Random Access Memories

I bought my wife a Roku Streaming Stick and an Amazon Fire Stick for Christmas in 2020. I purchased both because I am not tech savvy, and I had no idea which one would work with a gift subscription to BritBox. I also threw in a sound bar to complete the television theme.

We tried the Roku Stick first, and BritBox looked great, so the Roku was what we went with. I have no idea what happened to the Fire Stick. We were so impressed with the Roku in our living room that we canceled our cable service a month later. 

I bought a duplicate Streaming Stick for the basement TV. Eventually, of course, I bought a Roku from a thrift store.  

This is the SE Model that I picked up. Initially, I had assumed that all Roku models were created equal. 

I was wrong. When I bought this Roku in 2021, the SE was listed on the Roku website as a model that was no longer being manufactured, but it could still run the latest Roku operating system. 

The SE has now become a "legacy" model that has been discontinued. It cannot run a newer Roku OS version, and cannot be used to run IDK apps. I Don't Know what an IDK app is (dad joke). On the surface, the SE model still works fine.

The home screen looks normal.

The scrolling screensaver looks good, too. (Am I the only one who was disappointed when they added ads to the screensaver?)

But this Roku model has a weird quirk. Netflix is stuck in time. 

Netflix changed their logo back in 2014, but my Roku didn't get the memo. It still thinks that the year is 2013. This is what Netflix looks like upstairs:

Here's the Netflix's home screen:

There are no individual profiles to pick from. The app defaults to the primary account holder. Searching for a movie or a program requires you to select each letter of the complete title. The loading time is slow. You also need two remotes because the Roku remote cannot control the TV.  

So, this is what streaming was like back in the day?

Yes. And I think that's cool. 

Sure, I could invest in a new Roku streamer. But that would not give me the same clunky experience. This makes me laugh.

Another benefit of using a Roku SE is the feeling of time travel. To get the full effect, I turn down the lights and manually search for a show like The Blacklist which was new in 2013.

Not only do I get a great show, it feels like I went back ten years in time to watch it.

Too bad Netflix doesn't show commercials for Pepsi Next or Doritos Jacked.

I end up being vintage even when I try to be modern. I guess I'm just a "legacy" kind of a guy.