[ARCHIVED THREAD] - NetFlix + Roku = WIN! (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 3/2/2010 11:19:52 AM EDT
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I LOVE this thing! I'm working my way through Season 1 of the A-Team after having also enjoyed Season 1 of Miami Vice, Buck Rogers, and any number of movies. I give it all  out of That is all. 
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Will the Roku stream HD or just standard def? How much of Netflix's streaming content available in HD? My free trial of HBO and Showtime on Dish Network is expiring and I don't want to pay $25 a month for their crappy reruns. If the Roku can stream HD, this sounds like a winner. I have a good 6Mbps internet connection. |
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Quoted: You have to buy the right Roku to stream HD content (~$100 I think). Netflix does have HD stuff, but it isn't a lot of their content by any means. Will the Roku stream HD or just standard def? How much of Netflix's streaming content available in HD? My free trial of HBO and Showtime on Dish Network is expiring and I don't want to pay $25 a month for their crappy reruns. If the Roku can stream HD, this sounds like a winner. I have a good 6Mbps internet connection. |
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Media streaming rocks! The Roku is a nice little device. These little steaming units are better/easier than trying to stream through an Xbox or PS3.
I'm waiting for the new PopBox to come out. Should be any day now. http://popbox.com/ Stream Netflix no problem, along with just about ANY video file I have stored on my home server. Killer GUI as well. 
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Just browsed thru the selection Netflix offers for streaming and it appears to suck badly. Cocoon, The Matrix, The Terminator, Speed, Wargames, Romancing the Stone, and others. I can't see any justification to get the service from what I see so far. It's a hit and miss situation. Browse the full selection online and throw them in your instant queue. With my PS3, they appear instantly and I can watch them then. Most of the movies are not worth it but the TV shows, Comedy, and Documentary (especially) are great. |
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Quoted: Just browsed thru the selection Netflix offers for streaming and it appears to suck badly. Cocoon, The Matrix, The Terminator, Speed, Wargames, Romancing the Stone, and others. I can't see any justification to get the service from what I see so far. Some people like older movies. Also TV shows, foreign films, independent stuff... You want new releases, get the Blu-Ray disc. Seeing as the streaming video doesn't cost anything more... I can't see how it's not a total win.
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I never knew you could stream with a BR player until after I got the Roku. Considering the hell I went through running all the wires, I'm not changing a damned thing!  If the chatter I am gearing about future developments are even halfway true I don't think long term you will be disappointed having gotten the Roku. I expect we are going to see a lot of new channels in the next six months and options for steaming local content. Matter of fact I am currently testing a local streaming channel option a guy had posted on the Roku forum, it is still rough but the potential is there. |
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Media streaming rocks! The Roku is a nice little device. These little steaming units are better/easier than trying to stream through an Xbox or PS3. I'm waiting for the new PopBox to come out. Should be any day now. http://popbox.com/ Stream Netflix no problem, along with just about ANY video file I have stored on my home server. Killer GUI as well. http://cache-03.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/01/007-popapps.jpg http://cache-06.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/01/004-videos_movies.jpg Price? |
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Quoted: Just browsed thru the selection Netflix offers for streaming and it appears to suck badly. Cocoon, The Matrix, The Terminator, Speed, Wargames, Romancing the Stone, and others. I can't see any justification to get the service from what I see so far. Dead Snow was just added. Good foreign and indie movies tend to show up on this even before the DVD's are out. And it's free if you are a Netflix customer. It's the best entertainment deal out there. |
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Media streaming rocks! The Roku is a nice little device. These little steaming units are better/easier than trying to stream through an Xbox or PS3. I'm waiting for the new PopBox to come out. Should be any day now. http://popbox.com/ Stream Netflix no problem, along with just about ANY video file I have stored on my home server. Killer GUI as well. http://cache-03.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/01/007-popapps.jpg http://cache-06.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/01/004-videos_movies.jpg Price? $130'ish is what they are saying. ETA: Gizmodo review of the PopBox. http://gizmodo.com/5439293/syabas-popbox-get-ready-for-the-new-media-streamer-champ Video review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4FJeSZePGc http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/05/syabas-popbox-hands-on/ |
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These little steaming units are better/easier than trying to stream through an Xbox or PS3. How so? I can't really speak for the PS3, so excuse me there, but from the Xbox360 staindpoint.... compared to one of these little streamer boxes, it's a huge, power hungry, fans-a-blazing, slow booting slug
It's great for playing games though. |
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Just browsed thru the selection Netflix offers for streaming and it appears to suck badly. Cocoon, The Matrix, The Terminator, Speed, Wargames, Romancing the Stone, and others. I can't see any justification to get the service from what I see so far. Dead Snow was just added. Good foreign and indie movies tend to show up on this even before the DVD's are out. And it's free if you are a Netflix customer. It's the best entertainment deal out there. Didn't Don King say this for his boxing PPV's? 
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Just browsed thru the selection Netflix offers for streaming and it appears to suck badly. Cocoon, The Matrix, The Terminator, Speed, Wargames, Romancing the Stone, and others. I can't see any justification to get the service from what I see so far. Some people like older movies. Also TV shows, foreign films, independent stuff... You want new releases, get the Blu-Ray disc. Seeing as the streaming video doesn't cost anything more... I can't see how it's not a total win. Most people that complain about Netflix streaming selection are only superficially looking and are not looking hard enough. There are also a lot of TV series gems and foreign films and TV series most Americans have never heard of. If log in to your Netfilx account and rate (honestly) a lot of movies (200+) then look at the recommendations they have for you in streaming there will be many movies, TV shows, etc. that you have never heard of that you will enjoy. |
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These little steaming units are better/easier than trying to stream through an Xbox or PS3. How so? I can't really speak for the PS3, so excuse me there, but from the Xbox360 staindpoint.... compared to one of these little streamer boxes, it's a huge, power hungry, fans-a-blazing, slow booting slug
It's great for playing games though. Yea and with the PS3 you have to have a special Netfilx DVD to access streaming. The Roku is silent, small, and low power, elegant in its simplicity. |
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Media streaming rocks! The Roku is a nice little device. These little steaming units are better/easier than trying to stream through an Xbox or PS3. I'm waiting for the new PopBox to come out. Should be any day now. http://popbox.com/ Stream Netflix no problem, along with just about ANY video file I have stored on my home server. Killer GUI as well. http://cache-03.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/01/007-popapps.jpg http://cache-06.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/01/004-videos_movies.jpg Unless you are able to just imagine what you want to watch and the Roku pulls it up I don't see how it could be easier than an Xbox.. I sign on and there it is how hard is that? |
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These little steaming units are better/easier than trying to stream through an Xbox or PS3. How so? I can't really speak for the PS3, so excuse me there, but from the Xbox360 staindpoint.... compared to one of these little streamer boxes, it's a huge, power hungry, fans-a-blazing, slow booting slug
It's great for playing games though. In other words you spent the money on Roku THEN heard you could do the same thing on your Xbox360 so now you have to justify spending the money. gotcha... I cannot for the life of me see how Zune and Netflix could be any better or faster on anything aside from what I use now. |
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These little steaming units are better/easier than trying to stream through an Xbox or PS3. How so? I can't really speak for the PS3, so excuse me there, but from the Xbox360 staindpoint.... compared to one of these little streamer boxes, it's a huge, power hungry, fans-a-blazing, slow booting slug
It's great for playing games though. In other words you spent the money on Roku THEN heard you could do the same thing on your Xbox360 so now you have to justify spending the money. gotcha... I cannot for the life of me see how Zune and Netflix could be any better or faster on anything aside from what I use now. Uh, no. I do not have a Roku, never have. I stream everything I have now through my Xbox360, and have been for a long time. I heard you could play video games on an Xbox so I got one, then I heard you could stream videos, so I started to do that. I also use Windows Media Center through my Xbox. I have 300+ movies, half of which are HD stored on my home server. I was researching streaming devices to use, so I could quit using my noisy Xbox to stream. These media streamers really are better for streaming than a video game console. I don't have to justify anything, but thanks. ETA: I don't even use Netflix. I have in the past, but I don't now. I just stream my own media. Unless you use Windows Media Center (which I do), the user interface on the Xbox for streaming local files SUCKS. Windows Media center looks nice, you can have movie posters and metadata but it's still going through the noisy, big, Xbox. I was originally going to go all out HTPC, but decided a media streamer, with a nice user interface would work better for what I'm doing. The option for Netflix is there if I decide to do it again. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: These little steaming units are better/easier than trying to stream through an Xbox or PS3. How so? I can't really speak for the PS3, so excuse me there, but from the Xbox360 staindpoint.... compared to one of these little streamer boxes, it's a huge, power hungry, fans-a-blazing, slow booting slug It's great for playing games though. Netflix is quick on the PS3, have to use a blu-ray disc that they send you for now though, which kind of bites, but by the end of the year there will be a downloadable program. My TV has 3 HDMI ports, one for cable, one for the upscale DVD/surround sound, and one for the PS3, that plays blu-ray, netflix streaming, and games. The slim one is quiet and efficient. If I had no PS3 I would go with a Roku or something similar.
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These little steaming units are better/easier than trying to stream through an Xbox or PS3. How so? I can't really speak for the PS3, so excuse me there, but from the Xbox360 staindpoint.... compared to one of these little streamer boxes, it's a huge, power hungry, fans-a-blazing, slow booting slug
It's great for playing games though. In other words you spent the money on Roku THEN heard you could do the same thing on your Xbox360 so now you have to justify spending the money. gotcha... I cannot for the life of me see how Zune and Netflix could be any better or faster on anything aside from what I use now. You got nothing and missed the point. Or he used the XBox and decided he wanted a solution that... 1. Required no XBox Live subscription 2. Uses a fraction of the power. 3. Does not sound like a vacuum cleaner. 4. Has a developer whose primary interest and business is content and not games. The XBox 360 is a great game console as a media player it is a power hungry, hot, noisy, slob of a player. |
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These little steaming units are better/easier than trying to stream through an Xbox or PS3. How so? I can't really speak for the PS3, so excuse me there, but from the Xbox360 staindpoint.... compared to one of these little streamer boxes, it's a huge, power hungry, fans-a-blazing, slow booting slug
It's great for playing games though. In other words you spent the money on Roku THEN heard you could do the same thing on your Xbox360 so now you have to justify spending the money. gotcha... I cannot for the life of me see how Zune and Netflix could be any better or faster on anything aside from what I use now. You got nothing and missed the point. Or he used the XBox and decided he wanted a solution that... 1. Required no XBox Live subscription 2. Uses a fraction of the power. 3. Does not sound like a vacuum cleaner. 4. Has a developer whose primary interest and business is content and not games. The XBox 360 is a great game console as a media player it is a power hungry, hot, noisy, slob of a player. Bingo. See above. |
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Quoted: Or he used the XBox and decided he wanted a solution that... 1. Required no XBox Live subscription 2. Uses a fraction of the power. 3. Does not sound like a vacuum cleaner. 4. Has a developer whose primary interest and business is content and not games. The XBox 360 is a great game console as a media player it is a power hungry, hot, noisy, slob of a player. Where do people get this stuff from? Sound like a vacuum cleaner? I can barely hear my 360 or my PS3 when they're on. Any sound at all from the TV, and you hear nothing from the consoles. Power hungry? Please... "Oh no, my 360 is going to cost me an extra $3 this month!" If this is really a concern for anyone, they'd probably be better off watching a little less TV, and spending a little more time looking for a better job. Hot? At 12 feet away, I really don't notice how hot they get. Now, it is true that I pay for XBox Live. But, I would be doing that whether my XBox streamed video or not, so that's a wash. (And it's really not that expensive anyway.) |
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These little steaming units are better/easier than trying to stream through an Xbox or PS3. How so? I can't really speak for the PS3, so excuse me there, but from the Xbox360 staindpoint.... compared to one of these little streamer boxes, it's a huge, power hungry, fans-a-blazing, slow booting slug
It's great for playing games though. In other words you spent the money on Roku THEN heard you could do the same thing on your Xbox360 so now you have to justify spending the money. gotcha... I cannot for the life of me see how Zune and Netflix could be any better or faster on anything aside from what I use now. You got nothing and missed the point. Or he used the XBox and decided he wanted a solution that... 1. Required no XBox Live subscription 2. Uses a fraction of the power. 3. Does not sound like a vacuum cleaner. 4. Has a developer whose primary interest and business is content and not games. The XBox 360 is a great game console as a media player it is a power hungry, hot, noisy, slob of a player. Bingo. See above. Some people do not seem to get that running a XBox 360 is about equivalent to running three 60 watt incandescent light bulbs, the Roku on the other hand is almost nothing in comparison. I run my Roku on average 8-12 hours a day while relaxing and working spread between Netflix, Pandora, and listening to podcast. If I ran a Xbox 360 that much the daily additional electricity cost alone would be $0.18-$0.25.... that does not sound like much a day but when you total it up over a year it is $65 to $90 or close to what a Roku box cost, so in my first year the Roku paid for itself and after that saves me money and that does not even take in to consideration of the potentiality cost of extra wear on the Xbox and early replacement caused by the extra use. The power, heat, and noise issues may not be important to some people but they are to me and would be to more people if they sat down and figured the actual real cost of the different options. |
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I have the LG Blu ray player with Netflix streaming. It is indeed the bee's knees. Just picked up the new LG BD590 with 250gb hard drive. Between the new BD player and my Samsung Plasma I can stream: Netflix Pandora Amazon Video Blockbuster Video Vudu YouTube Roxio CinemaNow |
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Quoted: Or he used the XBox and decided he wanted a solution that...
1. Required no XBox Live subscription 2. Uses a fraction of the power. 3. Does not sound like a vacuum cleaner. 4. Has a developer whose primary interest and business is content and not games. The XBox 360 is a great game console as a media player it is a power hungry, hot, noisy, slob of a player. Where do people get this stuff from? Sound like a vacuum cleaner? I can barely hear my 360 or my PS3 when they're on. Any sound at all from the TV, and you hear nothing from the consoles. Power hungry? Please... "Oh no, my 360 is going to cost me an extra $3 this month!" If this is really a concern for anyone, they'd probably be better off watching a little less TV, and spending a little more time looking for a better job. Hot? At 12 feet away, I really don't notice how hot they get. Now, it is true that I pay for XBox Live. But, I would be doing that whether my XBox streamed video or not, so that's a wash. (And it's really not that expensive anyway.) Running a XBox 360 eight hours a day will cost you $5.00 to $8.00 a month depending on where you live... or almost $100 a year in places. It is also a fact the 360 fan makes a hell of a lot of noise and the unit produces a lot of heat. I did not speed several thousand dollars on a HDTV and surround sound system because I wanted to hear fan noise during quite spots in movies. That is just the way it is like it or not, if you can stand the noise fine but I do not want to. |
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Yep, pretty much the #1 compaint about the Xbox360 is the noise it makes.
I'm not saying streaming from one is a bad idea, it's just that streaming from a 'dedicated streaming device' works better. This is ESPECIALLY true if you stream actual files (not Netflix), because then you get a very nice user interface with movie posters, movie info and ratings, actor names, etc. |
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Quoted: The new Xbox 360s sound like an AH-64 Apache Attack Helicopter. New PS3s are whisper quiet. The Roku has less moving parts and a much smaller processor, it doesn't do anywhere near the job that a gaming console does. It DOES use more power to do the same job. It just doesn't come out to a lot in the long run. Quoted: Or he used the XBox and decided he wanted a solution that... 1. Required no XBox Live subscription 2. Uses a fraction of the power. 3. Does not sound like a vacuum cleaner. 4. Has a developer whose primary interest and business is content and not games. The XBox 360 is a great game console as a media player it is a power hungry, hot, noisy, slob of a player. Where do people get this stuff from? Sound like a vacuum cleaner? I can barely hear my 360 or my PS3 when they're on. Any sound at all from the TV, and you hear nothing from the consoles. Power hungry? Please... "Oh no, my 360 is going to cost me an extra $3 this month!" If this is really a concern for anyone, they'd probably be better off watching a little less TV, and spending a little more time looking for a better job. Hot? At 12 feet away, I really don't notice how hot they get. Now, it is true that I pay for XBox Live. But, I would be doing that whether my XBox streamed video or not, so that's a wash. (And it's really not that expensive anyway.) ETA: To be fair, I'm sure the 360 isn't that loud when streaming Netflix as it needs no disc to run it, probably runs much cooler that way.
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With regard to the Netflix "watch instantly" selection, I am a very happy customer. Is it chock full of HD new releases? Not even close. Does it offer some decent material with acceptable or good PQ? Absolutely. My wife is in love with McLeod's Daughters, an Aussie serial drama. It's complete unabashed chick-flick TV, full of pretty people and odd Aussie vehicles. My daughter loves a lot of the BBC series, including Robin Hood and Dr. Who, as well Disney's iCarly. She was too young to watch Lost when it came out, so she's starting at Season One right now. I recently watched Patton, BHD and Syriana all in the same week. Some of the TV-based material is available the day after it airs - Showtime's Spartacus and Legend of the Seeker are both available almost immediately. The HD video quality is pretty good, and the SD PQ is not bad at all. |
| I do agree that the PS3 is on a different playing field in regards to streaming as compared to the 360. It is smaller, quieter, and has a BD drive. It's closer to what a dedicated streaming device is. My issue is, I just simply have no need for a BD player under my TV, and already have the gaming console I like. Otherwise I would definitely consider a PS3. |
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I just ordered a 46" LCD TV for my upstairs livingroom, and have a couch/sectional on the way... My old DVD player doesn't have HDMI out, so I'm going to end up getting a BluRay player soon. I'm definitely going to look at the ones that will stream NetFlix and other services.
The TV I ordered is a Sony Bravia, and it has an ethernet port, but I haven't found details on how to use it. It's also got VGA in, so I can connect a PC to it (until I build a new media center box and use a DVI - HDMI converter). Can't wait to get it all set up. |
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With regard to the Netflix "watch instantly" selection, I am a very happy customer. Is it chock full of HD new releases? Not even close. Does it offer some decent material with acceptable or good PQ? Absolutely. My wife is in love with McLeod's Daughters, an Aussie serial drama. It's complete unabashed chick-flick TV, full of pretty people and odd Aussie vehicles. My daughter loves a lot of the BBC series, including Robin Hood and Dr. Who, as well Disney's iCarly. She was too young to watch Lost when it came out, so she's starting at Season One right now. I recently watched Patton, BHD and Syriana all in the same week. Some of the TV-based material is available the day after it airs - Showtime's Spartacus and Legend of the Seeker are both available almost immediately. The HD video quality is pretty good, and the SD PQ is not bad at all. this. i've been pretty happy w/ the instant watch content. i watch a lot of documentaries and it seems everything that's been on history, discovery or the learning channel is there. i usually stream to my tablet, but i might need to look into the roku once we get our lcd tv (our first). |
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Didn't NetFlix just sign some agreement with ABC or some other network to carry their stuff via streaming media?
I found that the current season of Heroes was available. When more shows are available, the service will be much more worth it. Seems like now, there are some shows I could watch on it. Then switch my disc by mail service to BluRay to enjoy movies on BluRay. |
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I just ordered a 46" LCD TV for my upstairs livingroom, and have a couch/sectional on the way... My old DVD player doesn't have HDMI out, so I'm going to end up getting a BluRay player soon. I'm definitely going to look at the ones that will stream NetFlix and other services. The TV I ordered is a Sony Bravia, and it has an ethernet port, but I haven't found details on how to use it. It's also got VGA in, so I can connect a PC to it (until I build a new media center box and use a DVI - HDMI converter). Can't wait to get it all set up. Some of the newer Sony Bravia TVs stream Netfilx on their own, it may take a firmware upgrade. |
| I have been thinking about getting one of these Roku boxes. I have a concern about how well it will work if my wireless router is on the opposite end of the house from my TV. If I have my laptop in the same room as my TV, the wireless laptop reports "low" signal strength for the wireless connection. I assume the Roku would have about the same connectiviity as the laptop. Will a "low" singal strength offer enough bandwidth to watch movies on the Roku? |
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Quoted: I just ordered a 46" LCD TV for my upstairs livingroom, and have a couch/sectional on the way... My old DVD player doesn't have HDMI out, so I'm going to end up getting a BluRay player soon. I'm definitely going to look at the ones that will stream NetFlix and other services. The TV I ordered is a Sony Bravia, and it has an ethernet port, but I haven't found details on how to use it. It's also got VGA in, so I can connect a PC to it (until I build a new media center box and use a DVI - HDMI converter). Can't wait to get it all set up. I bought the 46" Bravia at Christmas and it came as a great deal with a bundled PS3 console a blu-ray movie and a PS3 game. You can use the PS3 as your blu-ray player and I also stream netflix on it. You will really enjoy the Bravia, we've been very happy with ours. |