ROKU, HBO GO

Weitz1971 -- that's not really a valid solution.  I don't have anyone outside the comcast area who has HBO, and even if I did, I'm not sure it would be entirely legal.

The bottom line is we all want Comcast to support Roku for HBO Go.  They support Android, Apple & Xbox -- I can't see any business reason for them not to support Roku at this point.  It's not like if they got it working we'd all dump our comcast boxes.

I'd imagine that the problem stems from the way Roku requires authorization.  It's different from the way HBO Go works on Apple/Android -- and it may require Comcast to actually do some work with their web portal, and that's what they will not do.  There is no business reason for them to spend time & money doing it.

Now, Roku have a valid business reason, and they should modify their service to use a similar authorization method as the other devices that currently work with Comcast & HBO Go.  I've already returned my Roku as it doesnt do what I wanted, and that cost Roku money...

Yeah it's not perfect, because you at least need that connection.

If I didn't have that connection, I'd probably cancel Comcast and go with another provider.  

I wouldn't blame Roku. It sounds to me like Comcast is the one out of step here.  All other cable providers either thought it was simple to authenticate or had no problem spending the time to authenticate with Roku.  That makes Comcast either lazy or stupid.

Note: Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime and numerous other paid services have no problem authenticating through Roku. 

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@workerdummy wrote:

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@DMilnerJax wrote:

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Not sure what there is to love about them. I hated them for the brief time I was with them.

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So right now, Comcast is better than what I had, both service wise and price wise. They do need to work on the customer service part though, although if everything is working right, I won't need to talk to them anyway.

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They told me my bill would be 190.00 per month for programming--the rep convenienty neglected to mention the additional fee for each of the 4 receivers (1 "Anyroom" DVR, 3 digital boxes) and the triple play with "everything."  Then I found out the DVR would only hold about 25 - 40 recorded programs in HD (down from at least quadruple that with Dish). The Anyroom DVR did not let me do anything but (sometimes-frequently failed) watch shows in other rooms. Could not start recordings, pause or rewind from another room. The ability to stream live television that I was told would work anywhere would only work on my home network on a tablet (which I did not have) and I had to pay 10.00 per month extra for that. A second DVR for the additional capacity - another 10.00 per month. In 5 weeks had to swap out the DVR 4 times--standing in line for 45 minutes or more to do so since I would not pay the extra fee per month to have home service without paying 30.00 for a home visit--even though it was their equipment failure. Remotes were not addressable, so every time hubby tried to change the channel in his tv (sports, sports, and more sports) it would affect the box for the main tv as well in the living room. Then they signed me up (without asking if I wanted the service) for some kind of computer/home networking support. I do tech support myself, and have done so for well over 2 decades - and they still kept trying to convince me that I need the service when I told them to cancel it. Hours and hours on the phone with tech support (NOT counting hold time) to get wrong answers 90% of the time. The Roku issue was another item in the list.

THEN I got my first bill. That 190.00 per month had escalated to over 250.00 per month. I dropped them like a hot potato for everything except internet and ran back to Dish as fast as I could. If I had a viable alternative to that....

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@weitz1971 wrote:

there's a simple workaround here, guys:

 

1.  find a friend/family member who subscribes to HBO with a service provider who allows Roku to stream HBO

 

2.  set up your roku's HBO Go through that friend/family member's account

 

3.  voila -- avoid comcast's limit altogether.  comcast has no say in this, because they can't control what you watch on your roku.  HBO is the only one who may have a problem with this, because you'd be sharing services.  however, if you subscribe to HBO through comcast yourself--like we all apparently do--HBO isn't losing out on any revenue, and is having its fans watch its content via Roku, which is what they always wanted.  i of course wouldn't recommend this if you weren't subscribing to HBO independently.

 

it's a win-win situation, and i recommend everyone do it.  

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Even better solution. Switch to a different vendor for services.

I would like to have my HBO go activated on my Roku and a comcast channel. We need to raise our voices and demand it. DirectTv listened to its customers and let them use it on apple Tv we should demand the same for Roku.

I can authenticate Comcast HBO Go on my android tablet and on my PC, but not my Roku. This is not a technical issue since Comcast can authenticate on other devices.  I am greatly disappointed.

Um, Comcast DROPPED HBO Zone.

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@PJTOxford wrote:

Um, Comcast DROPPED HBO Zone.

 

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What is HBO Zone?

HBO Zone is one of the channels in the HBO lineup, just like HBO Family and HBO Comedy.  It was part of the package and just went away a couple of months ago, at least here.

 This ROKU HBOgo situation is FUBAR. Somebody please post the Comcast CEO's e-mail. We should start filling his inbox with e-mails regarding this issue! Obviously their game is upcharging and putting customer service as last priority. They are crooked as a barrel full of snakes and quickly becoming the Sears of cable companies. What a joke!

PLEASE ALLOW ROKU TO OPERATE WITH HBO GO. COMCAST IS THE ONLY CABLE CO. TO NOT ALLOW ROKU

I am an HBO subscriber and find that I can not use my Roku unit with HBO GO. Why am I able to use it with all other services but not HBO GO?

http://forums.comcast.com/t5/XfinityTV-Website/ROKU-HBO-GO/td-p/1100271/