2. home-theater
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I picked up a ROKU, I am wanting to cut the Cable TV cord.

I first tried the ROKU hooked up to the TV with an HDMI in the Great room/Living room and it worked well. We even watched a couple movies on Amazon Prime. No dropouts or buffering. (ROKU is connected to 60mbps speed internet through a switch with CAT5e.)

Last night I thought I would try it in the HT room and see how it worked and how the picture quality looked there.
Hook up of the ROKU to the switch again by CAT5e. From the output of the ROKU I connected the HDMI cable to an HDMI input on a Marantz SR8002 HT receiver.

I then turned on the equipment and set the Marantz to the correct HDMI input port and the ROKU home page came up just fine. I checked YouTube and it seemed ok. When I tried Amazon Prime it loaded fine. But, when we found a movie we wanted to watch, it started to load, but then an info block came up on the screen of the TV saying there wasn't enough bandwidth to load the movie. I tried again 2 or 3 times, same thing. I knew the problem was not the Ethernet cable. Works fine when using it for Netflix.

So what the heck was the problem? I even tried a different HDMI input port on the Marantz. Why? I don't know but I did....
 For a test I disconnected the ROKU HDMI cable from the Marantz and connected it directly to an HDMI input port on the Samsung LED TV. I then attempted again to watch the same movie on Amazon Prime as I tried earlier. Movie loaded without a glitch. Not a dropout or buffering glitch once throughout the entire movie.
What gives?

Jim
jea48
iron57
81 posts
 
Cut the cord 4 years ago, and primarily use Roku devices.  Right now the Roku Streaming Stick+ is about the best value to performance ratio for Roku devices, have not seen any lag or buffering issues.  Also, 4K content comes through no problem.

Key to this lifestyle is to try and get internet through fiber if possible, or spend a bit more to get stability and more mbs.  Had loads of issues with cable internet in my area, was a constant speed dial to the provider every two weeks or so.  Paying for 100 mbs, realizing only about 15 and down to 5 at some points.  Total garbage.  Getting 300 over WiFi now with the fiber, same price point (not an introductory either).  Realize this isn't available in most places though. 

Anyways, we will never look back.  Counting all subscriptions (Netflix, Hulu, Sling, etc) all in we are about 50% cheaper than the similar packages offered by dish or cable.  We were already paying for Netflix anyway. Interruptions in service are rare, and no more than cable outages (or thunderstorms when we had DirecTV). 

Bundles are of no use to us, we have no need for a landline.  Was also getting sick of the "threaten to quit" cycle to lower the rate every so often.  With this, I can quit with a click, and resume with the same whenever I want.


jaybe
732 posts
 
Old post but here’s where I’m at on cordcutting. Seven years ago got tired of paying Comcast rip off cable rates. Dumped cable but still needed the internet. Switched to Rokus and Amazon Prime but the experience was not the same. Over time added a TiVo broadcast unit, Hulu and DirectTVNow. Now it finally approaches what I was getting with cable. Last week I discovered I could get 225 channels on XFinity and internet speeds 5x what I have now for way less than I’m paying for my cord cutting expenses. So maybe it’s time to go back. Of course over time the cable rates will creep up to what I’m paying now but figure that’ll be 3-4 years away.
schubert
7,386 posts
 
Until you get the XFinity bill and its twice what they told you it would be knowing you have to pay it unless you don't care about credit score .
jaybe
732 posts
 
Actually no, I know what the final amount will be.

I pay my bills. But thanks anyway.
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