OT Roku Channel Store

[micky]

OT probably.

I'm looking into Roku and I see there is the Roku Channel Store.

I gather one has to have channels to watch anything.

But because I don't have a userid and password, I couldn't get to the place in the Store where it might ask for money.

Do all the channels cost money?

Or only the ones I know cost money, like Netflix?

Does it cost to have Youtube as a channel, or Hulu?

And is it possible to just watch a video that someone puts on his own website. Like if he has webspace nad he puts up my cousin's wedding. Can I watch that with Roku? For free?

What do I use to type in the URL for these things?

Even youtube, which I've read can be played, has to have a topic to search for or an id to to play, something has to be typed in, because their list of videos is in the milliions, I think. Scrolling is out of the question.

I'm a babe in the woods here.

I just want to get out of this not so comfortable desk chair and watch more stuff on the TV instead of the computer screen.

Thanks.

[Terry Coombs]

You have to create an account

All the good stuff costs , there are some free channels .

HULU yes , youtube I don't think so . I haven't tried it .

Probably not unless your cousin has created a channel .

That I'm not sure about .

Hit the Roku website , there is a FAQ there somewhere . We have a Roku , but since we have a satellite dish , we haven't subscribed to any for-pay channels . If you have cable or a satellite dish , you can find a lot of content that you can access on-demand over the 'net . I have a computer hooked to our TV , I can stream content saved on another comp here , play DVD's , or watch on-demand and youtube content . Pretty much all the new flatscreen TV sets have an input available for a omputer , and many newer comps have either DVI-D or HDMI inputs , some also have a VGA input . Right now I have a satellite receiver , a computer , a DVD player , and the Roku all hooked to our TV . -- Snag

[Terry Coombs]

Part of what I wrote is confusing ... meant to say the new comps have DVI-D and HDMI *outputs* , and some new TV sets have a VGA input . DVI-D and VGA require a separate audio feed . There is also S-video , but I haven't seen many TV's with that input lately - it also requires a separate audio feed .

[dadiOH]

YES

No

Youtube, no; Hulu+, yes ($7.99/month)

If he has created a channel, you can subscribe to it and watch whatever is on it.

What things? Channels? You don't type in anything, just click the icon once you subscribe. Once the channel loads, you can search it. You can search generically - cross channel - from one of Roku's main screens.

Buy the model 2 Roku

We subscibe to two pay channels...Netflix and Acorn. Netflix is $7.99/month plus $1.00 for each additional user if they want to be able to watch diferent channels at the same time. Acorn is $4-5 month. No commercials on either. Hulu+ is $7.99, you get commercials. There are many free channels, some feed commercials, others do not.

[micky]

Thanks, Terry, DaddiOH. I have a much better feel for what it is now. I still have hardware accomodations to make.

[taxed and spent]

you can also mirror your smartphone (or perhaps other device) so you can watch on the TV via ROKU anything you can watch on your smartphone.

[notbob]

I have a Roku 2 XS (one rev up from the std 2). If you like Youtube, I'd check out the Roku 3. I gotta believe the 3 has controls that make navigating U2B a bit easier, cuz they suck on my Roku 2. I watch Netflix on my flat panel TV via an HDMI cable from the Roku box.

nb

[sms]

You can stream from a WD My Cloud (or other home server) to a Roku, and put content on it from a computer so it would be possible to download videos (using a computer), store them on the WD My Cloud and play them on the Roku.

[Dave Garrett]

I had a 2 XS for several years until I upgraded to a 3. The 3 has a significantly faster processor, so channels and video streams load quite a bit quicker. They also recently added voice search to the 3 (after I bought mine, but since I don't care about voice search, no big deal).

If you have the YouTube app on your phone, you can pair it with your Roku's YouTube channel, which will then allow you to search for videos on your phone and play them on the Roku. It's a lot slicker than using the Roku channel's built-in search.

Also, as someone mentioned in another post, you can stream videos from an external hard drive or computer to your Roku. I use the (free) Plex Media Server and the Plex channel to manage my video library and watch videos from it on my TV via the Roku, and it works great. There are other similar options out there if you look around.

[notbob]

I accidently discovered this feature and love it. (U2B=Youtube)

nb

[micky]

Another question, please.

It says that Roku one has "Built-in wireless" but Roku two has "Streaming-friendly dual-band wireless"

Does t hat mean one can't stream with Roku 1? I thought streaming was the goal of Roku in general?

Running a cable from the router to the roku box would be rather difficult for me.

[notbob]

Not sure.

My Roku 2 XS has wifi, but I use an ethernet cable, regardless. The Roku 1 claims to be "wireless". Is that the same as wifi? I would think so.

nb

[Tony Hwang]

WiFi uses two bands, one on 2.4GHz, one on 50GHz. 2.4 band is quite crowded and some times using it is hit and miss depending on your neighborhood WiFi situation. 5GHz is newer band with wider bandwidth, so it is better choice for streaming. So Roku 1 is single band vs. 2 is dual band.

[micky]

Good to know, and not just for Roku, I'll bet I do have about a half dozen families in range that I get some of their signal, but they've never interfered, because I have to choose one. Only my next door neighbor was very strong (and I haven't checked since I got a new next door neighbor (townhouse, end of group)

Doesn't Roku pick a network, like my laptop and wireless printer did?

Does it have encription of any sort, or would that take too long with streaming video?

[dadiOH]

Once you sign in to a selected network it will automatically connect to that network.

[sms]

Ditto for the Roku 3. I ran cables to both of my Roku boxes. Fewer dropouts. It was a bit of a pain being up in the attic and snaking the cables through, but it was a one-time thing.

If I got a DVR, now that I don't have one from cable or satellite, I'd get the Tablo which uses a Roku (or some other boxes) to stream. . But since I've dumped satellite I have found I don't miss the DVR at all. We watch less TV even though OTA gives us plenty of content.

[micky]

Makes sense. Thanks.

[Thomas]

I have a set of Skull brand earbuds that plug into the remote. The sound is awesome. When you plug it in, it turns off the tv volume. I'll go on my porch for a smoke and can look through the door window and not miss a beat. Look them up.

[jimmyDahGeek]

We have Charter cable and it works fine off WiFi. I had the same issue as y ou it was difficult to run a cable, but I finally ran one last week. I not iced a little bit of difference when selecting programs, but for streaming it is about the same (GREAT). There are a lot of free channels out there, but the best two are Hulu and Netflix which charge (around $8 a month each I believe). We have not dropped cable yet but are planning on dropping it as soon as I get an outside antenna up.