Is it plausible to cancel my cable service and open an Netflix account with Roku?

blackbird3216

blackbird3216

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Im thinking about canceling my cable service because im getting a new HDTV by the end of the year, and since they charge me alot of HD content, i was thinking if it was good to just cancel it and hook up the tv to OTA and the ROkU box, which will start streaming in HD on wednesday. Will I miss anything? Is this a good solution? BTW, does Netflix have all the Heroes episodes, because i need to catchup on those. :D
 
[quote name='darthbudge']Not for instant watch...[/quote]

Yes, they do. I just checked. They even have episodes from season 3, which hasn't even been announced for DVD yet. They have new episodes up the very next day.

Watch this series instantly on Netflix, with a new episode every Tuesday!
Click to expand...

I don't think it's in HD though.

It just sucks that instant watch still isn't compatible with Macs. They said it will be by the end of the year, though. Hopefully it'll be compatible with firefox soon, too.
 
[quote name='Scorch']

It just sucks that instant watch still isn't compatible with Macs. They said it will be by the end of the year, though. Hopefully it'll be compatible with firefox soon, too.[/quote]


its compatible with macs. silverlight player was added a few weeks ago.
 
[quote name='naiku']its compatible with macs. silverlight player was added a few weeks ago.[/quote]

For a select few people.. they haven't rolled it out for all users yet.

//edit: and apparently once you change it over, you can't switch back to windows media player.. ouch
 
Don't do Roku.. no point. Just make/buy a PC for your TV.

I think the only reason not everyone in the world uses a HTPC is because they think it's harder to set up than it is... literally, all you do is use your TV as a monitor. If you can hook up a computer, you can set up a HTPC. Hulu, NetFlix, YouTube, Pandora, local files, torrented files, music, games, the internet, other programs, it's all at your fingertips... if you absolutely need your locals then go ahead and get a TV tuner.

IMO all those stand-alone proprietary devices (SlingBox, AppleTV, Roku, etc) make absolutely no sense. The only benefit is that they're typically smaller and use less power than a PC... but you can build a small/silent HTPC too, if you're willing to pay a little more.
 
If you're replacing cable with it i'd spring for the 3 disc out at a time plan. The instant watch on your tv (via Roku, 360, whatever) is awesome but it wouldn't take too much time of heavy viewing to exhaust the selection of decent stuff unless they really pick up the pace on adding new stuff, which is where the having the 3 disc plan comes in.

I guess the real question is how much tv do you watch? As long as you're not glued to it all day Netflix could probably be a viable replacement for you.
 
I agree with the above poster. Do the three out at a time and a Roku box or 360 for Instant Watch and you'll probably be good. Home theater PC is ok, but I'd never do it as I don't want a PC sitting in my home theater and I'm just not into setting up that kind of crap anyway. I like to keep my living room as neat and clean (and free of nerdy stuff) as possible, so no PC in their for me.

Personally I couldn't give up cable/satellite as I'm way too into sports and need the ESPN channels, TNT, TBS etc. for games, highlights etc. If not for sports, I'd definitely ditch cable and just up my netflix to 3 out at a time as I don't mind waiting for DVDs of TV shows--or just watching them online the next day.
 
How would i build a cheap, small "HTPC" that does not need to play games or even function as an actual computer? All it needs to do is stream my video and maybe let me connect OTA. I don't even need recording capability.
 
FWIW, I cancelled cable (other than the basic networks, networks plus cable internet is about five dollars more than just cable internet, so we kept the basic networks in case we need to watch the news or weather channel or something) a month and a half ago and don't miss it at all. Between my existing DVD collection (movies come out pretty fast now, and TV on DVD is generally priced very reasonably [except for Dr Who, what's up with that?]), occasional DVD purchases (real occasional, I haven't bought a dvd since the end of July, till the DD sale), online network viewing for the Simpsons, and of course hundreds of hours of entertainment in my 360, cable TV is a very distant place.
That said, I do want to hook up my wife's laptop to the TV so we have that option, I just haven't bothered doing it yet.
I do plan on renewing Netflix, when I get my 360 back and can do the online-watch thing. I would suggest the 3 out as well, with 3 out you can be in a nice cycle of one-to, one-from, and one-watching, rather than having to wait for them to ship out the disk.
Like someone else has said, it depends on what you watch. No one in my family watches sports, I get my news online, I catch TV shows only when they come on DVD, I've got plenty of kids or kidsfriendly DVDs for my boy, and my wife watches her shows on Youtube. Looking at our cable bill one month we realized just how much money we were wasting for something we didn't use....and it was tough getting the cable people to understand we wanted the bare minimum ("You know you only get like 12 channels with that, right?')
 
[quote name='blackbird3216']How? If it aint smaller than the Mac Mini, i can't do it.[/QUOTE]

Dude, a "HTPC" is just a computer, they're as small/big as you want them to be.. use a laptop if you want.. the smaller you go the less bang for your buck, though. Not sure why the hell you want it smaller than a Mac Mini, I think you're just being unreasonable for the hell of it now, a Mac Mini is like the size of a CD (d x w, at least).

835135967.jpg


I have a LOT of trouble believing you can't do anything that size, which leads me believe you're just being stubborn for the hell of it... so I'm done trying to help, waste your money on a ripoff Roku if you want
 
[quote name='Koggit']Dude, a "HTPC" is just a computer, they're as small/big as you want them to be.. use a laptop if you want.. the smaller you go the less bang for your buck, though. Not sure why the hell you want it smaller than a Mac Mini, I think you're just being unreasonable for the hell of it now, a Mac Mini is like the size of a CD (d x w, at least).

835135967.jpg


I have a LOT of trouble believing you can't do anything that size, which leads me believe you're just being stubborn for the hell of it... so I'm done trying to help, waste your money on a ripoff Roku if you want[/quote]
Im just saying, is it possible to build one around the size, or even smaller, than a Mac mini that works as a HTPC. Cause I don't have alot of space, so that would be preferable, but if it's a round the size of a DVD player or something, that'll be fine as well. I just don't have the space for a regular sized PC case. I looked up the XBMC, but that didn't have Netflix capability without Playon(which requires using a computer, and i don't want that).

All i need is a small, quiet and power efficient box that can stream videos, play dvds/Bluray and maybe watch OTA. I don't need DVR functionality, gaming, or even use as a regular pc. Is that possible?
 
[quote name='blackbird3216']All i need is a small, quiet and power efficient box that can stream videos, play dvds/Bluray and maybe watch OTA. [/quote]

If you really want it to play Blurays then it won't be very small, quiet, or power efficient.
 
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