Roku

Thinking about buying one of these. Anyone have any feedback on them?

I got my parents one a couple years ago and it works great. The tricky thing right now is that every other device is pretty much doing the same thing now. IOW, if you have an HD TV, it's easier to just get a Bluray player with built in wifi. All the gaming consoles also support at least Netflix. Are you getting if for Netflix mostly?

Ayup. What Bobby said.

I have 3 Roku XD:S (Older model) and several folks in TR have multiples too.

I have a couple gripes but nothing that would disway me from replacing my Roku if it flies out a window by accident.

Not sure if my problems are resolved in newer versions or, if it's my home network. I have 1 that is wired and it's great. I have two others that are wireless and 1 of them has performance issues.

If you are looking at Roku for Netflix, Amazon, or Hulu it's an awesome substitute to a DVD player (I haven't rented DVD's in a year) but if you are looking to replace TV you may be dissappointed by the channl lineup and lack of mainstream programming vailable. The Netfliz catalog is rather dated despite it's consistent "New Release" additions (New in teh 80's maybe).

Netflix, however, is great for childrens programming.

I dropped cable a long time ago. I don't miss the bill, I do miss the programming.

And, speaking of programming, writing your own channels is not as easy as they make it sound.

I've got two of them that I use pretty much only for Netflix. But I do also watch BrewingTV from Northern Brewer via a Vimeo app on there.

I have found that the one in my living room wired to the router works flawlessly while the one in my basement via wi-fi does have a hiccup once in a while.

cricky101 said:

I've got two of them that I use pretty much only for Netflix. But I do also watch BrewingTV from Northern Brewer via a Vimeo app on there.

I have found that the one in my living room wired to the router works flawlessly while the one in my basement via wi-fi does have a hiccup once in a while.

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Do yours take forever to reboot too?

Yeah, really like the idea of Netflix instead of using red-box. I also want it because of Pandora. I have to use the wifi and was a bit concerned about performance. I think I'm going to go ahead and get it and hope for the best.

We have a roku for pandora and netflix mostly. There are some other cool app you can add, but those are big ones.

As bobby mentioned, you can get blu-ray players that do everything the roku does plus play discs. It used to be those units went for $250-300 so roku was much easier on the wallet for those who weren't interested in blu-ray (like me...don't have blu-ray discs, don't plan to buy any, lost interest in having the 5.1 sound/home entertainment center setup...)

However, my wife just told me that Walmart is going to have a black friday deal: Wifi/internet enabled blu-ray player for $99. That is def. a nail in the coffin for the Roku folks, unless then can forge into new territory. They are angling into the simple game market (i.e. Angry birds), but I don't think that will fly for them....

broadbill said:

They are angling into the simple game market (i.e. Angry birds), but I don't think that will fly for them....

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I think this will empower some sales for the family oriented buyer.

My children love to play teh simple games on my Samsung with Internet@

GilaMinumBeer said:

Do yours take forever to reboot too?

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I haven't noticed anything odd about a reboot so far ...

broadbill said:

They are angling into the simple game market (i.e. Angry birds), but I don't think that will fly for them....

Click to expand...

I told my girlfriend that you could play games on the newer versions and I believe we'll be updating one of our existing boxes so she can play Angry Birds on the TV. She's an addict.

I have one, mostly for Netflix in our master bedroom. A coworker has one also and uses it for out of market NHL games on NHL center ice, no issues yet.

Kinda depends what you want to use it for. If your goal is Netflix streaming it's a solid bet. I know for me it was never the right option, though - I stream a lot of media from a home server I built and the Boxee box was my choice - it does a great job with in-network streaming and also with the regular Netflix type stuff.

modernlifeisANDY said:

Kinda depends what you want to use it for. If your goal is Netflix streaming it's a solid bet. I know for me it was never the right option, though - I stream a lot of media from a home server I built and the Boxee box was my choice - it does a great job with in-network streaming and also with the regular Netflix type stuff.

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For a long time, I did this with a $1 app called RoConnect and the world was a happy place. Grab a file, convert to .mp4, load it to the library index, and it's a go. So easy even my 5 year old could navigate our collection to start a movie.

And then one day, it stopped. I got so frustrated trying to figure out why that I gave up. there is another service called NokNok that is in it's infancy developmentally and appears to have some real promise as a stream server across all DLNA compliant devices. their documentation SUCKS tho'.

For now, I am content to just use Window Media Players "Play To" feature to my ethernet connected LCD.

GilaMinumBeer said:

For a long time, I did this with a $1 app called RoConnect and the world was a happy place. Grab a file, convert to .mp4, load it to the library index, and it's a go. So easy even my 5 year old could navigate our collection to start a movie.

And then one day, it stopped. I got so frustrated trying to figure out why that I gave up. there is another service called NokNok that is in it's infancy developmentally and appears to have some real promise as a stream server across all DLNA compliant devices. their documentation SUCKS tho'.

For now, I am content to just use Window Media Players "Play To" feature to my ethernet connected LCD.

Click to expand...

The thing I like about Boxee is the indexing of your library - it pulls data from your server and from IMDB automagically and indexes by movie/show/episode title.

modernlifeisANDY said:

The thing I like about Boxee is the indexing of your library - it pulls data from your server and from IMDB automagically and indexes by movie/show/episode title.

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Ayup. RoConnect does this too (well, it did) and NokNok has the promise as well. You point it to your media collection and it will scrape the metadata and IMDB for cover art and all the rest. Was perfect until it just stopped working.

Cannot determine if somethiong changed with RoConnects php, WinAMP, or my computers firewall/router settings. I have looked at everything and just can't find anything wrong but it just won't locate the IP address and connect.

damnit, now you guys got me thinking about getting one of these.. sound cool.

android said:

damnit, now you guys got me thinking about getting one of these.. sound cool.

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As already said, for Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, and Amazon it's a solid performer especially if wired.

The rest of the channels are pretty novelty. Roku channel developement has a VERY strong expatriot Indian presence.