# I just cancelled cable and bought a Roku...help talk me off of the ledge! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 7, 2011, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cancelled-cable-and-bought-a-roku-help-talk-me-off-of-the-ledge/588238 "2011-07-07T22:44:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jennmonkye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/278dde/32.png) [@Jennmonkye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennmonkye)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cancelled-cable-and-bought-a-roku-help-talk-me-off-of-the-ledge/588238/1 "2011-07-07T22:44:07Z")
So, after a long love affair with my cable company…I finally cut the $200 per month cord and got rid of my cable and DVR. Goodbye Doctor Who and Big Bang Theory (on the first night of broadcast)… In the meantime, my new Roku arrived today. Anybody have one and able to help me figure this new thing out? Any advice, tips, tricks or places to navigate to in order to see cool television would be most appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cancelled-cable-and-bought-a-roku-help-talk-me-off-of-the-ledge/588238/2 "2011-07-07T22:46:11Z")
Well, you can get an antenna to receive network channels even without cable, so you can still watch “Big Bang Theory” first-run, at least. ---
**Author:** ![Jennmonkye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/278dde/32.png) [@Jennmonkye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennmonkye)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cancelled-cable-and-bought-a-roku-help-talk-me-off-of-the-ledge/588238/3 "2011-07-07T22:47:13Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > Well, you can get an antenna to receive network channels even without cable, so you can still watch “Big Bang Theory” first-run, at least. Gleeps! Forgot about that…headed to [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) now to make the purchase of the box and antenna. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cancelled-cable-and-bought-a-roku-help-talk-me-off-of-the-ledge/588238/4 "2011-07-07T22:49:53Z")
Yeah, we got rid of our cable and got an antenna, and watch a lot of Netflix streaming on our PS3. Don’t miss it much, except for “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report”. Everything else comes out on DVD/streaming soon enough. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cancelled-cable-and-bought-a-roku-help-talk-me-off-of-the-ledge/588238/5 "2011-07-07T23:13:20Z")
Don’t know why people keep forgetting about the over-the-air option. It is not merely “as good as” cable picture quality, it is usually better. The cable companies take the picture from the local channels and compress them to fit more channels onto their system. I can recommend [this antenna from Monoprice](http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=109&cp_id=10901&cs_id=1090102&p_id=4730&seq=1&format=2) for $18 very highly if you are in an urban area. By the way, don’t buy anything from Terk - their designs are crap and they are very over-priced. And Radio Shack is to be avoided like the plague. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cancelled-cable-and-bought-a-roku-help-talk-me-off-of-the-ledge/588238/6 "2011-07-07T23:57:30Z")
> [@Jennmonkye](#): > > So, after a long love affair with my cable company…I finally cut the $200 per month cord and got rid of my cable and DVR… Whoa. My cable only costs $20 a month. Where do you live? ---
**Author:** ![Jennmonkye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/278dde/32.png) [@Jennmonkye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennmonkye)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cancelled-cable-and-bought-a-roku-help-talk-me-off-of-the-ledge/588238/7 "2011-07-08T00:17:30Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Whoa. My cable only costs $20 a month. Where do you live? I can get basic almost all local channels for $20 per month, but we had the whole enchilada with all the channels (even the upper tier ones), DVR, etc…I suppose I was actually only paying about $120 or so per month (you got me!), but our bill is bundled, so I am now down to just high speed cable… My tv habit was getting a bit out of hand, so I am cutting down, but still want to be able to turn it on and see something fun whenever I get a chance. ---
**Author:** ![Jennmonkye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/278dde/32.png) [@Jennmonkye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennmonkye)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cancelled-cable-and-bought-a-roku-help-talk-me-off-of-the-ledge/588238/8 "2011-07-08T00:18:46Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > Don’t know why people keep forgetting about the over-the-air option. It is not merely “as good as” cable picture quality, it is usually better. The cable companies take the picture from the local channels and compress them to fit more channels onto their system. > > I can recommend [this antenna from Monoprice](http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=109&cp_id=10901&cs_id=1090102&p_id=4730&seq=1&format=2) for $18 very highly if you are in an urban area. By the way, don’t buy anything from Terk - their designs are crap and they are very over-priced. And Radio Shack is to be avoided like the plague. Thanks! I will look for one…we only got the Roku for one television and I still have one in the kitchen that I would like to watch when cooking/cleaning, so the antanna is the way to go with that one. I know that with the boxes for the over the air channels, being in Omaha, we will get a dozen or so channels, so that’s not too shabby for “free”. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cancelled-cable-and-bought-a-roku-help-talk-me-off-of-the-ledge/588238/9 "2011-07-08T00:38:29Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Whoa. My cable only costs $20 a month. Where do you live? It was over $110/mo, in NYC for Basic Cable+ HBO (that was the $10), and DVR. There’s only one cable company per neighborhood and most buildings don’t allow Dishes to be mounted. No competition = bastard cable company. We have a Tivo, but poor reception, so we ended up not using that. 90% Netflix streaming through our XBOX360, the other 10% are Zune download of shows posted the next day after broadcast I swore we would return triumphantly to cable once I got a job, but as it turned out, we never looked back. ---
**Author:** ![holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e95f7d/32.png) [@holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/holmes)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cancelled-cable-and-bought-a-roku-help-talk-me-off-of-the-ledge/588238/10 "2011-07-08T00:39:05Z")
The fundamental difference between the Roku and cable is the inability to just ‘find’ sometime to watch. Using the Roku means I have to plan on what I am going to watch, i just can’t click, click, click, “hey that looks good!”, anymore. It’s something you’ll get used to. The main problem is that Hulu doesn’t stream all of it’s content to the Roku because of licensing issues, which only grants them rights to computer streaming. What I did was purchase a playon license, which basically turns your computer to a streaming device and allows your Roku to access all of Hulu’s content. The downside is that you have to have a dedicated computer running to use it. It was worth it for me, because we have multiple devices: smart phones, tablets, etc which are not supported by Hulu and the playon plugin, allows those devices to have access to Hulu as well. Link to playon: [PlayOn: Brimming with Features to Make Streaming Better](http://www.playon.tv/playon) There are also ‘hidden’ channels that you can load that can supply you with live and current content, which basically means you’re watching some guy’s tv stream. We have the basic hulu, netflix, amazon channels set up, as well as several hidden channels. Here’s a link to the channels: [http://www.roku-channels.com/](http://www.roku-channels.com/) What we ended up doing was buying two Rokus, one for the family room and one for the guest room. We also are using a retired dell box to view content from websites, Hulu and to run the playon app, etc, which is providing a more complete viewing experience in our bedroom. I honestly don’t miss cable itself and significantly reduced the bill, they were just getting out of control, so all’s good. However i had to do a bit of tweaking and invest a little money upfront. Hope this helps. ---
**Author:** ![Jennmonkye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/278dde/32.png) [@Jennmonkye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennmonkye)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cancelled-cable-and-bought-a-roku-help-talk-me-off-of-the-ledge/588238/11 "2011-07-08T19:12:57Z")
> [@holmes](#): > > What I did was purchase a playon license, which basically turns your computer to a streaming device and allows your Roku to access all of Hulu’s content. > > The downside is that you have to have a dedicated computer running to use it. It was worth it for me, because we have multiple devices: smart phones, tablets, etc which are not supported by Hulu and the playon plugin, allows those devices to have access to Hulu as well. > > Link to playon: [PlayOn: Brimming with Features to Make Streaming Better](http://www.playon.tv/playon) > > Here’s a link to the channels: [http://www.roku-channels.com/](http://www.roku-channels.com/)… > > I honestly don’t miss cable itself and significantly reduced the bill, they were just getting out of control, so all’s good. However i had to do a bit of tweaking and invest a little money upfront. > > Hope this helps. Great…thanks! I got the Roku up and running last night and spent an hour or so playing with the channels. I will spend some time this week or next trying to get things figured out. The Playon license definitely sounds interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Toucanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Toucanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toucanna)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cancelled-cable-and-bought-a-roku-help-talk-me-off-of-the-ledge/588238/12 "2011-07-08T20:57:04Z")
If you’re going to watch over-the-air (“OTA”) programming, this site can help you decide which type of antenna to use: [Link to _Antenna Web_ mapping program](http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx). ---
**Author:** ![CJJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecc23a/32.png) [@CJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJJ)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cancelled-cable-and-bought-a-roku-help-talk-me-off-of-the-ledge/588238/13 "2011-07-08T21:11:06Z")
I bought a Roku box ~4 months ago. I did it because I wanted to watch live roller derby (quite a lot on [Justin.tv](http://Justin.tv) and Ustream). I’ve also gotten interested in the ECCt20 Cricket after spending some time in the UK, and I’ve been able to watch a match or two live ([sama.tv](http://sama.tv), although there’s better quality on Willow if you’re willing to pay). I still have my satellite, so for me the Roku is supplemental–mainly for live sporting events. I agree with **holmes** that it requires a little more planning than cable/satellite, so it’s worthwhile spending some time learning the in’s and out’s. There really are a lot of “hidden” video channels; best bet is to surf the web for content you like, then dig a little to see if someone has already set up a Roku channel for it (the [Roku forums](http://forums.roku.com/viewforum.php?f=28) have helped me immensely). ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cancelled-cable-and-bought-a-roku-help-talk-me-off-of-the-ledge/588238/14 "2011-07-08T22:02:46Z")
What is Roku? ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cancelled-cable-and-bought-a-roku-help-talk-me-off-of-the-ledge/588238/15 "2011-07-08T22:12:17Z")
you dont need a dedicated computer for Roku, we just have ours hooked up to our computer network. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cancelled-cable-and-bought-a-roku-help-talk-me-off-of-the-ledge/588238/16 "2011-07-08T22:21:03Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > What is Roku? > **[Roku](https://www.roku.com/)** > > Roku provides the simplest way to stream entertainment to your TV. On your terms. With thousands of available channels to choose from. It is a small special purposed computer to play video from the internet on your TV. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2011, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cancelled-cable-and-bought-a-roku-help-talk-me-off-of-the-ledge/588238/17 "2011-07-09T09:39:41Z")
> [@gazpacho](#): > > [http://www.roku.com/](http://www.roku.com/) > > It is a small special purposed computer to play video from the internet on your TV. That got my attention! ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2011, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cancelled-cable-and-bought-a-roku-help-talk-me-off-of-the-ledge/588238/18 "2011-07-09T17:19:19Z")
> [@holmes](#): > > The fundamental difference between the Roku and cable is the inability to just ‘find’ sometime to watch. Using the Roku means I have to plan on what I am going to watch, i just can’t click, click, click, “hey that looks good!”, anymore. I just made the jump last night, and this is my biggest issue right now. (well, technically, I still have all the local channels. I spend $10 on cable to save $20 on my internet). I don’t have a Roku, but between Netflix on Wii and Windows Media Center on Xbox, I have access to pretty much every TV show ever. Yet during the day, when I have access to all the reruns I would normally watch on cable, I’m stuck staring at my screen deciding what to watch. It’s too much choice! I need to come up with some sort of daily playlist of what to watch. Also, Hulu Plus really sucks. I signed up for a free month (thank you everlasting .edu e-mail address), but I doubt I’ll renew it. Pretty much all of my favorite shows either aren’t available to watch on TV, or the don’t have new episodes until **30 days** after they air. Pretty much the only shows I would use it for would be The Daily Show and Colbert Report, but I’m not sure they’re worth the $8 a month, plus buying an XBox Live subscription. ---
**Author:** ![holmes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e95f7d/32.png) [@holmes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/holmes)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2011, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cancelled-cable-and-bought-a-roku-help-talk-me-off-of-the-ledge/588238/19 "2011-07-09T18:05:43Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > Also, Hulu Plus really sucks. I signed up for a free month (thank you everlasting .edu e-mail address), but I doubt I’ll renew it. Pretty much all of my favorite shows either aren’t available to watch on TV, or the don’t have new episodes until **30 days** after they air. Pretty much the only shows I would use it for would be The Daily Show and Colbert Report, but I’m not sure they’re worth the $8 a month, plus buying an XBox Live subscription. Unfortunately Hulu’s contracts limit on what devices and when they can make content available. The playon plugin solves the issue of not being able to view Hulu’s computer only content on a TV, but as I noted, it (Playon) has to be running on a dedicated computer in order for it to stream to the Roku or other devices. I also have the plug in on my Wii and I think it’s available for playstation and Xbox. It’s an additional expense, but for me and my various devices, it’s worth it. YMMV, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2011, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cancelled-cable-and-bought-a-roku-help-talk-me-off-of-the-ledge/588238/20 "2011-07-09T18:56:42Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > but I’m not sure they’re worth the $8 a month, plus buying an XBox Live subscription. You can get PlayOn on your 360 as well, and you’ll have access to Hulu via that, without having to get Hulu Plus. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-cancelled-cable-and-bought-a-roku-help-talk-me-off-of-the-ledge/588238.md?page=2)