Question: Do you ROKU?

[GomezAddams]

It will happen and probably pretty soon. I've recorded music using garageband on the mac. The Kodi is too techy for my interests though and again, not interested in bootlegging television or movies. There is enough affordable stuff I can watch in fact too much. For 10 dollars a month (Amazon prime) I get free 2 day shipping plus access to thousands of prime viewing content, add a netflix for 10 dollars and for whopping total of 20 dollars a months I can't keep up. the good thing is it's all legal, no fear of lawsuits or getting thrown in the pokey....bonus is a clean concious and good karma.

Kodi has no inherent capabilities to pirate content. The Kodi maintainers go to great lengths to keep everything Kodi above board.

However, since it open-source, it is trivially easy for people to develop add-ins and distribute them outside the official Kodi ecosystem.

Also, keep in mind that despite what content companies claim, merely downloading and viewing pirated content isn't illegal (so long as you don't financially gain from it). It is distribution of pirated content that is illegal, and will get you sued.

 

[DdBob]

Kodi has no inherent capabilities to pirate content. The Kodi maintainers go to great lengths to keep everything Kodi above board.

However, since it open-source, it is trivially easy for people to develop add-ins and distribute them outside the official Kodi ecosystem.

Also, keep in mind that despite what content companies claim, merely downloading and viewing pirated content isn't illegal (so long as you don't financially gain from it). It is distribution of pirated content that is illegal, and will get you sued.

it's a whole grey area for sure . It reminds me of torrents.

 

[GomezAddams]

it's a whole grey area for sure . It reminds me of torrents.

It isn't gray at all. Downloading and viewing pirated material is not criminal. A content company *could* sue you for copyright infringement (which isn't criminal in and of itself), but unless you've distributed it, they can only sue for actual damages - which is zero.

Torrenting, on the other hand, uses your computer to distribute copies of what you are downloading to other torrent users. This is criminal, and is what gets everyone sued.

I have no idea if the shady Kodi add-ins use straight up downloading or torrenting to grab pirated content - that's one reason why I don't use them.

 

[smorgdonkey]

Nope, what killed betamax was the 6 hour setting that VHS had. The quality was shit, but in the advertising copy, it made VHS look superior. Oh, and the fact that betamax was a stupid name.

That's an interesting opinion but if you do any research, you will see all kinds of reasons that aren't that.

The 3 most likely probable causes were cost of the products, advertising dollars spent, and deals with film studios. You could say that 3 and 2 are the same thing.

 

[Chad]

Kodi and its sibling Plex are *extremely* popular, and the android port brought a whole new throng of users. Go have a look at the forum sometime.

Kodi isn't meant for people who don't like to roll their sleeves up, but there are plenty of people who like to tinker, and Kodi offers a wealth of possibilities to those who don't mind a bit of work.

My whole neighborhood is on Plex, except me. The cool thing, is when I go to one of my friend's house, he doesn't have great taste in music, so he kicks on Plex so we can listen to tunes, I jump on another friends Plex server so we can listen to good tuens

I started to set it up a while back, but it was too much work for me. I'm afraid for my friends to see my music library because then they will be over here setting it up so they can stream from me

 

[Chad]

Nope, what killed betamax was the 6 hour setting that VHS had. The quality was shit, but in the advertising copy, it made VHS look superior. Oh, and the fact that betamax was a stupid name.

I thought it was Sony's dumb idea to not license other manufacturers to produce betamax players, where JVC licenses VHS players to anyone.

 

[Danhedonia]

What do I get on Roku / Kodi / Muka / Etik / any other cutesy fucking invented four letter word that I don't get on the interwebz?

If the answer is "Sports for less than cable," I'm in. If not, then no.

 

[jp_nyc]

I thought it was Sony's dumb idea to not license other manufacturers to produce betamax players, where JVC licenses VHS players to anyone.

Sony licensed Betamax technology. My Dad bought a Sanyo betamax machine when most people didn’t even know what VHS was.

 

[jp_nyc]

If the answer is "Sports for less than cable," I'm in. If not, then no.

Disney is working on their own streaming service that will offer ESPN. But not games on network TV or Fox Sports.

 

[DdBob]

What do I get on Roku / Kodi / Muka / Etik / any other cutesy fucking invented four letter word that I don't get on the interwebz?

If the answer is "Sports for less than cable," I'm in. If not, then no.

I'm not sure still what kodi is other than I think it is software. Muka and Etik ....this is the first time I've ever heard of those. Roku is a box. Think of Roku as a cable tv interface except you can subscribe to your channels "ala carte" rather than "package". Sure you can watch Netflix on yout interwebz computer (on your desktop or your tiny tablet or you little laptop) but if you want to watch the same Netflix from say you super comfy couch and view it on yer big giant screen tv then as far as I know the easiest way is to wi fi your interwebz signal to your rooks and log into the Netflix app....

Soooooo TL/DR.... Roku (at least) is an interface to watch netflix , Youtube, Amazon, etc from the comfort of yer super comfy sofa on yer bigass giant screen tv. As far as sports for less than cable. I use Roku to subscribe to MLB season pass thingy and it cost significantly less than what my dad pays for his MLB through the local cable company.

 

[Chad]

Sony licensed Betamax technology. My Dad bought a Sanyo betamax machine when most people didn’t even know what VHS was.

http://articles.latimes.com/1989-09-28/business/fi-409_1_sony-corp
"The immediate reason for the Betamax failure was competition. Sony's rival Matsushita had developed the VHS system and licensed it to any manufacturer or retailer who wished to slap a brand name on it--from Sears to General Electric. The result: More VHS sets sold, which led to more films being available on VHS, which led to more VHS sets selling--"

http://teambmarketing.com/design/why-did-the-vhs-beat-the-betamax-why-should-we-care/
"Sony was the only manufacturer of Betamax for 10 years and did not provide licensing to other companies."

So from 75-85, only Sony could make Betamax. By 85, it was pretty much dead.

 

[GDSmithTX]

http://articles.latimes.com/1989-09-28/business/fi-409_1_sony-corp
"The immediate reason for the Betamax failure was competition. Sony's rival Matsushita had developed the VHS system and licensed it to any manufacturer or retailer who wished to slap a brand name on it--from Sears to General Electric. The result: More VHS sets sold, which led to more films being available on VHS, which led to more VHS sets selling--"

http://teambmarketing.com/design/why-did-the-vhs-beat-the-betamax-why-should-we-care/
"Sony was the only manufacturer of Betamax for 10 years and did not provide licensing to other companies."

So from 75-85, only Sony could make Betamax. By 85, it was pretty much dead.

Sony has a long, sordid history of trying to force people/companies to use their usually expensive proprietary formats. They had some success at it, but their failures have been many:

http://www.obsoletemedia.org/lists/sony/

Sony has introduced more formats, either solely or jointly, than anyone else and now has over 50 entries in the Museum of Obsolete Media.

Whilst it has had success with formats such as the Compact Disc (developed in collaboration with Philips), the 3.5-inch floppy disc, and the Betacam family (a professional video format not to be confused with Betamax) it has had less success with many of its proprietary consumer formats.

With the announcement in November 2015 that Betamax tape production in Japan will finally cease, we take a look in no particular order at 10 of Sony’s less successful formats.

Elcaset (1976 – 1980)
MiniDisc (1992 – 2013)
Betamax (1978 – 1988)
Memory Stick Micro (M2) (2006 – 2009)
UMD Video (2004 – 2011)
Ruvi (1998 – 1999)
MicroMV (2001 – 2006)
HiFD (1998 – early 2000s)
Digital Audio Tape (DAT) (1987 – 2005)
Super Audio CD (1999 – )

 

[Chad]

Sony has a long, sordid history of trying to force people/companies to use their usually expensive proprietary formats. They had some success at it, but their failures have been many:

http://www.obsoletemedia.org/lists/sony/

Sony has introduced more formats, either solely or jointly, than anyone else and now has over 50 entries in the Museum of Obsolete Media.

Whilst it has had success with formats such as the Compact Disc (developed in collaboration with Philips), the 3.5-inch floppy disc, and the Betacam family (a professional video format not to be confused with Betamax) it has had less success with many of its proprietary consumer formats.

With the announcement in November 2015 that Betamax tape production in Japan will finally cease, we take a look in no particular order at 10 of Sony’s less successful formats.

Elcaset (1976 – 1980)
MiniDisc (1992 – 2013)
Betamax (1978 – 1988)
Memory Stick Micro (M2) (2006 – 2009)
UMD Video (2004 – 2011)
Ruvi (1998 – 1999)
MicroMV (2001 – 2006)
HiFD (1998 – early 2000s)
Digital Audio Tape (DAT) (1987 – 2005)
Super Audio CD (1999 – )

Yeah, they had a hard time learning that lesson. I was bummed about the DAT. Those were awesome.

 

[GDSmithTX]

Yeah, they had a hard time learning that lesson. I was bummed about the DAT. Those were awesome.

But have they actually learned that lesson? I'm not entirely convinced.

Their most successful formats -- Compact Disc and Blu Ray -- have been so successful because they weren't squeezed by Sony to gouge profits out of vendors and consumers. They allowed anyone to use the formats, and they became ubiquitous.

Time will tell, I suppose.

 

[smorgdonkey]

What do I get on Roku / Kodi / Muka / Etik / any other cutesy fucking invented four letter word that I don't get on the interwebz?

If the answer is "Sports for less than cable," I'm in. If not, then no.

We have watched live sports on the Android box. If you don't have a good high speed internet connection though, you would not be happy. Also, most times, since the Android boxes can be configured to work with wired connection or wifi, the wifi is not going to cut it with the live streaming sports but perhaps some people do ok(?). I stay wired in.

 

[GomezAddams]

While DAT failed for audio (probably because of the copy limiting mechanisms forced on Sony by the recording industry), it enjoyed a huge success as a backup medium for computers.

 

[Chad]

While DAT failed for audio (probably because of the copy limiting mechanisms forced on Sony by the recording industry), it enjoyed a huge success as a backup medium for computers.

Which sucks because not too much later CD-R came out and you could copy anything. I would have much rather had DAT take off over CD-R.

 

[Danhedonia]

Muka and Etik were words I made up. Seems that four letters and a hard consonant, with two syllables, is a requirement.

Buvo? Rapo? Veta?

Cable's too much, but I need my network sports. :: rolls up sleeve, taps vein ::

 

[wagdog]

Well, been several days with the roku and so far, so good. Dish network has been canceled.

 

[gtrjunior]

Well, been several days with the roku and so far, so good. Dish network has been canceled.

My Roku works much better than the firestick.
Just a heads up....and you may never experience this but:
On one of my TV's (with the Roku) I get this greenish hue/green lines that surround the objects in the picture. It took me a little while to find the fix so if you get this here is how to fix it.
Simply unplug the tv from the wall for 10-20 seconds. Apparently, when you connect Roku to the tv the signal "shakes hands" between the tv and the box. The green hue means they have stopped shaking hands. Merely powering down the power strip won't fix it....you need to physically unplug the tv.
It only happens on the living room tv. Never happens on the bedroom tv. Go figure.