Want An Easy Way to Play Your Netflix Content on Your TV? Try Netflix Player by Roku!

[Tim Williamson]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-media-receivers/netflix-player-by-roku/4505-6739_7-33018087.html' target='_blank'>http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-med...7-33018087.html</a><br /><br /></div><em>&quot;If you're a Netflix subscriber you may have noticed that in the last year or so the company has rolled out a Watch Now option that lets you instantly watch some of the movies and TV shows in the Netflix library on your Windows PC with a broadband connection. More recently, in upgrading its digital offerings, Netflix has taken things a step further by separating out the Instant Queue from your DVD Queue. While the all-you-can-eat streaming video option is a nice perk for users (it's available to any subscriber on the $8.95 per month plan or better), the real dream for many people is that instead of watching movies on your PC's monitor, you cut out the computer completely and go right to your TV. Well, with the Netflix Player by Roku ($100) that has become a reality.&quot;<br /><br /></em><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1212089786.usr209.jpg" alt="" /><br /><br />CNET reviews the NetFlix Player (made by Roku) and gives it a solid 7.7. This little box connects to your TV and the net (via wired or WiFi) and allows you to play your Netflix &quot;Watch Now&quot; streaming content directly on your TV (without having your PC turned on).&nbsp; It only streams video at 480i, but is capable of higher resolutions, although, for now available bandwidth is a limiting factor here. One cool thing is you can start a movie on your PC, then automagically resume the same movie from the same spot on your Netflix Player on your TV. One thing I didn't like is that you can't add new &quot;Watch Now&quot; content to the queue directly from the player, you have to do this from your PC.&nbsp; I guess this isn't too bad as long as you fill up your queue beforehand. What do you Netflix users out there think about this thing? How about non-Netflix users, would this be a reason to make a jump to their service?

[makicr]

Until you receive some real-world reviews of the thing, I would hold off on buying one of these. The review in my local newspaper rated the video as "watchable," not very high honors in my book. Further, this thing has no harddrive, so you are entirely dependent on your iNet bandwidth (no real buffering). Lastly, and the thing that I would fear the most, is the "rewind" feature. In order to "rewind" or even jump back 10 seconds in video (like all of us PVR fans have grown quite fond of), the box has to tell Netflix where it is in the video, start the download again at the requested spot, then start the video up again. Reportedly, this takes 1-2 minutes to accomplish. In today's "I want it now" world, I just don't think that the Roku box will cut it.

[Civisi]

I received mine on 5/28. I love it. On my 42" LCD, the quality is just like good quality standard definition TV. It's better than VHS but not quite DVD quality. Heroes Season 1 looks great, though, and it's only a 4-dot out of 5 dots in the quality rating. That's on a 3.0 mb/s Verizon DSL.

Set up was simple and fast. My Roku is connected via HDMI and Ethernet. Setup only took a couple of minutes.

It takes about 15-60 seconds for a movie to start. There is fast-forward and rewind with screen captures showing the scene. If you jump too far forward or back it will rebuffer, which can take 30 seconds or so, depending upon connection speed.

The Roku box itself it tiny. There is no power button or switch. The only light is a small, white LED on the front that shows that it has power and blinks/flashes to indicate it is receiving data.

Do I recommend it? Yes, as long as you realize that the available content is limited. Just remember that iTunes had limited content when it first came out, but look at it now! If you buy one of these, you're an early adopter who is either blazing a trail or getting lost in the wilderness.

Roku: Rock on.

[Felix Torres]

[quote=makicr;686349]Until you receive some real-world reviews of the thing, I would hold off on buying one of these. quote]

Does this qualify as real-world?
http://www.htguys.com/archive/2008/May30.html :)

*They* like it...

[onlydarksets]

where's the love?
http://forums.thoughtsmedia.com/showthread.php?t=89290

;)