Netflix HD streaming and Roku player

[earthling]

Netflix was great until this year, unless you like TV shows as they have focused more on TV shows lately. They used to have a huge selection of good indie/altie/foreign movies but are not renewing deals or increasing that type of content. TV shows and bottom of barrel movies appear to be their future with maybe a few taps here and there.

I tried BlockBuster mail service recently and it's a little more convenient if you live near a store - can swap for movies at store, includes blueray, no 30 day delay that Netflix has and BB also does games. Is a tad better than Netflix for physical media but their streaming is all pay per view. BB should allow swapout with their kiosks since they have fewer stores.

Still have TWC cable but instead of DVR, am doing HD HomeRun Prime as a tuner using an older laptop dedicated as a media center. No more pricey/limited rental boxes and able to store as much as I want on Windows Media Center and tune from multiple computers. HD Homerun might be complicated for non-techies to setup - is finicky with packet loss and need to know how to check for it.

[KCMax]

Big Apple TV 5.3 update adds HBO GO, WatchESPN, Sky News and more

According to the Apple press release, users will be able to watch content from HBO and ESPN directly from their Apple TV without the need for a direct cable subscription though “HBO GO on Apple TV requires a subscription to HBO through participating television providers” (thanks mom and dad!).

[mean]

I have been going nuts on HBO Go lately. Nice rotating selection of films, plus virtually all of their original content. Pretty good stuff. Wasn't thrilled about having to subscribe to HBO on TWC for it (mainly for Game of Thrones), but it's been well worth $10/mo.

[bobbyhawks]

I have been going nuts on HBO Go lately. Nice rotating selection of films, plus virtually all of their original content. Pretty good stuff. Wasn't thrilled about having to subscribe to HBO on TWC for it (mainly for Game of Thrones), but it's been well worth $10/mo.

Yeah. The content is pretty great, and first run shows are up immediately. It will be interesting to watch, as HBO Go continues to take off, how HBO decides to allow access. Clearly, they are still making bank off deals with large cable providers and appear to be in no hurry at all to offer HBO Go as an indie service. By the anecdotal reports you read online, a huge portion of their streaming base is via shared passwords. We will know that this has become a problem when HBO decides that making $10-$12/month from a larger customer base is more profitable than making $15-$20/month from cable companies (or whatever the numbers really are). A less savvy move would be for them to try to sue people, but that only makes people angry with the brand. Netflix has the same problem, but the product is so accessible and affordable, I know of a lot fewer friends who share Netflix passwords than share HBO Go.