I cancelled my Satellite TV last week and I feel GREAT! They had just raised my rates by 5 dollars without even telling me they were having an increase. I saw it on my bank statement since I have automatic payments scheduled. When I called them the woman was short and curt and said “it is the lowest increase amongst all the cable and satellite companies”. Was that supposed to make me feel better? I think not!
They were charging me 75 dollars per month with no premium networks – it is insane! I told them to cancel my account and I would send the equipment back. I priced out my options and they were all around the same amount each month and I refused to pay it. After all, I only watch the news for about 20 minutes before work and then maybe a movie or show after work. There had to be a better way so I went to work researching my options.
I started researching internet TV and read all the reviews and consumer reports to see which company offered the best option for me. I decided to go with Roku. They make 3 internet tv boxes that run off your wireless so you do not have to connect it to anything other than the television. They have wires to connect to old TV’s and USB’s to connect to the new TV’s.
I told my kids of my plan and my daughter refused to speak to me all night. It turned out we got 2 channels from the satellite hookup after they cancelled – DIY Network and Inspiration TV. This got us through the time until the Roku box arrived.
I told the kids that I bought one Roku box and if it worked that I would buy them each a box for their televisions in their rooms. Roku offered 3 boxes starting at 59.99 and I bought the middle one for 79.99 because it had an instant replay button on the remote. I thought I would get the one in the middle to test it out and they offer a 30 day money back guarantee too.
It arrived in 2 days and I just opened the box and plugged it into the wall and then into my archaic projection tv and guess what? It worked! The remote is a basic remote with only a few buttons so it is not confusing. I had to log in and register with the various channels that I wanted.
Right off the bat I signed up with Netflix for $7.99 per month for unlimited movies and shows and Hulu Plus for $7.99 per month for more movies and shows. Then I signed up for most of the free Roku channels. They have a weather channel, newscaster channel, old classic movies, music, sports, and much more.
Then I went in and signed up for some of the paid Roku channels. I did Drive in Classics which has most of the old SciFi and Horror movies for $5.00 for the year. I also signed up for another channel which shows classic movies from the 30’s-50’s. I think this one was $3.00 for the year.
We tested it out and love it! We watch Netflix the most and then Hulu Plus second. Some of the stations the kids don’t like since they are old movies. They don’t like that we don’t have MTV or Disney anymore but they have so much more. I ordered them each a box yesterday so they can stream in their rooms. Once you buy the box you pay nothing else for the Roku. You only pay for the channels you ordered through your box, if any.
Last night I found that there are private channels on Roku that you can sign up for. These have a special code that you plug in when on the Roku website. I just got the YouTube channel, HGTV, CNN and JustinTV. There is also an Amazon channel which is like a pay per view channel where you can buy TV shows and movies to watch. We have not used that yet.
If you have little kids you have to watch what you add since there is no parental control that I have found. This means whatever you have is available to everyone. There are tons of private porn channels too so remember if you sign up for one – everyone in the house has access, so be careful.
My television bill went from $75.00 per month to 15.98 per month!! Plus the 2 yearly fee channel’s. I miss the local news but just found that Justin TV has some live news feeds. I can get by with getting my news from the internet for now just to save that money. I should have done this sooner but it took this last increase for me to say Enough is Enough!
