I am always a day late and a dollar short to technology. Because of my side hustle in Spring 2018, I got rid of cable a little earlier than usual. Usually I get a seasonal suspension for the summer, but I had no time even in spring with a second job so I cancelled cable in February instead of May. Then my Aunty MERJ came to visit. I knew she wouldn't have anything to do all day while I was at work, so I did a 2 month trial of Sling and it came with a free Roku (no affiliate). Really I paid for the Roku, because that's what I had my eye on, and got 2 months of Sling free but tomatoes, tomahtoes.
If you don't know me well enough yet, I love TV and takeout. It's my favorite pastime. Without the cable, I had been falling asleep to reruns on Netflix on an old iPad mini or my even older laptop (both provided by my college). I wasn't sure what this Roku thing was; I just knew I needed something that would show up on the TV for Aunty MERJ to watch. Well, it came, and it's awesome!
Why I Love Roku So Much!
- It was so easy to set-up. My TV is mounted but luckily there was an HDMI coming out of it. I just plugged that in to the Roku and then plugged the power cable into a socket. Beware though, you will have to set up a few log-ins...groan. However I was able to set up everything 20 to 30 minutes before work.
- Sound quality is awesome. You don't have to rely on the puny sound of your tablet or laptop. My laptop's sound only works when it feels like it, so that was a bonus!
- HD video quality! I was concerned Roku would just project the grainy videos from my laptop on a larger screen. It's not like that at all! I have shared internet with my whole apartment complex and I have superb video quality. It is crisp and clear! There's no buffering! I take that back, I think once or twice in the 3 weeks I've had it, when I rewind a video, it pauses for a second to find the place. A SECOND! With my laptop, I'd have to restart my whole system and take pauses every 5 minutes for the video to buffer. It's not like that all with Roku!
- No crashes. With my laptop, I could never really binge watch much. It would freeze, get too slow, or too hot or get stuck buffering. With the apps on my iPad, there were a lot of random app crashes. So far so good on Roku!
- You can use your TV's timer. One of the downsides of falling asleep to watching stream video is it keeps running. With the Roku streaming on my TV, I can use the TV's sleep function to shut the TV off in 90 minutes (or whatever time you choose) when I'm ready to sleep.
- Easy to use. The Roku remote has only a few buttons and no words which was a turn-off initially. Like I said, I'm a bit of a technophobe. But after pushing a few arrows, it was easy to navigate. On the home screen are all the apps. For example, I have Netflix, Sling, ABC, ID, and the NBC app. Some are pre-loaded on the home screen. Some you can add from the home screen. So each time I want to switch between apps, you just go to the home screen and choose. Then you begin watching shows within that app. There are quite a few apps- some free, some paid. I even got to watch the Royal Wedding live with one of the apps. You can even rent movies! Even Aunty MERJ figured out how to use it.
If you stream video and are a cable cutter, I highly recommend it! It's been awesome!
Enjoy. Use the wishbone icon to Share/ Tweet/ Comment/ Like/ Subscribe!
Related Content:
I've never heard of Roku, I initially thought you meant a Roomba!! Ha! Then I figured you can't be watching your Roku/Roomba move around your studio that much! Just googled Roku and now contemplating. For £30 one off fee, it could reduce our costs that much each month, hmmmm... can I get hubby away from his cable fix?
ReplyDeleteHaha! What a chuckle you gave me. Hmm... I thought I was the last remaining non-stick user. There's a stick or home gadget for everything these days it seems. Hmm...well if you are in the market to move to streaming, there are probably some free offers out there...google roku + free. In the US, at least three streaming providers provide some sort of promotional item for trying their service (e.g. roku, firestick, appleTV). Also for hubby, the big cable providers here offer live tv via streaming as well...they may there as well? Curious to see how this goes.
ReplyDeleteCable is my one weakness. As in I cannot be bothered to do the research to faff around and change providers, or maybe not. The fact we intend to move in a year adds to this laziness, I can start afresh, as I mean to go on then. It will all hinge on what Tv channels/programmes we can view on an alternative device. We don't really do boxsets, US crime dramas and the like. More gardening, wildlife documentaries etc. Maybe I should delegate to himself to research?!
ReplyDeleteYes, one vote for delegating. Those channels seem pretty reasonable, don't know how cable is offered in your neck of the woods though. Netflix seems to have quite a few offerings in that dept in the US though. Yeah, there are some things we all would rather not spend our time doing. Just thinking about that with my car insurance renewal. Stumbled on more than a couple posts on researching this and comparison shopping. Mmm...pass.
ReplyDelete