Roku Questions

[intarsiabox]

Halwake, how do you pay for your Hulu Plus subscription? Do you just use the 3 numbers in your postal code plus 00, 01, etc until you get a valid ZIP code and then use your regular credit card?

[halwake]

Ha, ha, new that was the next question. Changed my location for my apple ID account first, put Grande Prairie, California, then the postal code trick you mentioned take the letters out and only use the digits, then ad 00 to the end. Example 87800 was mine. Linked my current Canadian VISA to the Apple ID account, did same thing with the address and postal code. Once your location for your apple ID account is changed you can access the american ap store and finally download Hulu plus app to your phone, I pad or whatever, then signed up for Hulu Plus using my apple ID, and a week later started getting ITunes bill from Hulu plus. I then signed up with unblock us, changed router settings at home so any device logged onto my wifi looks like its from the states, had to change location on my smart TV to US to get the American programming options. This is how I did it with the apple stuff. The first time I did it I just plunked in my Canadian card on Hulu Plus, put my town, California, postal code trick and I did see Hulu plus show up on my Visa for pre approval on my visa statement. I cancelled the subscription because I was not subscribed to unblock us first and it would not allow that Hulu programming in my location, but my Hulu account was active. They could tell I was in Canada until I subscribed to unblock us. Either way worked, just subscribe to unblock us and make sure if there is a location selection for the Roku box to select somewhere in the states to get there programming icons show up. It looked over whelming until I actually started working on it. Start with the unblock us subscription first, change your router setting then go from there. It was a lot easier than it sounds. Let me know if you need more help, I think I over complicated it for you.

[intarsiabox]

Thanks Hal! I got the Roku, set up Unblockus before signing up a Roku account. Entered my card with a US city, state and zip and I now have a US Roku running. Hulu Plus was already on the channel list and only asked for my Roku pin number for activation. I had to use my wifes name and email for Netflix though as I had it set up years ago and apparently remembers that I live in Canada, after that no issues.

[halwake]

Great to hear, way more options, way cheaper as well, you will be very happy you made the switch, we were, no regrets at all. I had a canadian Netflix account, when we were in the states this summer I logged into my Netflix and had access to the American Netflix line up. Once I subscribed to unblock us, Netflix automatically gave us the American titles. If you figure out how to get HBO let me know he, he. preferably before new season of game of thrones comes out.

Enjoy your new set up,
Hal

[intarsiabox]

Yeah, I found out Disney is set up the same as HBO, even in the US you need a cable subscription to access the programming online. Or at least a valid user name and password for a current cable account that HBO or Disney support. I was a little concerned about this as most of the shows my kids like are on Disney channels but then my oldest informs me she usually watches the new episodes on YouTube before they come out on cable anyway.

[mikellini]

We watch most of the good stuff on the home theatre projector downstairs, it's hooked up to a HTPC so we can download/stream most anything after a quick search. For other devices we do things a bit differently...

It's quite easy to set up an American iTunes account, and to purchase gift cards on eBay to use instead of a credit card. If you have an Apple TV, you can pay for Hulu+ and most other subscription services with your iTunes account, and coupled with UnblockUS, you can watch most anything on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV. Now, it remains to be seen what will happen with the new Apple TV and programming launch that should be coming next year, but I think it will only get better.

[intarsiabox]

Originally Posted by mikellini

We watch most of the good stuff on the home theatre projector downstairs, it's hooked up to a HTPC so we can download/stream most anything after a quick search. For other devices we do things a bit differently...

It's quite easy to set up an American iTunes account, and to purchase gift cards on eBay to use instead of a credit card. If you have an Apple TV, you can pay for Hulu+ and most other subscription services with your iTunes account, and coupled with UnblockUS, you can watch most anything on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV. Now, it remains to be seen what will happen with the new Apple TV and programming launch that should be coming next year, but I think it will only get better.

Roku is set up the same way. My Hulu+ is paid through my Roku account, Amazon Prime is the same but I deleted it already. The interface is brutal, the search engine only works for individually paid shows. I went online with my computer to see if it's any better but it's exactly the same. So far I'm liking this setup, $21 a month on one credit card vs $80 and I get way more TV shows and movies. Land line is going as well since our cell plan has unlimited talk and text, so saving another $30 a month. I was looking at Teksavvy as my ISP provider so I could get rid of Telus completely but a quick message to Unblockus said they've had a lot of issues supporting them and didn't recommend it.