Roku neat entertainmen gadget!

[Smokin Don]

This is not food related but a neat entertainment gadget if you have Wi-Fi net connection. Here is a link to the gadget.
http://www.roku.com/why-its-cool

Our son wanted one to get all of his music streamed to all his gadgets, IPad, cell phone, laptop etc. I didn’t think much of it but then he said you have Amazon Prime and it includes free streaming movies. We got one for his Christmas.
My wife checked it out and there were 170 free movies with the Amazon Prime. She paid $50 with free shipping so I said go ahead and get one if you want.

I know a lot of you have Amazon Prime so though some may be interested in this.

She got one for us from Amazon at the same price. Our son set it up for us; he said it’s pretty easy to do. I have a Wi-Fi router on my PC and the Roku is on our TV connected with composite cables. As soon as I can get out and buy a HDMI cable we will get the movies in Hi Def.

It looks like a lot of good movies to watch and for those that like westerns, “Smoke”; it looks like some good ones. I watched Wyatt Earp with Kevin Costner the other night.

Smokin Don

[Pappymn]

I have one too Don and like it a lot. Dig into it more, their are a lot of "channels" that you can add. Lot of good stuff out there.

And Amazon Prime is nearly as good as Netflix.....and it is free

[TentHunteR]

We just retired our original Roku Player which we've had ever since they first came out in 2008.

When we got it, it had a single channel, "Netflix," and you had to log into your Netflix account on a PC and add shows/movies to your queue.  Wow have they grown up since then!

It was just replaced with their latest player, the Roku Player 3 (family Christmas gift). We also have a Roku 2 upstairs.  They are without a doubt the best streaming devices on the market.

A great channel to add is the "Outdoor Cooking Channel" which includes the BB Central Radio Show with Greg Rempe (out of Cleveland, Ohio I might add )


A tip about the newer Roku Players: Don't try using a cheap HDMI cable. HDMI cables MUST be the latest standard or it simply won't work!

[jboo70]

I was using my Wii and it would constantly drop the WiFi connection.  So I got the Roku 3 and am in love.  It is fast and reliable.  The best channel that there is is Plex.  You can stream all of the movies from your computer right to your tv.  The smartphone app is cool too because you can control it but you can also show all of your pictures that are on your phone and also play the music or movies that you have on there, on the TV.  We LOVE IT!

[africanmeat]

On my last trip to the USA a got one just to connect netflix.
but it got a lot of other channels too.

[fishingbouchman]

just got a new tv with most the apps already one it.  slow internet where I am at but liking Netflix and YouTube for the kids.  Do you know if Roku or Chromcast work better than the smart TV apps?  Would love to get rid of cable but I do enjoy watching tv shows closer to live and not having to wait for them to come out on Hulu.  How fast do TV shows come out?  All new stuff for me and trying to get caught up on the smart tv/Roku stuff. 

[TentHunteR]

just got a new tv with most the apps already one it.  slow internet where I am at but liking Netflix and YouTube for the kids.  Do you know if Roku or Chromcast work better than the smart TV apps? 

We have a SamSung blue ray player with the apps built-in, a Sony 3-D Blue-Ray with the apps built in and a Vizio smart/3-D TV with the apps built-in.

Sony - I can tell you unequivocally that Roku is WAY better than Sony. We got tired of Sony's network issues and the movies & YouTube vids freezing. Hooked up a Roku 2 to the same TV (upstairs and all issues cleared up.

Vizio - The Netflix was fine, but the TV itself tended to lock-up during playback requiring a reboot (yes I said reboot; Smart TV's are computers). Again, even our older original Roku player played the vids more reliably, and since it was doing the playback, there was no TV lockup.

I talked with a Netflix rep about some issues and she told me they get a ton of complaints from Sony owners, some complaints from Vizio Owners and said that Roku is by far the least troublesome device from their point of view.

Couple that with the fact that the newer Roku's will actually stream Netflix in full 1080p for movies/shows where available. Both our Sony 3-D Blue-ray, and our Vizio built-in app stream netflix in 720p ONLY!

We also have a Sam-Sung Blue Ray player with built-in apps, but the interface kind of sucks, so we simply never used it much.

Roku runs on Linux and is pretty dang stable. Like any other computer you do need to reboot them from time to time. While not perfect I can confidently say that Roku is the way to go.

[fishingbouchman]

Roku over chromecast.