Do any of you use hulu as your streaming service

[Ed Vette]

That one looks exactly like mine. Volume controls on the side. It's the only remote I need to run my TV.

Bill

We ordered it. Thanks!

[AZGiantFan]

I have a Samsung smart TV but I run everything through my roku device.

Bill

I have a smart tv and also eschew it's smartness and use a Roku.  A good analogy, for me, is the built in navigation system my car has.  I never use it because my car has Android Auto (and Apple Carplay for apple folks) and navigation in Google maps is far superior to the built in navigation.  Roku is superior to the built in 'smartnes', IMO, and the Roku remote can be configured to control the tv as well as the Roku.

[AZGiantFan]

I have a Samsung smart TV, a Vizio TV and 2 others. Not sure of brands. I run  3 roku sticks and 1 roku box. We run any app that we have.

Bill

I set up Roku express on Linda's mothers TV and it's less complicated now but still have to use the tv remote to adjust the volume and to shut the tv off. Is that how yours works too? I see various models on Amazon and it would have been better for her to have just one remote.

I can control on/off and volume on the tv from my Roku remote, although that might be true of all Roku remotes.  Try this:

1) go to the Roku setup screen

2) scroll down to Remotes & devices

3) click right, on Remotes

4) click right again, where your particular remote will be shown.  Mine is Voice Remote Pro

5) click right again near the bottom of the list is 'Set up remote for TV control'

I'm not sure which Roku remotes will show this.  But if your's does:

6) scroll down to 'Set up remote for TV control' and then scroll to the right for 'IR setup"

7) click on 'IR set-up and you get a screen asking you to confirm your tv brand (I think it tries to figure it out - it got mine immediately but I have one of the most popular brands, Samsung, so I don't know if it was the default or it figured it out.  But it also has a 'Change TV brand' choice you can clickmon if it doesn't have your brand as the default.

8) it then tells you to point your remote at the TV and goes through several screens asking you if you hear music playing.  After you are done with the screens it congratulates you and tells you that you can now control on/ff and volume with the Roku remote.

This probably looks very complicated but trust me, it is very intuitive once you find the starting point.  The key is step 4 and what remote you have.  Alas, the Roku can't be made to control the volume on a sound bar, just a TV

Hope this helps.

PS - I just did a little more research and the remote that comes with the basic Roku express cannot do this.  But if you have the Roku Express 4K+ it can.  I'm not sure if an upgraded remote ($19.99) will allow a basic Roku Express to control volume and on/off, but another solution would be to just get a Roku Express 4K+ ($29.99) which comes with the right remote to do it.

[AZGiantFan]

My Apple TV powers on and has volume control but it doesn't shut the TV off. The other downside of the Roku is it's recharge is USB and her smart TV doesn't have one so it has to be plugged in. Also the HDMI cord is very short.

Whoa, if her Roku remote has USB recharging it almost certainly can control volume and on/off.  Does her remote have a power button at the top and a volume rocker on the side?  If so, try the procedure in my previous post.

[AZGiantFan]

Oops, late the party. Looks like you have it all figured out.  I'll leave this here in case someone else can use it. 

[Bill Brown]

Ed, did the new remote solve your problems?

Bill

[Ed Vette]

She ordered the remote from Roku with the on off and volume but it hasn't come in yet. I'm sure that's the issue. We ordered two Roku express 4K from Amazon Prime yesterday and got them the same day for the two dumb TV's. I'll set them up later today.

On a side note, I upgraded my Alarm so I didn't need a landline, so I canceled that from Optimum. Then cancelled Cable TV and went with YouTubeTV and I did get Frndly for now because I like two channels. I got one gig internet after negotiating with Optimum for $49.99 the first three months and then $69.99 the next nine months. At some point I'll have them install the fiber for the same price.

We saved $150 a month. I may not have done anything if they didn't piss me off by jerking Linda around with a measly $25 adjustment at the same time Bill started this thread. I appreciate all the help from everyone! Actually YouTubeTV pretty much has all the channels I need and with AppleTV, Netflix, Hulu, Max and Prime, it's all I'll need except for the Red Zone. I think Roku come with an offer for Paramount Plus.

[MightyGiants]

She ordered the remote from Roku with the on off and volume but it hasn't come in yet. I'm sure that's the issue. We ordered two Roku express 4K from Amazon Prime yesterday and got them the same day for the two dumb TV's. I'll set them up later today.

On a side note, I upgraded my Alarm so I didn't need a landline, so I canceled that from Optimum. Then cancelled Cable TV and went with YouTubeTV and I did get Frndly for now because I like two channels. I got one gig internet after negotiating with Optimum for $49.99 the first three months and then $69.99 the next nine months. At some point I'll have them install the fiber for the same price.

We saved $150 a month. I may not have done anything if they didn't piss me off by jerking Linda around with a measly $25 adjustment at the same time Bill started this thread. I appreciate all the help from everyone! Actually YouTubeTV pretty much has all the channels I need and with AppleTV, Netflix, Hulu, Max and Prime, it's all I'll need except for the Red Zone. I think Roku come with an offer for Paramount Plus.

I have found in life sometimes my best moves were made because I was fed up with something

[MightyGiants]

@Ed Vette, I would love to hear a follow-up after a couple of months about how the streaming experience compared to your cable experience.

[Bill Brown]

Hey Ed. It's been a couple of weeks since this thread has been updated and I am wondering how things are going with your streaming services. What do you like and what do you not like?

Like the magazine says. Enquiring minds want to know.

Bill

[Ed Vette]

I've found that YouTube TV has everything I want. I haven't used Frndly and I'll likely drop it. With Apple TV, Netflix, Hulu, Max and Prime, there is much to watch and much more I want to watch than not streaming these services and having hundreds of cable stations. With Apple TV, I can also stream my photo albums and watch a YouTube video or podcast and listen to Spotify. Unfortunately I can only listen to Spotify and not get the visual. I wonder if I pay for Spotify premium if I will get the visual.

Linda likes it too. Three TVs have Roku and one has Apple TV. The other is smart and Linda says she doesn't need Roku on it. Both remotes are good to work with but Apple for some reason only shuts down streaming but not the TV so I need the TV remote to do that or eventually it shuts itself off. It could be the Samsung.

On the Smart TVs, Samsung has its own channel with lots of options but I have the YouTube account and it's on all the TVs for that one price.

Linda's mother struggles with the remote even though it's less options than the TV remote but that's because of her condition.

I upgraded to one Gig of Optimum. I also changed my alarm to wireless and that also has a router. Unfortunately and after working with support, my stick RING in the driveway isn't consistently recording events. I think it's because the Slomins Router is interfering with the Optimum Router. I've move the Optimum router to within twenty feet of the RING but still have issues. I reduced the Optimum Firewall to minimum and that helped slightly. The Optimum has a range of 1000 feet so this is frustrating. The back door RING hasn't been affected which is weird. The Arlo camera has its own Router and that is working fine. I do have an extra ring doorbell that I can replace the side with or move the Arlo to the side but I want to try a couple of other options first with the current setup.

Bottom Line, it was a lot of time spent making the switch but well worth it. Someone told me about a free streaming service that has a thousand channels but haven't tried it and I don't know that I will.