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I read the wiki article on Roku but I can't understand what it is.
Is there content on the Roku box itself or do you feed an internet line into it? Or is it wifi?
I can understand netflix streaming, cable or ondemand but I'm not sure what Roku is.
It's a box or dongle that connects to your TV and also your home Internet through Wifi. Some models have wired Internet as well. You control the box through a remote and can watch Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime Video, and other services through it.
It's an interface.
Yes, if you have subscriptions with netflix, hulu, etc you can watch them on your computer or directly on your TV, if your TV is "smart".
Otherwise, you'll need a Roku to watch them on your TV.
It is a fairly simple and logical interface with a small physical footprint. I find that it does pretty well with buffering, which can otherwise be an issue with some streaming. Sometimes at night I don't want to be geeking navigation to stuff I want to see and then messing with getting everything all set up. You can make your own potato chips or buy them in a bag. Same idea.
It's one device for all that and much more. There's a PBS app, there's a Time Warner app so you can hook it to your bedroom TV and you don't need a cable box there. There are a ton of channels and it makes it much easier to use with a simple remote and a pretty UI.
I thought I'd be able to get live news. I especially wanted BBC or Sky news but so far (I've only had this thing for a few days) I can just get clips of news, old news from a few hours ago. I want the LATEST news.
There are tons of movies and old tv shows.
Since I only want to watch new movies I've decided to rent them on a pay as you go basis. There's at least one channel that lets you rent a new movie for $4.99. Netflix and Amazon Prime don't have the newer movies.
If you're a weather fan check out the Weather Nation channel, it's what the weather channel used to be. I have about 500GB of movies and TV shows on a Synology NAS that I can stream on the Roku, plus my Prime account, and my GF's Netfilx account and an HBO Go account, plus a bunch of the freebie channels, great little device. Have one in the living room and bedroom.
I thought I'd be able to get live news. I especially wanted BBC or Sky news but so far (I've only had this thing for a few days) I can just get clips of news, old news from a few hours ago. I want the LATEST news.
The slightly oversimplified answer is that cable/satellite companies aren't letting the networks they carry offer their channels live. Roku boxes can only get a few channels as live streams because of this.
I thought I'd be able to get live news. I especially wanted BBC or Sky news but so far (I've only had this thing for a few days) I can just get clips of news, old news from a few hours ago. I want the LATEST news.
There are tons of movies and old tv shows.
Since I only want to watch new movies I've decided to rent them on a pay as you go basis. There's at least one channel that lets you rent a new movie for $4.99. Netflix and Amazon Prime don't have the newer movies.
You probably want a couple of private channels - Nowhere TV (there are about 30 live feeds from local news across the country and BBC, Sky and other international feeds) and Nowherecast (Which has PRI and TWIT) (Costs a buck a month - worth it.).
Just be aware that half won't have content or have minimal content.
For good Brit programming Acorn TV Click on FAQ and device help for setup.
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