Roku this. | Golden Skate

Roku this.

CoyoteChris

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
I consider myself of average intelligence. I have installed,maintained, and even helped design whole police communication systems.
I find the Roku very frustrating.
I plugged it in, signed into my router, and fumbled around till I downloaded the youtube and NBC Sports app. Then, by using my desk top and putting in codes given to me by the Roku into certain websites, I was able to log into both.
(This was a challange as they have distinct charactors for "One" and "L" but dont tell you what they are. Same for "zero" and "O" Thankfully, you can keep requesting new codes with the roku to put into your desktop.)
But using the simple remote is a pita.
For instance, every time you go to the NBC Sports app, you must FIRST chose skating, then go to replays or live or whats coming up. Finding what you want to watch on youtube, like ISUJUNIORGRANDPRIX whatever is laborious.
Am I missing something?
Is there some sort of keyboard adaptor for these beasts?

I also was very impressed with the quality of youtube video.....ISU Salt Lake City Classic not so much....was it just the broadcast?

Maybe I am just too old and should have hired a 9 year old.....:(
 

Jeanie19

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 20, 2017
Country
United-States
I consider myself of average intelligence. I have installed,maintained, and even helped design whole police communication systems.
I find the Roku very frustrating.
I plugged it in, signed into my router, and fumbled around till I downloaded the youtube and NBC Sports app. Then, by using my desk top and putting in codes given to me by the Roku into certain websites, I was able to log into both.
(This was a challange as they have distinct charactors for "One" and "L" but dont tell you what they are. Same for "zero" and "O" Thankfully, you can keep requesting new codes with the roku to put into your desktop.)
But using the simple remote is a pita.
For instance, every time you go to the NBC Sports app, you must FIRST chose skating, then go to replays or live or whats coming up. Finding what you want to watch on youtube, like ISUJUNIORGRANDPRIX whatever is laborious.
Am I missing something?
Is there some sort of keyboard adaptor for these beasts?

I also was very impressed with the quality of youtube video.....ISU Salt Lake City Classic not so much....was it just the broadcast?

Maybe I am just too old and should have hired a 9 year old.....:(

I have the kindle firestick and I have the same problems. So after you hire the nine year old, let us all know the answer. :laugh:
 

MFarone

Final Flight
Joined
Aug 20, 2003
Country
United-States
I find using the Roku only a tiny bit more annoying than going to the app on my laptop and selecting the sport and then live/replay. No idea if there is a workaround for this but I'm sure a 9 year old could figure it out in a flash :laugh2:. I'm watching a replay of Ice Dance from Salt Lake and the video is to me a little blurry. Were you talking all of the video was blurry or only 1 comp?

Sorry I haven't worked with youtube enough to know much but generally I have to type out all the stuff.
 

Jeanie19

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 20, 2017
Country
United-States
I find using the Roku only a tiny bit more annoying than going to the app on my laptop and selecting the sport and then live/replay. No idea if there is a workaround for this but I'm sure a 9 year old could figure it out in a flash :laugh2:. I'm watching a replay of Ice Dance from Salt Lake and the video is to me a little blurry. Were you talking all of the video was blurry or only 1 comp?

Sorry I haven't worked with youtube enough to know much but generally I have to type out all the stuff.

I thought it was only blurry for this one competition. Otherwise, NBC gold is really good.
 

Dafna

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 31, 2017
Coyotechris, sorry to hear your disappointment on roku. The name of your thread made me read through it.... Me too, consider myself an average intelligent individual, but I find Roku to be amazing. I believe my life has changed (for good, of course) by having Roku. And considering how inexpensive it is compared with what it does. My husband deals mostly with it, our 23 year old son has voice sometimes, but even in their absence I deal with it pretty well. Try to google your questions, and believe me you gonna be very happy with it. I vouch for it. šŸŒž
 

Ducky

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 14, 2018
I consider myself of average intelligence. I have installed,maintained, and even helped design whole police communication systems.
I find the Roku very frustrating.
I plugged it in, signed into my router, and fumbled around till I downloaded the youtube and NBC Sports app. Then, by using my desk top and putting in codes given to me by the Roku into certain websites, I was able to log into both.
(This was a challange as they have distinct charactors for "One" and "L" but dont tell you what they are. Same for "zero" and "O" Thankfully, you can keep requesting new codes with the roku to put into your desktop.)
But using the simple remote is a pita.
For instance, every time you go to the NBC Sports app, you must FIRST chose skating, then go to replays or live or whats coming up. Finding what you want to watch on youtube, like ISUJUNIORGRANDPRIX whatever is laborious.
Am I missing something?
Is there some sort of keyboard adaptor for these beasts?

I also was very impressed with the quality of youtube video.....ISU Salt Lake City Classic not so much....was it just the broadcast?

Maybe I am just too old and should have hired a 9 year old.....:(

The NBC Sports is is so poorly designed. At least NBC Gold would remember that I just wanted to watch figure skating, but Sports is like, here are 50 other sports even though you only have a figure skating subscription. Grrrrrr.
 

CoyoteChris

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
I find using the Roku only a tiny bit more annoying than going to the app on my laptop and selecting the sport and then live/replay. No idea if there is a workaround for this but I'm sure a 9 year old could figure it out in a flash :laugh2:. I'm watching a replay of Ice Dance from Salt Lake and the video is to me a little blurry. Were you talking all of the video was blurry or only 1 comp?

Sorry I haven't worked with youtube enough to know much but generally I have to type out all the stuff.

Thanks! I think it is just the way they recorded and broadcasted it.
 

CoyoteChris

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
The NBC Sports is is so poorly designed. At least NBC Gold would remember that I just wanted to watch figure skating, but Sports is like, here are 50 other sports even though you only have a figure skating subscription. Grrrrrr.

Yes, its pretty frustrating, but it is all we got. But yes, you would think the darned app could remember all you care about is skating...but nooooooooo........
 

CoyoteChris

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
Coyotechris, sorry to hear your disappointment on roku. The name of your thread made me read through it.... Me too, consider myself an average intelligent individual, but I find Roku to be amazing. I believe my life has changed (for good, of course) by having Roku. And considering how inexpensive it is compared with what it does. My husband deals mostly with it, our 23 year old son has voice sometimes, but even in their absence I deal with it pretty well. Try to google your questions, and believe me you gonna be very happy with it. I vouch for it. ��

I try and keep an open mind here and what I hope is in the frame of reference of NBC Sports all my frustration will be with THEM.
So since you are familiar with it.....do you have some sort of keyboard or if you want to watch YOUTUBE do you just use the simple arrows on the Roku remote? One of the wonderful things about this forum is that thoughtful people post youtube vids and all you have to do is click on the links, which I do on my desk top with the 22" screen and stereo attached.

Before, when I used my wife's laptop connected to the HDMI "in" of my TV, I could just click on the Goldenskate link and voila! I was watching my favorite skaters on youtube on my bigscreen. If the Roku becomes too laborious, I can always buy a laptop with an HDMI output and use that.....The dogs love it when I sit on the couch as they know they can cuddle up during skating.....so we have priorities here as to where I watch it.:)
 

Manitou

Medalist
Joined
Jan 17, 2014
I donā€™t have Roku, but I installed a TV Box running Android, which probably has an identical concept, and for a while operating it was a nightmare. It came with a completely useless remote control that had only up, down, left and up keys and operating the entire OS and all the apps with it was practically impossible. I complained on internet and they gave me an answer: a mouse. I bought a wireless mouse with a USB receiver stick for some $20 or less, stuck the USB receiver into one of the USB ports on the box and suddenly everything became easy. All functionalities that were inaccessible before, now are done with a mouse click.
Of course, if you keep it in the family room then the mouse must be incorporated into it, somewhere on the coffee table or elsewhere. But it solved the functionality inaccessibility problem that made my system useless before.
Iā€™m not sure if your problem is related to mine, but if it is then try a mouse.
And if you want a full functionality and have enough space on the coffee table then get a combo mouse+keyboard.

My advice: do not buy any of the mini wireless touchpad keyboards that are advertised for tv boxes. I tried two and they are awful. The touchpad is not working, the tv is not responsive, itā€™s just not good. A simple mouse is much better.
 

CoyoteChris

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
I donā€™t have Roku, but I installed a TV Box running Android, which probably has an identical concept, and for a while operating it was a nightmare. It came with a completely useless remote control that had only up, down, left and up keys and operating the entire OS and all the apps with it was practically impossible. I complained on internet and they gave me an answer: a mouse. I bought a wireless mouse with a USB receiver stick for some $20 or less, stuck the USB receiver into one of the USB ports on the box and suddenly everything became easy. All functionalities that were inaccessible before, now are done with a mouse click.
Of course, if you keep it in the family room then the mouse must be incorporated into it, somewhere on the coffee table or elsewhere. But it solved the functionality inaccessibility problem that made my system useless before.
Iā€™m not sure if your problem is related to mine, but if it is then try a mouse.
And if you want a full functionality and have enough space on the coffee table then get a combo mouse+keyboard.

My advice: do not buy any of the mini wireless touchpad keyboards that are advertised for tv boxes. I tried two and they are awful. The touchpad is not working, the tv is not responsive, itā€™s just not good. A simple mouse is much better.

Thanks for your experience. I do have a wireless mouse and keyboard hooked up to my TV but unfortunately, there is no port on the STICK roku for the USB bug. I should have purchased something like you have. Then, I could go to YOUTUBE, type in what I want to see, and voila! As it is, its a real pain to use the up down left right arrows. I dont even know how to use or find the on off switch. If I hit the on off button on the roku, it turns my tv off but the roku is happily streaming away till I unplug its power cable. I might try and find a manual on line for it and see if there is more info but for doing any kind of searching, this thing is a disaster. For NBC Sports, its usable.
Looking back, I would have bought a cheep laptop with HDMI output and used that. The one good thing about the Roku I bought is that it has a special long range wifi antenna and I have solid signal strength to it where as when I used my wife's lap top, it worked but the lap top is on the end of usable range. When I used a hard drive less lap top, I had to install a wifi repeater near it, which was a pita, but then the hard drive less lap top tryed to update itself and ran out of hard memeory and the thing became a paperweight.

(Edit: you have done me one great favor. I have gone back to my Smart TV and pulled out the roku and jumped on the primitive web browser with my wireless keyboard and mouse, went to Goldenskate, and clicked on a youtube link. The beast took me seemlessly to the youtube vid and played it! Savy electronic types know that these primitive web browsers purpously dont have much video ram so you cant play videos on the browsers, but you can obviously play vids on the apps, for money mostly but in the case of youtube, for free.
So I DO have a way to sit down on the coach with a dog and a margaritta and go to the forum and click on linked youtube skates. I still cant use my keyboard with the "on board" youtube app on my tv except to use the arrows just like the roku remote. C'est LeGuerre I guess.)
 

Manitou

Medalist
Joined
Jan 17, 2014
I'm guessing now, as I have never used Roku, but when I go to my Apple App Store on my iPhone (probably the same exists on Google Play) I can find several apps that work as Roku remotes. This way you can use your phone as a remote. One of them is Rokie - Roku Remote (4.5 stars), that, according to the advertisement, has also a touchpad. There are others too, for example Roku TV Remote Control (4.5 stars), that have touchpad too. Have you tried them?
 

PaulE

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 5, 2008
Country
United-States
I just signed up with NBC Sports Gold and bought a 2018 ROKU Express+ at the local WalMart for $21 to connect to my TV. I too noticed that the recordings from Salt Lake City looked fuzzy. I am hoping that the Grand Prix events will be clearer. For those who may have an old CRT TV (or a DVD recorder) the 2018 Express+ comes with a composite connection cable with the yellow, white, and red RCA connectors on one end.
 

Ducky

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 14, 2018
How is the streaming on other apps, like Netflix? I have this problem with Netflix as well as youtube and it's generally because my internet is acting weird/I really need to upgrade my wireless router.
 

Ross74

Medalist
Joined
Oct 8, 2015
How is the streaming on other apps, like Netflix? I have this problem with Netflix as well as youtube and it's generally because my internet is acting weird/I really need to upgrade my wireless router.

We use Roku for streaming other apps and it's fine. I had watched US Classic on my laptop so I just watched some replays through NBCSports and can't say that I see any blurriness.
 

CoyoteChris

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
I'm guessing now, as I have never used Roku, but when I go to my Apple App Store on my iPhone (probably the same exists on Google Play) I can find several apps that work as Roku remotes. This way you can use your phone as a remote. One of them is Rokie - Roku Remote (4.5 stars), that, according to the advertisement, has also a touchpad. There are others too, for example Roku TV Remote Control (4.5 stars), that have touchpad too. Have you tried them?

It is most unclear if your fone keyboard will work with the youtube App. Lots of folks are having issues like I have with the app shutting off the TV/and or Roku and not the other. One app charges $2 for a volume control, another puts lots of popup ads on your fone....
Right now, unless someone has found a way to use a keyboard with the TV APP "Youtube", I think I am just happy to have NBC. I bought the TV from a very savy guy at a real store so I will ask him about youtube on smart TVs.

The good news is still those wonderful links GSers post and I can get NBC on my telly without my wife's computer.
 
Top