ROKU, HBO GO

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@veda000 wrote:

Hi all,

 

"We" had this same issue with Samsung Smart TV - MANY people wanting Comcast to get on the ball and support HBOGO on Samsung Smart TV.

 

Lo and behold, Comcast came through!  However, they never gave any indication in the Forum that they were working on it.  Bad Comcast.

 

I hope (and it seems that they are are) Comcast is presently working on supporting ROKU/HBOGO.

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Read back a page or two of this thread, at the responses we have gotten from Comcast, and let us know why you think they are "working on it".  It's not like there is any serious engineering to be done, all they have to do is authenticate that we are HBO subscribers.  Many much smaller cable companies have gotten on board long ago.  No, I think there are other reasons they don't support it, though I really can't understand their logic, when Apple TV and Chromecast are pretty much the same thing.  I've had about enough of Comcast's crappy customer service.  I just found out Atlantic Broadband is available here. I am probably going to go with them, or keep my Comcast Internet, and go with Dish or DTV for television.  But Comcast will be gone from my TV by April 1st.  

Yet comcast still controls where and when you can access this content. Say perhaps I go to visit family in another state. I can take my Roku with me and just hook it up to their network and watch the content on the little TV in the guest room.

Can I take the comcast box to my friends house? Heh especially if he doesnt even HAVE cable?

NO So even though its a step in the right direction its just a baby step...

.....and no even if the web page allows access to HBO go it defeates the purpose cause the HBO go website already does this..

Looks like my biggest complaint about not having all the HBO content on demand, thus i wanted comcast/xfinity to grant access via our roku players, has been fixed.

XFINITY TV Customers: HBO® is bigger and better than ever.
Watch every show, every season and every episode with XFINITY On Demand™.
This is now included with your service and is just another way we are working
to make your XFINITY experience great.

My Roku is upstairs.  Currently with On demand or HBO Go (on Xbox), I can only watch HBO GO in my living-room.  Also with my ROKU/Xbox I can watch in HD.  I don't have cable upstairs and my downstairs box is just basic and not HD.  Still want to be able to watch HBO Go on my ROKU.  Come on Comcast!!!! 

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@workerdummy wrote:

Hmm....HBO® doesn't look bigger and better than ever on my X1's XFINITY On Demand. No Deadwood, no Boardwalk Empire, no Carnavale etc., which means they STILL don't get the point of we want this programming ON OUR TV SETS EITHER THROUGH ON DEMAND AND/OR ROKU. I do see that pig Bill Maher on there. If I wasn't getting HBO free, I'd cancel it.

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LOL and comcast wont carry the Blaze either.

http://gigaom.com/2011/11/04/hbo-go-for-roku-comcast-directv/

The above link has good info on this subject - ALSO - it has how to contact Comcast about the issue since this forum is in outer space as far as getting any traction with Comcast.

The person who said HBO is bigger and better on xfinity on-demand (I assume he/she is comcast employee) is typical of the total ignorance and thickness of their reps regards this topic.

When I called to complained about not having ROKU/HBOGO access due to comcast not allowiing it, the rep had no clue what i was talking about.  She said contact ROKU.  At least comcast can train their reps to be up on this subject.

The link mentions both comcast and direct tv as not supporting the hbogo app...Direct tv now does support it, leaving only comcast as not getting in line with its customers on this.

As Comcast is the biggest...why would they want to be last (as alw­ays) every other major cable and sat company allows the ROKU 3 HBO-app...and there are several other Roku TV apps that will not work for Comcast customers. Why not resolve this and give us the same great features as TWC customers have (before the merger) this way no decision has to be made to remove ROKU HBO and ROKU-TWC TV apps from their customers (and legally / morally can't divide features between Xfinity and TWC customers). Please don't ignore this request like you have all the others on here.­

The competition in this area (Snohomish County, WA) offers HBO Go on Roku in addition to other platforms. Comcast appears to offer it on Apple TV. The list of supported carriers is quite long and Comcast's absence is a bit puzzeling. For those of us that travel it lets us get alot more out of our cable subscription. While it may seem like a small thing, it's more difficult to stomach when the local competition supports it. 

I believe this week is a HBO Promotional week, so probably just extras for the promotion and they will go away.

I have heard. Comcast already allows AppleTV to play HBOGo, but not Roku. This new deal will give AppleTV faster access to all channels, not just HBOGo if Apply pays for it.

The HBOGo issue is separate.

When you try to run HBOGo on the Roku you have to authenticate on the HBOGo web site first. At this stage Roku has no interaction with Comcast. It's HBOGo that interacts with Comcast to authenicate and HBOGo can authenticate Comcast accounts, just not for the Roku devices. HBOGo can authenicate for Roku devices, just not Comcast accounts. There is zero technical reason HBOGo could not run on Roku for Comcast accounts except of a legal agreement that I am sure Comcast is blocking, deliberately.

So why AppleTV but not Roku?

My speculation is Comcast views Apple users differently than Roku users. Apple users will pay a premium for Apple products. They will stand in line for days to be the first to get a new Apple product. And, push come to shove, Apple users will choose Apple over Comcast. Denying Apple users HBOGo access would cost Comcast subscribers, but allowing AppleTV users HBOGo access would probably not hurt Comcast bottom line. Comcast views Roku users differently. We're cheap and might drop set top box rentals if we can get content without the box rental.