Tim Elliott

My Top 5 Roku Private Channels

Like a lot of people, yesterday I received a Roku 2 XD as a gift. This is my second Roku after picking up the first generation SD device last year on eBay. Roku is like Apple TV on steroids with over 350 channels of content in their Channel Store. Most of these are free with a few pay services like Netflix, Hulu Plus and EPIX also available. But there are gaps in the channels, particularly if you are not subscribed to cable, such as sports and live news. And while there are some of these services available in the Roku vetted Channel Store right on the device, private channels opens up an entire world of new choices.

Adding a Roku private channel is easy, you just need to know the developers code for the channel and have a Roku account which you create when you connect your player. Just log into your Roku account online and click on the “My Account” link on the top right and then “Add a Private Channel” that is half way down the page (or just log into your Roku account and click on the code links below). The best directory of all the Roku Private Channels is on the StreamFREE.tv site but you will find them elsewhere if you do a Google search.

The following list are my top 5 Roku Private Channels after testing out about 20 over the past year. All of these are used here at least weekly and really extend the value of the Roku device.

5) CNN - You will find another CNN private channel (code: CNNI) but I prefer this one as it includes CNN podcast clips along with the CNN International live stream. This is a reverse engineered stream from their iPad app so the picture quality is not the best and the audio is also over modulated compared to the other live news streams. But if you want to get live CNN coverage on your Roku, this is the channel to get. The code to enter is “RBFA1”. Then open the Channel Store on your Roku and find the channel in the list to install the first time.

4) Al Jazeera English - This Middle Eastern news channel broadcasts some of the best news coverage that is more objective than most other news channels. This stream is slightly pixelated on a large screen but the sound is very good making this one of my most watched news channels. Just enter code “ALJZ” to add and then open your Channel Store on Roku to install.

3) iTunes Podcasts - This might not be everyone’s cup of tea but I listen and watch a lot of podcasts so use this app often. It aggregates the best of the iTunes Podcast library and streams them to your Roku. The video podcasts look great on the large screen as most of them are in HD. Enter code “ITPC” to add and then open your Channel Store on Roku to install.

2) BBC - This is the news channel we turn to most often for world news. Like Al Jazeera the video might be a bit soft but the sound is good. Enter code “BBCN” to add and then open your Channel Store on Roku to install.

1) Nowhere TV - This is the mother of all private channels collecting live streams and podcasts in a curated grid. If you install just one channel from this list this one is it as it includes BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera from above along with many of the podcasts found in the iTunes Podcasts channel. I find the navigation to be a bit of an issue if I just want to get some news streaming so have the dedicated channels above for convenience. But I often dive into Nowhere TV to channel surf for gems I might have missed elsewhere. Enter code “H9DWC” to add and then open your Channel Store on Roku to install.

Roku and the future of TV

By this time ~~tomorrow~~ Wednesday a lot of us will be talking about Google TV and if it’s the future of television or not. So I thought I would slip in a quick post about my experience with Roku’s video streamer since I received it last Friday.

Roku SD video streamer Roku just revised their line of media streamers so I used this opportunity to pick up a discontinued SD model from their eBay outlet store for our still SD TV in the bedroom. For less than $50 I could demo the user experience and decide if the Roku way was viable in the age of Apple TV and what is coming tomorrow from the Big G. And I wanted to watch Tekzilla and HD Nation instead of the late news.

So I’m happy to report it’s pretty compelling based on what they have now and what is to come (mostly Hulu Plus). Unlike the walled garden of Apple TV, the Roku is open to streaming a lot of content. Out of the box it has access to almost 80 channels but what makes it especially interesting to me is the ability to create private channels for niche content. Basically anything with an RSS feed embedded with videos of the right codecs are immediately playable making the Roku a podcast junkies dream. There’s even a slightly janky but usable Ustream channel for live streams when you want to check up on what Leo is up to right now.

This thing has a lot of promise and might convince me to forgo what Apple TV might be with apps in favor of what Roku does right now.

When “Value-Added” Is The Main Value

Insignia NS-BRDVD3 Blu-ray player On Black Friday I bought a Blu-ray player along with millions of other shoppers. But I wasn’t in the market for a Blu-ray player. Nothing wrong with the technology and I love to watch movies in HD, it’s just that I don’t watch a lot of movies on optical disc anymore now that Netflix is streaming movies and TV shows on demand. So I was really in the market for a Netflix streaming box for a second TV that doesn’t have an Xbox 360 connected to it. And my budget was about $100.

So on Thanksgiving I reviewed the sales fliers to confirm the deals already leaked weeks ahead of time on several dedicated Black Friday websites. One such deal was a $99 store brand Blu-ray player at Best Buy which claimed in the ad to be capable of streaming Netflix with a firmware upgrade. So I showed up at my local Best Buy and waited in line about a half hour before they opened at 5 a.m. and, sure enough, the box claimed this inexpensive player would stream Netflix.

So I bought the Insignia NS-BRDVD3 Blu-ray player to replace my non up-converting DVD player. This model has only an Ethernet jack so a quick router lash-up was needed to get the player online. Once this was in place, I simply followed the menus and about 2 minutes later was linking my Netflix account to the player, a very simple process. After loading up the Netflix interface I was pleasantly surprised to see not only the Instant Queue but also the genre views exactly like the Xbox 360 version. Since our Xbox is plugged in via Ethernet and not wifi, I was somewhat concerned of buffering over a wifi connection (mixed B & G). But the player works fine with little or no glitches and the quality is really fantastic in both SD and HD modes.

I’m sure the product manager at Best Buy had the Netflix feature as one of the “added-value” items on the checklist for this player but this feaure alone was the entire reason I bought the device. I was looking for a Netflix streamer for about $100 and selected this over the dedicated Roku box because it up-converted standard DVD’s and plays Blu-ray discs. The ability to play Blu-ray became the “value-add” for me in this case. Because I bought it, I’m now a potential customer for Blu-ray discs but more likely one for other streaming services. For instance, I fully expect a future firmware release to support Best Buy’s Napster music streaming service which I would subscribe to immediately. They could also add other services and continue to increase the value of this purchase over time. Or enthusiasts could create alternative firmware, similar to what has been done around Linksys routers, to further enhance this device.

Sometimes it’s not the intended purpose of the device that creates the value proposition for the buyer but how a device can be used in new and interesting ways. I think Best Buy gets this at some level or at least will be producing platforms that can be enhanced over time to create increased value. This will keep me a happy customer and is more compelling to me than any loyalty program.