RokuTV: cheap way to watch baseball; buffering issues addressed

I wanted to watch LSU baseball on my patio. The iPad was okay, but I wanted a bigger pic.

Today I bought a 32" 1080p Roku TV at Best Buy for just $200. No cable or dish; just WiFi streaming via its internals. Plug in the power cord and play. Hell, you can get one for $149 if 720p is okay.

They had a 39" 1080p model for $239 or so. Awesome deal, but I wanted it a size I could easily carry in and out of the house and stash out of the way/weather.

It had a little buffering at first. I've had that issue with the WatchESPN app on Roku before, though my Apple TV streams it without a hiccup. WatchESPN is apparently the buggiest app/channel out there.

I took a tip from Tigbit, who posted this a while back:

quote:

---

I had similar issues. My Roku worked fine with no buffering for Netflix, Amazon, Youtube, but WatchESPN would pause every 2 to 3 minutes. So, I knew it was not a bandwidth issue. And because WatchESPN worked fine on my PC on the same network, I knew it was not an issue with WatchESPN.

The 90% fix I found is this: Using your original Roku remote from the home screen: Press Home Key 5 times, then rewind key 3 times, then fast forward key 2 times. This brings you to a hidden screen where you can select your download speed.

Leave it on Auto but turn on Debugging then exit out. Now when you use WatchESPN you will see a Debug screen showing your download speed for about 30 seconds and then it goes away.

I have found that leaving it in debug mode reduces the buffer error to about once and hour - still not great but much better.

---

His original post

That really seemed to help, both on my Roku 4 hooked to the indoor TV, and on the Roku TV I bought today.