Why Roku ?

With other Streaming devices available, why did I choose the Roku devices. First we need to know what are Roku devices and how they work before we can make a decision. It might be the Roku for me but a different device for you, It’s a personal preference that depends on your budget and the way you watch your movies and news.

How does Roku work?

Roku makes it easy and affordable to watch your favorite TV. If you are “cutting the cord”, Roku devices acts as a replacement for cable box that we are all acustumed to. There is an initial investment of as as low as 25$ to buy the device but there is no monthly cable box lease or rental to pay.
This device also consolidates all your entertainment applications and subscription so that you have have them all in one place, this is true even if you still have cable. That’s why in my case , I started with one roku device (the Roku Express) while we still have cable and use Roku to watch streaming services from Netflix, Youtube, Amazon Prime video and the other applications and services available in Roku devices.

Internet acess is need to stream content via these Roku streaming players and Roku TVs. There are Roku models that offers a wire Ethernet connector but most uses wireless to connect to your home network.

You will need to create Roku account to activate and access your device and different streaming channels available to you.And as I’ve mentioned there are no monthly equipment rental fees with Roku. You also don’t need to subscribe to Roku in order to access these channels and services. There are services and channels that are fully free and there are some that needs subscription.
Adding payment method with your Roku account makes it easy to buy/rent movies on demand or subscribe to different services. Having these services in one place in your Roku account makes it easier to manage your subscriptions. But if you do have subscription from other services (like Netflix) before you set-up your Roku Account, you will need to manage them separately.

Why Roku ?

Stream services are now being offered in different smart TV’s, game consoles such as Xbox or play station, Chromecast from your phone, even cable companies added streaming channels like Netflix, Youtube and Xumu to name a few.

Then why buy another device to steam if they are available on these other devices.

Well for one thing , the streaming services being offered by these other devices are limited. Depending on the brand of your smart TV, there are only certain streaming services that are available. Roku devices also has a TV-like remote which are not what you’ll have if you will be using game consoles plus I’m sure these game consoles are being used for games. With Chromecast of Phones, I’ve found the this is only effective if you are sharing short clips with other’s and want them to see it in big screen. Sharing movies works for a time but and inconvenience to the owner of the cell phone or tablet.

There are other alternative such as Amazon’s Firestick but since I haven’t had a change to use it , I can’t really make any comparison on which to use. I’ve found Roku , liked it and stuck with it. If you prefer to watch your movies/TV shows/news in your phone , tablet or laptop, then you might not need to invest in another streaming device. But if you are like me, who still wants to watch shows in bigger screen like the TV then I think having Roku or any other streaming device for that matter is for you.