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Review of the Roku HD1000 Media Player

Posted by michael on from the too-bad dept.

Animaether writes "Digital Producer magazine are running a review of the Roku HD1000 HD media player hardware. Between 'The unit crashed so much while I was testing it, I practically beat a path through the carpet to the unit's location on the shelf...' and 'Roku HD1000 misses by such a wide margin, it isn't worth buying', the review paints a pretty grim picture of this unit, and appears to put part of the blame on its Linux-based OS and software. The Roku HD1000 was previously covered here in December 2003."

14 of 216 comments (clear)

  1. More about design problems than system ones by Space+cowboy · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The story-text is misleading - the author is complaining about the poor design choices in the GUI, not the OS itself, witness:

    That leads us to the OS and its foibles. As we've seen with TiVo, it's possible to create a snappy user interface using Linux, a modest processor and a remote-controlled series of screens. But I have to tell you, even though this Roku interface (see graphic above) reminds you of TiVo in the vaguest of ways, it's doesn't even distantly resemble the near-perfect user experience of TiVo.
    ... at which point he compares it unfavourably with the TiVO experience. All seems fair enough to me.

    Simon.
    --
    Physicists get Hadrons!
    1. Re:More about design problems than system ones by lukewarmfusion · · Score: 4, Informative

      He does complain about the OS itself:

      "Yes, it can do these things, but because of its awkward Linux-based operating system and sluggish response, the thing acts like it doesn't want to."

      One problem with his review, though, is that he looks for "features" from other products like an OSX transition - "why not have that with the Roku?" has asks.

    2. Re:More about design problems than system ones by DrEldarion · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think he just used a poor choice of words. It doesn't seem like he's complaining about the Linux OS, it seems like he's complaining about the browser's OS, which just happens to be based on Linux.

    3. Re:More about design problems than system ones by BigBir3d · · Score: 5, Insightful

      not just bad GUI choices. everything is slow (1 minute to boot!!!) from start-up to navigating thru a big directory.

      just because it uses linux (cost saving measure it sounds like) does not mean it will be a good, or usefull, product.

    4. Re:More about design problems than system ones by AKAImBatman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not to mention...

      With everything connected, I hit the On button and the unit began booting up, just like a computer, and after about a minute, it was ready to go -- not exactly instant-on.

      These people need to understand, Linux is NOT a feature! In a device like this, the OS (whatever it is) should be as transparent to the user as possible. The only person the OS should make a difference to is the manufacturer. Using Linux or BSD should allow them to pull "off the shelf" software in the same way they build it with "off the shelf" hardware. Instead, it sounds like they took Fedora or something and crammed it into a consumer device.

      --
      Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
    5. Re:More about design problems than system ones by lenhap · · Score: 4, Insightful

      He was complaining about the OS...thats why continuously throughout the article he mentions how the thing froze and locked up...if that isn't OS related, what is? Sure he has many misconceptions of what is and isn't the OS, but he is right about the locking up.

      The sluggish response can also be do to the OS. Anyone ever run windows and have everything completely slow down for a few minutes while the OS goes and takes a dump out back somewhere? It no doubt is probably due to a poor implementation of Linux, but none the less half the issues he mentions are do to the OS, not necessarily to it being Linux. He mentions how he knows Linux can be exceedingly good, but this particular implementation is crap.

  2. Amazing by erick99 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    When you read this article you wonder how all of these problems can be possible with this product. It seemed to me that the reviewer was competent and very patient. It makes me wonder if there was any user testing and quality control in this process or was it someone's "good idea" and rushed to market? There are just too many electronic gadgets on the market that are poorly designed and frustrating to use.

    Take care!

    Erick

    --
    http://www.busyweather.com/
  3. Ouchhhh... bye bye Roku by KevetS · · Score: 5, Funny

    A negative review and front-page linkage on /.? Good luck recovering from this one, Roku!

    --
    This is my United States of whatever.
  4. Quality Assurance by millahtime · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There are just too many electronic gadgets on the market that are poorly designed and frustrating to use.

    Engineers have a lot of great ideas and can even make them happen but there are a lot of angles they don't see or even think of. Many of the engineers aren't even the target users and don't really understand how something gets used.

    This is one place I will give props to the military. They require Quality Assurance and testing by the user before they will sign off on something.

    --
    Evolution or ID?
  5. Re:not linux.... by lukewarmfusion · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Does it strike you as odd that a consumer product should require that one "know what they were doing" when they purchased it? Shouldn't the product be easy to install and use?

    I'm not sure you RTFA, but your response sounds like a knee-jerk to me. If I buy a Tivo, I don't want to have to spend hours and hours getting it to work. I also shouldn't need any programming or configuration expertise.

    If you're producing a device like this for the general public, you'd better not make it hard to use or install. So that would be a problem with the product.

  6. Guys, guys... by ticeton · · Score: 5, Funny

    The real question here is: How are we going to blame this on Microsoft?

  7. Yes... by Anixamander · · Score: 4, Funny

    'The unit crashed so much while I was testing it, I practically beat a path through the carpet to the unit's location on the shelf...' and 'Roku HD1000 misses by such a wide margin, it isn't worth buying', the review paints a pretty grim picture of this unit

    Yes, yes, but can it run linux?

    and appears to put part of the blame on its Linux-based OS and software

    Oh.

    --
    Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball(TM)
  8. Re:Love the responses we are seeing here by DaHat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If this unit was Microsoft made, the OS would be blamed left and right.

    Ahh, at least I'm not the only one here who sees the double standard.

    * Anything Linux Based Product: Good!
    * Any Linux Bug: Unskilled and/or incompetent Users
    * Anything Window Based Product: Bad!
    * Any Windows Bug: Unskilled and/or incompetent coders

    --
    Help Brendan pay off his student loans
  9. I own a Roku by notanatheist · · Score: 4, Informative

    Yes, I'll agree it isn't perfect but it is interesting. It will pick up smb shares without a hitch from browsing your network. There is info available for doing NFS as well. I've got the weather plugin working perfectly. It's also nice viewing all my photos on a 42" HD Plasma. Most "media PC" type machines don't offer component out especially with support for 1080i which is what I run. If you buy one be sure to grab the latest firmware and also install the copy/delete programs so you can easily delete some of the built in stuff. You can also do all that through telnet too. I would like to know if it's possible to overclock the CPU. I'd willingly put a larger heatsink on mine if it'd help performance. Video support still needs more work too. All in all, I do like it.