Roku sale

I'm don't normally post information about sales here. But these are a couple of good deals. And, in the interest of transparency, I can earn a commission on one of the two. But I'm not posting for that reason. I'm posing because it's a good deal.

What brought this up is I had a conversion this week with someone who is interested in streaming. I recommended a Fire TV Stick 4K, or a Roku stick. At the time, I didn't know about this first deal.

This is a good price. I don't have a link, because the deal isn't until later today, and there is no link. Just go to the Walmart Website, or your nearest Walmart store, and take advantage of this deal.

Walmart is (or will be, at the time this is first posted) selling a Roku device for $15. No, it's not a top of the line device, but it is a Roku streaming device, and it's a good price.

The device is listed as a Roku LE. That's not a standard name for a Roku device. Some years back, they brought back the Roku 1 (model 2710) as the Roku SE. They both were model 2710. They just renamed it for a sale. It appears they're doing something similar. This time, Roku is selling, though Walmart, a device called the Roku LE.

This one is white, and it looks to be a Roku Express. I suspect it's model 3930 (the current Express). Maybe it's some left over Premiere devices (model 3920) but I doubt that.

It's a pretty good deal. I mean $15 for a Roku device is pretty good. The remote alone is $15. But that's not the only sale going on. You can find a Roku Streaming Stick 4K for $30, which is 40% off.

I think  that's a pretty good deal, too. This looks to be a good time to get a Roku if you're just starting out. The LE, even as a low end device, is still a good deal. And the price on the Streaming Stick 4K is hard to beat.

If you are looking to begin your Streaming Life, this is a good time for that. I've enjoyed mine for over a decade. I hope yours goes as well.

Best Animated Films

As I complete moving my movie collection from the old Plex server to the new one, I'm moving movies into collections. As part of my library, I decided a while back to get all of the movies that won the Academy Award for Best Picture. I wrote about that recently.

Best Picture winners aren't the only collections I have, though. A couple of decades ago, they added a new category: Best Animated Feature. The resurgence of animated films was the reason for the category. In 1991, for the first time, an animated film was nominated for Best Picture: Beauty and the Beast.

In 2001, the Academy added the new category, with Shrek taking the award.

When I decided to add Best Animated Feature to my library, I already had many of the movies that had won the award, but not all. However, once I made the decision, it was easy to get the ones I didn't have. Well, most of them. Spirited Away, which won in 2002, was hard to find at the time, but can be found easily today. It was the last one I got to complete my collection of that group of Oscar winners. There have been a couple of award ceremonies since then, and I've easily obtained that year's winner, if I didn't already have it.

My library now includes the Best Animated Feature collection:

• (2001) Shrek
• (2002) Spirited Away
• (2003) Finding Nemo
• (2004) The Incredibles
• (2005) Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
• (2006) Happy Feet
• (2007) Ratatouille
• (2008) WALL-E
• (2009) Up
• (2010) Toy Story 3
• (2011) Rango
• (2012) Brave
• (2013) Frozen
• (2014) Big Hero 6
• (2015) Inside Out
• (2016) Zootopia
• (2017) Coco
• (2018) Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
• (2019) Toy Story 4
• (2020) Soul

Most of these movies are ones I've enjoyed. Keep in mind, though, that I have them because they won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, not necessarily because I wanted to see them. But, I decided, and have kept with the decision, to get the award winners and watch them. Winning the award does interest me, so I don't mind putting the money into a good film. Of course, as with the Best Picture winners, there are some that I won't like.

Most of them are good films, and I'll continue to add the Best Animated Feature winners to my library, and my Streaming Life.

AMC+

I've not watched AMC in years. In fact, the last time I watched it, it was still American Movie Classics. Well, mostly.

I liked the old network, as well as Turner Classic Movies. The reason? Classic movies. Or movie classics. I love old movies. And when I had two great classic movie channels from which to choose, I was happy.

It hasn't gone by American Movie Classics in quite some time. I've never watched a show on AMC. Now, I have watch a show that aired on AMC, but I didn't watch it on AMC. I watched Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and Low Winter Sun. I started with catching up Breaking Bad after hearing good things about it, liked it, and bought the episodes. So, I watched them, but not on AMC.

Same with Better Call Saul. When it was announced, I bought the episodes as soon as they went on sale.

I'm trying to remember how I ran across Low Winter Sun. Probably on Amazon. I think they has a free preview of it. I liked it --Mark Strong and Lennie James are great actors -- and bought the season.

And, I know a lot of people like other shows that are on the network, but I haven't watched them. But, I just might.

You see, AMC+ is on sale. Heckuva price, I think. $2/month for a year. I might just give it a shot. Just, do I want to commit for a year? Well, if I tried it at regular price, that's $9/month. Three months would cost more than a year. So, if there's a time to try the service, this would be it.

Now, I need to determine if I want to give it a shot. I could do a 7-day free trial, but I'd need to make sure I had the time to set aside to five it an honest look. But really, who has that kind of time. So, if I did try it, and wanted to give it an honest try, I'd need to go a full month for sure.

This special is running for a few days, so I've got some time to decide. Do I have enough time to have another service in my Streaming Life? Or would it be a waste of money, despite how good the content might be?

Roku update issues

I promote myself as a long time cord-cutter/streamer. And I am that. And the streaming device I use the most is Roku. I've been a participant in Roku support forums for much of that time.

Recently, there have been a lot of reports form people complaining that their Roku devices aren't working properly after getting the update to OS 10.5.

Roku announced the update in September, and it is getting around to everyone's devices. Roku rolls out updates over a period of weeks and months. Not everybody gets it at the same time. That's probably in case things go bad, you don't have millions of users impacted all at once.

If that is the reason -- and yes, I believe it is -- then that recognizes that things can go wrong. That's not actually a bad thing, the acknowledgment that things can go wrong. Things often do go wrong, and it's nice that they aren't arrogant enough to say it will be perfect, and any problem isn't their fault.

Of course, just because it can be Roku causing an issue, that doesn't mean it is Roku causing an issue. That's why troubleshooting is needed. Try this, what happened? Try that, what happened? That's how troubleshooting works. Most people don't get that.

Another thing people don't like is when things go wrong. And, they shouldn't like it. They paid good money for a Roku device, and should get good use from it. Problems are, well, a problem.

I've watched many updates over the years, and this one seems to have more than others have had. Maybe it's just that so many more Roku users are there that it seems like more issues. However, a small percentage of a large number is bigger than a small percentage of a small number. It could be that the percentage of users with issues is in line with past releases, or even better than past releases. Still, it seems to have more issues.

The thing is, I've not had any issues with this update. I got the update on one device fairly quickly, but it's taken longer for other devices to get it. But my devices have the update, and everything works fine.

Why is it that I don't have issues that others have? Am I just lucky? I don't think so. I suspect I have more issues than I realize, but with my experience dealing with issues, I don't get all worked up, and take a careful measured approach to it. So maybe I am having the issues, but just deal with them better? I don't know.

My overall impression is that I don't have issues with Roku devices or updates. I know that's not actually the case, though. Heck, just recently, I had a Roku Ultra device die on me. So, I suppose I do have issues with Roku devices. However, it seems like I have fewer than most people.

Does attitude make the difference? Am I just lucky? I don't know. My Streaming Life is good. I'm not sure why it's better than some.

Philo adding another channel

While I don't use a live streaming service year-round, normally getting a service during football season only, I have tried all the major ones. One of my favorites is Philo. It has a good selection of channels, and is one of the lower priced services.

With Philo, there are no sports or news channels, but that's actually a good thing, in my mind. I used to watch a lot of TV news shows, but have since found that I'm happier not watching it. I still read the news, but I don't watch talking heads telling me what to think. If news was treated as news, that's one thing. But we have news being treated like a reality show. So, I don't care to watch it, as I think I get less informed watching news than how I get news today.

So, with news not a priority for a live streaming service, Philo is one of the best. And its getting better.

Remember how last month, it was announced that Frndly.TV was adding GAC Family and GAC Living to their lineup? Well, Philo has GAC Family already, but according to reports, is adding GAC Living within the next month.

Philo and GAC Media have agreed to a deal that will make both GAC Family and GAC Living available on Philo. GAC Family has already been carried by the service per an agreement with Discovery, but now, users will have access to the additional programming of GAC Living just in time for the holiday season. GAC Living is set to launch on Philo in early December.

This is a good thing. Of course, depending on what you want to watch, Frndly.TV may be a cheaper option than Philo. But, if the other content from Phil0 is worth it, then it's something you'll want to add.

At $25/month, Philo is a bargain, especially compared to the prices of the other services that carry it. Sling Blue plus Heartland Extra is $42/month. Hulu+Live TV with the Entertainment Add-on runs $73. Fubo with Fubo Extra is also $73.

While Frndly.TV is the cheapest way to get GAC Living, if you want a bit more, then Philo's new deal with GAC makes it an excellent choice to add GAC Living to your Streaming Life.