Roku's Netflix Player

I literally just bought this within minutes of hearing about it. Roku has released Netflix Player, a $99 set top box that allows you to play streamed content from Netflix.com.

If you have a subscription with Netflix over $9/mo, then you've already been enjoying their unlimited streaming options. However, it's been limited to Windows PCs until now. With this it's as simple as plugging it into your TV and internet connection, and setting up your queue at Netflix.com.

I first wrote about this back in January. My TiVo gets Amazon Unbox content, and I have an Apple TV, but I predict I'll be using this way more often. I've rented three movies on Apple TV and I haven't been able to finish watching any of them because they all expired thanks to bullshit DRM. That should never be an issue with Netflix, and only $99! That's by far the cheapest option of any comparable product.

I'm even thinking of getting one for my parents as a Mother's/Father's Day gift. On my last visit my dad was interested in watching streaming content, but not if it meant having to do so on a computer, and I think that's the common barrier. This is the future of media folks.

It's here! Despite paying for expedited shipping it had been sitting at the local FedEx office for three days (yes, cry for my first world problems).

Anyway, setup took less than 5 minutes to hook it up to the TV and sound system and get it on the wireless network. I went to netflix.com, put a couple things in my queue and I was instantly watching The Office.

Yay!

Oh, that's too cool!

I'd be a little more interested if I had a spare HDMI port to connect it to. What I'm really hoping is that the rumors of a streaming Netflix client for the xbox materialize.

Netflix's TV selection is actually pretty good, particularly stuff you can't get here (BBC, etc.) or premium channels (Showtime, HBO, etc.). Right now I'm going through the second season of Weeds.

I'm also watching stuff on there that I already own, but it's just easier to click than get out the DVDs and find the episode or movie I want.

It has composite, component, HDMI, and S-Video. I'm sure you can find a port. Plus, it only outputs SD 480i or 480p video right now anyway, so there's no point in wasting an HDMI port. I don't.

For serious. And that it's part of my Netflix subscription or a token fee on top. Otherwise I may as well just watch it on my PC like I've been doing.

Like I said before it's free with any subscription over $9/mo.

Good luck with it showing up on the Xbox though, I'm sure Microsoft is in a huge rush to get that one pushed out. Not like they have a competing product or anything.

Oh, that's pretty sweet.

Yeah, I have the streaming. I just want it on my Xbox as well. They don't really offer a competing product, per se. They sell movies through Xbox Live, sure, but this hasn't stopped them from offering DVD playback and PC-to-360 streaming of most major video formats. It's not much of a stretch to go from that to hooking up with Netflix, especially if Netflix were to kick some money their way. (Which is probably where the token fee on the consumer's end would come in.)

The quality is all over the map. Some stuff is almost DVD quality, other stuff is barely above YouTube quality. Really the selling point here is convenience and price, and the drawback is selection and quality.

Still though, it's way better than Unbox and I'm only buying/renting on Apple TV if I really want to see something new or in HD.

Sweet. The girlfriend and I picked up one and (of course) they are backordered so within the next two weeks we will have one as well. I was hesitant at first to buy it thinking the resolution wouldn't be worth it, but I found a few reviews that used a 40"+ size HDTV and said it looked good. And its definitely worth it since firmware updates in the future will support full 1080i (but hopefully 1080p as well) resolution. Thanks for the first real review Ace.