Excuse the long dissertation.
A few years ago I complained to son #2 that I was tired of paying so much for Directv and he suggested I try ROKU, which we did.
Although it worked OKAY, over time I got sick and tired of all the buffering. I spent hours a week trying to get programs to work and for many we ended up using my laptop to watch our programs (which was connected by ethernet).
I decided to see if we could get Directv back and was surprised to see we could, but I wanted it like we had it before with the satellite dish. NO WAY JOSE! I was told it could not be done because our area no longer supported the dish. I told them the dish was still here; the cables were still here but they said no. I knew that the problem I was having with streaming was with WIFI and I wanted to go back to ethernet. Again, Directv said NO WAY JOSE!
I was spending HOURS every day trying to get programs to work without the non stop buffering. So I decided to see if ROKU had the ability to work with ethernet and HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN! I found the ROKU LT. I ordered the ROKU LT and it arrived yesterday. I spent a couple of hours setting it up (for some reason it was in Brazilian dialect) and I have learned many words in the dialect, but was able to get it to English and hooked up to the ethernet and today we spent the day with ZERO BUFFERING and half the cost of Directv. I was never so glad to cancel Directv as I was today.
I told hubby - "Do you realize that for the last year I have spent more time trying to get the TV programs to work than I have any other project I wanted to work on?"
Today, all programs ran without a glitch and there is ZERO buffering. I love ethernet!
I was so happy to cancel Directv and ROKU costs much less than Directv.
I feel like I have gotten months back in my time now.
Thank you for listening to an old woman's rant.
Aumone
This is the exact reason I threw all our crappy “Walmart” routers and invested in a good setup from Ubiquity. I have the Unifi AC Pro as my WiFi access point (though a small handful of other gear underneath to support it) I get all of my ISP’s bandwidth.
Library dvd's.
Roku can also provide a way to view streaming content on a smart tv, without granting internet access to the tv itself, provided you only connect the roku to internet and then connect the roku to the tv’s hdmi port.
One thing to be aware of though with roku is that their normal remote has a built in microphone and communicates to the roku wirelessly. The official reason given for the built in microphone is so it can take voice commands, and that is true — but it is prudent to treat it like an Alexa or other listening device.
What you can do though, is get an older infrared remote for the roku, which still works but does not have a microphone.
Also, all bets are off if you’re using a smart tv with built in roku, as that has all the same privacy issues as any other smart tv.
Why did I just read a Roku ad on a board about government corruption?