or Connect
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

"Play On" How does it work?

post #1 of 5
Thread Starter 
Hi, I'm kind of new to all of this new-age media, but I'm getting tired of paying for Dish network! I heard of this thing called Ruku, and an 'app' called "Play On". I guess with play on, you can watch a whole bunch of different shows, and different channels. And, what play on doesn't have, apparently you can go to something similar to an 'app store', and get 3rd party apps (called "Plugins") that have specific cable type channels, and even specific shows.

So, what I'm trying to figure out, is how does this work, exactly? I know it's through the internet, and you use either the Ruku box, or a blue ray player with wifi, and basically play the internet on your TV. But, what I don't understand, is these channels you can get, and the plugins, are they all "live" (like as on Dish, or cable), or is it just certain programming? I watch many different 'cable' type channels, as well as primarily CBS for broadcast TV. I see that there is a plugin, with someone who says you can get city-specific local CBS programming on play on. Again, I don't know if it's 'live', or something from days, or weeks ago?

I want to basically use this play on like my dish service, so I can drop them. But, I would still like to be able to watch programs that are on certain channels, that come on at certain times, like the channels currently on Dish. Can I do this?

And, since we're on the subject, what about the 'play on' add on, called "Play Later". Is that just like a regular DVR? How does that work, exactly?

I realize that I'm asking quite a lot of questions, but I can NOT find ANYONE in ANY electronics store that can answer any of these questions! HH Gregg, Best Buy, Wally World, Radio Shack, etc. I've asked them all! Everyone has heard of play on, but no one can tell me specifically how it works!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

post #2 of 5
Well to answer the big question, no there is nothing like dish or cable available on a streamer. There are no "live' shows at certain times, though playon has plug ins that stream local content that my qualify. Hulu, not plus has a lot of local content available a day or so later, so that may work for you. If you have OTA available some boxes like the WD streamer will allow you to stream live TV from a USB tuner, but Roku is not one of them.

There is a vast amount of content available on the Roku boxes, but sadly none of it comes close to replicating the regular tv viewing experience.

BTW, playon is based on your computer, it must be on and Playon running to have any content available....
post #3 of 5
I purchased a lifetime license for PlayOn quite some time ago and when PlayLater offered a lifetime license I purchased it also

I must admit, I don't use them frequently, but I have definitely gotten my '$$ worth' out of them many times over

I cut the cable tv and Dish tv cords many moons ago and I don't miss them at all (especially the lack of high monthly charges... which has paid for the devices that helped to replace cable/dish tv) - the devices being, a combination of... the Roku (x2) - the Boxee Box (x3) (mostly for streaming local HD content from a multi terabyte HP MediaSmart server) - the Raspberry Pi with XBMC/OpenELEC (x2) (used infrequently) - live tv, streamed to 3 large screen TV's from a PC - the PlayOn UPnP software-media server installed on a PC and the HP server - (and the Ouya with XBMC, scheduled to ship to me next month)

I might have a few extra remote control button and/or mouse clicks to get to what I want to watch... but considering the amount of $$'s I'm saving every month, the extra clicks are not considered a problem at all

And then when you consider that you can 'share' accounts like Netflix and Amazon Prime streaming on different devices, this cuts costs also - My daughter who lives close to the west coast of the US, and me (living in the mid Atlantic/US area) both share Netflix and Prime - plus she's attending a University, so she gets the half price student discount for Amazon Prime ($39 a year) - so if the monthly charge is divided by 2 users, that's $11.24 per month for both services (but of course the 'Dad' pays the total monthly charges :-) ) - a fraction of the price that cable TV and/or Dish TV

I could probably continue further with more examples of why to 'cut the cord', but instead of boring forum members any further, I'll decline
post #4 of 5
Ive just starting looking into PlayOn myself. Basically what brought me to it was looking for a way to use Netflix (among others) inside of XBMC. Anyone know if this is the best way or suggest something else?

The Pros of PlayOn for me appear to be its large "channel" list in addition to netflix and hulu.
post #5 of 5
I looked at playon for the hulu part.

I talked to a rep and he said your pc is used to play channels on your tv and record shows for viewing on tv or other devices.
so yes you have to have your computer on to use it, but then he said you can put the recordings on different players.
unsure exactly what that means, play them or copy your recordings to other devices.

I found out I can do hulu in wmc without playon so I kinda stopped there and just use it now.
Not sure about xbmc, hope someone chimes in.
there was a plugin called xbmcflix that put netflix into xbmc. I think its gone now.

I have wished that there was something that did it all but I guess we will never see it.
Edited by etrin - 3/28/13 at 7:52am
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home