If you've read my blog before, you know I have a love/hate relationship with television. Part of the hate thing is a reluctance to spend vast sums of money on a device that eats up my precious spare time without delivering much of value. Yes, I like shows about food and travel and home improvement, but I could get most of the same information online or from the public library for free.
I know, I know, video is sexier than merely reading - but not so sexy that I can justify paying my local cable company more than $100 a month for a fairly basic viewing package. That's why I discontinued the TV part of my cable subscription about 2 years ago and subscribed to Netflix.
At the time, I was able to stream Netflix via the Wii connected to my home wireless network for under $10 a month, and life was good. Until Netflix and the Wii folk had a falling out, and I was only able to access Netflix through the small screens on my tablet and smartphone. Adding insult to injury, Netflix has since raised the subscription price twice.
So, I backed down the level of my subscription and started looking for an alternate streaming device. After reading more Internet reviews than you want to hear about, I finally ordered a Roku Streaming Stick, which was serendipitously on sale.
The Roku arrived two days ago and I have already worked my way through the four episodes of "Cooked," Michael Pollan's amazing documentary about the history of human eating, and "Agatha and the Truth of Murder," a Netflix movie that imagines what Agatha Christie might have done during her 11-day disappearance in 1926.
The good: The Roku interface lets me access additional content channels, and a lot of the content is free. Even the Netflix channel appears to contain considerably more content than I could access through the old Wii interface, although that may be due to global changes that occurred at Netflix during the months I was not using it. Roku also allows me to view in HD, which the Wii interface did not.
The bad: I could become a couch potato pretty easily with all the additional content available.
The ugly: I have to turn off the sound on my TV when browsing the content, because unlike the old interface, this one insists on running a video trailer whenever I move to another selection. I just want to read the quick summary provided - SILENTLY - and move on. Still a Luddite reader at heart, I guess.
“I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.” — Groucho Marx
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