Roku 2 XS 1080p HD Streaming Video Player w/ Wi-Fi, Angry Birds & Motion Sensor Remote Control $64.99 f/s

interesting read

why are there so many roku refurbished? i wonder how the quality is

Yeah, I bout 500 of them for $19 on eBay over the past 2 months!!
(They were all cancelled.)



The user is referencing a post that was deleted by the moderators. The same type of "Roku XS for $19/$21/$26" posts pop up every week on SD, but we found out several months ago that all of these eBay posts were scammers.


It started with a few eBay sellers hacking the accounts of their 'rival' sellers. These targeted sellers were well established (95 to 99% satisfaction rating). Unfortunately, these hackers would post 200+ items of Roku XS for about $25, PS Vitas for about $55, etc. Since the user is locked out of their own account, eBay would eventually delete these user accounts, thereby eliminating these 'rival' sellers. In turn, the hackers who have their own legitimate eBay accounts would then be able to raise the price on all of their items because they have gotten rid of their major competitors.


Now we're seeing copy-cats who post these sought-after items. However, these copy-cats use brand new accounts with 0% satisfaction ratings. PayPal/eBay puts a hold of 30 days on fund paid to these sellers. Fortunately, these sellers quote that their items take about 45 days to ship, so they can pull the funds and close their accounts before they ever ship the item. Another variant of copy-cats will actually ship items to generate authentic shipment tracking numbers, but the buyers usually end up with a box containing a rock.


I don't know if the SlickDealer above was trolling, or if he actually believes erroneously that he will be receiving a Roku XS for $21. In any case, the moderators on this site deleted the thread after a couple of hours so you won't find a reference to it anymore. If you set up a deal notification/alert for "Roku", you can view the new threads that pop up once a week before they are eventually deleted by the mods.

Quality of the refurbs is good. Out of hte 250+ refurbished Roku 2 XS / XD I purchased this year, only 1 was doa. Some had issues with the remote not communicating with the unit, but a simple reset using the button on the back fixed it.

.

interesting read

why are there so many roku refurbished? i wonder how the quality is

Come on people... don't buy when it's high like this. Otherwise you'll make it less likely that they'll run it at $55 shipped or better. Buying now is counter productive. Wait a month...

Get the Roku and hook up a digital antenna (and digital receiver if your TV isn’t digital ready) and enjoy 80% of what cable can offer YMMV) at 20% of the cost (if not right then and now).

Get the Roku and hook up a digital antenna

Suggestions on an antenna? I checked tvfool.com and it looks like the towers by me for local channels are 10-13 miles away, mostly north-west... and I could use an indoor "set top" antenna to pick them up...

I’m no expert here, but I’ll share what I’ve experienced and what I’ve had success with. I first tried a set top antenna, a Phillips model SDV2210/27 retailed for $13.49 at Target that I picked up on clearance ~$3.37. It had both UHF and VHF antennas and a 12 position fine tuning knob that had a minor effect on dialing in channels. It worked ok, but I did occasionally loose reception resulting in a chopping stream.
In looking for something better, I came across a slickdeal.net from monoprice.com for an indoor/outdoor model that had an in line gain that adds 20 +/- 3db gain. The deal at the time was for about $14.00 each with free shipping if you bought two. The current price is around $18.00 + shipping. I initially hooked it up with a line to a nearby windows, (one on the first floor and another on the second floor) and the reception was much stronger then the Phillips. Just pulling in and out the powered gain let’s you see what the difference is. I’m ~ 18 miles from the source digital station antennas. My intention was to get these installed outside, but ~ 2 years later they are still just handing in my windows. They may look ghetto to my neighbors, but they are not that large and are white in color, so they blend in well with the white blinds / shades.

Here a link to the unit at monoprice.com :

http://www.monoprice.com/products...rmat=6#faq

Suggestions on an antenna? I checked tvfool.com and it looks like the towers by me for local channels are 10-13 miles away, mostly north-west... and I could use an indoor "set top" antenna to pick them up...

I bought two of these, and a splitter, and can pull in over 30 digital HD channels. Great investment!

interesting read

why are there so many roku refurbished? i wonder how the quality is

Come on people... don't buy when it's high like this. Otherwise you'll make it less likely that they'll run it at $55 shipped or better. Buying now is counter productive. Wait a month...

Come on people... don't buy when it's high like this. Otherwise you'll make it less likely that they'll run it at $55 shipped or better. Buying now is counter productive. Wait a month...