Testing The Roku Channel

When I posted recently that I would be testing The Roku Channel, I thought my next post about it would be several days later where I told you about the experience. Allen Saunders said "Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans." Here's what happened.

Part of the reason for this is my testing of The Roku Channel is going to be a little more involved than I originally thought. Here's what's complicating things.

You may recall that I don't like subscribing through Roku Pay for anything. Or you may not. I have mentioned it a time or two, but I haven't dedicated a post to just talking about that. I'll do that soon. But, briefly, here's my issue with Roku Pay.

If you subscribe to something using Roku Pay, you are limited to using it on devices tied to your Roku account. That may not seem like a problem, until you want to watch something on a device that's not your Roku streamer. You know, like your phone or tablet? Yes, Roku has some workarounds for that, but I don't care for them. I'll tell more in a detailed post in the future, but keep in mind for now that I don't like using Roku Pay.

Why did I bring that up? You'll see in a minute.

When I began testing of The Roku Channel, I decided I'd do some lengthy in-depth testing. That's not to say I haven't been doing serious in-depth testing of other things; I have. But The Roku Channel is different. Those other things I've tested have been first-use tests. That is, things I hadn't used before. Or, if I had and was revisiting, I had an open mind about. Being honest with myself -- and with you -- I don't have an open mind about The Roku Channel.

The Roku Channel has been on my Roku devices for quite some time. I've used it every now and then, but I've always thought, "Meh. I can get all of this through other apps I already use and like." It brought nothing to the table.

So, when I actually sat and began my deep focus on The Roku Channel (which I'm occasionally gonna call "TRC"), I glanced through it and realized that if I were to truly test The Roku Channel, I would need to look at all aspects of the experience, including subscribing to services and watching them through TRC.

This is going to be more complicated than I thought. I was making other plans, then this hit me. So, this will take a while. And, I think this is going to be a lot bigger than I thought. I may end up posting more about this as I test TRC.

"Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans." This was true when Saunders wrote that in 1957, it was true when John Lennon paraphrased it in a song in 1980, and it is true of my Streaming Life today as well.