JohnsonJones Posted August 30, 2018 Report Share Posted August 30, 2018 I went away with research this Summer and came back a few weeks ago. Now, I don't watch a ton of TV, but I occasionally sat back and turned on the News and such. In my absence, my kids cut our cable!!! Somehow they convinced my wife that I watched it so little (and her almost none at all) that we did not need it anymore. Apparently, my son was the primary force behind it. He convinced her that he could cut our cable bill...a did he. We don't have a cable bill anymore because we don't have cable! He felt that he could replace it with this thing called a Roku. I tried to complain that I couldn't watch Random Acts of Kindness (hint..hint..to him...cutting my cable was not KIND) and what did he do...he showed me that we could watch BYU TV. He got me some news channels on it, but it isn't quite the same. He also signed us up with this new internet cable thing called sling. It shows it has ESPN, but it doesn't seem like the ESPN...maybe I just need to figure out how to watch normal sports on it somehow. Why would they do this!? And why do I keep getting signed out of BYUTV and have to sign back in every so often? To make matters worse, they cut my cable, put me on this Roku thing (they did get me a smart TV with the Roku thing...it's a new 55 incher and put my 32 inch in storage someplace where I have no idea where) and then they all used up my internet constantly so I couldn't really use the TV anyways to watch news or much of anything else (I could, but it was pretty fuzzy). They claimed that it was because I kept on buying new game systems for the grandkids to use and they wanted to be able to connect more of the game systems to one TV (the new TV has 3 or 4 HDMI hookups instead of 2). All that meant was that the grandkids spent the rest of the weeks of their summer vacation in my room playing on the TV rather than the TV's the game systems used to be hooked up to!!! I DO love my grandkids, but one of the reasons I got the game systems and hooked them up to the other TVs was so I could occasionally have some private time in my room. It looks like I've lost that. I love my grandkids, looks like I need to find room to love them even more. Anyways, anyone know why BYUTV keeps logging me out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anatess2 Posted August 30, 2018 Report Share Posted August 30, 2018 5 minutes ago, JohnsonJones said: Why would they do this!? Because cable is like cassette tapes now... 5 minutes ago, JohnsonJones said: He got me some news channels on it, but it isn't quite the same. My husband cut the cord a while back. He got this digital antenna - you buy from places like Best Buy - that gets all the free channels like local news and local NFL games and such. So, tell your son to buy that antenna for you. I don't have Roku so can't help you there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chilean Posted August 30, 2018 Report Share Posted August 30, 2018 (edited) I'm thinking Roku is like a firestick. We have a FireStick, Amazon sells it I think. And we like it a lot. We cut our Cable and Netflix, as that thing (Fire stick) has every show you can imagine. We can also watch movies, tv series, and live tv as well (even channel that you would find on cable). We like it a lot. We watch so little tv, that I'm sure we wont ever have cable nor Netflix again. Oh, we paid like 40 buck for it on amazon, and we just paid our monthly internet bill (which lets us lower our internet usage on our cellphones) Pretty sweet. Edited August 30, 2018 by Chilean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anatess2 Posted August 30, 2018 Report Share Posted August 30, 2018 7 minutes ago, Chilean said: I'm thinking Roku is like a firestick. We have a FireStick, Amazon sells it I think. And we like it a lot. We cut our Cable and Netflix, as that thing (Fire stick) has every show you can imagine. We can also watch movies, tv series, and live tv as well (even channel that you would find on cable). We like it a lot. We watch so little tv, that I'm sure we wont ever have cable nor Netflix again. Oh, we paid like 40 buck for it on amazon, and we just paid our monthly internet bill (which lets us lower our internet usage on our cellphones) Pretty sweet. Yes, Roku is a media streamer just like FireTV. I have both FireTV and AppleTV. We chose FireTV over Roku because of the non-TV apps. Roku doesn't have non-video services. I almost chose Roku because I have this aversion to Alexa. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnsonJones Posted August 30, 2018 Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2018 30 minutes ago, anatess2 said: Yes, Roku is a media streamer just like FireTV. I have both FireTV and AppleTV. We chose FireTV over Roku because of the non-TV apps. Roku doesn't have non-video services. I almost chose Roku because I have this aversion to Alexa. You guys totally lost me in the talk there. What is non-video services? There is some stuff on Roku...the Sling thing is the cable channels my son set up. It has live TV, but not BYUTV. So with that he put on BYUTV as a channel on the Roku but it keeps signing me out so I have to sign back in. No idea why it is doing that though. We also have AmazonPrime on the Roku, but not this appletv thing. What is a FireTV? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anatess2 Posted August 30, 2018 Report Share Posted August 30, 2018 (edited) 1 hour ago, JohnsonJones said: You guys totally lost me in the talk there. Oh, poor grampa... I'm not yet a gramma but my kids do make me feel like this when they start talking about... oh, I don't know... dank memes. So I feel ya. 1 hour ago, JohnsonJones said: What is non-video services? There is some stuff on Roku...the Sling thing is the cable channels my son set up. It has live TV, but not BYUTV. Services = App categories. Non-video apps are like games and music and shopping and controlling your light switches in your house, etc. etc. Roku is all video apps (like Netflix, Hulu, HBO Go, BYUTV, etc.) Yeah, your kids would probably appreciate the non-video apps more and give them more reason to deprive you of your TV. 1 hour ago, JohnsonJones said: So with that he put on BYUTV as a channel on the Roku but it keeps signing me out so I have to sign back in. No idea why it is doing that though. I don't have Roku but I'm sure someone here will come along shortly and help you out with this. 1 hour ago, JohnsonJones said: We also have AmazonPrime on the Roku, but not this appletv thing. What is a FireTV? Okay, Roku is a media streaming device. Media streaming is the new technology that is making cable TV (like Comcast) and satellite TV (like DirectTV) obsolete because it detaches the customer from the restriction of cable packages and unleashes the power of the a'la carte internet. So a cable TV service comes with a device called a cable box. The Roku device is the Roku stick. It sucks data through your ISP and streams it to your TV and you have complete control of what you want on it. So you don't have to get a "cable package" with 100 channels when all you watch are 3. You just go get individual subscriptions to those 3 channels. Interestingly, cable channels like CNN are fighting tooth and nail because their streaming services are not getting enough subscriptions to offset the loss of their cable subscriptions through cable packages... so that's why cable is not dead because some of these companies are charging subscriptions to media streaming versions of their channels more expensive than getting cable packages. Anyway... FireTV and AppleTV are other media streaming services in competition to Roku. FireTV is an Amazon product. Its device is called a Firestick. AppleTV is another one from Apple. So, AppleTV is great if you have apple devices in the house because everything Apple works together. So you can be watching something on your AppleTV then the kids decide to take over your TV so you continue watching the thing on your iPad no problem. FireTV has the advantage over Roku of having non-video apps like - you can play games and music and even go shopping on your Firestick and you can ask Alexa to do whatever Alexa can do. As far as video services on FireTV, the Amazon video service is Amazon Prime which is pretty cool - lots of good movies and TV shows on it - but you can load Amazon Prime on any media streaming device including your Roku so FireTV and Roku are practically the same as far as video services are concerned. Edited August 30, 2018 by anatess2 JohnsonJones 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chilean Posted August 30, 2018 Report Share Posted August 30, 2018 I have no idea what Non- video services mean. Sorry. A Fire stick is a stick you insert into your TV, and it works with internet. It streams tv shows and movies and tv channels. It's pretty cool. I didn't trust it at first, but that's the only way we watch tv. JohnsonJones 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chilean Posted August 30, 2018 Report Share Posted August 30, 2018 4 minutes ago, anatess2 said: I'm not yet a gramma What!!?? I thought you were a guy, LOL That's so cool! anatess2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anatess2 Posted August 30, 2018 Report Share Posted August 30, 2018 (edited) 7 minutes ago, Chilean said: I have no idea what Non- video services mean. Sorry. A Fire stick is a stick you insert into your TV, and it works with internet. It streams tv shows and movies and tv channels. It's pretty cool. I didn't trust it at first, but that's the only way we watch tv. My FireTV looks like this: Same as your except with 32GB instead of just 8GB memory. Your firestick can do more than just play videos, so it has non-video services. Edited August 30, 2018 by anatess2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vort Posted August 30, 2018 Report Share Posted August 30, 2018 4 hours ago, JohnsonJones said: Why would they do this!? Because they're SMART! 4 hours ago, JohnsonJones said: And why do I keep getting signed out of BYUTV and have to sign back in every so often? No clue. I have only ever signed into byutv.org online, and I haven't even done that in a couple of years. I don't see any good reason to sign into BYUTV. Cable is a scam. There is a vast amount of free content available online, which Roku gives you a convenient way of accessing. Really, Roku is brilliant. You pay a small one-time fee of $30-$100. In return, you get a convenient way of accessing an organized .version of much of that free online material, a remote so you can keep your rear end planted on the sofa, and the ability to add paid content with little trouble. The cost of the Roku typically pays for itself the first month after you get rid of cable, and keeps paying for itself over and over the longer you have it. Even if you buy content like Sling, you're still paying a fraction of what cable costs. I may sound like a Roku evangelist, but I'm really not. I just think it's a brilliant product. Wish I had thought it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bytebear Posted August 31, 2018 Report Share Posted August 31, 2018 (edited) I love my Roku. I have HuluPlus (an alternative to Sling, which was slightly more costly), which is a pay service that gives me local tv, sports etc. I live in California and I actually watch Utah news in the morning. What fun. Love it. Edited August 31, 2018 by bytebear Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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