Rival11

Glad to see this sub-forum created......Vudu for me....no subscritption fee (pay for what you rent...credit card needed on file though), new releases come out same day as the DVD, and they have the more obscure titles available for rent as well - win-win.

Also, this is the company that was recently bought out by Walmart.

The prices are a little high for a flick ($2.99 up to $3.99 for max HD) but I don't care...I don't rent that much anymore so it's a good service for me - watched three movies so far and haven't been disconnected once. You can also access the vudu app across all the video game systems, supported blu-ray players, etc...

Rival11

Ha well, glad to see already messed this up - thought it was "what service do you use" so for devices:

xbox & blu-ray player - computer for UV at work

nmr1723

Main System
Roku HD XR - Amazon VOD, Crackle - wifi
Netgear NeoTV 550 - streams digitize DVDs (ISO files) from my Synology NAS via Linksys E2000 in bridge mode. Works very well. Needs a reboot once in a while.

Master Bedroom
Roku 2 XD - Amazon & Crackle - wifi
WDTV Live Streaming player - streams from NAS via wifi

Office/extra bedroom
Panasonic bd-65 - Amazon - wired
WDTV Live 2nd gen - wired streaming from NAS

Tarantino

Primarily my 360, but occasionally on my phone.

twikoff

xbox in the living room
a couple vizio via tvs for netflicks
atv2 in the bedroom.. atv2 is very limited until jailbroken, then it does everything i want

devilshalo

I really wish there was still support for my Sony LocationFree device. I have it on my 1st Gen PSP and my Mac, but it would be a nice app for my iPhone. I see that someone has created an Android app for it.

covenant

My PC is about 3 feet from my TV in the Den so It doubles as a HTPC. Dolby/DTS via X/fi's component out. DVI from the video card to HDMI on TV.
I wish Netflix would hurry and enable 5.1 to PCs.

chino77

htpc in the living room and a laptop with a bad screen for the bedroom.

Heat

Roku LT (the $50 one).

For anybody that is interested in AppleTV, they just released an updated model. It adds 1080p capability and I believe has an improved browser. No new channels and you still can't use Hulu or Amazon Video. I had looked at AppleTV - it's a great device if you use iTunes a lot for TV shows / movies, or if you have an iPad (something about transferring what is on the iPad to the TV). But unless you are immersed in the Apple Universe, Roku is better.

printerati

My thoughts exactly, and I have fairly extensive experience with the (now previous generation) AppleTV after installing and configuring three of them for my wife's boss.

We have one of the early Rokus (N1100), and the only issue we have with it is Hulu+ regularly sputtering or completely freezing up. I was considering one of the newer models, but after spending some time on the Roku forums, it appears that it's more of a Hulu problem.

I also have a Windows 7 HTPC that we rarely use because I haven't found any media center software I actually enjoy using. I never could get XBMC configured properly, and Boxee (which had the best interface and setup by far) would never recognize my Netflix account, and it's now discontinued. We primarily use Windows Media Center for streaming MP3s from our server, and occasionally Hulu Desktop (integrated into WMC) when the Roku channel is acting up and we "need" to watch something on Hulu. It also has a Blu-Ray drive and Arcsoft TMT installed, but I haven't even tested it yet since we don't own a single Blu-Ray. We haven't bought any movies on disc (Baby Einstein doesn't count) since we bought the Roku.

paradicelost

PS3. for the family room, Roku xs for the bedroom, wii for my 2 younger daughter's room, and then Sony's net streaming player(N100 I think) for my older 2 girls

TheBigDave

StreamingMediaBlog put together a great chart comparing the most popular streaming media devices.




FULL SIZE CHART - http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/1...hartfinal2.jpg
ORIGINAL PDF - http://blog.streamingmedia.com/2012-...hart-Final.pdf

philly1981

I use a net gear neo geo tv streaming player to watch netflix, i have had it since January and i love it.

pinata242

Over the last year I've become an Apple whore. ATV2 in the main room and my bedroom. Centralized iTunes library with everything I own (music, movies, tv) streaming 24/7 in 720p. It may take a one-time cost to get it into an iTunes-friendly format, but I don't mind that, especially since it's all behind me. Plus having iTunes Match enabled for all my music to be accessible through the cloud on any iOS device is a huge benefit and I don't have to devote any actual storage to that after the initial matching process, but I still keep my lossless files.

I keep waiting for Apple to open up an App store or simply add more 3rd party apps to the device, but nothing yet. It does everything I need except HBOGo and the Xboxes in both locations handle that just fine. Netflix is better, by far, on the ATV than the Xbox.

Ky-Fi

All right, new to the world of streaming here. I got fed up with paying $80 a month for cable that I mostly didn't watch, so a couple years ago I scaled back to only the local channels (in HD) for about $15 a month on my cable system. This was, and is, great---I got the broadcast channels in HD for the small amount of tv shows I watch, and I have a big dvd collection for movies. The ONLY thing I was missing was sports, particularly during the week.

I read up on Roku, and saw that they offered Major League Soccer and NHL subscription packages--two sports I really like---I thought I'd give it a try. Got my Roku last week, hooked it up, got the MLS package, and I"m lovin' it!
I particularly like the ability to watch all the archived games and condensed games. I haven't explored too much of the other Roku free content, although it seems like there's a ton of stuff of varying quality out there.

I have to say I'm pretty impressed with Roku so far---I still don't want to give up my local HD channels on cable (and I didn't seem to have much luck when I tried an antenna) , but Roku gives me the additional content I want at a much cheaper cost. Nice product.

TheBigDave

If you like baseball, I think I heard somewhere that the MLB channel offers a free game every day.

And if you like Pro Wrestling, check out the TNAonDemand channel. There's some free stuff. But for a couple bucks a month ($4/month, $10/3months, $17/6months), you can get old PPVs and DVDs. The last time I had a subscription (6+ months ago), they still hadn't added all the PPVs and DVDs. And the quality could be hit or miss. But it was getting better. So if you're a wrestling fan, it would be worth trying.

Ky-Fi

I said SPORTS.

Awesome! Thanks a bunch for that tip---I had already registered (didn't even remember when or why) at MLB.com, and I just had to link that free site to my Roku to get the free game of the day. Cool.

JZ1276

I use a Zotac Zbox HD-ID34 with XBMC and an external case housing 4 hard drives totaling 4 TB connected via USB. Tried many streaming devices, this is by far the best.

Heat

Consider Netflix for $8 per month - tons of TV shows as well as the movies of course.

Here is a good website which breaks down the different Roku channels by category and includes hidden channels.

Heat

I thought that this was interesting - I was looking at TV Mia (www.tvmia.com) which has a range of South American channels.

$9.90 per month on your PC, iPhone / iPad, or Smartphone.
$17.50 per month for the above, plus Roku.

Does it cost a company that much more to offer a Roku channel?

Ky-Fi

What's that link, Heat?

Shannon Nutt

Re: the Streaming Media chart above, XBox DOES have Amazon now, and the Roku does have YouTube (although I think it's still a "hidden" channel).

I (obviously) have both, but I'm finding more and more that XBox is providing the channels I'd normally have watched on my Roku. I find their streaming quality to be slightly better/more reliable as well. Of course, the 360 is still too pricy to buy ONLY for streaming video (and the fact that you also have to buy an XBox Live membership on top of that just to have access to most channels), but if you already have an XBox 360, there's really no need for an additional streaming device unless you're really into some of the more obscure channels.

TheBigDave

CatastropheGirl keeps track of the hidden channel at her blog. It's a bit of a mess. But you can easily sort through the categories on the right sidebar.

http://catastrophegirlsrokuchanneldata.blogspot.com/

Also check out NowhereMan's channels. He makes some of the best private channels. Definitely get NowhereTV. Tons of content, including sports stuff.

http://www.thenowhereman.com/roku/

TheBigDave

Do you have the old hidden YouTube channel? They disabled that about a year ago. Old users that downloaded it can still use it. But new users aren't able to get it.

I agree with you about the Xbox. It's become an amazing streaming device.

Shannon Nutt

Yeah, I must have the old YouTube. I rarely use it, so I haven't checked in a while...at least I know not to delete it.