What is the advantage of having a dedicated streaming machine like a Roku if you have a Blu-ray player or game console with streaming apps?

I am new to the whole streaming thing. I am getting tired of paying for cable when I only ever watch maybe 10 channels. So I am thinking of becoming a cord cutter as well, and I am trying to learn about all the different streaming options. It looks like I could pretty easily get by with a Hulu/Netflix subscription and an over-the-air antenna.

Why though would I want something like a Roku when my Blu-ray player has streaming apps?

More apps, and the apps they share tend to be updated more regularly than their Blu-ray player counterparts are the main ones for me. Plus my experience with Blu-ray player software was never very positive (generally sluggish, though that's probably changed by now).

Thanks. I don't think I really need more apps other than Hulu and Netflix. Those two seem to cover all the bases. Hulu has current TV seasons, and Netflix has older TV seasons and movies.

What about game console streaming apps? Are they any better than Blu-ray player apps? I have been thinking about getting a PS4 sometime soon.

Ditching cable just seems so weird to me. I remember as a kid in the 80s, we all wanted cable. Having cable was like a luxury that made you better than other kids. "Dude, you got cable? That is the most awesomest thing ever!" Nowadays people are wanting to ditch cable. It just seems so backwards.

Yeah but people are ditching it for the Internet which was the next obvious iteration

The one thing I can't do away with? I hate having to pick my programming 24x7. I love the randomness of browsing TV channels, getting to turn my brain off and just see what catches my attention.

Hulu and Netflix are the main ones people use, and most devices support those. The PS4 does Hulu/Netflix just fine, though there is no remote for the system yet and it doesn't support universal remotes since it uses Bluetooth. The Xbox One does Hulu/Netflix/Plex just fine, and does support Universal Remotes since it does IR, and has Cable box HDMI Passthru.

As an avid gamer, the PS4 is still king as a console. As a home theater enthusiast, the Xbox One is a mighty fine piece of well priced equipment.

The apps I generally use on these devices: ESPN (Live), ABC (Live), HBO Go (borrowed credentials), Showtime (borrowing credentials), Hulu, Crackle (just for Cars/Comedians/Coffee), Netflix, Amazon Prime Instant, Plex (primary application of choice), Vudu (Walmart's alternative to iTunes for movie purchases, they give a lot of stuff away free/cheap -- Guardians was $9 last week, $5 after a freebie coupon going around)., etc;

So the Xbox One is better for movie/TV streaming? That seems like the opposite of last gen where the PS3 had Blu-ray and the 360 was still using DVD.

I was leaning more towards a PS4 since it has more exclusive games I want (like Uncharted and The Last of Us). Xbox doesn't have exclusives I really want. (I never was a Halo fan or much into FPS games in general).

I'm not really big on gaming in the first place, so I don't really want to get both consoles. Well crap, now I don't know.

Is the PS4 compatible with Sony TV remotes through Bravia sync? I do have a Sony TV.

That's I'm not sure about. Both consoles have Blu-ray this generation, and both are kind of missing a few media features (the PS4 can't even use DLNA, something that was the PS3 from like Day 1.) The Xbox One is a good bit ahead right now with multimedia features. I know a major complaint with the PS4 is that no controllers work with it right now.

I have to agree that I like the PS4 line-up better as I too am sick of fp shooters. But there really is something impressive about the Xbox One cable pass-thru, since it's like TV is just another application on the device. Works rather seamlessly. I remember Microsoft had rumblings about doing a standalone media consumption device at some point, but this was last year when MS was in self-destruct mode, so who knows if that survived.

Netflix on my TivoHD was super slow to load. Netflix on my roku 3 is super fast. Streaming WWE network on my Roku 3 is great. Streaming WWE network on a friends PS3 is less than great. Don't know what speed his internet is though.
I prefer streaming on the roku, it seems to do it better. Makes sense, since that is what it was made for.

I agree. I've tried PS3, Panny Blu-Ray player, Amazon Stick and Roku 3. Roku is the slickest, fastest, most intuitive. I strongly prefer it.

Well, look at what was on cable then versus what's on it now. Cable was SUPPOSED to give us things that regular TV couldn't or wouldn't show, with NO COMMERCIALS, but now it's degraded to just more of the same thing with just as many commercials.

I've found there isn't really a "one device fits all" for streaming yet, thought the Roku comes pretty close. I have one in addition to a "smart TV" and a Blu-Ray player with streaming apps- neither of those ever get updated with any new stuff while the Roku does almost every day. Since my receiver doesn't support ARC, I can't get Dolby Digital Plus from Netflix on my TV, but I can with the Roku. (The TV sends it out converted to standard Dolby Digital which results in a 'chirping' artifact in high notes.)

Yeah, despite the slew of TV devices coming out these days (I own Apple TVs, Amazon Fire Sticks, Nexus TV, Google TVs, Chromecasts, Rokus, Xbox Ones, etc; ) I can say the Roku 3 is the single best device of the group.

I remember that "no commercials" promise... something that many have conveniently forgotten.

Roku 3 all the way.

Our Amazon Fire TV Stick arrives tomorrow and I'm excited to try it out. Right now, we use our PS3 which works really well. The only real problem is we're all really bad at putting away the remote and it's really sensitive - any button turns it on. That means if the remote gets bumped by, say, a baby or a preschooler or a loving-but-clumsy parent, it turns on, which automatically turns the TV on, then we wait for the warm-up, turn it off, and so on. It happens enough that we've gotten better at putting away the remote and it keeps happening. I think with the Fire TV Stick, we'll pretty much put away the PS3 remote unless we're watching a Blu-ray and that should eliminate the issue.

"Dude, you even have HBO too?" lol

A horror movie subscription service called Screambox (available on Roku) is supposedly coming to the PS3&4 and Xbox 360/One.

All I really care for to watch movies from is services where they are in HD and absolutely no commercials. I am currently subscribed to Amazon Prime, Netflix streaming/disc, and Fullmoonstreaming.

The standalone devices typically have much better interfaces and are more responsive when using the same apps. Most of the apps tied to players and displays often have bugs that never get fixed.

Which is sort of stupid, since players can download updates the same as a box can. They probably have to design the apps around the idiosyncrasies of the players though. Or advertise an app the player doesn't actually have, in the case of mine . But I only have two HDMI ports, so I'll go with it .

I had a Roku but sold it, because all I used it for was NF and Hulu, and I could get those three other ways (Xbox, bluray, smart tv). I've heard the Roku 3 is the best, but my experience with the apps on the other devices isn't bad (except the interface for Amazon Instant Video on my bluray was just clunky), so I didn't feel the need to spend the money (not a lot, admittedly) and have one more device to clutter up my system, to do substantially the same thing.
My parents have complained that the NF app on their bluray player is a little slow, but I don't know how much of that is the app itself, and how much is their network speed. And it does take a few seconds to load up anyway.
I don't miss cable (although I bought an antenna for 'current' TV)