Roku Your Holidays!

I know many of us are looking forward to the holidays, after the chaos and preparation that it can bring, to relax and finally take a deep breath! Relaxing involves being with friends and family, maybe a good book or winter walk, or maybe snuggling on the sofa and binge-watching a series or family movie.

Until now, we’ve been unfamiliar with Roku, unsure if we needed it for streaming in our household. We had a first-generation streaming device by another brand and wondered, “Do we need Roku?” It turns out, yes, yes we do. Our old devices are now packed up to be donated and Roku is now fully integrated into our household viewing routines.

On our main floor, which is an open concept allowing you to watch TV from the sofa or from the kitchen while prepping dinner, we have the Roku Premiere, which streams in HD/4K/HDR. You can stream free TV, live news, sports, music, movies, and more with Roku!

Set-up is easy (I saw this from observing my husband set it up and not be, to be transparent here) and comes with a Premium High Speed HDMI® Cable so you don’t need go out and by anything additional. The remote is called a Simple Remote which – let’s be honest here – we’ve all been waiting for! I’ve got simple buttons for Netflix, Roku Channel, Google Play and CBS All Access on mine.

I love how small and unobtrusive the Roku device is. It’s about the size of an eye-shadow case and a little thicker than a smart phone, give or take. You absolutely don’t notice it at all.

So what do we watch on our Roku? Netflix of course, but also Roku Channel which has lots of TV and free movies, Popcornflix which has some movies I’d never heard of before with some B/C list actors (I feel like Popcornflix is the corner of the video rental store which you wandered into when you had seen everything else in the New Releases area), Disney+ of course where I can’t get enough of and say enough great things about The Morning Show, while my husband is into The Mandalorian, Prime Video which is awesome and filled with Amazon Original series like Jack Ryan and The Marvelous Mes. Maisel, Google Play packed full of movies, Stingray Qello which is packed full of incredible concerts, and Tubi which has more free movies, but more familiar looking ones than I found on Popcornflix. Truth be told, it will take you some time to go through all the channels and options and everything available which is why the winter holiday is the perfect time to get a Roku device for your household. (MSRP $49.99)

Another option is Roku Express which gets you all the same channels and usefulness as the Roku Premiere including all easy set-up right from the box with a high speed HDMI cable, but streams in HD only. (MSRP $39.99) We put this device in our master bathroom. We have a small TV in there for bubble-bath tv-watching which in the past had me only limited to Netflix but now I have tons more viewing options including Global TV so I can catch up on my favorite shows while having a bath or getting ready in the morning.

Here’s a really cool feature; when you download the Roku mobile app (for free) you can turn your iOS® or Android™ device into the ultimate streaming companion. You can control your Roku player like a remote, search with your keyboard, plus enjoy features like:

Voice search
Just say it to search by title, actor, or director across 1,000+ channels.

Private listening
Use headphones to listen as loud as you want without disturbing the house.

Cast to TV
See your photos, videos, and music up on your big screen.

Another great option hubby discovered, he can use his AirPods (or you can connect any headphones) connected to his phone, then use the Roku App to stream on the TV, but no one else is disturbed by his late night binging. Roku App + AirPods means happy family viewing!

You can find both the Roku Premiere and Roku Express at Amazon.ca, Best Buy, London Drugs, Walmart, and The Source.

I’ve got a Roku Premiere AND Roku Express Streaming Players to give away to my readers: 1 will win the Premiere and 1 will win the Express! To enter to win, just follow the instructions below! The first entry is mandatory (leaving a blog post comment) and the rest are bonus entries available!