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Roku Netflix Player

Yet another set top box makes a move to bring the 10 foot Internet TV and movie experience to your living room. This time Roku, maker of the Soundbridge audio player, has teamed up with Netflix to deliver their video on demand service to a set top box designed for Netflix service only. The $100 box allows you to navigate your queue, view show/movie information, and stream videos that were previously only available for Internet streaming to Windows users previously. It's not apparent if you can browse videos outside of your queue.

For Netflix users, the service is included free of charge if your plan allows Internet streaming. The streaming catalog still only hovers around 10,000 movies compared to the 100,000 available DVDs. This is mostly older titles, but that's still not a bad number and you can expect the catalog to grow. I can confirm that I see about 10% of my queue with Play Now options presently. Sadly, the box doesn't deliver HD, so expect VCR quality video.

This move brings Netflix further into the Internet-enabled set top box subcategory of the Video on Demand market with manufacturers including Apple and VUDU. Look for cable set top boxes to incorporate more of these services over time, and with that, the introduction of yet more features into already crowded 10 foot menus.

Comments

[...] directly to your television set. …Digital Alchemy dot TV - http://www.digitalalchemy.tv/|||Roku Netflix PlayerThis time Roku, maker of the Soundbridge audio player, has teamed up with Netflix to deliver their [...]

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jibbajabba's picture
jibbajabba
05/24/08 16:27

So I read reviews about the shortcomings of the product and about the possibility of other vendors coming into the fray to provide Netflix set top boxes. I didn't plan on acquiring one of these, until I looked through the offerings. In the entertainment genres (drama, comedy, horror, etc.) the pickings are very slim, but the Documentary offerings are actually quite good. There are many videos that I'd love to watch with my son from networks including PBS, A&E, Biography, and History Channels. As a homeschooling parent, this gives me some choice for a video on demand service that I only have to pay once for—the quality is not something I'm concerned with for this type of video.

So I purchased one and will likely have more feedback about what I think. I'm a heavy user of Apple TV set top box so it will be an interesting comparison of the user interfaces for me. I'm expecting the Roku to be very simplistic, compared to what you can do with the latest release of Apple TV. What I'd really like to also do is compare with Windows Media Center, or one of the Linux boxes, but I don't plan on getting one of those any time soon.

Anonymous's picture
learn chacha
11/17/08 17:58

I have used netflix products but I am not the happy customer because some of their hardware is just horrible. Perhaps they need to introduce such stuff to strengthen their worth.

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