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An Early Review of Roku's Netflix-Streaming Appliance
Robert Green writes "Following and complementing the Netflix instant streaming video service for the PC, Roku has produced a Set-Top Box offering instant streaming of Netflix video to your home television set. Set to compete with Apple TV (major announcement pending), it began shipping last week and here is one of the first reviews." As has been discussed before, the device is fairly limited, but inexpensive (around $100).
Nice puff piece. It doesn't mention what the resolution is or the surround formats it supports (or not). Who is going to want to watch crummy resolution on a 42" screen?
While there are tens of thousands of titles available in netflix's streaming service, only a handful of them are popular films. Personally, only 4 of the DVD's in my 72 movie queue are available to instantly stream. In my case, I could be done with all four movies in a week or two and be out of things to stream until I happen to come across another movie that I think I'd enjoy. The problem is that there is not a great selection of movies available for instant play, and of this limited selection, far fewer are popular titles.
Bold highlight added by me. Most of the titles are crap, but I presume very cheap to license. What's not crap is various enough that it is a rare person who will like all of it. I was only able to find about 15 titles that I hadn't seen and looked like they would be worth my time. In contrast, my DVD queue rarely has less than 50 movies on it, and I watch more movies than most people.
The real problem here is in the summary. $100 for what is essentially a dumbed down PC is not 'inexpensive'. The only thing that makes it within reason is that even though far superior hardware is available for about the same price, without Windows, you can't watch this stuff without a Roku.
Because of idiots like you I can't view recent movies on my Roku. The days of hacking and pirating are over and as soon as we can convince the entertainment industry that you are in the minority and most people just want to watch any movie or tv show ever made at their convenience we will have our cake and eat it to. The setup for the unit was brain-dead simple and the quality of the video was better than most dvd players. I had immediate access to my queue and found the interface and remote very easy to use. Considering that they do not charge anything additional for total access to their instant view library, I find it hard to believe that one could complain. Netflix has nailed the distribution model. Now we need to get the a*(holes in the entertainment industry on board.
The implication is not that you can watch 10,000 movies in a couple of months, but that there are very few you're interested in watching. There are 260 movies on my Netflix queue. 25 of those are available from this new device to watch instantly. Of those, I need to remove about 15, which are old TV shows available on Hulu.com for free. The remaining 10 are mostly really old, bad movies that are on there for bad movie nights. Seriously, the selection is awful.
I don't see the point.
You're basically turning Netflix's 3-a-time plan into a N-a-time plan, but the only advantage of having them all to hand at the same time is if you want to watch them a second time. Either you've got a huge appetite for re-runs, or you are wasting your time ripping and filling drives with movies that you'll only ever rewatch a tiny fraction of.
I think that having subtitles in regular movies would be the deal breaker for me. While the review showed a foreign film with subtitles, does anyone know if "normal" films have subtitles as well?
Misspent youth playing in speed metal bands before turning into a hardcore geek has unfortunately robbed me of a nice chunk of my hearing. So, subtitles are a necessity.
Cheers,
imag0
The point is, based on my conversations with people who do what the GP described, is that when someone mentions a movie title they can say "I have that movie".
I think that actual watching the movie part is completely secondary. Just the having of all of them is enough.
"Sacrifice for the good of The State" - The State
The review says we need to use a computer anyway to add things to the queue.
Are people just too dumb to buy a cable for their computer to output to their HDTV? I assume there are some hidden advantages I'm missing? I didn't see anything that says the resolution is higher with the box. Is it?
Careful What You Wish For....
Judging by the review they seem to have discovered the 'Zen of GUI' - keep the interface as simple as you can - only include what is necessary to use the device.
Apple seem to understand this as well.
I think that software developers and GUI designers can learn some lessons here (me included).
They throttled me. I have a 3-at-a-time plan, rip all 3, and send them back the next day. Instead of sending all 3 of mine out, they send out two, wait a day, and send out the 3rd. It's not AWFUL, but it's not really that cool.
:D
If I could stream ANY movie that they had (not just their terrible selection of B and C grade movies and some TV shows), I wouldn't do this, since I usually watch the movies I ripped while I wait for my next 3 to come in.
I guess that's what BitTorrent is for.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
There's always the people who leave a movie sitting in their house for months until they're ready to watch it.
One guy abuses a service (one which the content producers actually get a cut of.) Therefore, restrictions on legal behavior are deserved.
I've had my box since Tuesday. Overall I'm very happy with it. It's inexpensive, and on my cable modem the quality is reasonable, though it will step down if I'm doing a big download.
The box works up to my expectations, with one exception... It's tied to the remote servers. In most cases, where you're watching a movie, this isn't really an issue.
However, I've had the box 5 days, and last night late the Netflix servers that hand out the video were down. We'll see how frequently that happens.
The other place it comes up is when you're seeking. It has a nice interface where you see stills go by as you are seeking forward or back, but once you select it you then have to wait for it to re-spool the data. Even if you seek forward 30 seconds (the buffer seems to hold several minutes) it will still take a while after seeking to start playing.
It's a great box, but as soon as they have one that I can stick an 8GB memory card in, or a hard drive, or the software for the PS-3, I'll be ready to switch.
By my calculations it's around 600 to 900MB/hour. So even a 2 or 4GB SD card should be able to do pretty nicely. Grab a full movie or two at full resolution, instead of having to stream it it could suck it down at a slower speed, seek more responsively, and hopefully not be so dependent on the Netflix server if it's down for a bit.
So, in short: I really like it, but I'm looking forward to the next rev.
Sean
Once we go back to pay-per-byte internet, you might as well drive up to blockbuster, it will be cheaper.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Indeed. I've got some friends like that. I call them "Collectors."
It makes a certain amount of sense at first, but after you think about it, you realize that with Netflix as your movie library, you don't have to worry about refreshing your media when it gets obsolete, and you can watch anything you want, within a couple days of when you think about it. Or right away, depending on what you want.
If your media costs fifty cents per burn, you could conceivably be paying two or three times your netflix subscription just to be able to rewatch stuff later. That money would be much better spent on an annuity: after six or seven years, you'd have accumulated enough to pay for your netflix account on interest in perpetuity. That gives you access to all the films you've already watched, AND the films that haven't even been pressed yet.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
1: Claim to only "delay" Bittorrent traffic while actually killing it with reset packages.
2: When called on the carpet by the FCC, claim that you were only taking "reasonable network management" approaches.
3: Pretend to appease the FCC by claiming in the future that you will "slow all net traffic equally" when managing your network.
4: Heavy users (i.e. those streaming videos to RoKu) find this 8Mbs promised and paid for bandwidth reduced to <800Kbs rendering RoKu unable to stream. And with no onboard storage, no preloading of content ahead of viewing.
5: When Comcast video services are never slowed no matter how contested the network becomes, poo poo critics as oversensitive wusses.
6: PROFIT!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
OK, first off I love Netflix Video On Demand feature. It was in fact one of the main reasons I setup my Media Center.
I suggest either Anthony Perkin's (IIRC) MyNetflix plugin or the better vmcNetflix plugin (both for Vista)
But here is the deal:
What you get is essentially VHS. Both in terms of features & resolution.
No subsitiles option (forgien you have them; English you don't)
No menus and therefore no special features.
Selection:
This is an odd mix.
You don't have the full Netflix selection.
New releases are hit and miss. It really depends on what the studios let Netflix put on there.
The selection compaired to other VoD systems is very good. Especially the TV shows (which aren't in HD anyhow).
Also I al amazed by how quickly they are adding titles to the VoD service
So, Netflix VoD is not a replacement for TV.
Or cable VoD services (for new releases)
However, with your normal Netflix subscription (~$15) it is free. And that makes a huge difference.
Now I have a massive selection of shows I can watch anytime I want. I have access to TV shows that really aren't rerun anymore.
You mean besides ergonomics and convenience?
I used to use my laptop as a dvd player. Somehow the act of plugging everything in, turning off the screensaver, rooting around for the proper cables, making sure that the remote control's software was actually working etc really took the spontaneity out of watching a movie.
Yes, you don't have to plug your laptop's TV-out into the TV, nor do you have to plug speakers into your laptop!
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
Welcome to Slashdot. If something is digitally based and easily pirated, then you have a right to it. Period. No moral or ethical gray area is allowed here. If your intellectual property is easily lifted then it's your problem, not ours. You can ask for money all you want, but it's not our responsibility to give it to you. Sure, we won't bother, y'know, doing without or just not having a copy of your work that we don't value enough to pay for, but that's because you're an evil, money-grubbing corporate overlord, man! FIGHT THE POWER!