Electronics

[GloriBee]

Everyone has given you such great advice! Our family just loves Netflix. We're huge fans of movies, so, of course, we use it for that. More than that, I love it for TV shows! Before falling asleep every night I have enjoyed watching some series on my Kindle Fire, which I am replying on. I get in this groove where I'll watch all episodes of a series, often one not found on TV much, if at all: Ozzie & Harriet, Wings, Van Dyke and, currently enjoying Andy Griffith. There is so much variety on Netflix! Easy to get your money's worth!

[meonlybetter]

LOVE LOVE LOVE Netflix and HuluPlus! Both run $7.99 a month. And TONSSSSSSSSSSSSSS to watch! Booted our cable company which was costing us $95 a month and rarely anything on I ever watched. Best thing about HuluPlus is you can watch your show(s) when YOU want to watch them! It's nothing but a win win!!!!!!!!

[mustbuyless]

Netflix is TOTALLY worth it- every penny. In fact it's incredibly cheap given what you get. I got rid of cable and now have access to much better programming, films, and the like. It's not perfect, but it's pretty darn fabulous. Hope you like it if you decide to get it.

[chickenbutt]

ITA with the others that Netflix is totally worth it. One thing about the impending price increase - I read that they are going to give their existing customers a two-year pass on their price going up and it will only be the higher price, at first, for new customers. Even if it goes up to $9.99 a month it will be well worth it IF you use the service.

All that said, however, I'm not a cord-cutter. I would not give up cable in lieu of using Netflix. But that is because it is not a replacement for cable. For those who would like to rid themselves of the high cost of cable, and don't have cable channels and current shows they really want, it's a great way to have many more, OTHER, choices.

I just want to make sure that nobody thinks that using Netflix/Roku/etc is an apples to apples replacement for cable.

But I really love Netflix and I love my Roku3 units. We have Netflix, and others, on Tivo also, but I think the Roku3 apps are more up to date and seamless, so I use the Roku3 units pretty much all the time when I want to go to Netflix, etc.

[GloriBee]

On 5/4/2014 chickenbutt said:

All that said, however, I'm not a cord-cutter. I would not give up cable in lieu of using Netflix. But that is because it is not a replacement for cable. For those who would like to rid themselves of the high cost of cable, and don't have cable channels and current shows they really want, it's a great way to have many more, OTHER, choices.

I agree with chickenbutt. Our cable is super expensive and I would love to be able to give it up. However, the best thing about cable is On Demand and the DVR. Our family just has too many shows we like to watch!

[brii]

FYI, if you need a portable streaming device, Google Chromecast is only $39.

[ChynnaBlue]

If you have a laptop computer and your mom's TV has an HDMI input, you don't need a Chromecast or a Roku, you can use the laptop.

I find the Roku difficult to setup and use just because of the way you enter information. (No keyboard, you have to select each letter with a remote pointer and enter each letter. Very slow.) If you move it back and forth between sets, you may have to do the setup process again for each set, each time.

I have a 6' HDMI cable connecting my latptop to my TV and it sits on a table next to the TV. I can use Hulu, NetFlix, Amazon Instant Video and Amazon Prime Instant Video from my laptop and it shows up on my TV.

FYI for anyone who has Amazon Prime: As a part of the Amazon Prime service, you get access to a lot of included videos that you don't have to pay an additional fee for, but you can't access them with Chromecast. You can watch those included videos if you hook a computer up to the TV instead (or with) Chromecast.

[chickenbutt]

Chynna - I have Roku3 and I can get Amazon Prime through that. To my knowledge, it's not just through the latest (the '3') that has Prime, but I could be wrong.

[ChynnaBlue]

On 5/5/2014 chickenbutt said:

Chynna - I have Roku3 and I can get Amazon Prime through that. To my knowledge, it's not just through the latest (the '3') that has Prime, but I could be wrong.

Oh, it looks like you're right. They must have changed that since I got my Roku 2. Thanks, I'll edit my original post.

[chickenbutt]

Ah, so it's just the Roku3. Thanks for that info. I really love this thing! One of my favorite things is the earbuds that plug into the remote. I've been in the middle of a 100-episode series lately and, especially with my tinnitis, I have a hard time hearing. Those are so much nicer than when I use my 'over the head' wireless headphones, because I can lay down and be comfortable.

But they also added YouTube with Roku3 and I guess that's been popular. I don't go there that often, but it's nice to have.