# Roku recommendations?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roku-recommendations/607856>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [December 30, 2011, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roku-recommendations/607856 "2011-12-30T18:23:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roku-recommendations/607856/1 "2011-12-30T18:23:03Z")

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I finally gave in and bought myself a Roku and a subscription to Amazon Prime for Christmas. Loving it so far and watching season one of Twilight Zone is a hoot. Anybody have recommendations for (preferably free) apps? Should this be in CS?

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**Author:** ![TheChileanBlob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thechileanblob/32/435_2.png) [@TheChileanBlob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheChileanBlob)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roku-recommendations/607856/2 "2011-12-30T19:38:35Z")

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You definitely need Pandora and Youtube. There’s an app where you can see all your Facebook pictures and videos on your TV, if you do Facebook. Um…what else? Oh, I have a weather app, Weather Underground (lol). There are services with free content but they are either old public domain movies, or they have a ton of commercials.

Edit: Pandora is free, but there are no commercials like you get on the computer-based free Pandora, and it will run for like 12 hours before it asks you if you’re still listening.

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**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roku-recommendations/607856/3 "2011-12-30T20:01:07Z")

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I like Vimeo, the editor picks are usually interesting (and short - about 3 or 4 minutes). Also Newscaster is good. SOMA FM has a decent music app too. All free.

And while not free, I probably watch Hulu+ the most on my Roku. There is a 1 week free trial, and I decided it was worth the $8 per month so far.

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**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roku-recommendations/607856/4 "2011-12-30T20:45:33Z")

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I saw where I can link to Shutterfly after uploading all my photos for free, and then view them on the TV screen. That seems like a winner.

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**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/roku-recommendations/607856/5 "2011-12-30T20:49:47Z")

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Not free, I know. But I like Netflix Streaming a lot.

And I’ve had Amazon Prime for years–I order enough that it’s a good deal for me. But browsing the free video selections has not shown me anything not available on Netflix. Anything I want, that is…