeds the streaming of video is out of the question. My 'smart' TV has Roku on it but it's pretty much useless without a bigger pipe.
 
magnetic1

magnetic1

Veteran Member
I love my Roku. I still have the Roku one plus the #2 and need one more for company's bedroom tv. So many channels to explore and I couldn't be happier. I watch the local news and weather on the kitchen tv while I cook and then switch right back to the roku for anything else.

Don't miss cable or satellite one bit!
 
X

xtreme_right

Veteran Member
Displaced hillbilly said:
Question for you all who are way more tech savy than me. We have three tv's, would we need a Roku for all of them? And would a Roku work on an older flat screen tv, or does it have to be a smart tv? We are so sick of paying thru the nose for channels we dont watch.
Click to expand...

We have two rokus and love the service. My daughter accesses Netflix and Hulu from a wii, so if you have one of those laying around, it'll work too. I've never used the wii, so can't say if it has all the options the roku does. We've been without TV for 5 years. We only have Netflix and Hulu.
 
BH

BH

. . . .
I bought our 4th Roku Stick on Sunday (it's a 3600, others are 3500's)

Lot's of more traditional channel options if you have friends or relatives that will either share their cable/satellite subscription logins or will do the authorizations for you over the phone when the authentication codes pop up on your tv (channels like ESPN, FX, USA NBCSports and others)

Check out the Remote Control Apps for your phones/tablets (if your devices have IR capability) - I found one called Peel Smart Remote that combines multiple devices into a single remote. The remote also will provide a channel guide for your provider or OTA programming for your zip code. You set the remote up for each room that has a tv and the remote will automatically switch to the correct room if you allow it to see your GPS.

We are paying $28/mo for our Netflix, Hulu and OAN and looking forward to ditching dish - internet access is $34.99/mo for the next year (TWC, for now)

Just checked our internet acct, we were under 192 gig for Feb, and have been under 140 gig for the past 3 months (already at 28 gig for June) - some Roku apps allow bandwidth to be set (high, medium, low) - if you can, set the apps on low and watch for awhile, adjust if you need to. Our watch time has constantly increased and our bandwidth usage has dropped.

I am an iHeart Radio person and it is available via Roku so now I have my favorite nationwide radio stations as well on all TVs
 
N

NukeMaster

Contributing Member
Question for you all who are way more tech savy than me. We have three tv's, would we need a Roku for all of them? And would a Roku work on an older flat screen tv, or does it have to be a smart tv? We are so sick of paying thru the nose for channels we dont watch.
Click to expand...

We have a old projection TV. It has only one Digital input-a DV-I input. So I use a DV-I to HDMI cable to connect to the Roku 'box'. The Roku box also has component hook up (i.e. yellow red and white RCA cords). Using the DV-I cable to HDMI I have to use red and white audio cables for hook-up. The set-up works fine.

Your TVs probably have HDMI plugs, so you can use the Roku 'stick'. You also might have the DV-I or computer video hook-up. If you don't have these the Roku box can be connected using RCA cables as stated above.Don't know about old style computer video to HDMI hook-up. For this you may have to research on the net. The roku gets its internet signal from our Wi-Fi.

Our newer TV in the bedroom has all the nice HDMI hook ups and the old style video computer hook up. I have hooked my laptop at times ( can use HDMI or audio cable plus video cable) and also have a chrome cast HDMI plug in. The chrome cast gets its signal from a note pad device which gets its internet signal from our Wi-Fi. We have 50 mgs speed which has worked fine for two TVs and phones.

Sounds complicated, but I set all this stuff up, not having kept up with modern video setups. Much of the stuff nowadays is "plug and play". If using a Wi-Fi system be sure and use passwords, there are threads about Wi-Fi here that give info on how to set the security-you don't want some one using your signal.

You will need a roku device for each TV.
 
biere

biere

Veteran Member
I got one of those big ol monster televisions for free and hauled it home.

Due to its age I did some amazon surfing and there are all sorts of options for getting stuff hooked up to older televisions or perhaps a flatscreen that just does not have enough plug in options on it.

Also got some stuff that let me run a cord off the computer to the television.

I recently sent all my vhs players and tapes down the road cause they were not getting used at all.

My amazon fire stick has me figuring I could see sending the dvds down the road in a few years as more and more stuff gets streamed for cheap or free.

But then the power goes out or something, and I can watch a dvd on the laptop on battery power and I am back to keeping the dvds.

I am glad to hear about the new roku, I sort of want another firestick but could see going that way instead for my other tv.

I am lucky enough to have fiber for internet, but speeds are slow and cost is high. I can still stream stuff though.
 
rhughe13

rhughe13

Heart of Dixie
We have Roku also. No more nasty kids shows on cable such as Nickelodeon and Disney pushing their gay agenda on kids.
 
Sooth

Sooth

Veteran Member
How do you record programs for watching later
if you use ROKU or another streaming service?
TIVO, some type of DVR?

Sooth
 
Breeta

Breeta

Veteran Member
We have 3 rokus at our house. Lol. One was free with charter cable company's streaming service (charter spectrum $20 per month). We get showtime via hulu plus, netflix and amazon prime streaming, hbo go... Fox news has lots of free clips and shows and there is a fox streaming channel on youtube that's free...
 
Avatar

Avatar

Human test subject #58652
Here's just one of the sites that list some of the "gazillion" un-official roku channels.
Lots of "interesting" stuff to be found there.

http://www.rokuguide.com/private-channels

Private Channels, also called Hidden Channels, are not displayed in the Roku channel store and must be added manually. You can do so by clicking on the Add Channel button on the private channel pages linked below. Read this article for more information on private channels.
Click to expand...
 
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