Navigation and Content

Streaming content to your television from your Roku player requires little more than a decent internet connection.  Living in a rural area, we don’t have lightning speed internet.  A test this morning indicates a download speed of just over 3Mbps, which is really at the lower end of internet speeds now available, yet we are still able to happily stream our programs.

Unlike conventional TV programming, the majority of the content is not live or same day stream.  Most of the programs, however, are available the day after they have aired and contain only very short, limited, commercials.  Like most who have enjoyed the DVR technology, we typically recorded our shows and watched them at a later, more convenient time, so next day availability has never been an issue.

The channels available on the Roku player now number over 750 channels, many of which are free.  As I noted in my first post, “Thinking About Cutting the Cord?” we subscribe to Hulu Plus and watch much of our content from that channel.  For news clips and live coverage, we tune into CNN International, RT America, WSJ Live, and the Huffington Post Live.  Roku also offers dozens of music channels.  We listen to free Pandora, but others include Plex, Vevo, Slacker, and Spotify to name a few.  If you are looking to rent or own a movie, there are channels for Netflix, Vudu, Amazon Instant, Blockbuster and Redbox.

When you turn on your television and click the Home key of your Roku remote, an option appears for The Channel Store.  Clicking this displays a screen of familiar icons sorted by categories such as New, Popular, TV and Movie, News, Weather, Music, etc.  Simply add the channels of interest to you, and you are quickly on your way to viewing television in a new and liberating way.

In future posts I’ll discuss specific channels, popular shows, and how to access them.  If you can browse the web or use a remote, you have the knowledge and ability to stream your programs to any television which has been connected to a Roku player.  It’s as easy as that.

Browse, click and enjoy.