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Category Archives: Stuff

Roku Box Update

So XBox announced yesterday that everyone with a XBox Live Gold membership and a Netflix account can stream Netflix movies to their Xbox 360 exactly like the Roku box does.  I want to test this as soon as it is released, which is supposed to be late fall this year.

So my feelings on this are mixed.  I paid $100 for watching movies 4 or 5 months earlier than I could for no extra money on my XBox.  So that’s not a good feeling.  BUT, Roku has been saying that there is an upgrade in the works that will allow the Roku to stream content from other providers, which might make the thing worth the money I spent.

Then again, the 360 is supposed to have a deal with NBC, and they’re actually disclosing this new content.  Roku has said next to nothing about what other content providers they’ll be adding.  They’re just myseteriously “Big name” as a descriptor.

In the end, I hope my Roku box will end up doing something that the 360 can’t… just to prove my money hasn’t been wasted.

Roku Netflix Player

Well, Friday afternoon, FedEx dropped off my lovely, new Roku Netflix player.  I immediately opened it, and I had it up and working in half an hour.  Most people have been able to get it working in less time, as little as five minutes, but there was an issue with my router.  Apparently Belkin sees the activity the device generates as a denial of service attack, and blocks it completely.  The solution was to disable the firewall.  Not a great solution, but I’m not sure I was actually using the firewall in the first place.

My first experience with the box was very surprising.  The video quality is excellent.  I’d like to know if anyone can tell the difference between this and cable.  I even experiemented with limiting my Internet connection.  I had my computer using a lot of the bandwidth, so the box could only get 1, 2 or 3 dots out of 4.  I was unable to find a difference in quality, really.  The only difference was a lack of sharpness.  At 1 dot the video simply looked blurry.  The frame rate never seemed to drop, and there were very few “buffering…” moments, even though my computer was competing for every bit of my Internet connection’s 6 mbps.  I’m very impressed.

My only complaints so far are to do with the service Netflix provides.  The box works flawlessly.  I was even able to setup my Logitech Harmony universal remote with it, after a small amount of searching on their website.

Experience Cancelling Cable/Tivo

I went ahead and purchased the Roku Netflix box and started my Netflix subscription so there would be no turning back.

So then I called Comcast, only to find out they don’t work past 9pm. They advertise 24 hours, but that’s only for their automated billing inquiries. So I called again the next day. I got the nicest, most personable guy on the phone, who actually seemed to care that I was leaving Comcast. He offered me a great deal: switch my Internet back to Comcast, and he’ll give me cable and Internet for $25 less than what I was paying originally. But, on principle (and because I’d just spent $99 on the Roku box) I went ahead and canceled. I still don’t agree with them raising the price of cable when I canceled the Internet. The poor customer service rep seemed heartbroken, and for a moment, I felt guilty, but whatever, it’s my money.

So that was done. I called Tivo, and talked to them about it. They offer a little bit more than just cable TV lineup (they have internet downloads from Amazon.com’s Unbox, and various podcasts). But I didn’t think that was worth paying $13 a month for. Then they mentioned that I could use my Tivo with an antenna, just like I’m doing with my cable, which was great. So I decided to stick with Tivo.

However, the next day I learned that my particular Tivo is only compatible with Satellite and Cable, not antennas. It’s a Dual Tuner Series 2 Tivo. It basically gives you the ability to pause one channel (live) and change to another tuner, on a different channel, and watch two shows at once, cycling back and forth. It’s too bad I can’t buy two antennas and have the same functionality. And there’s no way to get it to work on only one tuner. So it seems I was screwed. I call them back and cancel. They did with no problem.

My antennas and roku box should arrive later this week. I’ll be posting about my experiences setting everything up. One of my TVs has a digital tuner, so I won’t need a converter box to get digital tv. But my bedroom TV will need a converter box. I’m going to apply for the free government $40 coupon for one of those right now.

TV Experiment

I have been wondering recently, about why cable TV costs so much.  And why, specifically, my cable TV provider recently jacked up the price of my cable TV, simply because I stopped buying Internet access from them.  The two are not related.  Nor should their prices be.  I understand the concept of a grocery store offering a lower price if you buy larger quantities (food will sell faster, less likely to spoil, less inventory sitting on the shelf, more money for all, win-win situation).  But if Sam’s club decides to offer a discount on a washing machine if you buy a set of new tires, people are going to go, “wtf?”.  The two products aren’t related at all.  In fact the only relationship they have is that they’re sold at the same store.

One could argue that Television and Internet are related, but one does not affect the other.  The infrastructures needed to put TV and Internet down the same tube are completely independent.  The frequencies of the data running down the wire are different.  One does not affect the other.  It’s just masquerading as the “buy more, pay less” deal, which has no bearing here.

I recently switched Internet providers from Comcast Cable to AT&T DSL.  DSL offered slightly slower download speed, and better upload speed, for less than what I was paying.  But Comcast raised the price of the Cable TV I have had.  They raised it by substantially more than what I was saving by switching to AT&T.

I’ve been contemplating what to do about this.  I do not want to spend more than I what I was originally.  And I do not want to switch back to Comcast, as badly as they have been behaving.  They don’t deserve my business.

I considered Satellite TV, but found out my apartment complex charges a hefty installation deposit, on top of whatever setup fees are necessary from the provider itself, like DirecTV or Dish.  And it wouldn’t really save me that much money.  I would end up paying two different companies about the same as I was giving Comcast before I switched to DSL.

Another option was to ditch TV entirely.  I could have an antenna for the local news, and major network programming.  I could have sites like hulu.com for shows like The Daily Show, and other cable network television I would want to keep up with. This option seemed extreme.  But it would save a substantial amount of money.

Tempting, but, I wasn’t sure I wanted to go quite that extreme.

Recently, I’ve been reading about the Roku Netflix box.  It seems to sweeten the deal.  In my mind, combining this instant download service with my XBox 360, and broadcast TV just about makes up for the loss.

These instant movies and TV shows through Netflix are unlimited, even with the least plan, a measly $9/month.  So I’ll be saving over $45 per month, over $500 a year, and if I get bored surfing the web or with broadcast TV, I can always watch a random movie off of Netflix instantly.

The device from Roku is actually $99, and I would need to purchase two antennas for my televisions, both $15.  So in order for the savings to actually pay off, I need to switch for at least 3 months.

I’ve made my decision: for the next three months, I’m going to try the Roku box/antenna combo.  If I don’t like it, I can cancel Netflix, sign up for cable again, and sell the roku box on ebay.  Although something tells me I’m going to like it.  There are rumors flying about Roku introducing new content providers with a firmware upgrade.  I hope they’re true, and I hope the content is as good as Netflix’s 10000 on-demand movies.

Russian Coke

Coca-Cola is releasing an Olympic Games Collector Series of cans in the US. The first is from Russia, pictured below, which includes the Russian logo, Кока-Кола. I didn’t realize, when I bought the cans, that they were any different, until last night, when drinking one, I noticed the Ks. Astonished, I also noticed the L looked different, and wondered if it was Russian. Sure enough, small print says “RUSSIA” right next to the logo.

I would have liked to taste a variation of coke, but instead, it tasted the same as it always does. Once this happened to me, when I bought vanilla coke, thinking it was regular. That was a surprise.

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