Roku was nice enough to upgrade our player for
Amazon Video on Demand a little early, and we're basically impressed -- although we're not in love with SD video and stereo audio, it's hard to complain about a free service update. Actually, that might be the best thing about the newly-rebranded Roku Video Player: Roku's opening the platform to third-party channels, so eventually the $99 box will be able to stream from all kinds of sources. Amazon is just the first additional channel built using the new tools, and for the most part, things work just like Netflix -- the interface has been only slightly modified to enable selecting content from the box itself instead of from your online queue. We're talking
really slightly: there's no search interface, so it's sort of like having lots of categorized queues. One minor complaint: the rental clock starts when you purchase content, not when you start playback, which isn't necessarily the most flexible setup, but it makes sense given the streaming-only nature of the service, we suppose. That said, purchasing is easy and fast, and we had no problems streaming in the highest-available quality on our 10Mbps cable connection -- Max Payne didn't look super-awesome in SD, but it was certainly watchable. Bottom line? It's perfect for a bedroom, but we're way more particular about the home theater -- Roku tells us the Video Player can actually do 1080i and 5.1 if the content is there, so hopefully we'll see someone leverage those capabilities and turn this thing into a $99 Apple TV / Vudu killer. Quick little demo vid after the break.
posted Mar 3rd 2009 8:02AM
Looks smooth, i just think price per movie needs to come down for both rentals and purchases.
Agreed. My local video store rents at $2.50 a movie, and I think that seems about fair.
How do purchases even work on this? I know that the Roku box has very little storage, I don't think enough even for a full movie. When I buy movies from Amazon Video on Demand...what happens to them, in regards to the Roku player? I'd love to see the price for these set at $4.99 for SD and $7.99 for HD. I bought one of these for my parents (which they love for Netflix streaming), and don't really need one for myself since I have HTPCs on every TV...but if the price of movies is right, I might look into getting one anyway to replace one of the older ones.
@hexydes
The Roku player is only for streaming. Once you've bought something through the player you're free stream it to your TV AND download in onto your computer for permanent storage. Anything you've bought will appear on the Roku player in a section for called Your Video Library and can be streamed at any time.
I looked at the Roku player for a second but, already having a PS3, I passed for PlayOn. I don't need Amazon video, especially when I already pay for Netflix and know that Netflix's Instant offerings are only going to grow in the coming year. Besides, I'd rather pay 40 bucks for Netflix Instant access, Hulu, YouTube, CBS and ESPN than I would 100 bucks for Netflix Instant, and a service that asks me to pay for access to movies I'm already paying for.
To be fair, Roku started with Netflix and said that was only the beginning. Now, we have Amazon Video on Demand. I've heard rumors of both Hulu and YouTube support coming along in the not-too-distant future. If that ends up being the case, I think I'm sold.
My opinion abaout ROKU;
At the begining when I purshase this product I wasn't very happy with it because it was when it first came out but like my husband said give them a little time and you'll see, so i did I waited a few month when I activated my account again and for my surprised they have add so many movies,and tv shows that I'm still amazed with my ROKU I loved every min. so is my family. It was money well spended. Thank you ROKU .
I was an early adopter of the Roku player and since I do not subscribe to cable, it's been a staple for me. I love the Roku player. Within 5 minutes of taking it out of the box, I was watching a movie. Just like that.
Side Note: I have no affiliation with them, but Jinni.com has been a fantastic and useful way of finding Instant Watch items that I might actually want to see. It integrates very smoothly with your Netflix account. It's a tool that I use all the time.
I'd like to be able to see and sort my instant watch queue in different ways (TV shows, dramas, by star rating, horror, comedy, etc..) and/or even be able to tag the movies on the website so I can more easily find the program I am looking for. It kind of sucks to flip through 50 slots, trying to find what you are looking for.
If you think you might like to rent a movie or TV show through Amazon, I highly recommend logging into your Netflix account and double checking to see if it's available via Instant Watch. There is often cross-over.
For example, you can currently rent Man on Wire through Amazon for $3.99; however, it's available for FREE right now through Netflix Instant Watch.
I'd love to see the CBS, NBC, ABC, cable networks and HULU make their content available through Roku too.