mcnaryxc wrote:Roku + Plex + My Desktop = The Best Media Center Solution Ever

Plex is free. You don't need to have any hard drives plugged into your Roku. Plex streams everything off the pc or mac. And they are working on Hulu and Youtube and other apps to work through Plex. That alone is worth buying a Roku.

I agree, currently using four Roku boxes with Plex. Great setup.

Previous to Plex on the Roku, I tried Apple TVs (both an original model and the Apple TV 2) and a variety of small computers connected as media boxes. None of my prior attempts proved particularly satisfactory when it came to getting my media (ripped DVDs, DRM free internet videos, home movies, pictures, etc) easily accessible. The requirement to use iTunes to manage my mass of mostly untagged media was annoying. Regardless of frontend, a media computer proved too cumbersome for the regular people (not nerds like me in other words) in my household.

Plex and the Roku hit the sweetspot. Feature rich, but easy to use interface. All the jiggery pokery on the backend is hidden by the slick Plex on Roku frontend. My Plex server even wakes on demand with any Plex request from the Roku, which helps lesson the power consumption a bit for all the times the server would otherwise be powered on, but idle. Quite happy with the results, and most importantly, the setup passed the not me, but regular people test.

I am in for one. I bought one for my parents a couple of months back and they love it. Super easy to use and set up. I was debating buying a roku or an apple tv. I have an ipad and like the airplay feature of the apple tv. I also pay for amazon prime and would like to stream the content available on amazon. Ultimately, roku wins because of price, channel selection, and the ability to stream amazon prime on demand videos.

the Roku comparison chart you all asked for. this XD model is smack in the middle in the blue:



http://support.roku.com/entries/20345913-product-comparison-all-roku-player-models

It's an MMORPG.. Not an MMOPRG. Just puttin it out there for ya, Woot Gods.

My earlier Woot post on the Quick Setup Guide:

http://www.woot.com/Forums/ViewPost.aspx?PostID=4957441


The Roku Manuals page:

http://support.roku.com/entries/20037583-original-quick-setup-guides-by-roku-model

I can't load the linked pages because of a firewall, please let me know if it doesn't work correctly or is the wrong item.

zikzak wrote:The 5% of dissatisfaction is only because there is no YouTube channel, but I don't miss it much.

There are ways to get YouTube access, though nothing official yet.

You can try RateRix, listed in the channel guide under Photo. You can use it with the anonymous option if you don't want to sign up.

Or this may work for HD streaming: https://owner.roku.com/add/1080p

There are other private channels out there claiming to be YouTube channels, but I have not used them (I don't need YouTube on the TV the roku is hooked up to, but I have added a bunch of private channels). Poke around of google for channel listings and add codes.

Lots of other private channels out there too. I absolutely love my XD after figuring out how to add channels.

Remember once you add a channel, go into the channel guide and exit via the home button to refresh your channel listings (will not re-load channels if you hit the back button).

zikzak wrote:I got this during the last Woot-Off and I am 95% satisfied. I seriously love this thing, for $49 you can't lose. The 5% of dissatisfaction is only because there is no YouTube channel, but I don't miss it much.

Note that with the current models, you must buy the $99 top-of-the-line model to get the Ethernet port, which I really wanted. This half-price Woot has that. And if you buy one, look on the Web for lists of private channels that you can add.

I should have bought more than one because it's cheap enough to be a gift. In fact since this is the same price as the woot-off I think I will load up.

Do a google search for 'private YouTube Roku channel' and I'm certain you can find a way to get YouTube. Cord Cutters did an episode on it.

paulpnevada wrote:My earlier Woot post on the Quick Setup Guide:

http://www.woot.com/Forums/ViewPost.aspx?PostID=4957441


The Roku Manuals page:

http://support.roku.com/entries/20037583-original-quick-setup-guides-by-roku-model

I can't load the linked pages because of a firewall, please let me know if it doesn't work correctly or is the wrong item.

In danger of being redundant, the support page from my post last November for the original Roku:

http://support.roku.com/categories/20009787-roku

including link to 8 videos:

http://support.roku.com/forums/326482-instructional-videos

November woot:
http://www.woot.com/forums/viewpost.aspx?postid=4729673

April woot:

http://www.woot.com/Forums/ViewPost.aspx?PostID=4957388

and I'm not bothering to link the woot-offs.

Bye

Bought this unit from last woot and it is just great!. I have Amazon Prime tied to Roku and Plex streaming my own videos. Now all I need is a Netop pc or QNAP to work as my Plex server...since these devices consume so much less power than regular pc. Woot, sell me an QNAP device!

Wait, how'd you get HBO2GO working with Comcast service? 0.o

Disappointing! I wanted Roku to work so I bought 3 units over a period of one week telling myself that I just was having bad luck. The concept is great but that is about as far as it goes. Hours were wasted with Roku Customer Service as they would say' "Trust me ...as soon as we hang up everything will work." If it was not working during the call it most likely is not going to work as soon as the phone call to Roku was disconnected. I finally packaged everything up and returned them. I then purchased Google TV and we could not be happier with it. Set up the first time, does not crash, and we have never had reason to call Google TV Customer Support.

mcnaryxc wrote:Roku + Plex + My Desktop = The Best Media Center Solution Ever

Plex is free. You don't need to have any hard drives plugged into your Roku. Plex streams everything off the pc or mac. And they are working on Hulu and Youtube and other apps to work through Plex. That alone is worth buying a Roku.

What's a Plex?

Whoever wrote the little blurb on the roku box is an absolute buffoon with no idea what they are talking about. They say they are a quote "recovered World of Warcraft addict". If this was the case they would be aware of the fact that WoW is a PC game. You can not run it on a game console. The writer says "And I’m just not strong enough to look under my television, see a game console with a CD-rom slot, and not be able to insert a WoW disc.". This made me want to hit myself in the face with a brick. You can not simply pop a WoW disc into a game console, I assume they are referring to the xbox 360 and ps3, and start playing. They also say "...medication to numb the muscles in my thumbs, making the game impossible if I even try to play". WoW is played with a keyboard not with an analog stick controller, again does the writer have any clue what they are talking about? The first two paragraphs of the blurb in my opinion gave the reviewer no credibility as these were clearly fabricated. So why should I believe anything else they would write. Perhaps I'm just a bit to hardcore but I don't think I'm going to be getting this product today. Come on woot! you're better than this. You guys are usually very up to date with tech. This is just ridiculous. Replace World of Warcrcaft with The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim or some other console game that would fit the description and at least give this review some credibility.

With $15 more go to their website get the roku xd2

So Amazon owns Roku?

MelissaRDodd wrote:Do a google search for 'private YouTube Roku channel' and I'm certain you can find a way to get YouTube. Cord Cutters did an episode on it.

I looked at a few and they had been shut down. That doesn't mean there isn't one. Ultimately I stopped looking, because I previously bought a Panasonic Blu-ray disc player that is also Internet enabled and does have an official YouTube channel. But there just aren't that many Panasonic Internet apps overall, which is why I threw another $50 at Roku and I don't regret it.

In the future, most of the TVs and disc players we buy will simply come with Internet app support and if we can't find a channel we want on one device we probably will find it on another we already have. It just isn't a big deal, or big expense, to own multiple streaming devices.

Most one star reviews are because the content is not all free. Subscriptions are required for netflix, hulu plus ect. . . Great product
.

If you buy this Roku Player, do you also have to purchase some kind of subscription to get it to work ?

I don't watch much TV--never have. When my ex moved out, I cut the cable and just have internet.

Only problem with that is that if I had friends over or a date who wanted to watch movies, I don't have much of a collection.

For the price of less than one monthly cable bill, you can get this box with not nearly as much content but enough to get you by especially for just random visits.

Even though I don't use it much for personal use, it has easily paid for itself even after one month.

anyone have a boxee box, how is the roku better?

jonkamp wrote:These Roku boxes are great but if you plan to use it for HBO GO streaming make sure your HBO provider allows access on Roku. Comcast / Xfinity and many of the other cable providers block HBO GO access on Roku boxes. I think most satalite companies do not block it.

Our DirecTV blocks it, so gone went HBO. Almost ready to say goodbye to satellite, since this box is full of entertainment and I can pick up 20 to 30 channels via digital antenna.

I got a Roku for Christmas.... I actually bought a cheap Blu Ray player to watch Netflix and Youtube, but that Blu Ray player was buggy, so I returned it for a Roku.

There is a lot of channels for the Roku that you can add, and I'd say 99.9% are worthless to me. We currently only use this thing for Netflix and a few games that we downloaded. You can display a slideshow of your personal photos, which is kinda cool on a big HD screen, but we never use it for that.

I'd like to explore Plex at some point. Basically, this thing has a lot of potential, but it currently doesn't do anything that blows us away. It's an easy-to-use and small device to hook up to your tv to get some streaming content.

I was disappointed that most the channels you add, you have to be a member of the website/company before you access content. Most of the good ones want a monthly fee. So if you have MLB.tv or other internet video services, this could be great for you. In my opinion, all the free channels have outdated content or have really bad video quality.

So it's just basically Netflix for me for now. That's something I pay a monthly fee for. And we've got a gaming system and new Blu Ray player that can do that. I'm still waiting for something spectacular to emerge out of this thing. I'll have to see if Plex is that answer.

Can someone please help me make sure I'm understanding this correctly?

1. Streaming depends upon signal (wifi) strength---if it's weak, it'll constantly stop for buffering just like when playing youtube or TV shows on my computer, yes? So if that happens a lot on my computer (it does), it will drive me insane trying to watch programming on my TV thru this?
2. Since it's wifi, and I have a "mifi" personal wifi hotspot as my main Internet connection, and that has a limit of 10gb/month (overage costs per mb or gb, I'm not sure b/c I never go over)----this wouldn't make financial sense as I would probably start going over my limit regularly? (Verizon does not offer an "unlimited" option where I live.)
3. Unrelated to the above concerns, is there any way to record programming with this? (I can currently only receive free OTA programming where I live, and would LOVE to be able to record shows from the Discovery Channel, HBO, etc.) If I'm reading this right, it doesn't sound like this device would do that.....unless maybe I went thru a complex hookup between my TV and laptop (could probably figure it out, but just really don't wanna) and used a large external hard drive to hold the shows? Have I got that right?

So, as cool as this sounds, I shouldn't spend the $ on it....or should I?

silvarios wrote:I agree, currently using four Roku boxes with Plex. Great setup.

Previous to Plex on the Roku, I tried Apple TVs (both an original model and the Apple TV 2) and a variety of small computers connected as media boxes. None of my prior attempts proved particularly satisfactory when it came to getting my media (ripped DVDs, DRM free internet videos, home movies, pictures, etc) easily accessible. The requirement to use iTunes to manage my mass of mostly untagged media was annoying. Regardless of frontend, a media computer proved too cumbersome for the regular people (not nerds like me in other words) in my household.

Plex and the Roku hit the sweetspot. Feature rich, but easy to use interface. All the jiggery pokery on the backend is hidden by the slick Plex on Roku frontend. My Plex server even wakes on demand with any Plex request from the Roku, which helps lesson the power consumption a bit for all the times the server would otherwise be powered on, but idle. Quite happy with the results, and most importantly, the setup passed the not me, but regular people test.

Any chance of you posting a how-to-setup video on YouTube?

misterchips wrote:If you buy this Roku Player, do you also have to purchase some kind of subscription to get it to work ?

No. You have to pay for some content, like Hulu Plus and Netflix, but there is plenty of free content, too.

ReginaFilangee wrote:Any chance of you posting a how-to-setup video on YouTube?

I think the videos are already there. Start at http://plexapp.com/.

zikzak wrote:The 5% of dissatisfaction is only because there is no YouTube channel, but I don't miss it much.

Enter code B8VVK for the YouTube channel.

I just purchased a Roku 2 XD to go with my Roku XD. I love them both and my satellite is toast when the contract expires.

craigthom wrote:I think the videos are already there. Start at http://plexapp.com/.

Thanks! I was going to do a search here in a bit...but haven't fully come out of my coma yet.
<---*not* a morning person

Got this the last time around, Awesome that it has HBO to Go, covers what the apple TV doesnt have for me! PLEX is the mest app ever for streaming your movies from your computer to any TV in the house!

ReginaFilangee wrote:Any chance of you posting a how-to-setup video on YouTube?

Jailbroken apple TV with Plex is very sick.. but with the new software for Apple TV I added the Roku to add Plex and HBOtogo quickly..

Saw Roku 2 xs at sam's club last night for $79. included 2 months hulu plus and 1 hdmi cable.

B8VVK channel code did not work for me. Says not a valid channel

Found this posted elsewhere:
Download the Plex Media Server on your computer and set it up to source your movie and tv show files. Then add the private channel "plex" on your roku account. Your LAN will then retrieve and stream directly from your computer, in many formats including avi.

Helpful links:
http://www.plexapp.com/
http://www.tested.com/videos/quicklook/videos/5762-quick-look-at-plex-for-roku/
http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/forum/84-roku-streaming-players/

add the Plex Grid channel

KamikazeKen wrote:so can I or can't I stream videos from my NAS/PC through this?

Found this posted elsewhere:
Download the Plex Media Server on your computer and set it up to source your movie and tv show files. Then add the private channel "plex" on your roku account. Your LAN will then retrieve and stream directly from your computer, in many formats including avi.

Helpful links:
http://www.plexapp.com/
http://www.tested.com/videos/quicklook/videos/5762-quick-look-at-plex-for-roku/
http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/forum/84-roku-streaming-players/

add the Plex Grid channel

Can anyone tell me how to delete channels on a Roku box to free up space? Thanks...

jonkamp wrote:These Roku boxes are great but if you plan to use it for HBO GO streaming make sure your HBO provider allows access on Roku. Comcast / Xfinity and many of the other cable providers block HBO GO access on Roku boxes. I think most satalite companies do not block it.

To test:
See if you can log on via the internet to HBOGo and see if you internet provider is listed.

Charitwo wrote:regular hulu is free, it's hulu plus that costs

Hulu (free) is not available on Roku....just HuluPlus ($8/month).

Why not spend $5 more and get the brand-new model with a full warranty? This unit is already outdated. You can get them directly from Roku's website with free shipping.

Come on Woot, you disappoint. This is not a deal. You'd be lucky to get $20 for these on eBay.

truckshot wrote:So is hulu free or not? I am confused what this really does

Hulu (free) is not available on the Roku.

HuluPlus ($8/month) is available on Roku.

Picked up a couple of these at Radio Shack for 28 bucks plus tax on the advice of another Wooter during the last wootoff. I Love them. Have one on the bedroom TV on Wifi and it never skips or misses. The one in the living room is directly connected to the router. I use HBOGo constantly as well as Amazon VOD. Don't have Netflix or Hulu+, but don't really need them either. If you've kind of been thinking about them and have a Prime Account or access to HBOGo, then you should buy this. I'd call your local radio shacks first though.