Roku?

[€uroMeinke]

Having put our DVDs into binders and ripped all our CDs, I'm finding the concept of the Roku (http://www.roku.com/default.aspx)player rather compelling. I'm sure there will be some titles or cuts missing from their inventory but it seems they'd have just about anything commercially available, but I see this as a better alternative to a Blu Ray player.

Anyone have one already? Any thought?

[Ghoulish Delight]

We don't have Roku, but our TiVo provides mostly the same functionality. It works great. Quality suffers a bit, and on the TiVo, ffwd and rwd are somewhat painful as compared to a DVD/blu-ray. Don't know if Roku would be any better. But in terms of being able to watch a large selection at the touch of a button, these services work wonderfully.

[Moonliner]

Does the Roku allow for on-demand movies (aka pay-per-view) or does it just support the movies you can stream to a PC via Netflix?

Cuz if it's the latter then you won't be getting any new release movies on it.

[Alex]

Just Netflix for now. I believe they are working to expand it to other things.

I'm much enjoying the Roku so far (I haven't watched one of my mailed discs in quite a while). Some drawbacks:

1. Almost everything available from Netflix is not almost available via Roku. Of my 400+ queue only about 75 are available streaming.

2. Starz (the cable channel) is the source of a fair number of the newer stuff and they seem to still present most movies in fullscreen rather than widescreen.

3. No subtitles for English language movies (generally, when available I prefer to watch everything with subtitles - my hearing sucks and this lets me keep the volume at neighborly levels).

4. Only one audio track for foreign language movies so it may be dubbed or subtitled and you can't change it.

5.This is a streamed service so sometimes you do lose buffer while watching the movie and have to wait for it to restart. Netflix seems to still be working on the size of their pipe. Buffering problems (for me anyway) are worst on Thursday and Friday evenings.

6. If you have a large Instant queue the navigation is arduous since you can only scroll through the list linearly.

Pluses:

1. If a lot of movies you want to see are available, this can significantly improve the cost benefit ratio of your existing Netflix package since you are now limited only by the time you have to watch.

2. Super easy set up. It was literally 10 minutes from box opening to starting my first title.

3. If you've streamed movies to your computer from Netflix you might have questions about the image quality. Even on the best connection I found that there was a fair amount of artifacting. I do not see that with Roku (unless I get bumped down to a lower quality stream).

[CoasterMatt]

I don't see the need for something like this, but my TV is my computer screen, too.

[flippyshark]

Lack of original language (with subtitles) and lack of correct aspect ratio are deal breakers for me. Also, I miss the commentaries and docus, at least on those titles I end up really loving. (A great many movies don't intrigue me enough to care, it's true.)

I currently stream about two movies a week (mostly recent titles) through iTunes and onto my wall via AppleTV. (I don't have a TV set.) This is fine for a fairly wide swath of movies, but I am still left hungry for deep library titles, foreign films, independents and so on. But, things look to be improving steadily. In any case, I scarcely buy more than ten DVDs a year anymore, if that. (Edited to add - and those I do buy are invariably films that predate 1985 or so.)

[cirquelover]

We don't have Roku but we have the same kind of steup through the Xbox 360. I agree with everything Alex says but will add that some movies disappear too. Some items have a limited time to view them, which is fine if you pay attention. Sadly Zach and I learned that lesson the hard way with a Christmas special we wanted to watch.

I wish more movies were available through streaming, our dvd que gets bigger every day!

I also wish it was easier to sort through your que and to group items together.

That said, we are getting a lot of use out of it. It's been a kick showing Zach old movies from the 70's and 80's! He loves the cornball stuff like I do but also likes the Action and Sci-fi movies him and Dad have been watching.

[Alex]

Just got email from Roku saying that with the next software update in addition to access to Netflix Watch Instantly content, I'll also be able to use it to access Amazon On Demand titles which I can "rent or buy" for low prices.

Haven't looked into it yet to see exactly what "buy" means in this context but it looks like most or all "rentals" are 0.99 and the catalog seems to be more skewed to new releases than is available on Netflix (though a 40,000 title catalog is claimed).

[Ghoulish Delight]

"Buy" means one time payment for unlimited access to the title. You can download, or watch on demand. Your access survives as long as the service survives.

[Kevy Baby]

Your access survives as long as the service survives.And therein lies the rub

[Ghoulish Delight]

And therein lies the rubIf you download it and keep the file, as long as you have a player it's still yours and playable. The only thing that goes away with the service is your ability to stream it if you haven't downloaded it, or re-download it if you lose the file.

[Alex]

Since it has been a long time since I bought a DVD (probably about 2 years when I broke the habit) and since it has been almost as long since I watched a DVD I physically owned I don't really care if "ownership" is more of a lease.

And since I can count on two hands the number of movies I have seen 7 or more times (about the ratio between buy price and rent price on Amazon.com) I doubt that I would even do that.

In fact, I'm finding that is true of almost everything digital or available in digital form. I don't want to own it. I don't want it taking up space in my house. I won't remember where I put the file. I probably won't ever even look at the file again. And if such an unlikely need does arise I'll just pay for the privilege again (that was always my policy on paperbacks too, read and dump; if I needed it again in the future I'd go buy another copy; that almost never happened).

So I understand why some people don't like it but I'm proving pretty happy with the new structures.

[BarTopDancer]

I'm thinking of getting a Roku to use with Netflix. The concept of being able to stream some of the TV shows I am catching up on is pretty appealing when compared to cycling through the DVDs like I am currently doing.

Any new reviews?

[Alex]

My complaints:

1. For some reason, if I start a movie/show when Lani is in a raid on World of Warcraft our Comcast cable modem dies and it needs to be reset. Extremely annoying but so specific that we've just adjusted behavior to avoid it (it is starting the movie that does it so if I can start before she begins it is good).

2. I assume different titles are being served from different locations because sometimes I'll try to start something and it just won't. But if I pick something else from the list it is fine. Or I get top image quality with one title then the next one gets mediocre quality. But I no longer notice "peak time" issues correlating to these problems.

3. I mentioned this in February but the lack of subtitles for English language movies is annoying to me. For foreign language movies too often it is presented dubbed and not subtitled even if I know that is an option on the DVD.

4. No way of knowing whether you'll be watching a fullscreen pan and scan version of the movie. Newer stuff always seems to be properly formatted but a lot of Starz offerings are fullscreen. That won't bother many people but it annoys me.

All that said, I watched a movie on DVD a couple weeks ago for the first time in months because Roku has been fulfilling my needs and having 100 movies on my current list to choose from is much more compelling than the 4 DVDs I have next to the TV.

It has been incredibly useful for TV show marathons. No more watching three episodes on DVD and then waiting three days for the next DVD. Now I can speed through the whole season in a weekend if that's what I want (though for some reason for many shows it'll be the second season that's available for streaming).

For 100 bucks and the Netflix subscription fee I'm happy with it.

[BarTopDancer]

It has been incredibly useful for TV show marathons. No more watching three episodes on DVD and then waiting three days for the next DVD. Now I can speed through the whole season in a weekend if that's what I want (though for some reason for many shows it'll be the second season that's available for streaming).

Thanks for the review.

I'm mainly getting it for TV show marathons. There are to many I want to catch up on, and watching the DVD, waiting for the next one to show up (especially on some of the newer released ones) is getting to be a PITA.

For $99 + my Netflix I don't think I can go wrong. Besides, if I hate it I can sell it.

Now, where is the best place to buy one. Heh.

[Alex]

I just bought it online directly from Roku.

Make sure the streaming TV options are ones you'll want to watch. The good ones don't necessarily show up and then they may not be permanently available. Though I'm happy because Dexter season 2 is now available.

Forgot to mention, since February they've added two other channels to the Roku. You can download and stream from Amazon (though you have to pay Amazon prices) and you can watch MLB.tv if you have a subscription to that.

[BarTopDancer]

I will double check. I know Sanctuary is streaming and Farscape Season 1 is going to be released to streaming format soon. I'll have to check the rest, and then check the movie selection.

My laptop is very small and not conducive to movie/tv show viewing unless I am on a plane.

[BarTopDancer]

So most of the TV shows I want aren't available to stream yet.

But the huge selection of movies I haven't seen yet is enticing.

Just to make sure I understand correctly, I can watch any movie that is available to stream, at any time with my Netflix subscription.

[Alex]

Correct, unless you run into connection problems as I mentioned above.

As many as you can stream whenever you want.

Over the course of the last 10-ish months I've run into two movies that had issues at source side. Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill came through like and old tv with horizontal hold problems. That was there for about two months before they fixed it. Let the Right One In had a problem with the subtitles being half off the screen. I don't know if they ever fixed that.

I've sometimes had the picture come through but no sound. Restarting always fixed that.

[BarTopDancer]

Awesome. I think I will be picking one up in the near future.

I was intrigued by the TiVO option too, but I prefer to keep my electronics separate. Besides, my TiVO still has a lifetime on it. I hope it keeps going for awhile longer.

[BarTopDancer]

I never ended up with a Roku but I am back in the market for something to stream Netflix in HD and have access to YouTube, Hulu Plus etc... I was going to buy a Dell Zino but those have been discontinued. I don't own many DVDs and while I'm not opposed to a blu-ray with streaming for the right price it's not something I feel I need right now.

It appears that a 45 hour TIVO and the Roku2 HD are the same price - $79.

TIVO Lifetime is $399 w/ a MSD and Roku looks to be $79 + whatever you subscribe to.

Help me decide which to do. Thoughts on either? Pros/cons? bacon? boobs?

[Kevy Baby]

bacon?Yes
boobs?Yes

[Ghoulish Delight]

Do you care about the DVR capability of TiVo? If not, Roku.

[BarTopDancer]

Do you care about the DVR capability of TiVo? If not, Roku.

The TIVO would eliminate another box/monthly charge since I currently pay $15 a month for DVR service from Cox. I think the break even point between the TIVO lifetime and the DVR service is 3 years but since I don't math feel free to prove me wrong ;)

Reviews from the TIVO Premier have been mixed and I know very little about the Roku.

[katiesue]

We've got two rokus and one wirless bluray. They're all super simple to set up and use. We've so far only used for netflix. The most time consuming part is just inputting my random lynksis key for the wireless. The rest is a snap.

[Kevy Baby]

The TIVO would eliminate another box/monthly charge since I currently pay $15 a month for DVR service from Cox. I think the break even point between the TIVO lifetime and the DVR service is 3 years but since I don't math feel free to prove me wrong ;)From the TiVo site (https://www3.tivo.com/store/premiere.do?WT.ac=tivohome_mantle_holidaypremiere) :

Monthly: $20
Lifetime: $500

Break even: 2 years, one month ($500 / $20 = 25 months)

(Of course, not counting the possible transfer of another lifetime device, which is what we did when we purchased our TiVo Premier XL earlier this year.)

[Ghoulish Delight]

Actually she was talking about the break-even point between TiVo lifetime vs. her Cox-provided DVR ($15/month) not the TiVo monthly price. So yeah, that's 33 months, just under 3 years.

[BarTopDancer]

(Of course, not counting the possible transfer of another lifetime device, which is what we did when we purchased our TiVo Premier XL earlier this year.)

Wait. How do you transfer lifetime from one device to another? And how to do you like the Premier?

Actually she was talking about the break-even point between TiVo lifetime vs. her Cox-provided DVR ($15/month) not the TiVo monthly price. So yeah, that's 33 months, just under 3 years.

Thanks!

The MSD discount brings the monthly TIVO service to $15 but I'd prefer to invest in lifetime rather than continue to pay a monthly expense. On the flipside what will be available in 2 years DVR wise. Decisions decisions.

[Kevy Baby]

Wait. How do you transfer lifetime from one device to another? And how to do you like the Premier?Hmm... I must have been smoking something; looking at my account, I still have the original TiVo with the Lifetime on it. I think maybe I got a special price on the Premier (XL) when I bought it. Sorry to mislead.

We have been happy with the Premier. It has a couple of quirks (every once in a while, when you click the TiVo button, it shows the THX splash screen, but that isn't a bid deal as I just click the TiVo button again to get where I want to go) and the new HD menu is STILL not ready for prime-time (something that TiVo acknowledges). But otherwise, it has worked great for us (though, because if the issues we had with our HD TiVo, we got the three-year extended warranty).

[BarTopDancer]

I got my Roku and so far I love it. It's so small!

I also discovered the HDMI cable going from my cable box to my TV was bad. I hope the monoprice "lifetime cable guarantee" swap is painless. If it's not I'll buy another cable.

[Moonliner]

If anyone is interested the Roku 2 XS 1080p Streaming Player is Amazon's gold box deal of the day at this moment. $79.99

[BarTopDancer]

The XD was up earlier for $69. I'm totally kicking myself for not waiting (not that I could have known) to buy it and get the XS for what I paid for the XD.

[Snowflake]

Any new comments on the joy of a roku box? I'm wanting to use it not only for Netflix which I can use on my TV, but I cannot stream from Amazon Prime (Sharp is about the only maker that is NOT listed, PITA)

[katiesue]

We have two and they both stream Prime fine. We dropped netflix in favor of Prime. I can't do prime from our BluRay but it works find on both the rokus.

[Snowflake]

We have two and they both stream Prime fine. We dropped netflix in favor of Prime. I can't do prime from our BluRay but it works find on both the rokus.

Thanks, good to know.

We can do Netflix on the TV alone and via the blu-ray. But sharp is the only brand not playing with amazon.

Looks like I will be getting a roku. :)

[Snowflake]

I'm typical slowness, I just ordered a roku, the newest generation variety for $99. Now that Warner Archive will stream (right now only on roku) I had to do it. Should have it next week. Fun!