{"id":1139,"date":"2011-05-27T12:04:02","date_gmt":"2011-05-27T18:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fefnet.com\/blog\/?p=1139"},"modified":"2011-05-27T12:59:39","modified_gmt":"2011-05-27T18:59:39","slug":"cutting-the-cord-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fefnet.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/cutting-the-cord-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Cutting the Cord: Part 2 &#8211; Roku Streaming Player"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Upstairs in our master bedroom we have a small TV that just has a Roku Streaming Player and a DVD player which hasn&#8217;t been used much in the last few months. The Roku does a pretty good job at fulfilling all of our goals that we listed in the introduction to Cutting the Cord.<\/p>\n<h3>Roku Streaming Player<\/h3>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.roku.com\/\">Roku<\/a> was the first device that streamed Netflix movies. I think it&#8217;s still one of the best. This little box is fairly cheap ($60-100, depending on the model) and it can do a lot via its channels and it&#8217;s pretty easy to pick up and use. Aside from Netflix, here are some of the other channels that we use frequently:<\/p>\n<h4>MLB.tv<\/h4>\n<p>I&#8217;m a huge baseball fan, and without cable TV I don&#8217;t get many games. I subscribe to <a href=\"http:\/\/mlb.mlb.com\/mlb\/subscriptions\/index.jsp?product=mlbtv&amp;affiliateId=MLBTVREDIRECT\">MLB.tv<\/a>, which I can watch through the Roku&#8217;s MLB.tv Channel or via the computer. This lets me watch all the games, except the local teams, which I can listen to live but not watch (I&#8217;m in New Mexico, so that means I can&#8217;t watch the Rockies or Diamondbacks games until after they&#8217;re over).<\/p>\n<h4>Amazon Video On Demand<\/h4>\n<p>We&#8217;ve had a few coupons from Amazon to their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/video\/ontv\/start\">Video On Demand store<\/a>, which lets you rent or buy movies that can be watched through a computer or other internet device (including the Roku and lots of TVs, Blu-Ray players, etc.)<\/p>\n<h4>Plex Channel<\/h4>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/elan.plexapp.com\/2011\/05\/03\/plex-on-the-roku\/\">Plex channel<\/a> has been great for watching movies on our computer. Basically, I don&#8217;t have to worry about the format of the file, Plex handles it (it can transcode and\/or remux as needed). The best part about this is that I can see the movie poster or other artwork, which makes it much easier for my kids to find their favorite shows. I&#8217;ve seen other channels that let you play files from your local network, but none of them were free and none of them were even close to this channel in quality.<\/p>\n<h3>Goals:<\/h3>\n<p>How well does the Roku box meet the goals stated in the introduction?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Play back our media collection? Check. It&#8217;s pretty easy, too.<\/li>\n<li>Ability to watch and record TV? Not yet.<\/li>\n<li>Watch Netflix from any TV? Check. It&#8217;s probably the best device we own for that.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Other Parts of <em>Cutting the Cord<\/em>:<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/fefnet.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/cutting-the-cord-intro\/\">Cutting the Cord: Introduction<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/fefnet.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/cutting-the-cord-part-1\/\">Backend: Desktop Computer (acting as file server) and TV Tuner<\/a><br \/>\nMaster Bedroom: Roku streaming<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/fefnet.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/cutting-the-cord-part-3\/\">Living Room: HTPC and TV w\/ built-in Netflix<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/fefnet.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/cutting-the-cord-part-4\/\">Basement: Original Xbox with XBMC<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Upstairs in our master bedroom we have a small TV that just has a Roku Streaming Player and a DVD player which hasn&#8217;t been used much in the last few months. The Roku does a pretty good job at fulfilling all of our goals that we listed in the introduction to Cutting the Cord. Roku [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movies","category-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fefnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fefnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fefnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fefnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fefnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1139"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/fefnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1161,"href":"https:\/\/fefnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139\/revisions\/1161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fefnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fefnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fefnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}