History Channel is good. How about National Geographic, Animal Planet, Military Channel, TV Land, Nicklodean, A&E, VH1, MTV, Comedy Central, and which ever channel shows America's Funniest Home video all day long?

 

Yeah, you're not going to get that stuff for free on the Roku.

What I tell people is this.... If you just want to crash at the end of the day and watch a little TV while eating dinner or before bed, the Roku is perfect. If you're a TV junky who absolutely MUST watch certain shows, you'll need to continue paying for premium cable.

The Roku will give you lots of content, but it may not be exactly the content you want if you're particular about what you watch. My wife and I have started watching a lot of different shows we don't normally watch on Hulu just because it's there. Honestly, I don't miss cable at all. YMMV.

 

I think that's the thing with this kind of stuff. I got "hooked" on "The First 48" on A&E one day while flipping the channel randomly. There are very few other shows that I got "hooked" too but it's not like I'd get mad if I miss an episode or two because they re-run them eventually anyways. Other than these, and some mid-tier "movie packages" they gave me are the ones I watch. Otherwise, I'm pretty casual "channel flipper." I haven't even watched an episode of Walking Dead. lol So Roku might just save me bunch of bucks.

 

I have my preferred services "unbundled" and that is how I got the cheapest deal for the shows/speed I wanted. Internet $50, DishNetwork with sports $70, Vonage $18. Just barely less than you. I am planning to get a Ooma and drop phone down to about $4 a month.

I am finding, however, that I channel surf Dish and can't find something halfway intelligent to watch and my $70 a month is generally wasted, although I do also have a Netflix stream/disc package for $20 a month or so. But I don't find TONS of stuff there either, even though it is a better value than Dish. The First 48 you mentioned has their whole back catalog on Netflix.

My brother went the "cut the cord" route, has Amazon prime and Netflix (which is kind of duplicative) and does not miss cable/sat at all. For me it was all about local sports teams and I had to pay full boat $70 a month to get access to the channel with NBA/NHL/MLB teams. Now with NBA league pass or the NHL app, you can generally stream all games for about $60 a season so about three months of Sat pays for all three season passes. I am leaning towards this with a good HD antenna for locals, and a Netflix pack.

But as far as Roku goes, any new Blu Ray will have most of the same apps, and although more expensive, the New Playstation4 or Xbox One, even if you don't play games have lots of multimedia apps and will end up offering lots more access to things than a Roku might in the long run. I have the PS4 (and older PS3 and Xbox360) and they generally will all have the some of the sports apps, Netflixs, Hulu, Amazon, as well as some crappy free movie stuff like Crackle and others. Roku's are good, but these consoles really have lots of fun goodies that are available now or will be soon that make it much more flexible than a Roku, but there is a higher upfront cost an annual $50 fee.

 

I have a Blu Ray player that has Netflix and Hulu and also Youtube. Although I've never tried these Netflix and Hulu services with my BluRay player, I have tried streaming Youtube with it and it was horrible experience. Mainly because there is no keyboard-style keypad that I can type the search word fast enough. Typing a word with the remote control keypad that came with the BR player was so dumb. Wouldn't I experience the same if I tried to stream Netflix or Hulu with my Blu Ray player? Do you ever have to type search word in Netflix/Hulu?

 

^^

I got a smartTV that has all those apps, but mine came with a 2-sided remote control. One side is a standard tv remove. The other side is a keyboard.
Pretty handy for that exact reason.

 

Never seen it before. You got a pic? Which brand makes them?

 

I haven't had cable in years. I use Chromecast. It's 35$, you plug it up and go. I can stream virtually anything to it. I'll probably never get cable TV again.

 

I have a Roku w/ netflix and hulu. No need for cable TV anymore! We opted for the Roku 1 because it's basic function is all that we really wanted to spend money on. House is 2200 sq ft so there's no real reason for more powerful wifi or anything.

 

Does the Roku remote control come with a keyboard pad? How do you "search" for a title you want? Their remote control looked like a game console remote, which I know isn't the best for typing something fast for a quick search? But then again, I may not need to?