Roku?

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

And therein lies the rub

If 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]

Originally Posted by Alex

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.