Roku/FireStick/WhatThing people, what's good?

[Angrboda]

I think the provider/app/hardware spectrum is pretty wide, going from abysmal to dream-like depending on whether you have luck or not.

Much as people complain about the high cost of cable, that's generally one thing you can't say about it. The implementation is almost always snappy, fairly well designed, and largely glitch free.

I originally cut the cord and went with a Roku because Comcast moved the NFL Network, which I use a lot, from the tier that I was subscribed to, into a higher priced tier, which, in addition to costing more, would have required a two year commitment just to make it affordable. Given that, cutting the cord was my best option. Since that time, Comcast has offered to include the NFL Network in a sports package for $10 a month. If they had offered that at the time they moved the NFL Network, I would have chosen that instead. Obviously, they didn't because they wanted to get as many people to switch to the costlier tier before offering it. So, yeah, cable companies suck. And the cost of cable sucks. But the product itself compares very favorably to the cord cutting options. I don't need as full a package as I'm getting outside of the football season, so I will save some money by continuing with the Roku and streaming TV, but if I compare my current service to that of a comparable cable package, the costs are roughly similar, and I like cable better.