About a little over a month ago I was looking for something at the local Walmart (I'm not sure what it was I was looking for) and I don't even know why I was in the section of the store I was in, but there I was in the electronics aisle and found myself looking at the streaming devices.. My little brother has the Roku and at one point even swore it was the best way for entertainment delivery to his tv set and severed his ties to satellite and swore by Roku.. Roku would have cable programming and more to the point, it would have network television channels before the end of that year or beginning of the next.. Was he trying to talk me into it, or himself?? Forward a couple of years and he reacquired his Directv system, kept his Roku and uses the two integrated together although the Roku is more of a babysitter than anything else.. So when I stopped and looked at the Roku setups they had I was just glancing.. Then I read the box and thought "you know we have digital cable and mostly we got it because we got rid of Dish network satellite tv.. My reason for not having dish is because of the amount of filler on the dial and the fact that there were so much crud at the lower end of the channel lineup.. It used to be that the channel lineup would be fairly sludge free until around the premium channels. By sludge I mean the channels that sell stuff.. The information channels.. or whatever you want to call them.. A slim down would occur and while going down in number of channels we got a few not available on either satellite provider and they still aren't on there..
So I looked at the streaming devices and after a few days decided to shelve the idea for a bit.. Then today I was in there and went and checked them out again, this time I went in with an open mind and checked out not only Roku, but all of the different devices.. Streaming is available on most blue ray dvd players.. In fact most dvd players have streaming.. As I picked one of the dvd players up it said standard dvd player and that was all.. I thought of that like from A Charlie Brown Christmas where Linus and Charlie are looking at trees and they spot an old fashioned wood tree and Linus says "do they make real trees anymore?" and I was thinking do they make dvd players that just play dvd's and not streaming or any other goodies??
So I look at a few of these streaming players and I look at the Roku, just figuring I will get one for Christmas maybe this year.. The only thing I wasn't sure of was last week I saw the cable tv company running cable from one part of town where they brought the new fiber optic line in and I was just sure they were going to add more cable tv channels or something like that and I would wait and see what might come of this.. Turns out I looked at where the cable ended up and it went to the school.. What that means for the school, I don't have a clue but..
So I check a few of these streaming players out and here is what I figured out and after looking at them in the store I decided to look on line and really check them out.. An in depth search and browse at the walmart on line site and there is where a good cross section of America shops and they are just really eager to voice their opinion on the reviews section of the different devices so here is where I will share their ideas.. Some of the devices are good and some are better and what I was looking for in a device was streaming AND the ability to watch via a usb device (flashdrive external memory storage) so while the cheaper Roku http://www.walmart.com/ip/Roku-HD-Streaming-Video-Player/20630068 Sells for around fifty to sixty greenbacks, this only streams.. No usb support...
This one : http://i.walmart.com/i/rb/0079006937097.pdf The D-link has the ability to stream and seems to have a small number of available services and while more isn't nesissarily better, in this case it is since Roku has so much to chose from and is the standard to measure anything with...
The Netgear one : http://www.walmart.com/ip/Netgear-NTV200S-NeoTV-Streaming-Player/21092586 has the ability to stream Youtube which currently Roku doesn't, and that isn't a deal breaker.. This system has a thing called "Fling" which supposedly will let you watch what your watching on the computer on the Netgear streamer.. Not sure how that might work but there it is, another choice in the streaming video devices..
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Magnavox-HD-Streaming-Video-Player-TB600MG2F/17350648 : this is a Magnavox streaming device (box) that pretty much equals Roku.
The Sony : http://www.walmart.com/ip/Sony-DC-SMPN200-Wi-Fi-Streaming-Player/17281822 Looks to be the leader at the present time.. It has so much more information on it, on the walmart site.. I was in the store and picked this thing up and read the box.. Saw the ability to play via the usb drive and when I looked for the price tag I figured seventy or more for this.. Turns out to be less than fifty dollars.. Blew me away and it has everything I want for streaming all the channels I want including Youtube.. This was to be the winner if I looked at it on line and it had good reviews which it does however they all have that one guy who sounds like he is a sales rep for the devices writing the review for the device so I checked the other reviews and there are many pro and a few con but the pros are more than negative so.. This could be the one.. Ditching the movie part of the digital cable would be cake since we have the Starz package.. Replacing some fifteen channels with several hundred would be easy to do..
Researching things like this is what I normally do.. I remember thinking about getting dish, or directv and it was easy to check dish because my little brother had it.. Then there was the Webtv thing.. I came really close to getting that.. I kept looking when we went into Walmart and I came really close to getting that.. I wonder whatever happened to Webtv?? I didn't get it, in other words.. The compact disc burner (stand alone type) that would allow me to burn records to disc, I watched the price on that drop like a stone over a three year period before getting one just before they were banned.. I didn't know they were about to do that either..Just lucky there.. And now the streaming video devices.. The Sony is the current leader (winner) and I guess we will see how things play out..
Badge Henry
So I looked at the streaming devices and after a few days decided to shelve the idea for a bit.. Then today I was in there and went and checked them out again, this time I went in with an open mind and checked out not only Roku, but all of the different devices.. Streaming is available on most blue ray dvd players.. In fact most dvd players have streaming.. As I picked one of the dvd players up it said standard dvd player and that was all.. I thought of that like from A Charlie Brown Christmas where Linus and Charlie are looking at trees and they spot an old fashioned wood tree and Linus says "do they make real trees anymore?" and I was thinking do they make dvd players that just play dvd's and not streaming or any other goodies??
So I look at a few of these streaming players and I look at the Roku, just figuring I will get one for Christmas maybe this year.. The only thing I wasn't sure of was last week I saw the cable tv company running cable from one part of town where they brought the new fiber optic line in and I was just sure they were going to add more cable tv channels or something like that and I would wait and see what might come of this.. Turns out I looked at where the cable ended up and it went to the school.. What that means for the school, I don't have a clue but..
So I check a few of these streaming players out and here is what I figured out and after looking at them in the store I decided to look on line and really check them out.. An in depth search and browse at the walmart on line site and there is where a good cross section of America shops and they are just really eager to voice their opinion on the reviews section of the different devices so here is where I will share their ideas.. Some of the devices are good and some are better and what I was looking for in a device was streaming AND the ability to watch via a usb device (flashdrive external memory storage) so while the cheaper Roku http://www.walmart.com/ip/Roku-HD-Streaming-Video-Player/20630068 Sells for around fifty to sixty greenbacks, this only streams.. No usb support...
This one : http://i.walmart.com/i/rb/0079006937097.pdf The D-link has the ability to stream and seems to have a small number of available services and while more isn't nesissarily better, in this case it is since Roku has so much to chose from and is the standard to measure anything with...
The Netgear one : http://www.walmart.com/ip/Netgear-NTV200S-NeoTV-Streaming-Player/21092586 has the ability to stream Youtube which currently Roku doesn't, and that isn't a deal breaker.. This system has a thing called "Fling" which supposedly will let you watch what your watching on the computer on the Netgear streamer.. Not sure how that might work but there it is, another choice in the streaming video devices..
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Magnavox-HD-Streaming-Video-Player-TB600MG2F/17350648 : this is a Magnavox streaming device (box) that pretty much equals Roku.
The Sony : http://www.walmart.com/ip/Sony-DC-SMPN200-Wi-Fi-Streaming-Player/17281822 Looks to be the leader at the present time.. It has so much more information on it, on the walmart site.. I was in the store and picked this thing up and read the box.. Saw the ability to play via the usb drive and when I looked for the price tag I figured seventy or more for this.. Turns out to be less than fifty dollars.. Blew me away and it has everything I want for streaming all the channels I want including Youtube.. This was to be the winner if I looked at it on line and it had good reviews which it does however they all have that one guy who sounds like he is a sales rep for the devices writing the review for the device so I checked the other reviews and there are many pro and a few con but the pros are more than negative so.. This could be the one.. Ditching the movie part of the digital cable would be cake since we have the Starz package.. Replacing some fifteen channels with several hundred would be easy to do..
Researching things like this is what I normally do.. I remember thinking about getting dish, or directv and it was easy to check dish because my little brother had it.. Then there was the Webtv thing.. I came really close to getting that.. I kept looking when we went into Walmart and I came really close to getting that.. I wonder whatever happened to Webtv?? I didn't get it, in other words.. The compact disc burner (stand alone type) that would allow me to burn records to disc, I watched the price on that drop like a stone over a three year period before getting one just before they were banned.. I didn't know they were about to do that either..Just lucky there.. And now the streaming video devices.. The Sony is the current leader (winner) and I guess we will see how things play out..
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