Getting movies

It's time for Part 2 of my highly-anticipated three-part series on Christmas Gifts I Love.

Gift #2 is something I purchased for my husband. But it has turned out to be a great gift for me, as well, after I caused myself some post-surgery damage using Gift #1 and ended up on a CapableDad-imposed bedrest/complete lockdown for two days in a row.

First, for the background.

Last year at this time, we decided we would show the cable companies of the world who is boss. We were tired of sending money each month to Comcast and the Dish Network just so we could watch TV.

So, we canceled it all and put a good ol' fashioned antenna on top of our house. Now, it's not as bad as it sounds. We still get 32 channels, including the major networks.

But once in a while, I could see that CapableDad was longing for a few more options in TV viewing. And when I heard some friends talking about their Roku player, I decided that might be the perfect surprise for him for Christmas.

First, I got a subscription to Netflix. For the same subscription price, the Roku box allows us to immediately watch hundreds of other TV shows and movies through Netflix.

We also can watch all of these same movies on demand on our computers. But the Roku player is nice because it streams them quickly, without any glitches that sometimes occur when streaming through a computer to the TV. We also don't have to set it up each time we want to use it, as we would with a laptop.

I have heard a few people complain that Netflix doesn't have a lot to offer for on-demand movies. Perhaps we are very sheltered and just haven't watched many movies or TV shows in the past, um, decade??

We have actually been overwhelmed by the vast number of choices available. In addition to movies and TV shows, we have also found some cool educational videos that complement some of the subjects we are studying in school this year.

So, are you excited to find out what #3 is on my list of favorite gifts?

Have any of you tried Roku, Netflix or another alternative to renting movies? I would love to know what you think.

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