Has anyone compared the roku to a media pc to determine which would be a better buy?

[G+_Tim Beers]

Has anyone compared the roku to a media pc to determine which would be a better buy?

[G+_Joe Phelps]

They are quite different in purpose and cost. An MPC would be much more flexible but more expensive.

[G+_Steve C]

Right, it depends on what he means by better buy!  A Roku costs $49-$99 but a MPC can cost $399 or more and you'll need a high end video card that puts out HDMI to connect to the TV.  The MPC will play everything better than a Roku can.  A Roku won't play Youtube and has trouble with Netflix in a lot of areas depending on your ISP while a PC doesn't.  However, they are both obsolete now, these days I generally use an Android Mini PC. They only cost around $49 and work better than a Roku and have HDMI out.

[G+_Derek J.D.]

Roku and a laptop for when you need a PC

[G+_Dan Phillips]

As others have said, it boils down to what you want to use it for. An MPC (Or HTPC) requires more tweaking depending on what you want to do. 

 

I personally run XBMC to stream video and music from my NAS and also as a ROM emulator for old Sega and NES games. If you want to go that route then look at an Intel NUC or Zotac AD10 or look around on Ebay for an older Acer Revo 3610. 

[G+_Joe Phelps]

I use my Chromecast more than my Roku these days. A lot more.

[G+_Steve C]

An Acer Power1000 that is similar to the NUC and Revo would work well. It's also a little PC about the size of a book running an AMD Athlon 64 X2.  They were originally around $500 but I got one at Goodwill for $10.  The trouble with them is that nearly all of them died from overheating but if you can find one that still works you can get it cheap.  I cut a big hole in the side of mine and installed an extra fan to help cool it.  The Android Mini PC for $49 works just as well though and you don't have to do stupid things like try to "cast" a show to make it play!  The whole idea behind the Chromecast just seems more idiotic the more I hear about it!

[G+_Joe Phelps]

steve c Hearing about it and using it are two different things ;)  It really depends on the services one uses and how much managing of your own media collection you want to do.

[G+_Tim Beers]

just wondering which would have the most functionality....don't want to go to the expense of one when the other would work better. How much managing do they take.... total numb on this subject.

[G+_Tim Beers]

So with roku they have channels.... is this the same concept in channels as tv, Or the content that is on a website packaged in to an easy way to access it? 

[G+_Joe Phelps]

http://www.roku.com/meet-roku

[G+_Steve C]

The Roku doesn't have channels like TV or cable channels, these days we would call them apps. There is a Channel Store but it's really just letting you select different apps to install.  It has apps that play different services. For instance there is a Netflix app, a Twit app, a Justin.tv app, Revision 3 app, webcam app, etc. You can even install a Speed Test app to check it's download speeds.  The Netflix player app is quite bad by the way.  It used to work fine until about 3 months ago now it just keeps slowing down and rebuffering all the time.