I got it free because I subscribe to AT&T gigabit fiber. Mind you, I hate AT&T with the heat of a thousand yellow suns, but I must admit their gigabit fiber has been rock-solid and is always exactly $70, just like they promised.
With the divestiture of DirecTV from AT&T, I may lose this perk some day, but for now I find it handy. They do have a decent selection of TCM films, too, but not everything in the TCM catalog.
Ooooooh! That’s rad! 
Not to hijack, but I’ll spend 30 seconds explaining: I think the people of AT&T are fine, and I don’t think the company is actively trying to be evil. But never, in my 25+ years of dealing with them, they have never done what the promised the first time through. It always takes at least two calls, and even then it’s a crap shoot. Always. Every time.
(and in my most recent experience I gave up after several phone calls in getting them to come out and bury my cable; I just did it myself after a year of waiting).
AT&T is one of the HBO Max providers. How are you accessing HBO Max? Try just using the Max | The One to Watch provider website, choose AT&T and put in your AT&T details.
If it was “taken away,” maybe you had before been using the HBO Go app which is now mostly defunct? Or maybe you’re talking about when HBO Max wasn’t available on Roku because of a carriage dispute? The early 20s were a messy time. Either way, it sounds like you should have access to it.
For movies it is easy to simply streaming services each month: Netflix one month, then HBOMax the second month…
My Roku has icons for the different streaming services. I’m clicking the one for HBO Max. I will try this evening to access the site directly.
OK, wait…there is a Roku channel?
I use Firesticks, which allow me to access all manner of channels (Pluto, Tubi, FreeVee, etc. etc.). Is there something in the Roku “channel” that I cannot get from a Firestick?
Not being argumentative, just confused.
mmm
Yes, the Roku Channel is a free channel with a collection of movies and TV shows similar to FreeVee or Tubi. You should be able to just add it to your Firestick like any other channel. It probably has at least a few shows that aren’t available for free anywhere else, but I haven’t done a deep dive to verify.
We’ve been using the Roku app on he Firestick for mayb a year. It works fine.
You can use the whole Roku app from the Firestick? If so, I might want to rethink my choices next time I want to upgrade my device.
I am not 100% sure what you mean - but on a Firestick, what would be called a “channel” on a Roku is called an app - so adding the “Roku app” means adding the app that lets me get the Roku channel just like adding the HBO Max app means adding the app that gives me access to HBOMax. As far as I know, it doesn’t make the Firestick work exactly like a Roku. (although I don’t think they are very different)
Yes, that essentially means your TV has a roku box built into it. I think roku calls them “channels”, but you can add channels like the services he mentioned (crackle, tubi, etc) - basically dedicated apps integrated into the roku software. There’s also a “roku channel” that’s really a collection of free content on the internet sometimes along with recommendations. That should all be part of your normal TV interface.
Ah, that makes sense. Thanks! Just a terminology issue.
The Roku Channel is definitely not just free content from the internet and recommendations. They have popular and quality TV shows and movies that cycle through month-to-month.
It is just a suite of channels and on demand stuff, I’m not sure it is the same thing as what you get on a Roku or Roku TV.
But they they had the Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas available for free as an example and some other stuff.
OK, thanks. A quick look tells me that it offers pretty much the same programming that all the other free channels offer.
mmm
It does?!? Tell me more. Have you compared what HBOMax has with what the TCM streaming channel offers? The HBOMax promo page isn’t clear, and uses the word “curated,” which to me implies that they only have a subset of the full TCM roster.
TCM is my favorite channel, and for some strange reason (which may be related to this), Verizon FIOS only has it in SD, not HD. I’ve been aggrieved about this for the past year, since we moved to an area where broadband is only available from Verizon. I can stream the TCM channel on my Roku, but it’s not a well-designed interface, and it doesn’t always have the films shown on the live channel, or they’re only available for a limited time.
In addition to Roku, I also have Tivo, and I generally prefer recording programs with Tivo to using any of the various streaming channels’ inferfaces; it’s simpler and easier to use.
TCM on demand/streaming app had more classic movies but HBOMax TCM area has hundreds of movies covering more modern ones also and they change about half of them pretty frequently. I’ve noticed Casablanca & Wizard of Oz are always there, but that is appropriate anyway.
Some of the movies have extras available which are often the TCM segments that intro the movie or postscript it. I wish there were more of these.
There is no best service, because most recent movies are on only one or two services. Justwatch.com is a good source to find out where a movie is streaming. But for sheer quantity, including older forgotten titles, Amazon Prime is your best bet.
Thanks. I already have HBOMax, so I’ll check it out.
Except for the fact that, unlike Netflix, a lot of what they have entails an additional $3-5 rental fee, even for relatively old movies.