Anyone have a Roku?

[jennipurrr]

My husband has gotten it in his head that we *need* a Roku. I have a gift card I won in a contest, so it is something we could purchase for little/free.

He is telling me that if it is good enough then maybe we can drop cable. So of course that is tempting me as I am not the big TV watcher in the house and would drop cable even now. He is a big ESPN watcher (baseball, basketball, college football and NFL) and I am not sure Roku will fill the live sports issue.

Do you have a Roku? How do you use it? Did you drop cable? What kind of sports are available? Any opinions appreciated!

[redfox]

We have one, never had cable. We used it to stream netflix for years. Now we do so via a laptop connected to a flat screen.

[bae]

We had one, used it to stream Netflix, now our new DVD player manages to do the same thing, so the Roku went on to some other home.

These days, I'd consider it a niche device, as almost every new TV, DVD player, computer, cellphone, and tablet will stream Netflix and other sources for you, as will the similarly-priced Apple TV box widget thingy.

[sweetana3]

We use it to get our Amazon free video from Amazon Prime. We found it has a lot of great British shows. One we are watching is Lark Rise to Candleford. Hubby also is watching all the old seasons of Deep Space. Almost all the seasons of Midsomer Murders are there too.

Fairly cheap, very easy to install and shows for all ages. Now!!! I dont get hooked into paying for to rent or buy movies or shows but only watch the free ones.

[herbgeek]

We have one. We use it to watch movies and old TV shows on Netflix. I've been through the whole "Ally McBeal" and "The Office", as well as "Mystery Science Theatre 3000". Can't speak to sports coverage, don't watch. I'll be cutting the cable once I can get a roof top antenna for local news and the Create Channel. The Roku is fairly cheap, and we don't have the other devices to do streaming- although I suppose I could relocate my laptop to the living room, but then I wouldn't be able to jump on and look up trivia on IMDB at the same time. :)

[Merski]

We have one and stream netflix. We had to get a switch box for the roku & dvd player because there weren't enough ports in the tv to do them separately. We're happy with roku. Must have wifi in the house or a cord from the computer. Not the it person in the house.:)

[jennipurrr]

Thanks for the replies! I have to say I was kind of envisioning the replies to be of the "you do not need one more gadget" variety, but it seems like the Roku is fairly useful. We don't have any kind of new stuff in the TV department, our newest TV is from 2004 and we just have a regular old DVD player, so I don't think we could stream without buying some sort of device. I do have an iPad for work and have been hearing about the Apple TV thing...will have to look into that also. I also have Amazon Prime, so I hadn't thought about the free movies from there also, good to know!

We don't have Netflix but would definitely consider it if we were able to drop cable. Right now our cable is $55/mo. I was browsing online and it seems like a couple of Roku channels and some websites have sports, but a lot of the live sports streaming have these horrible subscription fees, more than the cable if you watch a few different sports. I think a lot of things are moving towards this type of market so it may be something that comes about over the next few years.

[AmeliaJane]

The Roku box is a good way to add streaming if you don't have the other widgets that will stream video. One nice feature that was added recently is subtitles for Netflix movies and television (Amazon downloads don't have that capability). I have basic cable + Netflix streaming for the "I just want to put my feet up and watch something" + Amazon downloads for a few select shows like "Justified" and "Mad Men" that I don't want to wait for DVDs on. That's plenty for me and costs less than digital cable would. I also have an older TiVo from the pre-digital TV days, and to get extended cable I would have to buy a new box and pay more for the monthly TiVo service. I don't know about the sports issue though...

[jennipurrr]

Well, I ended up getting the Roku. Its pretty neat. Right now we are locked into the Direct TV package until next year or we have to pay for the equipment, but I think this will give us plenty of time to play with it and figure out all the options. We watched a free video through Amazon and DH got his Mom's HBO info so we watched some shows on HBO Go. We are definitely considering dropping the cable package and trying out the Roku / over the air TV. DH has decided he can probably survive football season...woohoo!

[sweetana3]

Jennipurrr, we are at the same point. Husband is doing investigation to see what we want after DirectTV contract over. We have just had our fill of bad TV and having 200+ channels and nothing worth watching.

I have found enough to watch on Amazon Prime for free so far.