Is Roku's Netflix Player living up to your standards?

by Darren Murph posted Jul 5th 2008 at 4:07AM

This week's installment of How Would You Change over on Engadget Classic involves the first dedicated set-top-box to enable Netflix streaming right to your TV. Did you pony up $99 for one of these things? If so, head on over and let the world know if that was a good move.

Filed under: Other hardware, Set-top boxes, Internet

Tags: digital downloads, DigitalDownloads, films, how would you change, HowWouldYouChange, hwyc, movie, movie rentals, movie set-top-box, movie stb, MovieRentals, movies, MovieSet-top-box, netflix, netflix player, NetflixPlayer, rental, rentals, renting, roku, set-top-box

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

frankie @ Jul 5th 2008 11:32AM

As an early adopter. Yes it is.

Anything not to pay for cable.

Neutral

Victor Noir @ Jul 5th 2008 12:20PM

Roku are scumbags, from my experience.

I bought their first product, an HD media player, which they never fully developed to meet even half of its advertised capabilities. Even the side of the box in which it was packaged had images of iTunes Visualizer-like graphics (supposedly in HD)... it looked more like an old video-game, "Qix" I think it was called.

When asking about this online, the posts were removed. When calling in to their offices, I was put on hold for excesses of thirty minutes and on two occasions, hung up on "accidentally."

Scumbags.

Neutral

frankie @ Jul 5th 2008 2:00PM

Well that really makes my stomach turn. I avoid companies with poor service like that . cough cough iRiver cough.

Neutral

chris @ Jul 5th 2008 10:00PM

I have the Roku player, and love it. I've watched classic movies I've never tried (Dirty Harry) finally sitting down to watch Weeds. . . and the english version of the Office. I was able to expose my wife to Amazing Stories. . .

great little device, I love it. If they add Hulu or something . . it will be worth more than the $99 i Ponyed up for it.

Neutral

The Aggie CEO @ Jul 5th 2008 10:21PM

I just want my PS3 to stream Netflix movies.......
I'll be good then........

Neutral

JeffDM @ Jul 5th 2008 10:44PM

I like the idea, but they need to deal with issues from several different fronts. They need to get more studio participation, and I'd like to see them make good on the promise that the functionality is going to be licensed to other companies. It would be nice to have a pre-buffer so that I don't get the stutters if my net connection hiccups.

Neutral

Jamus @ Jul 6th 2008 5:41PM

Ok, here is a question for you guys... What is the slowest broadband connection you would be able to use with this device? Would a 1.5Mb connection be ok, or just too slow?

Neutral

Blake @ Jul 11th 2008 6:14PM

It'd be just fine.

Neutral

SickNic @ Jul 7th 2008 9:09AM

I think Netflix would need to add a lot more content for streaming before I would consider buying this. After a few seasons of various TV shows and 2-3 movies, I've run out of content that interests me.

Neutral

andyg8180 @ Jul 7th 2008 9:44AM

just watched some thru media center... imwaiting on more content to invest the money... some of the movies out there, i think to myself, WHAT the EFF were you thinking??? lol...
ended up watching ghostbusters, the big hit, beetelgeuse, and some other things...

but once your able to get some "newer" releases, it would be totally worth it...

boo for cable, They should just invest in supplying internet only lol...

Neutral

velez718 @ Jul 8th 2008 7:05PM

I just got mine and let me tell you, The quality is dvd or close to it. I have it hooked up to my 50in plasma through hdmi. I used to connect my macbook with boot camp windows xp to my plasma through vga and it does not compare. The picture surprised me and this is coming from someone who watches everything in hd on my ps3 or directv.

Neutral

Blake @ Jul 11th 2008 6:16PM

I love mine. Probably the best $99 I've spent this year. TV shows are great (Rewatching 30 Rock Season 1) - it's just so easy to use. I've got a line of movies ready to go and it's just push a button and watch the movie. I had hoped for a little more customization (e.g. always use high quality and buffer more), but I'm quite happy.

Neutral

Jordan @ Aug 8th 2008 2:04AM

I really enjoy it, although I'm anxiously waiting for more TV content. I doubt I will ever get my wife interested in all thirty seasons of Simon & Simon or the Incredible Hulk. The service really comes in handy in between Netflix deliveries; we watch exclusively DVDs We canceled Netflix in favor of Blockbuster for the in-store exchanges, but now we're back with Netflix because of the instant access to streaming video. I'm hoping the ROKU player gets access to HULU, that would be perfect for us! Netflix offers a few children's shows for streaming, which is really useful for entertaining the kiddos. Agreed, best $99 I've spent in a long time.

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