Roku 4

   If you've read any of my past blog entries, it should come as no surprise to you that I love Roku. Simply put, it made the Cord Cutting transition in my home simple and easy. Of course there are other streaming devices available as this market continues to expand. Of those other offerings I also have Chromecast, which is good in its own right at its price point, but it simply doesn't pack the same "punch" as Roku.

   Speaking of Chromecast, Roku has also entered the stream stick arena with its own $49.99 offering. I don't have the stick, but it looks to have the same robust selections behind it that make the Roku Player rock.

   When Google announced the Chromecast, I knew it would only be a matter of time before others (Roku included) would tap into the streaming stick market. No biggie - it's business. But Roku lovers such as myself have been wondering, "Will there be a Roku 4? If so, when?" And, along that line of questioning, I began to think of things I think should be included to make the next generation of Roku more awesomer!

The Interface

   When I first purchased a Roku box, the interface left a lot to be desired. The channels were great, but if you added many of them you had to side-scroll to get to them all.

   This was a bit frustrating to say the least, but Roku eventually released an update that brought us the all-too-familiar grid style. And that's just it. You see, I don't think there is necessarily anything wrong with the grid style, but I feel it's getting a bit stale because it seems that everywhere we turn this is what we see. And let's be honest with ourselves here - it was Netflix who set this standard.

   I believe it's time for something new. Something fresh. An all new approach to the streaming interface, and I think Roku should be the ones to set the new standard. As they are the leader in the "streaming pack", I think they should be the ones behind the new way we look at browsing our streaming content.

   What should this new interface look like? Honestly, I don't know. But it should be intuitive, it should be fast, it should be great on the eyes, and it should be simple to navigate. Just as Apple literally set the standard for cell phones today, Roku should lead the charge of the future of the streaming interface.

The Device

   

   Ask either of my sons what my favorite car is, and they will tell you without hesitation, "Corvette!" As far as the Roku 3 is concerned, I consider it the Corvette of the streaming device world. Sleek and shiny with curves in all the right places.... Oops! Let me get back on track here.

   In all seriousness though, there isn't much I would consider changing about the form factor when considering version 4. Under the hood, a faster processor would of course be a welcomed addition (I had an ad pop up recently from Amazon boasting that its Fire TV has a faster processor than Roku). I think this is true of any next step version of any hardware. Again, going back to Apple - what is true hardware-wise of an iPhone today isn't the same as it was 5 years ago. 

   One addition I would like to see that I think would add further distance between Roku and the rest of the pack would be an RF Connector to allow users to directly connect an HD Antenna. Roku could then create its own live TV channel with DVR functionality, provided the user supplies their own external hard drive. 

   I'm not trying to step on any toes here - I absolutely love simple.tv. But if this could all be integrated into one small powerhouse, I think Roku 4 should be that powerhouse. And with more and more consumers joining the Cord Cutting culture, combined with the recent public demise of Aereo, I think more and more people are going to be looking for ways to have their streaming channels as well as their live over-the-air channels available in one simple device. 

Parental Controls

   As I mentioned, Roku helped make Cord Cutting a very easy transition in my home. Perhaps too easy. My kids have no problem picking up the Roku remote and browsing their little hearts out among the channels I've added. Some of those individual channels have their own forms of parental control - for instance, Netflix introduced separate profiles - while the vast majority of them do not. 

   In the Roku 4, it would be great to see a prompt for separate user log ins upon waking the device out of screen saver mode or after rebooting. In that way, an admin profile could be created that controls the available content of all other added users. This admin profile should also be able to change the preferences regarding when the log in prompt would appear, as well as the idle time before a user is prompted to log in again. Not that I've seen much in the way of "bad" content in the Roku Channel Store, but at least having this extra layer of parental options regarding security would be a much-welcomed addition.

   That's it! Just 3 tweaks that I think would make the next generation of Roku the go-to streaming device. What about you? Have any suggestions that I may have overlooked? Please be sure to share them below!

Live TV On Your Roku? Simple.

  One of my Cord Cutting goals has always been to make our TV viewing experience streamlined and simple. As a nerd, I personally have no problem with fumbling through this and that just to get something to work. But that gets annoying after a while. Aside from that, my wife (the most non-nerd person I know) just wants things to simply work. And honestly, I can't blame her.

   After I got our Roku boxes set up, my search began for a channel that would allow live TV streaming. Sure - it's simple to switch from HDMI to TV and vise-versa, but I couldn't help but think about how awesome it would be if all viewing could be done from the Roku alone. In my opinion, that's one advantage the cable and satellite providers have: you use 1 box, and simply change channels.

   There are several options out there and I believe this market will continue to grow. The first option I came across was the much talked about Aereo.  As it wasn't initially available where I live, I waited (somewhat) patiently for it to arrive. When it did, it unfortunately wasn't the experience I had hoped it would be.

   Another option I tried out was NimbleTV. However, Nimble TV isn't as much live TV streaming as it is quite simply a satellite service provider. In fact, upon signing up for the service, you will receive an email from Nimble TV telling you to expect an account letter from Dish (which I did) that they tell you to simply ignore. On top of that, Nimble TV's lowest priced plan is $29.99. There is a free plan, but the channel offerings are lack-luster to say the least. My Spidey Senses immediately began to tingle - if I'm going to pay at least 30 bucks a month for a service that's merely streaming satellite television, why wouldn't I just pay for satellite television?

   This week, I decided to give simple.tv a try. I had seen it before while searching other options, but for some reason I kept saying to myself, "I'll get back to that one." I have to say, I'm glad I did. Simply put, I literally saved the best for last.

   Quite frankly, what the folks at Simple have done is nothing short of genius. As there is no way to directly connect your over-the-air HD antenna to your Roku, simple.tv provides the "bridge" to make it possible. And to add extra icing to the awesome cake, simple.tv gives you DVR functionality by having you connect
an external hard drive. And this is the full DVR functionality you expect from cable and satellite - you can pause, rewind, fast forward, schedule recordings of upcoming shows, or an entire series of shows.

  ALL from the simple.tv Roku channel, the Android app, or the IOS app! Or, if you don't happen to have your mobile device handy at the time, you can always simply schedule your recordings from the simple.tv website. Not only can you schedule shows from the apps or the website, you can watch YOUR shows as well - either your recordings or live TV being picked up by your HD antenna. Like I said, nothing short of genius!

   As I wanted to tread lightly to give it a test drive, I picked up the 1st generation simple.tv unit (pictured above and left). It's a single tuner unit, meaning that if anyone else wants to tune in while I'm watching, they either have to watch what I'm watching or they will change the channel and interrupt my viewing. This really isn't a big deal in my house though - we all tend to watch the same things at the same time. Simple.tv has since partnered with SilliconDust to offer the dual tuner pictured below.

 The Pros:

   My experience with simple.tv has been exactly what I expected from this type of technology, even slightly above my expectations. The picture quality is perfect - there appears to be no signal compression so the picture looks exactly as it would if my antenna was directly connected to my TV. The unit I'm using also has a pass-through output, so on the possible occasion that I would need to simply switch back to "TV", the signal is available. The DVR functions as expected as well. I scheduled a few recordings, they recorded, and I watched them. Simple. Watching remotely delivers the same experience - I watched from my Nexus 7 tablet as well as my Moto X while away from home, as well as from my PC in the office. 

   One drawback that I noted about Aereo was that it listed almost less than half of the over-the-air channels I can receive from my antenna. Since my antenna is directly connected to the simple.tv unit, it makes available all 36 channels I receive otherwise. I even experimented a bit, as suggested in the user manual, and moved the unit upstairs where all the channels come in stronger and clearer. 

The Cons:

   The biggest negative I experienced was the initial setup. Simple.tv isn't necessarily "out of the box" ready, which is understandable. It of course has to scan for and set your available channels. Also, if you decide to give it a try, be warned about the external hard drive you connect - simple.tv will completely format it upon setup. You may want to purchase a new one to dedicate to the unit, or if you're a nerd like me, use an extra one that you may happen to have lying around (I happened to have a 500GB Western Digital in my hardware closet). I'm not 100% sure why formatting is necessary, but at least you are given a warning about it during setup. Overall, the setup time was extremely long. Granted, part of the extra time I experienced could be attributed to the fact I'm running the 1st generation unit that had to download an update, but I felt the drive formatting and channel scanning process were a bit excessive time-wise.

   Requiring Microsoft Siverlight for desktop viewing is also a bit of a con, especially for us Chromebook owners.

Another thing that may be considered a "con" to some is the channel load time. I personally understand that this type of streaming requires a little patience, but you channel surfing types may be a bit turned off by the "Please wait while we tune into channel ___" screen. Simple.tv does a great job explaining this in the owner's manual that comes with the unit as well.

The Verdict:

  Overall, from a Cord Cutting perspective, I give simple.tv a solid 5 out of 5 stars. I've only seen one slight hiccup in which the live shows that simple.tv was displaying were at one point almost 15 minutes behind what was actually being aired live. And when I changed the channel, then went back to the original broadcast made it start over. I emailed support and got an almost immediate response - another one for the "pros" column. However, a simple reboot of the unit appears to have cleared up that issue.

   If you're looking for a simple solution that lets you watch live TV through your Roku, mobile devices, and computers, I highly recommend simple.tv!

Roku Channel Review - Aereo (Beta)

 

 One of the first things I thought about when I first Cut The Cord was, "it would be awesome if there was a Roku channel for live, over-the-air channels." After all, you can pick up many HD channels (many with better display quality than if you were to view them via cable or satellite) with an inexpensive antenna. How cool would it be if you could keep everything centralized, with everything available through your Roku, without having to flip back and forth? Sure - it's really not that big of an issue: on our family room television, we simply select "HDMI1" for all things Roku, and then "TV" for over-the-air broadcasts.

   As is the case whenever I have such a curiosity, I began to scourer the inter-webs looking for said awesomeness. My first thought was to simply look for Roku channels created by individual local stations. Some stations do have their own Roku channels, but the vast majority of those channels only carry the station's news broadcasts due to licensing constraints. And that's when I stumbled across a news story about something called Aereo that was causing a legal stir in New York.

   Without going into the complete history of it all as that's not the purpose of this post, long story short is that the cable giants and networks have been fighting Aereo in an attempt to shut them down but thus far they have been unable to. Why? Because of the simple genius behind Aereo. As you may know, you can buy a simple antenna and hook it up to your TV and pick up free broadcast HD channels (some older TV sets will require you to buy a low-priced HD converter box). The genius behind Aereo is that they house your "antenna" for you. They do this with "Antenna Farms" that are simple, tiny antenna on circuit board arrays.

   I don't know about you, but when I first heard about this and saw it my mind was literally blown! I've often thought throughout my life that the answer to most issues, or the best ideas, are born out of simplicity. So, I HAD to have Aereo! But, it was not available for my market yet (Cincinnati), however I was able to send a request to be alerted as soon as it was available. I did. And I waited....

   Aereo skipped over Cincinnati and headed west, continuing to grow. So, I kept sending requests. I had already installed the Roku channel in anticipation of the remarkable day when it would be available. And then it happened. On January 13, I received notification that I was invited to join the beta community for Cincinnati. I created my account and was off to log into the Roku channel with excitement and anticipation! But unfortunately on that day, I happened to be at work when I received the email so my initial log in was done online via PC. Roku viewing would have to wait until I got home later that evening.

Functionality - 

   When I logged in on my PC, I was impressed with the video quality of the channels. Crisp, clear live TV broadcasts of local stations. And what's this? A record button? That's right - with the basic $8/month plan you get 20 hours of remote DVR storage. You can set up future recordings - either single shows or series - as well as record what you are currently viewing. You also get 1 antenna (more on the significance of that in a bit). So far so good. I could hardly wait to get home to start viewing live TV channels on my Roku players via Aereo.

   

   When I first got home and logged into the Arereo Roku channel, the first thing I noted was the initial screen. Pretty simple (which I like) and easy to navigate. No extra frills, ads, or other useless mumbo-jumbo. So, I selected the first option on the list - "Guide". The next screen gives you the option to select by time or channel - I selected "Channel" out of curiosity as to what was available. Quite frankly, I was immediately disappointed. With the HD antenna I have hooked up to my TV, I receive 34 over-the-air broadcast channels. Aereo listed 22. No big deal? Well, many among the 22 are channels I have absolutely no interest in, but at least 3 of my favorite local channels are there.  So I selected one and received the typical "loading" screen one gets from any streaming channel. The loading time was a bit on the long side and once the dialogue box went away, another one popped up on the lower left hand side of the screen that displayed "35%" for a few seconds, counted down, then went away.  Finally, it was happening! I was watching a live, local channel stream through my Roku! Was this the solution I was looking for? Well, maybe not so much.

   I assumed the excessive load time was maybe due to initial setup. Unfortunately, this never went away. Whenever I launch the Aereo Roku channel, and select something to watch (whether it's by channel or show time), the same thing happens - very long loading followed by the "35% countdown". I provided this feedback, along with my network speeds and viewing environment to the support team (who happen to very responsive) but it seems this condition still persists. Maybe it's just a beta thing, but I'm not sure at this point. 

Picture Quality - 

   During my initial viewing experience, I received notification that there was an Aereo Beta app for Android available in Google Play. I downloaded it onto my 2013 Nexus 7, logged in, and was completely blown away by the sharp video quality, and (oddly enough) nearly no loading time and no video time-outs. I've even used it to watch local weather updates while at the office during this crazy winter we just lived through.

   

   Sadly, I can't say the same about the picture quality on the Roku channel. It is riddled with pixelation, general blurriness, and the picture often blacks out momentarily as if watching satellite television during a heavy storm. In fact, at one point my wife and I were watching a show (she had no idea that it was on Aereo) and she asked, "what in the world is wrong with the picture? It looks horrible."

   Again, I informed support and received an obligatory "thank you" and insurance that this would be addressed. To date, it has not but again I chalk this up to (hopefully) the fact that we are still in the beta phase.

Other Things To Note - 

   Keep in mind that Aereo isn't a free Roku channel offering over-the-air broadcasts. The base package, as I mentioned above, is $8 per month and gets you 1 antenna and 20 hours of remote DVR service. So what does "1 antenna" mean? This means that if you are watching TV through your Aereo channel on, let's say, your Nexus 7 and someone else in your family wants to watch on your Roku, they will receive a message indicating the antenna is "busy" broadcasting to the Nexus 7. You would either need to stop viewing on the Nexus 7 or upgrade your Aereo account to obtain at least 1 more antenna. I personally upgraded to the $12/month plan which lets you record 2 shows at once, watch on multiple devices simultaneously, and save 60 hours of programming on a remote DVR.

My Personal Rating - 

   Overall, I was not too impressed with Aereo. I say was because as of May 11, 2014 I allowed my account to expire. It was the end of my beta period, which meant I would need to start paying the $12 monthly bill to keep it. Quite frankly, I didn't see the value in it. From the extremely long load times to the horrific picture quality, I simply couldn't justify paying for what would only amount to a remote DVR service for me. I do applaud Aereo for this concept, and I am one of their biggest cheerleaders when it comes to their court battles with the "big boys" as far as cord-cutting is concerned. But my initial experience with this Roku channel has been sub-par. Hopefully once the beta dust gets blown off all of these things will improve. At which point I will be more than happy to re-activate my account. Until then, if I had to give a rating using the 5-star system, I give the Aereo Roku channel a 2.5 at best. 

   Do you use the Aereo Roku (or other device) channel? Do you live in a "fully live" city, or are you also beta testing? If you are using it, please share your thoughts below!

   

Must Have App - Coursera

   One of the most important and fulfilling things I've cherished all of my life is the gift of learning. I literally love to learn. A philosophy I live by and hope to pass on to my children and all those I meet is simply this -

"Never stop learning!"

   Regardless of anything I may even be considered an expert at, I know that I can always learn more about it and actively look for more. Fewer things in life are more exciting to me than discovery and learning. In all that I love, I look for more ways to learn more. Have I stressed learning's significance enough?

   In steps Coursera. Coursera is a for-profit educational technology company offering Massive Open Online Courses (MOCC's) funded by computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller from Stanford University.  They partner with top universities and organizations worldwide, offering courses online for anyone to take for free! The heart of the Coursera mission statement reads:

"We envision a future where everyone has access to a world-class education. We aim to empower people with education that will improve their lives, the lives of their families, and the communities
they live in."

   As far as I'm concerned, Coursera has made that future a present reality, offering 400+ courses from universities all over the world - from Stanford University to The University of London. The course catalog itself is truly remarkable considering all courses are free - from the Arts, Engineering, Humanities, Medicine, Social Sciences, and of course (my personal favorites) a host of IT courses.

      Courses are taught in modules, ranging anywhere from 2 to 8 weeks in length, with some courses continuing at later dates upon completion. And most, if not all, offer certificates upon completion. Lectures are of course done via online video. But, don't be fooled - theses are not fly-by-night, YouTube "how-to's". These are actual university professors conducting actual lectures. There are quizzes, assignments, and tests. Simply put, this IS SCHOOL. FOR FREE!

   Of course, you can complete your courses via the Coursera website, but seeing as this posting is about the mobile app I encourage you to check it out via Google Play for Android, and via iTunes App Store for IOS.

   The app is laid out simply, free of ads and useless clutter. In other words, exactly how I prefer apps! The courses you are enrolled in show up under "Current", upcoming courses under "Upcoming" and courses you've already taken (care to guess?) under "Past". There's also "Search", "Browse" "My Downloads". as well as the ability to send feedback and an FAQ selection. Clean. Simple. To the point.

   When you sign up for a course you receive a welcome from the course's professor, along with a syllabus and any other needed course materials. You also receive notifications of assignment and test deadlines - again, this is truly school. 

   One word of caution though. If you are data conscious, care should be taken when viewing course videos as they are streaming. I would suggest always viewing them via WiFi only if at all possible. I personally view my course videos on my Nexus 7, partly because of the bigger screen and also because it's WiFi only.

   I can't stress enough how important I feel education is. And in this day and age with student loans eclipsing the cost of a modest home in some cases, what the people at Coursera have put together is truly remarkable, and a blessing beyond measure. 

   In fact, Coursera is beyond simply a "must have app". It is one of the most significant apps I currently have installed.

   Now if you'll excuse me, I have an R Programming quiz due!