Can a Roku streaming stick be used to get free TV stations?

Nothing prevents an ISP from throttling Netflix, even if you buy Gigabit service. That's the beauty of net neutrality or the lack thereof.

This is one reason that people cannot see Netflix in HD, because the connection to Netflix is throttled, no matter what grade of service you thought that you'd bought.

The ISP could have been cut out of the picture, by the usage of a VPN to "hide" the traffic, except Netflix has anti-VPN provisions to prevent people from other countries from subscribing to US Netflix service (by using a US billing address).

Netflix has a lot of nuances. One size bandaid doesn't fit all.

Paul

make your own ...

John T.

Some ISP *might* throttle Netflix. But the OP is on wifi where he has only

I just want to say that all the articles assume you'll pay for Netflix, which isn't the question here.

I don't want to pay for anything since I think it's foolish to pay for what you can get for free, if you can get it for free.

That's why I asked what comes with the Roku sticks. It seems, from the answers, "stuff" comes for free, so that's good.

Now all I need is to figure out if the Roku can plug into the HDMI "IN" of the monitor (with a Y adapter) or if the Roku can plug into the HDMI "OUT" of the Sony Playstation 3.

If the Roku can plug into the HDMO "OUT" of the Sony PS3, that would be perfect because the Sony PS3 already has cables that go into the old but rather large (48 inch?) Sony TV (maybe through the DVD player?).

Come to think of it, I didn't look at the back of the DVD player yet.

The DVD player also has an HDMI "OUT" that I ask if I can plug the Roku stick into?

Thank you for confirming there are "some" free channels, which is all that I care about since the goal is free TV, where all this talk of commercials isn't the point at all since you all have a completely different setup (eg cable, which we don't have) and most of you likely have Netflix (which we don't have and don't want to pay for).

It seems from the other discussions that the kids and I need HDMI "IN" where the monitor to the desktop computer is the only device with HDMI "IN".

The Sony Playstation 3 only has an unused HDMI "OUT".

And the DVD player also has an unused HDMI "OUT".

The desktop is connected to the router by WiFi and the playstation is connected to the router by Ethernet.

The playstation then goes directly to the back of the TV, as does the DVD player.

Given the monitor has multiple different connections, I can free up the HDMI "IN" of the monitor by using a different cable out of the back of the desktop tower.

That would free up the only HDMI "IN" that I have.

So the only question remaining is whether the Roku streaming stick would work connected to that HDMI "IN" of the desktop computer monitor.

I am in a situation much like yours where it should be obvious that if we don't even have cable service, we won't have over-the-air TV service either, which is because we are remote and that's how we like things to be.

We are WISP for Internet and telephone and that's all we have other than electricity from the power company. The water, and septic are not services which are provided to us. Only garbage pickup happens once every two weeks by truck and that's it for services pretty much.

The goal here is just to see if these Roku sticks can be made to work, where the only HDMI "INPUT" we have is the computer monitor, which we can free up if we use a different cable out the back of the desktop tower to the computer monitor.

Thank you for confirming that the Playstation 3 and DVD player HDMI ports are not going to be useful since they're both outputs.

That leaves the only HDMI input being the computer monitor.

For those who have a Roku streaming stick, do you concur that the sticks should work in the computer monitor HDMI input? The computer is a modern Windows computer desktop.

Yes it will work the HDMI port is a INPUT. Just as you can use a TV's HDMI port for a computer monitor.

To confirm I dug out the ol' Roku 2 DX and connected to and old monitor that only has DVI but I used a DVI-HTMI adapter. Works just fine.

NOTE: The monitor would have to have builtin speakers else you will have no sound!!!

Much easier just to pickup a Wallymart special TV. You can easily pick up a small one for $100

Yes.

Per Bod:

Probably - if you watch in real time.

Personally, I always watch recorded shows and jump-forward the commercials.

I do not think I have seen more than 15 seconds of any commercial in over 10 years.

I run a Tivo-on-Steroids app on my 24-7 PC and record to drives on same.

There's a little black box under each TV that gives me a UI into the Tivo-on-Steroids app.

"SageTV"... used to be a commercial product - discontinued when Google bought it out to harvest the brainpower behind it.

But the public domain version, which everybody uses now, is still kickin' it:

Just read the manual and plug the thing into the HDMI of the monitor and see what it does. As I recall, you wifi into it to set it up. Should be clearly described in the manual. Worry about other devices after you determine that the content is usable. Depending on your model, the only audio output is thru HDMI, which can severely limit your options.

I played with mine for about ten minutes before I gave up on the useless free content.

I think you'll find that the stuff available for free is absolute CRAP. Anything you want to watch is NOT FREE. And you can get most of the same stuff with an app on the computer.

roku is for people who have a dumb tv and want to get content without dedicating a whole computer to the process...and are willing to pay for content.

You can get free movies you'd actually want to watch using your internet browser on your desktop or smartphone. Google tubiTV and Crackle to get started. Go the the national TV network websites and see what they have for streaming. Used to be a lot of free network TV, but I think they are now charging for access. Check it out. You should be able to get anything network accessible in a standard format to go thru your roku. I haven't looked in a while, but networks like to force you to use their viewer app so they can control the advertising content. My neighbor swears that buying netflix is the best bang for the buck. YMMV

What I found interesting is that Netflix has a deal with Comcast, which I have, and I believe also FIOS as I suspect from their ads. Our two bigger HD non-smart TV sets with Comcast DVR have a Netflix ap so smart TV is not needed there. I asked someone that works at Comcast's main office and he said they do have a deal with them. There is no other option like Amazon on the DVR. It only takes a few seconds to bring up and watch Netflix.

With voice activation on the DVR I can ask for a show and if it is on Netflix and I have a subscription I can go and see it for free otherwise there is a pay option where it would be added to cable bill.

OP wants to save money and I don't blame him. My cable TV bill with extended cable options and HBO, Showtime and Starz with internet and phone is nearly $200/month and I have to fight annually to keep it down. I have a neighbor that switches from Comcast to FIOS every couple of years when initial low cost introductory offer expires and they won't come down. My son would do that but my wife would not tolerate it.

But he will have no audio unless the monitor has builtin speakers with HDMI support. Now the old Roko 2 had a 1/8 audio jack for headphones that could be used for external speakers, but the sticks do not.

That's an excellent point. He'll get video for sure, but audio only if his monitor supports it. Every TV would, but monitors are a different animal.

Am Tue, 27 Mar 2018 18:23:24 -0500, schrieb Char Jackson:

Oh oh... no speakers on the monitor.

Thanks for bringing that unthought of point up!

There are a couple of Saturday music shows I watch but a lot of it seems to be British dramas and comedies. Like it's rumored for German breweries, I think they send the rejects to the US.

Just plug it into the *monitor* and get testing.

Paul

Our DSL runs about 6 mbytes. We can watch TV via Roku on two TVs and operate two computers, all simultaneously. OP should have no problem.

Note: bits and bytes are two different things :)