Cutting the cable tv?

There is no way I'd cut my cable internet connection[Comcast or TimeWarnerRoadRunner], but..is that little Roku gadget worth $99?

gs85739 said:

There is no way I'd cut my cable internet connection[Comcast or TimeWarnerRoadRunner], but..is that little Roku gadget worth $99?

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I would cut my cable (currently satellite) service in a heartbeat. But I do need decent news coverage. So if anyone would care to comment on their Newscaster service, I'd be very interested.

Hi,

I saw a D-Link Boxee Box in Fry's yesterday. I wonder if it's similar to Roku. But, I'm not sure I know what Boxee does. Looks like its software is still in Beta but they're seling it anyways ($99). I'd like to cut the Direct TV box out also but want to keep news and other stuff. I'm not sure that it can get live TV; it says it can not record it.

If anyone knows more I hope they chime in.

Bob Schoner

gs85739 said:

There is no way I'd cut my cable internet connection[Comcast or TimeWarnerRoadRunner], but..is that little Roku gadget worth $99?

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I'm not sure I understand what you are asking. The Roku gadget depends on streaming from the internet. And cable is a most reliable internet service for video streaming. The Roku is similar to AppleTV and the video streaming on many BluRay Disk players.

BTW, I thought the Roku was selling for around $79.

What are you asking?

--mamallama

I will keep cable internet service, but "hope" to delete cable tv service[which can get very pricey!].

I presently watch most network tv[abc/nbc/cbs/chicago superstation and several PBS channels, they showed up when I got a new Panasonic Plasma HDTV.

I have a cable hooked up, but get the above channels, some in 1080i, others in 720 and the rest in 480. These channels come into my HDTV from "free" stations, once I scanned for the channels, these channels showed up.

I also hook up a laptop to HDTV via HDMI cable. It has many options, but it's a 17" laptop and the Roku is a much smaller footprint.

I'm looking at that avenue myself.

But I'm also wary of the new threat of internet providers to jack up the price substantially for users that stream data--those who are watching movies and television.

--
RDKirk
'TANSTAAFL: The only unbreakable rule in photography.'

gs85739 said:

There is no way I'd cut my cable internet connection[Comcast or TimeWarnerRoadRunner], but..is that little Roku gadget worth $99?

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It depends on what you like on TV. As you've already noticed, streaming video right now is mostly for movies and entertainment programs, not for news. But the number of channels keeps increasing. If you've been paying attention, you might have noticed that the same technology is now included in Blue-Ray players, and in some TV sets, so I suspect that the stand-alone Roku may be a short-lived product.

IMO, though, a Roku is worth every penny of $99, but you can get one for a lot less. My son gave us one for Christmas. I was vaguely aware of the technology before, but was surprised by how well it works and by the amount of programing available. The Netflix channel has quickly become our almost-exclusive source for movies. Bear in mind, though, that what available for streaming is a subset of all the content available from Netflix. I added Cnet TV as one of our channels (it and many others are free), and bore my wife to tears now and then. Most of the Cnet content seems pretty lame, but some of the podcasts are worth watching.

Also, the Roku does NOT require a really fast internet connection. For some reason it works much better than watching streaming content from the same sources on my computer monitor. We're currently sharing a 6Mbps connection with nine other households, and watching on the computer often involved a lot of interruptions to readjust. This happens MUCH less frequently with the Roku.

I haven't had cable for many years, but I did do the following to try and make up for it.

• Netflix streaming on my PS3. HD movies and TV on demand
• PlayOn (playon.tv) allows me to stream videos from numerous web sites (like Hulu) to my PS3. I believe it works on Roku too.
• Did some research and got the right digital TV antenna for my house. Every channel comes in solid

Cable will still give you better access to current shows. You're not going to get around that in the near future. If you're willing to give that up and have a little tech knowhow, you can do pretty well with the above.

brn said:

• PlayOn (playon.tv) allows me to stream videos from numerous web sites (like Hulu) to my PS3. I believe it works on Roku too.

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Interesting since PlayOn claim to carry CNN and Fox News (which together might satisfy me). Do you know what proportion of their programming is actually available? Is it the full cable news feed in real-time or just a handful of time-delayed shows?

After a lot of research, the broadcast antenna route is not an option for me. Most channels are broadcast from two transmitters 35 miles away, and behind a perfectly placed hill :-(

malch said:

Interesting since PlayOn claim to carry CNN and Fox News (which together might satisfy me). Do you know what proportion of their programming is actually available? Is it the full cable news feed in real-time or just a handful of time-delayed shows?

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It's as current as what's on the CNN and Fox News web sites. PlayOn sits on your computer, browses to specified web feeds, re-encodes them, and allows you to watch them on a PlayOn compatible device (which includes most DLNA devices).

There are third party (free so far) plugins for PlayOn that attempt real-time feeds from cable channels, but they don't work all that well.

Member said:

After a lot of research, the broadcast antenna route is not an option for me. Most channels are broadcast from two transmitters 35 miles away, and behind a perfectly placed hill :-(

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35 miles is easy. It's that darned hill that's messing you up.

brn said:

It's as current as what's on the CNN and Fox News web sites.

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Which is not that great :-(

But thanks for the explanation. It's very helpful!

I'm under contract with DirecTV for a couple more months. After that, I will likely try an IP-based solution. The Roku with PlayOn looks like the best bet I've found so far.

brn said:

35 miles is easy.

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Well, certainly doable.

brn said:

It's that darned hill that's messing you up.

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Yup. But nothing that a 120 ft mast wouldn't solve ;-)

However, we really don't want that. And city/homeowners issues combined with some very close power lines probably make it impossible anyway.