Loved my Roku :(…
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008Unfortunately for me, my wife discovered it and a couple of tv shows she likes, so I’ve been BOOTED! J/K Love you honey ;).
Sphere: Related ContentNetflix player part 3…
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008Ok so I am still in love with my netflix player by Roku, and have figured out a couple of things:
1. This thing freakin rocks, I have had absolutely no issues with streaming or quality (aside from movies that had shoddy quality to begin with but that’s another rant).
2. You obviously can only add 500 movies to your instant queue (yes I have been going on a movie/tv show adding binge, I admit).
I have caught up on some old classics (Class of Nuke’em High) as well as made some new friends (Tripping the Rift seasons 1/2 < freakin love this show), as well as some really good documentaries (Voices of Iraq, and the Devil comes on Horseback < this one is particularly moving as it is about the genocide that is going on in Darfur…) Enough for now, time to grab some food and go finish Volcano with Tommy Lee Jones and Anne Heche. Toodles.
Overall my recommendation is if you are waffling back and forth on the fence about whether you should get one, I would highly recommend investing in one, it is only (yeah I know) $100, and of course you have to have a netflix account, but if you don’t they have a 8.99 a month plan that is 1 dvd at a time and unlimited instant viewing, well worth the money IMHO. Thanks for reading.
Sphere: Related ContentNetflix player follow-up…
Friday, June 6th, 2008Ok so I have had my new Roku Netflix Player for a couple of days now so I wanted to give a couple of impressions. Here goes and I am being completely honest, I believe that the netflix player was one of the best expenditures I have ever made and here’s why:
1. They already have a respectable library of movies for people of all tastes from comedies to classics (classic comedies as well but I’ll try not to split hairs here), from foreign to horror and everything in between. The library isn’t huge right now (~11,000) but I have actually seen added stuff on a daily basis (i.e. stuff that wasn’t there the day before).
2. It is about the size of 3 stacked pieces of bread (what most would consider normal bread like white (blech)), and has component, composite, s-video, digital audio out and HDMI, not to mention it is either wired or wireless.
3. I have a considerably slower connection because of where I live, so my connection is at the base of the supported connection speeds (1.5MB down) and it still only takes about 3 mins (UPDATE: I am probably just being impatient, I haven’t actually timed it but I would guess even on my slow ass connection it is still ~1 to 1.5mins to start) tops for a movie to start streaming, and I have had no hiccups in the streaming whatsoever, so I would presume that if you have a faster connection it would work fabulously.
4. Extendable, by this I mean that the firmware can be upgraded as it was the first day that I plugged it in, there was a firmware update, and I hope to see them add some more functionality to the box itself.
Not really worth a number but the just an honorable mention, the fact that the setup is a breeze, anyone can walk through it and set that thing up in < 5mins (the only thing that might be difficult would be the wireless config, but that would come from the person not having the pertinent information about the wireless connection, i.e. the WEP/WPA key and the AP name).
I will post another follow up some time soon, but I think that the only issues I have with the box are minor and hopefully can be fixed via #4:
1. There are no subtitles on the movies (if you watch a foreign movie there are english subtitles) but it is not a selectable option, I would like to see this as an option for movies that provide it.
2. Right now you have to browse through netflix’s site and add things to your instant queue in order to watch them on the netflix player, like I said a minor issue, but for it to be completely stand alone a way to browse instant titles should be added to the box, and maybe an account that doesn’t have dvd’s but just instant access. I understand that the player is meant to suppliment the normal netflix account, but having an option to have a stand alone account just for people that just want to watch stuff instantly might be a good thing (but that’s just my humble opinion).
All in all best well worth the $100 dollar price tag, and I can’t wait to see where things go from here.
UPDATE: Another thing I thought of, the remote for the netflix player is sturdy, not made of cheapy plastics, it has a little heft and feels like it could take a beating. I was impressed by the feel of the remote.
Sphere: Related ContentNetflix player…
Wednesday, June 4th, 2008Yay, my Netflix Player arrived today and I am STOKED! I can’t wait to get home and try it out. I tried it real quick at work with pretty much unlimited bandwidth, so I am curious how it’ll work on my slow ass DSL link (and wireless ta boot). I’ll make sure to post a review in a few days, but so far I am liking what I am seeing.
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