ROKU, HBO GO

Here we are in 2014 and this problem persists because Comcast doesn't want to solve it.  Money can't be the problem because they stick us with the cost.

They have awarded me 'Insider' status and they can keep it.  ATand T supports roku and I can get HBO Go from them so I think I'll just change 'insider' to 'outsider'.

I was also shocked that HBO GO is not on my new Roku. I have the full digital cable box and subscribe to HBO but I have a TV in a back room that does not have a cable box, just the Roku. It would be so nice to get HBO there since I already pay for it.

I don't get it either... I stream HBOGO through my iPhone and iPad... and now will have to buy an AppleTV (fewer channels are offered) to receive this service.  Just seems kind of silly.  Roku should probably do a better job of stipulating that all cable providers are not created equal, when boasting of the HBOGO availability.

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@srhoward83 wrote:

I don't get it either... I stream HBOGO through my iPhone and iPad... and now will have to buy an AppleTV (fewer channels are offered) to receive this service.  Just seems kind of silly.  Roku should probably do a better job of stipulating that all cable providers are not created equal, when boasting of the HBOGO availability.

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From the Roku page: "It's every episode of every season of the best of HBO all FREE with your HBO subscription through participating TV providers."  I think the clue was teh "through participating providers."

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@puregenius wrote:

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For me the only real alternative to Comcast is another cable provider. I believe satellite has gotten much better, but am I not willing to be locked into a contract. You can tell what is a legitimate alternative by the way Comcast reacts to it. I live in Pittsburg, California in the SF Bay Area. We have a very interesting market here. Some cities have multiple providers, while Comcast has a monopoly in others. In every city that Comcast has a cable competitor, prices are lower. Comcast has never made an attempt to be price competitive with satellite because they do not see them that way. The HBO Go issue is the only reason I am considering Dish.

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Where I live Comcast is the only cable provider--so they do not care. FIOS and AT&T are not available, even for phone, and OTA signals don't reach this far. I have to say, if Comcast does not consider Dish a viable competitor, they need to look again....I see more and more dishes sprouting around town every day. I don't mind the contract because I have no other real alternative, and the price and service I get, unless I cut the cord completely (not an option since hubby has to have his live sports), I have no place else to go....Fortunately, I am more than happy with the Dish service, equipment and programming. I have yet to hit more than 60% capacity for recording on either receiver, and I have the entire season for six shows, 9 football games (he can't watch them all at once..;)) and about 12 HD movies on the drive right now-and it is only at 54% capacity.  IF I ever get too full, I can drop a hard drive on to transfer recordings to....I used it to pull recordings off the old Hopper when I upgraded to the one with built in Sling this last weekend, then transferred them to the new one. They do support the HBO Go on Roku, but unless travelling, I don't need it, since their HBO On demand also has the full library.

Drawbacks to Dish: No "Big 4" on demand (but with the PTAT feature, I just set it to save the series for any of the Big 4 network shows-hence the full seasons of shows we haven't even watched yet), no Showtime on Demand.

Hope this is appropriate for this topic. I purchased Roku for Christmas but streaming is so slow it sometimes will not even load a movie and when it does load and play there are constant interruptions while it pauses to load. I see people are buying modems etc is that necessary? Are the modems supplied by comcast not adequate?

I've mentioned it before on this thread but for those who are new to the Roku/Comcast world I thought it might be worth mentioning it again.   You CAN get HBOGO to work fine on a Roku device (I use Roku 3's) if you are willing to use a third-party app called "PlayOn". 

PlayOn has worked well for our family now for over 9 months.  It is an application that requires a WindowsPC and is essentially streaming content (such as HBOGO, ESPN, etc...) that you could otherwise access from a PC browser.   They also recently upgraded the PlayOn service to allow for HD resolution (assuming the source content is HD).  

My only minor complaint is you'll need to count on logging in to re-validate your Comcast subscription every few days or so from the PC - not sure why this is but it's an inconvenience I'm willing to deal with in order to watch HD-quality content that effectively increases the number of "channels" on my Roku 3 by about 50 - including HBOGO.  I purchased a lifetime license from PlayOn for like $39 or something like that last Spring and it's worked great for us - and we have three Roku 3 devices around the house - including one outside on a covered deck.

Hope this information is helpful for some of you who may be new to this world over the Holiday season.

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@randerto wrote:

I've mentioned it before on this thread but for those who are new to the Roku/Comcast world I thought it might be worth mentioning it again.   You CAN get HBOGO to work fine on a Roku device (I use Roku 3's) if you are willing to use a third-party app called "PlayOn". 

 

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Doesn't this tie up your PC though while watching? 

So frustrating. Today I spoke to 8 Comcast operators over the course of 30 minutes. Finally, I was referred to their HBOGO "team" hotline. Called it 5 times and was disconnected without even a ring tone, just silence then a dial tone. I used another customer service number that I found on one of these threads and finally spoke to a guy who knew EXACTLY what I was talking about. He just said, sorry, HBOGO won't work using Roku and Xfiniity. Period. No work around, sorry. I write a check to them every month for that? Ridiculous. With all the money they spend on TV ads, you'd think they would drop some coin to give their customers the service we THOUGHT we were paying for. 

The future of Awesome -- I think not...

Hey Rog,

HBO Go allows subscribers access to all of HBO's programming (which is not accessible on your regular ON-Demand cable box). For example the complete TV Series, The Wire is available to view on HBO Go as well as many other shows and their entire movie catalogue.

Therefore allowing Comcast/xfinity subscribers to access HBO GO on their Roku's is only fair.

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@roadhandler wrote:

Hey Rog,

 

HBO Go allows subscribers access to all of HBO's programming (which is not accessible on your regular ON-Demand cable box). For example the complete TV Series, The Wire is available to view on HBO Go as well as many other shows and their entire movie catalogue.

 

Therefore allowing Comcast/xfinity subscribers to access HBO GO on their Roku's is only fair.

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Hi Roadhandler,

I don't really know what a Roku is, but I'm sure all this abour HBO Go has something to do with licensing and specifically about displaying content on a TV versus a mobile device (or PC).  Using your example, I'll point out that all five seasons of all episodes of "The Wire" can be viewed online from Comcast's own web site but none of them are available directly from the cable box "On Demand" system.

Now the issue (to me) is how to get that content to display directly on a TV instead of watching on a PC monitor.  This affects several online video services (like Amazon Instant Video, Netflix, and of course HBO GO).  My "Smart TV" has an app for Amazon (which I use) and I understand that the $35 Google Chromecast device will do something similar.  Perhaps that's what a Roku does as well; I'm sure there are others.

I'm only bringing this up in case you wanted to watch "The Wire" on somethng other than HBO GO.  I also wish someone from Comcast would chip in and perhaps post a link to some article ith a full explaination of the issue.