Apple TV vs Google TV vs Roku

[Bobby]

I've been thinking about getting some sort of streaming player for my TV.

 I'm most familiar with Google TV but I read that it doesn't play HULU. Two people that I know have the Apple version and aren't terribly psyched on it.  Does anyone use Roku? How does it compare? 

[Donkey Lips]

I've got an Apple TV. It's nothing super exciting. It doesn't play Hulu (unless you jailbreak it. and I'm too fat and lazy to do that shit.). But I can stream anything that's in my iTunes library, which is a shit load of pirated shows and movies. It's pretty decent, just not life changing. All I've heard of the Roku 2 is that it's pretty sick, but requires subscriptions for the good stuff.

[able]

I love my Roku

I use netflix, Hulu, Youtube, Vimeo, Facebook and there is a ton of "private channels" you can find on the internet made by developers. (porn, traffic cameras, ijustintv, etc)

If you get the ROKU 2 ($99) it'll play Angry Birds, Galaga, Pac Man, and a couple other 8 bit video games too

I'm fixing to buy that as my second Roku

[HATE!]

I love my Roku

I use netflix, Hulu, Youtube, Vimeo, Facebook and there is a ton of "private channels" you can find on the internet made by developers. (porn, traffic cameras, ijustintv, etc)

If you get the ROKU 2 ($99) it'll play Angry Birds, Galaga, Pac Man, and a couple other 8 bit video games too

I'm fixing to buy that as my second Roku

I love the Roku as well.  I'm not a huge TV person, so I don't subscribe to any pay stuff and it has more than enough content for me with just Netflix and Hulu.

[scott]

I love my Roku

I use netflix, Hulu, Youtube, Vimeo, Facebook and there is a ton of "private channels" you can find on the internet made by developers. (porn, traffic cameras, ijustintv, etc)

If you get the ROKU 2 ($99) it'll play Angry Birds, Galaga, Pac Man, and a couple other 8 bit video games too

I'm fixing to buy that as my second Roku

I have a roku 2 xs, brand new in box, never used once, that I'll sell for $80 if you are interested. PM me if so. I'm only selling because I use my ps3 for my streaming needs, it seems like a pretty sweet little streamer.

[Bobby]

I love my Roku

I use netflix, Hulu, Youtube, Vimeo, Facebook and there is a ton of "private channels" you can find on the internet made by developers. (porn, traffic cameras, ijustintv, etc)

If you get the ROKU 2 ($99) it'll play Angry Birds, Galaga, Pac Man, and a couple other 8 bit video games too

I'm fixing to buy that as my second Roku

How do you load private channels? Is it via flash drive? There is no web browser is there?

I was leaning towards the Google tv but I think the revue is discontinued and I'm concerned about how much longer they will support that.
Roku was second on my list but I haven't talked to anyone who used one. It sounds alright, as my TV watching is limited anyways. Mostly I just want to avoid plugging my computer into the tv using a cable. Roku sounds like it would be fine for that.

[able]

There's a ton of non-private channels but here's a list to just the "private" ones

http://streamfree.tv/apps/roku-private-channels/all/

You'll see the password listed and if you hover your mouse over the password link you'll see that it's a link to your roku account.

If you owned a Roku all you would have to do is click on the the password (which would direct you to your roku account)

and type it in

(I'm not seeing youtube anymore and I've heard it was discontinued due to some legal BS but I've also heard it's still accessible)

If you really wanna get deep into ROKU you can check out their forum  http://forums.roku.com/   

[Ronald Wilson Reagan]

get an hdmi cord. anything visible on your computer will be visible on your tv. If the features suck, so does your computer. its like $10.

[able]

get an hdmi cord. anything visible on your computer will be visible on your tv. If the features suck, so does your computer. its like $10.

Okay wise guy!

Think of it this way:

If you had to carry your DVD/blueray player to your television from another room, plug in an hdmi and find a power outlet every time you wanted to watch a DVD. You would find it pretty annoying.

Now imagine just sitting down on your couch and pushing 'PLAY' on a remote control.

That is why there are set top boxes



BOO-YAH!!! 

[noileum]

cheap ass net top PC's that can handle 1080p are super cheap these days and give you additional functionality

wouldn't swap my little box with 1TB of films etc on and XBMC for any of the options.  Was interested in Apple TV2 but cba to jailbreak the fucker for xbmc and still not have the functionality

[Ronald Wilson Reagan]

get an hdmi cord. anything visible on your computer will be visible on your tv. If the features suck, so does your computer. its like $10.

Okay wise guy!

Think of it this way:

If you had to carry your DVD/blueray player to your television from another room, plug in an hdmi and find a power outlet every time you wanted to watch a DVD. You would find it pretty annoying.

Now imagine just sitting down on your couch and pushing 'PLAY' on a remote control.

That is why there are set top boxes



BOO-YAH!!! 

That is what I do. Its not inconvenient, and I have $80 to spare to by a quarter of weed to chilllllll. My laptop weighs like 2 pounds. Its not that inconvenient, and I have no jail break issues that you guys are whining about.