Well, would you look at that? After a mildly uncomfortable
wait, the very first Netflix set-top-box has landed (the
Xbox 360 with plug-ins notwithstanding). Thanks to
Roku, users can finally tap into (a portion of) the Netflix library without having to wait for physical discs to arrive -- and for just $99.99, no less (though unlimited access to online films still requires an $8.95 or higher monthly fee for the traditional service). Better still, the HDD-less Netflix Player can even utilize a wireless signal to pull in streams, though your miles may vary on actual performance. As for ports, you'll find HDMI, component, composite, Ethernet, S-Video and a Toslink optical audio jack. Initial reports are looking pretty positive from here (save for the glaring lack of HD support), but feel free to dig into the reviews below to get a better feel of what this box really has to offer.
Read - Roku Netflix Player officially introduced
Read - PCMag review (4 out of 5)
Read - CNET review (7.7 out of 10)
Read - Wired review ("...just shy of totally amazing.")
posted May 20th 2008 12:41AM
My only complaint is that their library of titles, however many it may be is lackluster at best. They are going to need to have access to all titles and that includes especially new releases for this thing to have any real chance of success IMO. Having a massive library is more important than even having an HD lineup for now, just get it done. That is the one thing netflix has to answer blockbusters in store return; why go to the store when you don't need to?
but blockbuster is going after major exclusive deals to kill netflixes online service , which sucks because i wanna see some competition between the 2 and not see blockbuster murder netflix in the streaming rental game.
"but blockbuster is going after major exclusive deals to kill netflixes online service , which sucks because i wanna see some competition between the 2 and not see blockbuster murder netflix in the streaming rental game."
I believe most movies are locked up (as far as downloading) because of contracts with HBO, Showtime, Starz, etc. AFAIK, Blockbuster's only content deal was its purchase of MovieLink.
I have a Tivo Series 3 (with 250GB drive) with a wireless G network adapter. Even if I had a current Netflix account, I am going to be able to get HD content downloaded to my HD Tivo from Amazon UnBox for a fairly reasonable fee (and I will probably only watch downloaded rental movies per year if I am paying more than 99 cents for them). I will take that over a stream, which is almost certainly going to be of lesser quality (especially since I would be using the 802.11g wireless networking). And I don't have to pay $100 for an additional box (and use up one of the other three component inputs of my A/V receiver, which will have at least one of the other component vidoe inputs taken up by a Pioneer BDP-05FD Blu-Ray player by the end of August).
I will probably only watch 2-3 downloaded high-definition rental movies per year if I am paying more than 99 cents for them.
For 99 cents each I have watched so far this year in standard def on my Panny plasma HDTV:
30 Days of Night
We Own the Night
Terminator
Supernova
Man, this is still a pretty sweet idea and for the cost, well, it's great. I think I might restart my NetFlix account for this if I can get all of the TV series through it.
Good luck owning a Roku. Everyone I know that has a Photobridge has seen it die on them.
know anyone that wants to by mine?
Funny, HDMI port but no HDMI streaming capability. One can only wonder, perhaps a future software update for streaming HD once residential broadband speeds realistically support it?
Are these things officially sanctioned or could NetFlix pull the plug, issue takedown notices or otherwise kill the service on a whim? Seems a bit peculiar that they're allowing these unofficial extenders to even exist at the moment considering the potential theft of video content they must make possible.
I got the impression that Netflix was looking to expand on many devices, according to statements they made earlier in the year.
It's been long rumored their service will appear on game consoles, such as the Xbox 360 and PS3.
It's pretty obvious that they are not competeing against blockbuster vapor ware, but that their target is AppleTV. The technical specs are similar and well, it looks like netflix just smoked Apple pretty hard as far as price, library and customer base goes. It will be interesting to see how Apple responds.
Pardon me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't most of us (meaning, readers of this site, techies, etc...) know how to display what is on our computer screen on our TV...for free? I don't personally do this, because I don't want some low-res, near-VHS-quality image contaminating my 42-inch HDTV screen.
Netflix isn't gonna pull the plug because this is officially sanctioned by them. Last year I got 6 months of Netflix service for free for attending a focus group where they talked about a streaming set top box.
They actually had little mock ups and were preparing to do 2 boxes. One had S-video and composite output, the other was more "high end" and basically is this box. (Though their original idea had the cheap box with a typical remote and the high end box having I think RF, where you could hide the box away because the remote didn't need line of sight.)
I agree with the other commenter, people on sites like this know how to hook up their PC to the TV for free. This is a limited VOD service for dummies.
i do know how to hook up my PC to my TV, but that doesn't help much when netflix only streams to windows and there is not one microsoft-owned byte on any of my machines.
this box would make sense if i could also stream other media to it - from networked harddrives, youtube, flickr, pandora... one specific box locked to one specific provider doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Bah!
I'm a very techie guy, I built a HTPC with a media remote and tweaked all of the overscan and blah, blah, blah. Ultimately I didn't like it. It was a PITA and dealing with the UI of Windows and Applications to play/stream my media was intrusive to the home theater experience. Maybe there is a great GUI that does everything that came out in the last couple years, but otherwise, I found that this didn't work for me.
The Roku box is only $99 and a great deal at that - especially once hacked to stream music and video from a PC!!!
The first company that can give me a full library, INCLUDING NEW RELEASES, for a reasonable flat monthly fee, will get my money.
But this!? It's nothing that we can't already do using the VMCnetflix plugin... but with only 10,000 old-as-dirt titles, it's simply not worth it... yet.
Don't have the Roku but I was planning on getting it, but instead I cancelled my Netflix account.
Two major issues with Netflix, instant play selection was horrible and Netflix interface was slow and hard to use, Blockbusters is alot better.
My only other gripe is that if I use my broadband connection to stream movies, esp in HD, then I am clogging my pipe, if all my neighbors were doing it too I can see issues arising.
And what happens if my ISP lowers my cap?
The quality of the movies we streamed were good enough but not stellar, at least both my wife and I could watch our own separate movies at the same time.