Roku

[chickenhead]

http://www.roku.com/

Thought I'd give this a shout out in case anyone was/is thinking about one. Netflix is embedding itself in more and more types of electronics gizmos, but if you just want to get your Netflix onto your TV, its a fast, easy, and cheap way to get it done. I bought one about a month ago. Took about 10 minutes to go from unboxing to watching something -- 9 of those minutes was trying to find where I had written down my wifi password.

2 things could be better -- if you could browse the catalog through the TV, and if more titles were available to play instantly. Right now, you have to use your computer to add titles to your queue (you can add a lot of them, tho) and when you flip to the Roku player you can browse and play any items in your queue. So far as catalog selections go, I like old movies, off beat stuff, and documentaries, so there is plenty I find interesting. And I assume things will move more and more towards being playable online over time.

Overall, if you have a Netflix account, a wifi router and decent internet, and you like movies, I think its a no brainer. I should have bought one sooner.

[GameTheory]

I've had one of these for nearly a year. I use the "home screen hack" to lock it into the highest quality mode so it never switches to a lower-quality stream. The only problem I've had is on primetime on weekend nights HD movies can sometimes have to stop and rebuffer at this setting. Possibly could be fixed by me having faster internet, but it does seem slower at peak times.

Some movies are poorly/wrongly encoded or not in widescreen, but in general quality is acceptable and the HD stuff looks quite good -- standard definition is better than regular SD but not quite as good as a DVD -- tends to have a soft look. But is has an anamorphic setting, so you still get full-widescreen with SD.

It only uses 720p for HD, which can cause another thing on my particular TV -- on the 720p setting, my TV (1080p native) is locked into a slight overscan mode, which means on foreign films if the subtitles are real close to the bottom edge they can get slightly cut-off.

Nevertheless, for the price it can't be beat and works well enough -- I actually pay less to Netflix now by having this and reducing my number of rental discs to only 1-at-a-time. You can also rent movies from Amazon on the thing so you can watch pretty much anything if you're willing to rent. "Starz Play" is good for newer movies but anything more than 10 years old seems to be a pan-and-scan version (Starz Play is only a subset of what is available, however). There are also quite a few TV shows available, some of them actually weekly updated with new episodes of the current season.

[DJofSD]

TiVo has been there, done that for a long time.

[raybo]

TiVo has been there, done that for a long time.

Been where and done what?

Can you view movies, documentaries, etc., that have never been on TV before? Have you checked out Netflix? Over 10,000 titles, many of them available for "Instant View" over your internet. Sending them to your big TV is just a plus for an already tremendous bargain. There are 4 levels of membership, but even the cheapest version (1 for 1), gives you unlimited "Instant View" capability, so, you could watch Netflix "Instant View" movies and programs all day every day and it wouldn't cost you a dime more than their cheapest rate, which used to be $4.99 per month (I think), may be a little higher now.

[DJofSD]

http://www.tivo.com/whatistivo/on-demand/index.html

[raybo]

http://www.tivo.com/whatistivo/on-demand/index.html

Ok, so, for $79.99 plus a $50 service card you get a refurbished DVR and 3 month's service. (I assume that Blockbuster and Amazon "On Demand" aren't free).

With Netflix, for $8.99 per month, you get 1 for 1 DVD's (limited only by the time involved in sending them back and receiving new one, usually 2 days for me), and, you get unlimited "Instant View" movies and programs for free.

[CBedo]

I've had one of these for nearly a year. I use the "home screen hack" to lock it into the highest quality mode so it never switches to a lower-quality stream. The only problem I've had is on primetime on weekend nights HD movies can sometimes have to stop and rebuffer at this setting. Possibly could be fixed by me having faster internet, but it does seem slower at peak times.

Some movies are poorly/wrongly encoded or not in widescreen, but in general quality is acceptable and the HD stuff looks quite good -- standard definition is better than regular SD but not quite as good as a DVD -- tends to have a soft look. But is has an anamorphic setting, so you still get full-widescreen with SD.

It only uses 720p for HD, which can cause another thing on my particular TV -- on the 720p setting, my TV (1080p native) is locked into a slight overscan mode, which means on foreign films if the subtitles are real close to the bottom edge they can get slightly cut-off.

Nevertheless, for the price it can't be beat and works well enough -- I actually pay less to Netflix now by having this and reducing my number of rental discs to only 1-at-a-time. You can also rent movies from Amazon on the thing so you can watch pretty much anything if you're willing to rent. "Starz Play" is good for newer movies but anything more than 10 years old seems to be a pan-and-scan version (Starz Play is only a subset of what is available, however). There are also quite a few TV shows available, some of them actually weekly updated with new episodes of the current season.Thanks for the review GT and chicken.

[prospector]

i'm waiting for a return slip for mine..i bought the $79 one and it doesn't work on my tv..i have to update because i have an hdtv and no way to plug in the correct cables...i spent 45 minutes of my life yesterday trying to work with someone who spoke bad english and insisted my tv was broke...i finally called him an idiot and requested to speak to a supervisor...while waiting for the supervisor to call me back, i called netflix to complain..the guy for netflix listened and solved my problem in under 2 mins..told what to do, what to order, and how to get my money back for the wrong one and free shipping on the unit...
moral is, pray you never have to talk to rodu support and if you do...call netflix first...i hope to be up by next week this time...
hard to beat netflix...i return dvd's same day so i'm getting 3 per week..:ThmbUp:

[Quagmire]

Windows 7 has the capability to stream netflix movies built in. All you need is a netflix acct and you can watch anything from their "view it instantly" catalog.

[chickenhead]

Windows 7 has the capability to stream netflix movies built in. All you need is a netflix acct and you can watch anything from their "view it instantly" catalog.

I think you can do this on any PC (at least as far back as XP), so long as you download the Silverlight browser plugin. The Roku is just a very simple way to get it to your television.

[raybo]

I think you can do this on any PC (at least as far back as XP), so long as you download the Silverlight browser plugin. The Roku is just a very simple way to get it to your television.

Yeah, I don't remember whether it's Silverlight or Netflix' own player but once you're a member everything you need to view instantly can be downloaded from their site, I believe, it's been awhile since I joined.

[PaceAdvantage]

I've got one of these, and it's freakin' awesome for sending almost ANYTHING video on your computer over to your HDTV!

http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/index.php?pluginoption=productinfo&item_id=6

[bigmack]

I've got one of these, and it's freakin' awesome for sending almost ANYTHING video on your computer over to your HDTV!

http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/index.php?pluginoption=productinfo&item_id=6
Slick little free Jukebox for use with Popcorn Hour
http://treasure-cove.net/moviejukebox.htm

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