Well...I've been wanting a new larger TV for our living room and a couple years ago I started looking at reviews. Within an hour, I found what I wanted, but never had the extra cash. I found an article from a professional "TV reviewer" where he rated TVs and gave suggestions for the "best" one, in different categories. All were pretty high ($1200 and up) as I recall, but the last paragraph was headed by a bold headline "Best TV For The Money, ANYWHERE". It named the TCL 65" Roku edition, and the paragraph summed up it's very good performance in about all areas. It ran about $700-$800 usually.
I had been keeping an eye on this model and reading other positive reviews on it, but never could find the extra cash being that my wife felt the 20 year old 48" Panasonic we have is "fine", and she controls the main budget. If I had extra money, it went on guns, knives, and travel 😁. Before Thanksgiving, this TV showed up as a WalMart Black Friday special for $228 😵. I was able to get one online (I wouldn't have WENT to WalMart on Black Friday even for that price.)
As I type this, a friend is on his way over to help me put it up. I wanted to share my joy, but also to throw this out: I know nothing about Roku. I'm open to any advise or info you folks might have for me. I first became aware of Roku through a friend who is a magistrate and they have a Roku TV in their office. He said that the BASE Roku package with the TV was better than his streaming service (don't know if that still is the case though).
Also, we are devout, militant "cord cutters" for about 20 years now. We pay for NO streaming of any kind (not Netflix, Hulu, Prime, etc.) We tinkered with a "jailbreak" Firestick for a while but that's it. I want advice on Roku but when I've ask around everyone ASSUMES "everybody" pays for multiple streaming services. I get advise phrased like "Yeah it's simple to mesh with your Netflix and Disney..." or "you'll still log in with your ******* account" or whatever. It is my understanding that there is a "base" Roku that is free, or I can pay to get a better package(?)
So having NO paid streaming service, talk me through from there to get good channels...
I had been keeping an eye on this model and reading other positive reviews on it, but never could find the extra cash being that my wife felt the 20 year old 48" Panasonic we have is "fine", and she controls the main budget. If I had extra money, it went on guns, knives, and travel 😁. Before Thanksgiving, this TV showed up as a WalMart Black Friday special for $228 😵. I was able to get one online (I wouldn't have WENT to WalMart on Black Friday even for that price.)
As I type this, a friend is on his way over to help me put it up. I wanted to share my joy, but also to throw this out: I know nothing about Roku. I'm open to any advise or info you folks might have for me. I first became aware of Roku through a friend who is a magistrate and they have a Roku TV in their office. He said that the BASE Roku package with the TV was better than his streaming service (don't know if that still is the case though).
Also, we are devout, militant "cord cutters" for about 20 years now. We pay for NO streaming of any kind (not Netflix, Hulu, Prime, etc.) We tinkered with a "jailbreak" Firestick for a while but that's it. I want advice on Roku but when I've ask around everyone ASSUMES "everybody" pays for multiple streaming services. I get advise phrased like "Yeah it's simple to mesh with your Netflix and Disney..." or "you'll still log in with your ******* account" or whatever. It is my understanding that there is a "base" Roku that is free, or I can pay to get a better package(?)
So having NO paid streaming service, talk me through from there to get good channels...
