Netflix/Roku comments and questions.....help!

[NRaleighLiberal]

So finally, with the price hike, we abandoned our 3 DVD plan (members since 2003! Poof..gone) - but to tell the truth it wasn't only price hike but the fact that our last half dozen DVDs were quite damaged - 5 had gaps that got hung up and we lost big chunks of the movies, the other cracked and unplayable. Their quality control on the discs they ship out is crap.

So we purchased a Roku box - what a cute tiny little clever thing it is. My Question.....is there a way to get to the web so that you can find and view YouTube videos? Seems like they have all sorts of "stations" - we have Netflix, of course, Democracy Now, Underground Weather, Radio Paradise - the various freebies obviously -

but are there other good free channels people watch for useful content - movies, etc? And we would love to find some of the many good YouTube vids to watch...but is it possible?

thanks!

[ejpoeta]

1. used to be able to get youtube through a private channel. i have it.

now you can't. definitely google private roku channels. Not sure how you can get youtube now. Maybe playon, which if you have a good computer has access to plenty of stuff. If I had better computer I would still have it but you could also stream movies from your hard drive as well. We have Chaneru as well as a new thing called Plex which only works (as far as I know) for the purpose of streaming from you hard drive.

[eShirl]

2. Nowhere Man's private channels... some were so good they're now official Roku channels

and Roku even gave him a job.

http://www.thenowhereman.com/roku/

[eShirl]

3. also theEndless's private channels... including iTunes podcasts and Justin.tv

http://roku.permanence.com/

[KoKo]

5. Nowhere Man's private channels are the best...

International news channels in English. We can watch CNN International and CNBC International (without commercials) plus Irish, German, BBC, RT, France, and Press TV. We are hooked and don't bother with the US News except occasionally any more. No endless drug & crap ads!

[Old and In the Way]

4. Check out Snag Films on Roku.

I watched a great doco the other night called "Charlotte - The making of a wooden boat". It was about a shipbuilding partnership on Martha's Vineyard. These 2 guys have been building/repairing/restoring wooden boats for 30 years. They're known as "splinter hippies" by the local the fiberglass builders....ted Kennedy made a cameo in the film, getting some work done on his boat. One of the partners built a 50' schooner for his family over 4 years.

That led me into Snag Films catalogue of movies...looks like a lot of very interesting stuff to watch.