Roku Netflix Player hands-on, first impressions
By Ryan Block 
posted May 21st 2008 8:31PM
posted May 21st 2008 8:31PM
- The box is extremely small and light; looking inside, it just looks like a single, small PCB.
- Most of the vertical space it does consume seems to be for its myriad ports, including composite, component, S-Video, HDMI, and TOSLINK.
- The guided setup out of the box is really brief and painless. It supports 802.11b/g with WEP, WPA, and WPA2, and we were online in a cinch. Activating the box is as simple as hitting netflix.com/activate and entering a short code -- really easy and instantaneous.
- The remote looks cheap at first blush, but it's actually got a pretty good feel to it. The buttons are clikier than they are mushy.
- The interface, at its best, is simple and slick looking. It has almost no options and is ridiculously straight-forward. The interface, at its worst (namely, during movie playback), is still pretty decent, but lacks some polish.
- While fast-forwarding, you get still image markers to help indicate progress. It's nicety to ease the pain of skipping through streaming video (which we know presents some unique technological challenges), but it can use a little work. Chapter/scene markers, as in the Apple TV, would be a good start.
- Movie selection is done completely within Netflix's site, so don't expect to do any browsing through the device interface. If you want to load and watch any content on the box, you have to make sure it's in your Netflix Instant Queue through a browser. This part is definitely the biggest drawback for power users, but it does ensure a crazy simple device UI with zero learning curve.
- Movies don't load instantly (even on a 25Mbps connection), but they do load pretty quickly.
- Video quality is so-so. Definitely worse than a DVD and not even quite up to a standard def Apple TV vid. But it's certainly passable, and Netflix seems genuinely interested in bumping up the visual fidelity in the future.
- We saw some really wacky stuff going on with the HDMI, and the device did not play well at all with our HDMI switch. Roku let us know they're aware of some HDMI problems, and will be pushing out bug fixes and software updates as they're completed.
- Netflix dispatched a team of a couple dozen engineers to Roku to build the Netflix Player. Netflix didn't want to be the only hardware partner (which we already know), but clearly wanted to make sure whomever released the first box really nailed it.
- Netflix (and Roku) understand that the device's value doesn't just end with playing back Netflix content, and anticipate the box having content coming in from other providers as partnerships get hammered out.
- The box only outputs at 480i (over composite and S-Video) and 480p (over component and HDMI), although Roku will enable HD content (and menus) as soon as Netflix gives the thumbs-up. From the sound of things, it seems like they want to do this sooner than later, which we clearly hope they will.
As most of the former customers of Roku know, Roku makes a lot of promises but tends to under-deliver. Their past products had fatal flaws that were never corrected. I would wait until another manufacturer comes out with a product for Netflix service.
Maybe that's why Netflix dispatched a score of engineers to hold Roku's hand, a healthy precedent maybe?
not that I have a f***cking clue what I'm talking about.
Netflix will surely work with Roku to make another little box that may or may not be better.... they shall call it.... Rohan
Looks like it could double as a piggybank.
:)
I thought it was a new type of Barbeque
The quality looks like a bootleg movie. You know the kind you get in china town...
What's your 'net speed? The box will handle a 2mbps data stream which is FAR above "China town" quality.
Well, I guess you have to get broadband instead of AOL dial up then.
Has anyone try the Netflix box yet???? i heard the movies available Suck, & that some of the tittles available are of movies most people have never even heard off, is it true???
It is true.
Wait... Is there a movie called "Suck?"
The capitalization tells me so. :-D
They started shipping today. The people that opted for FedEx 2-day will see them tomorrow.
Looks like the first consumer shipment hit...
http://forums.rokulabs.com/viewtopic.php?p=93242#93242
The definition of "suck" depends on your preference in movies. I watch a lot of stand-up comedies, documentaries, and indie flicks, which Netflix has a robust selection of on instant view, so, for me, no it does not "suck". That being said, NF has slowly expanded the selection to more popular titles, and ultimately it is in their interest to do so, because that means they don't have to pay the shipping costs for DVDs.
I was going to buy one until I realized I can do this same thing without the Roku box on my PC.
Thanks Netflix - unlimited streaming movies for $8.99/mo. Now bring out that version for my Xbox.
no usb, no hard drive support, no divx, no hd = fail
Seeing as this device is solely for the purpose of streaming Netflix movies, I fail to see how any of those features (other than HD, which the box is already built to handle) are relevant or necessary.
@Sonic_13...
Correct. The people that are bashing this box simply don't get it. Yes, you can do this now on your 360. What if you're an old fart with a Netflix account that can't handle a game controller (I prefer keyboard/mouse) and don't want to drop $300-500 for a 360 just to do this?
This was an EASY sale for me.
If you're bashing it, you don't get it, and that's okay - it's obviously not for you.
Or what if you only want to pay $9/month for unlimited movies?
WAOH! Engadget said something rivals Apple! It must be good! I'm going now, going to buy 10000 of these little buggers.
They lied. This doesn't even come close to AppleTV. This Roku is just a $2 metal box box with a $5 circuit board in it with non-existent customer service support.
This is still a good barebones entry into streaming movies. A decent complement to their main business of mailing movies. Just not quite yet a replacement.
I'm sorry to hear that you refuse to acknowledge any product other than Apple... You're loss. Although, not really in this case.
If it's a $5 board, let's see you hack together your own ;)
@ steffen
If this is a 7 dollar product, why would you need customer service support?
You should be ashamed of yourself...
Wish Cardiff had a Chinatown! (look it up its the capital of Wales)
I totally conquered that in Civilization 2.
That's right, I beat Boadicea
Bloody Torchwood!
meant to be a reply to the comment mentioning chinatown, I blame the booze
I also blame the booze, a vendor took us out and it is taking all my will power to properly type each word, grammar is a whole nother can of worms.
that was meant to be a reply to my out of context post, now im blaming engadget
you can already do this if you have a xbox and vista MC. http://myweb.cableone.net/eluttmann04/projects/vmcNetFlix/default.htm
Really? You can get unlimited movies for a $100 one time cost plus $9/month from Xbox 360 and Media Center?
Please tell us how.
Can this barbie-box help me? I had been happily watching Netflix's Instant View movies at my leisure when suddenly my Trend Micro PC-cillin 12 raised it ugly head and blocked my Firefox-Google IE. I worked with technicians at both Netflix and PC-cillin to no avail. Nobody can help me unblock the URL for want of a password that never existed. Trend Micro's program even blocks some downloads.
Anyway, can I use this thingy to stream Netflix movies without it's having to pass a security check?
"From the sound of things, it sounded like something they want to do this sooner than later, which we clearly hope they will."
Proofreading FTW
I use Netflix's Instant Play feature all the time. Here are my thoughts on video quality:
- New material, like 30 Rock episodes for example, are easily DVD quality.
- Some older movies look sub-DVD quality, but that is probably due to quality of filming at the time the movie was shot.
Also, my movies (on about a 1-2mbps internet connection) almost always load instantly (within 10 seconds).
I'd really like to know how this was tested. Was the video quality tested on an HD TV (in which case the video would be stretched out, and thus look worse)? Were you testing with older films (which don't look as great as new films/shows)?
Same here. Test data please. A lot of movies on instant watch look really good for their time IF you get the max quality and loading is a few short seconds as well.
I'd also like Engadget to post a video of the picture quality.
If roku would pull their collective head out of these ass, they would have something that would smoke the Apple TV (which isn't anything special in the first place). Their Photobridge was ahead of its time, the support from Roku (the third party support rocked) was just not there. Their open concept was a great idea, just too limited for a small group of people to keep up with.
What I am bitter and torn about is their lack of support with the photobridge. Great product, poor support. However, their soundbridge is living the lime life and has not been dropped from Roku. Basically, the company has a lot of potential and their products could be awesome.
where it would kill is if i could use the browser to enable my hotel room internet access so i could stream movies using their internet to my room when i'm on the road
You should be able to do that.
Would be a whole lot better if Netflix had all of its library online as well. That would make it completely better than the Apple TV.
Aw, come on, tell me that is a typo and its 802.11b/g/N, not just b/g.
Why do you want N? You can't make use of the extra bandwidth... Just set your router to Auto.
1) It doesn't need the bandwidth yet-Netflix is promising higher quality movies without upgrading the box, just thru software. No "N" means they are going to lower the bitrate.
2) I would prefer to run my N network at full 5Ghz speed. I just figured most wireless devices released in 2008 would support N by now.
Why would you need that much bandwidth? A normal g connection should be plenty for internet hd quality. Its not like your streaming a blu-ray.
How many people actually have faster-than-54Mbps DSL or cable connections?
In all honesty, it's probably fine with 802.11b, given the bottleneck is the customer's Internet connection, not the wireless connection. If it's important to you though, you can always use the Ethernet port. If you absolutely must have 802.11N wireless, consider getting a gaming adapter.
Does engadget just have some massive pool of cash for purchasing every gadget ever made?
Well, it's a good start. Once it matures a bit I think it'll be a real contender.
Don't waste your money . . . on a completely unrelated note, I have lots of Roku gear that doesn't work for sale if you want to throw your money away. I'm sure this will be no different.
I think it's a little TOO barebones... I mean, it's another box with very limited functionality. It does its job, but at this rate I'd have to stack everything from the floor to the ceiling
I'd love to see a video demonstration (youtube) to get an idea how the interface looks/moves.
Check the read links from here:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/20/roku-reveals-first-netflix-set-top-box-gets-reviewed/
Oops! Thanks for that reply. My pop-up blocker prevented me from seeing the PC Magazine video when I checked earlier, which was exactly what I was looking for
This one is another vapor ware, XBox or PS3 has much better value.
Do you even know what vapor ware is? (Hint: it doesn't physically exist)
Wait, this is not good with everyone throwing stones.
I currently view their videos and movies on my laptop on wireless. And yes once in a while it slows, but i blame my other computers sucking bandwidth. But those that are comparing this to Xbox and PS3 and a PC or Vista of some sort. But I'm tired of having 2 and 3 devices on sucking power.
This thing looks like it it runs on nothing when it comes to power consumption. And it's simple to use from reviews. Just load a queue on Netflix and view them when i want. I don't rent videos on Xbox and think its crap for the rental periods and the prices. This is GREAT when you have the option for $9 a month to view all the movies and shows, even though some might disagree with what it good. But then again i hate most movies on the top 100 rentals, and treat them as being buzz titles that are considered great because the actors in them.
People don't get big picture. I have been with Netflix for 5 years and they have only been offering streaming video for a year and they are breaking 10,000. This is a gateway product, and yes i look forward to others and hope more vendors come sooner than later. But this very well could be a great catalyst for Netflix to offer more videos to their lineup.
And if Microsoft or Sony offer an update for their machines to accept streaming data directly from Netflix without extra hardware or PC support that would be great but i honestly don't see how these two giants will allow one to circumvent DLC for free.
And yes there is the potential of this being Vaporware but for $100, that is a reasonable gamble i am willing to take. I adopted early to HD-DVD and still use it to this day.
Is there anywhere where I can see a complete list of the 10,000 big library of videos that are currently available? Id want to check it out to make sure its worth it to me if I were to get this.
I've tried everywhere, including netflix's site, but I couldn't find a list anywhere.
http://www.netflix.com/BrowseSelection
Did someone proofread this? There are several silly typos.
"rival the Apple TV "? Are you kidding?
1) There are NO new releases. There are only old catalog titles available to watch. Apple TV has new releases and soon it's getting new releases on the same day as DVD releases.
2) The quality sucks even for streaming. Not even close to DVD quality.
Most of Apple's standard titles are near DVD-quality.
3) Not only bad standard quality, but no HD titles available. AppleTV has an expanding catalog of HD titles.
4) You can not browse movies on the interface. It only pulls movies from your Netflix.com list. The Apple TV has an intuitive, easy-to-use interface
for watching trailers and browsing movies.
In addition, the AppleTV can do much more than just stream rental movies from the iTunes store. It can sync with your iTunes library, and you can access all your pictures/slideshows, music, movies, and other media content. It also has an extensive hacking community that has basically turned it into a Mac computer. For only $229, its a great deal.
On the other hand, the netflix box works with the unlimited monthly subscriptions of Netflix, which is great if you watch a lot of movies. And of course it is cheaper at only $99.
I had an Apple TV, but I sold it because I never wanted to spend $4 or $5 to rent a movie, or $10 - $20 to buy a digital-only version of a DVD.
How much would it cost you to watch the entire 5th Season of Penn & Teller's Bullshit! on your Apple TV?
It would cost you $20.00 -- That's how much.
On the Netflix/Roku the same season of Bullshit! would cost you $9.99 and then you'd still be able to watch every other season of that show, plus the entire run of "Weeds", "Dexter", "Quantum Leap", "Xena", "The Tick", and great movies like "Ghostbusters 2", "Blade Runner", "Network", "High Plains Drifter", and "Unforgiven."
All for that same $9.99
If you rented or purchased all those things from the Apple TV, you'd be at well over $100 spent in your iTunes account!
There's just no contest. Yeah, there are newer movies on iTunes, but if I want those I can just as easily put them in my queue on Netflix and have them one day later... For the same $9.99
And that's not even considering the cost of the box itself.
I think this has promise. But I don't see how it can deliver any kind of acceptable performance with a 64MB buffer. And, we'll have to wait and see how the quality turns out. But I don't find this a bad idea at all.
Does anyone know about the compression and how it compares with a rented dvd? The picture and soundtrack, are they as good and 5.1 audio, it is more compressed? What about disc extras, do they stream after the movie?
New titles (such as 30 Rock episodes for example) are easily DVD quality. Older movies can range, but in the worst case they are VHS and above.
Stereo sound only and no extra features.
Roku, like "six" right? Like...Stage6? I smell conspiracy...
- can't play ripped DVDs and BlueRays
- no ripped music
- no home movies
- no photos
- no internet radio
- no podcasts
- no purchase movies
- no YouTube
- no Flikr
wtf! how does this challenge AppleTV again..?
i get this and i still need an AppleTV... looks like a waste of space and money to me.
forgot... and the video quality sucks ass... why does this exist again?
I'm guessing you've never even used the service if you are complaining about video quality (that or you have terrible internet service). Old titles look great and new titles are DVD quality.
- can't play ripped DVDs and BlueRays
Watch them on your computer, or HEY, here's a novelty: On your DVD player or Blu-Ray player.
- no ripped music
Because we all need to listen to music on our television.
- no home movies
That sounds exciting.
- no photos
Yawn. I can connect my camera to my TV if I want to do that.
- no internet radio
Again. Computer does this fine.
- no podcasts
Again. Computer does this just fine.
- no purchase movies
That's what you use your DVD or Blu-Ray player for. Bonus: you have physical media to keep.
- no YouTube
It looked like crap on an HDTV. I know. I had an Apple TV.
- no Flikr
Oh, who gives a crap? I don't have a Flickr account, and I don't give a damn about my friends' crappy photos-- At least, not enough to watch them on my TV.
How many non-ripped movies and TV shows can you watch on the Apple TV for $10 a month?
NOT. EVEN. ONE. SEASON. OF. A. SHOW!
You can buy ONE movie from iTunes for that price, or rent TWO movies for that (with almost enough left over to afford a single TV show episode).
For $10 on Apple TV, you can get five episodes of a TV show in DVD quality (TV shows are not HD on Apple TV).
For $10 on Roku/Netflix, you can get A HUNDRED episodes, providing you have time to watch that many, in DVD quality.
I'm sorry; I love Apple. I'm an Apple fan. I liked my Apple TV, but this BLOWS IT AWAY in terms of value. I can do without Flickr, YouTube, and the ability to stream my music to the TV room (that's what I've got a laptop for). The ability to watch any of 10,000 movies or shows for one low fee every month is of far greater value to me than some lame-ass Flickr access.
- can't play ripped DVDs and BlueRays
Watch them on your computer, or HEY, here's a novelty: On your DVD player or Blu-Ray player.
> i've kind of invested a lot of money in a 52 inch flat screen and a pretty expensive home theater sound system that it might be kinda nice to utilize for watching movies ... what a dumb ass... i like to sit down and watch a movie the way the director actually intended it to be watched... good video, good sound. don't tell me... you're a student... have fun watching movies on your shitty, tiny computer screen, and crappy computer speakers.. maybe when you graduate you can get yourself a real system to watch your movies on and you'll know what i'm talking about.
also you might like to join the rest of us here in the year 2008... Sony might not know it, you might not know it, but Netflix and Ruko and Apple and many others realize it.. physical media sucks... REALLY BAD! it's on it's last legs... in fact, that's the reason this Netfix box exists... c'mon man get a clue! I access all my media from a click of a button from a comfortable sofa in my living room, with a great screen and great sound. no more searching through and storing 100s of DVDs and CDs... what used to take up a wall in the living room now takes u a tiny space... sits on 2TB of hard drives in the office (4 tiny HDD that are backed up). just finding or knowing what you have to watch with physical media sucks... you have to look through hundreds of cases, then take the thing out, walk over the player, eject, put the thing in, wait and wait for the FBI warning, sometimes even wait through commercials, click through menus.. complete BS.. then when you're done you gotta do the reverse... physical media sucks ass!!! i sit on my couch and click through menus... click on the movie and it starts... it's so easy to access movies that sometimes i just find myself watching scenes from movies that i like... i would never do that with physical media since the process is so long and painful in comparison. you can always tell someone who hasn't used a media streamer/server.. they just don't get how much, how they access their media now really sucks... and no more scratched discs when my nieces and nephews come over... like i said physical media sucks ass!
- no ripped music
Because we all need to listen to music on our television.
> no, i like to listen to my music through a very expensive sound system in my living room that my appleTV is attached to through my very expensive receiver.. you might think that your logitech computer speakers really rock LMAO!... but gotta tell you.. they are shite!! what a joke!! did you actually think about your response before you wrote it?
- no home movies
That sounds exciting...
> it is actually!
- no photos
Yawn. I can connect my camera to my TV if I want to do that.
> again.. i have access to everything with a few clicks... you need to store and find the disc or the flash stick or whatever you use, put it it you camera walk over to the TV plug it in etc, etc... again it's bullshit... a few click and i'm watching my photos.
- no internet radio
Again. Computer does this fine.
> again... you might think your crappy computer speakers rock.. but i'd kinda like to be able to have access to all my music with a few clicks and play that music on a really good sound system that resides in my living room...
- no podcasts
Again. Computer does this just fine.
> see above... there are even HD video podcasts that look great on a bigger screen.
- no purchase movies
That's what you use your DVD or Blu-Ray player for. Bonus: you have physical media to keep.
> there is this new thing that came out yesterday, i think.. it's called backup software.. not only that, most of my movies are ripped from DVDs so i have the physical media as well anyway... they sit in a storage closet in albums... hopefully i never have to look at that crappy medium again... again who the hell wants to sort through, store, and be putting in and taking out physical media.. don't want to deal with it.... i'm lazy... everything from the push of a button from my sofa, that's the ticket.
- no YouTube
It looked like crap on an HDTV. I know. I had an Apple TV.
> yes youTube looks like crap.. but the stuff you are looking at on there is not for quality, it's just to see something funny or interesting or to see something that you just can't see anywhere else.. so you aren't looking for quality anyway
- no Flikr
Oh, who gives a crap? I don't have a Flickr account, and I don't give a damn about my friends' crappy photos-- At least, not enough to watch them on my TV.
> me either but lots do... and it's not available on the Netflix box
How many non-ripped movies and TV shows can you watch on the Apple TV for $10 a month?
> that's probably the only really good use for this box is to watch TV Shows.. other than that it sucks ass!!
> and know this.. as soon as they put good movie content on there... not the bargain bin crap they have on their now... believe this you are going to have to start paying they same price as you are going to pay from iTunes, Vudu or whoever else... the studios will see to that... this low price they have now is because the current content is complete CRAP!
>So other than some of the TV shows... that i can record on my DVR or TV card on my computer and import into iTunes and watch on AppleTV for FREE anyway... i guess in your world $0 is more than $10 or whatever your Netflix account costs you... the box is an extremely limited functionally and has cheep content that most of which i can get for free elsewhere anyway.
You DO realize that anything I can watch on my computer in HD, I can put on my HDTV in 1080P, don't you? My Mac is a "real system" that handles a lot more than an Apple TV.
I have all my DVDs stored on my Mac. I can watch them anywhere, whether it be in 720P on the MacBook's screen, or in 1080P on my HDTV (or someone else's). I have nothing against digital media-- I just don't like that Apple TV makes you PURCHASE or RENT anything you want to view. With Netflix, I pay $10 a month and can watch a ton of movies.
And what's this "when you graduate" crap? I'm a 37-year-old optician. Quite secure in my career. Kindly refrain from trying to sound superior because think you're older than the average Engadget reader.
Netflix's Watch Instantly selection is decent enough for people who appreciate classics and TV shows. Maybe you don't have the patience for movies older than a few years old, but I happen to think the selection on Netflix is pretty decent. I have my Instant Watch queue filled with 500 items. I would have more, but that's all they allow you to store in the queue.
Here's a sampling of the "crap" you claim they have:
Beetlejuice
Superman The Movie
Blade Runner
JFK
Unforgiven
Network
Planet of the Apes
Fahrenheit 451
Men in Black
High Plains Drifter
THX 1138
2001: A Space Odyssey
Eyes Wide Shut
The Road Warrior
Slaughterhouse Five
A Streetcar Named Desire
Real Genius
Ghostbusters (1 & 2)
Tootsie
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Liar Liar
Stand By Me
The Shining (limited time, but it was there)
Shaft
Westworld
The Seven Year Itch
The Disorderly Orderly
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
The Day the Earth Stood Still
The Evil Dead
Jerry Maquire
Somewhere in Time
Talk Radio
Glory
Empire of the Sun
Team America: World Police
Ladyhawke
Absolute Power
The Sum of All Fears
Happy Gilmore
...and a lot more. That's not even counting TV shows like The Tick, The Office (BBC and American versions), Weeds, and lots of classic shows.
Apple TV doesn't have these movies, and Netflix is adding to the list daily. They'll have HD content by next year, most likely.
That's worth $99 plus $9 a month for ME. Maybe you prefer different things, but with a queue filled with 500 videos to watch (whenever I want, for no extra fee), I'll be quite busy with the Netflix player, and it will be well worth the hundred bucks.
more i read the worse it gets.. the list continues...
- no Dolby Digital 5.1
- no picking content from the GUI
- only standard def.
- crappy bargain bin movies that no one wants to watch anyway... this should be of concern because this is how the can charge so little for the service.. if they start adding movies that aren't from the bargain bin they're going to have to up the price... you buy your $100 device with you free or $10 service and a few months down the road you're going to have to start paying.. at least for the good content... think about... it they can't just give away content that the studios are expecting to make money on... you are going to have a very limited box that's going to end up with the same pricing as all the other boxes out there.
@ Sonic_13 i have read quite a few reviews... and none, including this one has ever said the video quality is DVD quality... it's always sub DVD, some say VHS... and all have said the the quality even if you have the highest bandwidth is "soft", "Quality is not great" etc..
HD will be implemented later, as will advanced audio codecs, once Netflix gets the content online. (Probably by next year)
You can pick content from your queue with the GUI. You have a limit of 500 items in the queue. I just fill it from my laptop, and then work off the list of 500 items... That takes a while.
They're adding more movies as time goes on, and I wouldn't call the list I made above "crappy bargain bin movies" -- Unless you have no taste in film and just want to watch modern crap like "I, Robot" and "Epic Movie" over and over. In that case, yeah, stick with Blockbuster.
I just ordered one after vista MC failing to play in vmware to my 360. Anyone got pictures of the insides?
I don't know people compare this to AppleTV. It's a very different type of product.
AppleTV is a media player that also plays purchased/rented movies.
Roku player, at least right now, is an inexpensive streaming in tool for the Netflix service, not a general purpose media player.
Totally different.
Netflix should work with Toshiba to add streaming support to existing HD-DVD players. All HD-DVD players can decode H.264, MPEG2 and VC1, plus they have ethernet. If a firmware update could be added to support Netflix then that would be awesome. There are supposedly 100k standalone HD-DVD players in the wild. My HD-A2 is basically collecting dust since Netflix dumped HD-DVD. I'd love to move it to the bedroom and use it to watch Netflix and the occasional DVD. Netflix would immediately see a huge jump in their subscriber base, and Toshiba would win a few people back over the HD-DVD debacle.
Improve tech; unplug your inner fanboy!!!
This is a great first effort, but I won't be buying it. Not enough recent releases - not enough worthwhile content yet. There's some, but not enough.
1.) Netflix will need to quadruple the choices they have (at least), most of which will need to be good content, not just old movies and crap no one will ever want to watch.
2.) They'll need to offer HD.
3.) They'll need to improve the menu system so we can manipulate our queue's from the TV. I don't want to have to run to my computer first to add things that the box will pick up, and then run to my TV to watch it (as I've heard happens to be the process). That's just a miss.
4.) They'll also need to offer chapters, and access to special features, and so on, because let's face it... streaming stinks. Hopefully, they'll make streaming a more pleasant experience with these and other upgrades.
5.) And they'll need to make the box look better, because it's plain jane and ugly.
But thanks for the integrated WiFi, though, Netflix! (Microsoft, TiVo, and Sling could learn a thing or two from you with their boxes).
And thanks for the effort! Something is better than nothing.
What is the operating temperature of this thing? The amount of heat that the ATv gives off is rather surprising (until you realize its one big heat sink. But still surprising).
1) At CES LG & Netflix announced a set-top Box
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/1/five_questions_about_lgs_netflix_movie_devices
2) I happen to have a 6.0 Mbps DSL connect and a Vista Home Premium with S-Video out.
It works great...
The advantage of a box like this is that i wouldn't have to have wires running across the room, but for $100, I can run wires across the room.
Here is a (long) list of all the titles available in Netflix Instant Watching... someone was asking for it... not great great stuff, but probably enough to get your $9 a months worth.
http://weathernuts.com/netflix_instant_watch.htm
There is a 2 week waiting period for new orders, according to the Roku site, so they must be doing pretty well!
Frankly I'd rather save my money and wait for netflix to get a clue and set up instant viewing for macs...then I can stream them to my tv whenever I want and skip the $100 paperweight.
As a Mac owner, I feel your pain, but it's not Netflix's fault. It's Apple's fault. They won't support the DRM necessary to make the studios happy-- Possibly because they don't want competition with iTunes-- and netflix has said that as soon as Quicktime supports DRM when playing streamed content from the web, the studios will give them the OK to allow the Mac.
You know, you could do like I do and just boot into Windows or use virtualization. It works pretty well. It's worth it for the amount of movies you can watch on demand.
Thought I'd just add a note .. seeing the conversation here .. (I was looking for reviews) and I got the impression there was a "quality versus poor college kids thing" debate going on. I've got a ton of mac hardware and a 52" samsung 1080p TV (w/ the ps3 doing dvd upscaling and blu-ray) and I think this is ideal
For anything better quality we can always just get the blu-ray's or hds from netflix basically next day. Its $100 box for that day instant gratification, coupled w/ the fact that you can pretty much get any dvd/blu-ray next day, it really seems like a deal. Don't think of it was the end all and be all, but think of it just for casual watching, for everything else just wait a day for it to show up in your mailbox.
I have the Roku unit and Netflix. I have had no issue with the unit and picture quality is very good. No, it's not high def like some want/need but I like the classics and it's frankly as good as store-bought DVD. My issue with this "solution" is not the box (it's flawless) it's with Netflix. They need to speed up/ramp up the conversion of content and make ALL of their stuff available through this service. They need to (as fast as the studios will allow) get new releases converted and uploaded sooner. Mailing/Re-Mailing DVD's through the US Mail is ridiculous and it's time to move on away from that model.