As announced last year, Comcast has made good on their promise to deliver Xfinity television to the Roku platform. However, the initial experience may not provide what many cable customers had hoped for. First, the Xfinity Roku channel is not capable of simply replacing every cable box as “at least one Comcast-provided TV box, a CableCARD and have a compatible IP gateway in your home” are required. Yet, despite those hardware requirements, the Roku Xfinity app does not (yet?) actually link into one’s collection of local DVR recordings. But where the in-home-only streaming starts to come apart is in pricing…
During this “beta” period, access is on the house. However, once deployed, Comcast indicates successive Rokus will be hit with “additional outlet” fees — to the tune of $7.45/mo. Comcast justifies this approach by referencing their TiVo/CableCARD pricing model. However, a single CableCARD-powered TiVo feeds multiple TiVo Minis … without requiring additional fees. But this approach is probably the best we’re going to get under the new administration, unless or until a sufficient number of consumers speak with their wallets and move to a more cord cutting-friendly service like Sling TV or DirecTV NOW. However, on the plus side, the service is streamed over Comcast’s private, managed network, so data usage doesn’t count against one’s broadband cap. Plus, supported Rokus are certainly more compact, energy efficient, and economical than the typical cable box rental.
I assume Apple TV and Fire TV apps are similarly in the works.
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I've used the beta app for a day or two (after needing to be on hold with Comcast for 45 minutes because I kept getting an error stating I was not on my home network) and it was slow but did work. With a little work I think it would be a nice app and does follow some of the visual X1 interface queues.
However, the pricing model is insane. At that price it almost may be worth spending the extra few dollars to get an actual box.
To top it all off, 3 days later I started to get the "not on home network" errors (both on Roku and PC) and it turns out that Comcast's systems keep messing up the MAC address of my cable modem and locking me out of any "in home" streaming.
If that keeps up, spending $10 a month for a solution that will actually *work* (vs the proposed ~$7) is a no brainer. However, I may ultimately just stick with some of the built-in Roku apps as they seem to meet most of my channel-watching needs.
If I am reading it right, after the beta you won't need a TV box or cable card as long as you have internet service, correct?
In the end they I bet they won't charge the additional outlet fee. It makes zero sense when you think about it.
I have also heard picture quality is very bad. I tried and it didn't work for me. Some error so I gave up