Roku Rocks
Something I’ve wanted since the holidays is what I’ve wistfully referred to as “the Box” — the Roku Netflix Player, which is designed, essentially, to connect your TV to your broadband cable connection so that you can view Netflix’s Watch Instantly movies and TV shows without cabling your computer to your TV. 
For a few years now, I’ve been connecting my MacBook to the TV probably at least a few times per week, first to stream iTunes content, then, later, to watch a fair bit of Hulu, then to watch Amazon On Demand. The service changed frequently, particularly when we wanted to watch a particular show — Battlestar Galactica — because the rights situation with BSG kept changing…first you could buy it on iTunes, then it was gone; then it was free on Hulu, then the number of back episodes was cut down serverly; finally, it was easiest to just buy Season 4 on Amazon and stream it over the MacBook wired up to the TV.
With Hulu moving away from full seasons, it’s become easier and easier to stick with Netflix Watch Instantly options coupled with Amazon On Demand — and that was when I was still hooking up the Mac. Since we hadn’t seen any of Heroes until early this year, Netflix is perfect for the first few seasons, so we’ve been hooking up to watch that. And, of course, Netflix itself remains a service where you can send DVD’s in the mail, as quaint as that system is becoming.
Then came the box. I saw a refurbished unit available for $10 less a few weeks ago (it only costs $99 to begin with), which pushed me over the edge. When it arrived, the unbox was fun, the setup a little more troubled (it took me a while to get the box to connect to the Internet) and then the connections to Netflix and Amazon require some signing in and out and using PIN numbers to communicate between the box and the services.
Since then it’s been near perfect. Once the setup is done and you’ve filled the Watch Instantly queue in Netflix, you’re set. We’ve watch another half-season of Heroes, a number of older films (moving through some Audrey Hepburn stuff we haven’t seen) and some wonderfully bad movies (Omega Man, an earlier Charleton Heston version of the story that became “I Am Legend” of recent Will Smith fame.)
Just this weekend I watched both Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, the former in order to bone up on the storyline and be ready for the latter. (As it turns out, Casino Royale is a much better movie; on my second watching I had a much better idea of the plot and was considerably more engaged, even if they were playing “hold-em” poker. On my first viewing, I’d call Quantum a pretty serious disappointment; maybe I’ll watch it again and change my mind.)
The Roku has been outstanding — very few “drops” or problems of that nature, and those are usually actually a problem with the cable modem. Picture quality on my SD TV is considerably improved over what we were dealing with using the MacBook, and audio is much louder, filling the room through my stereo inputs. Image quality, as far as I can tell, easily rivals DVD, with nothing that looks to me like streaming artifacts or similar problems. The menus are attractive and work fine for navigation. Even the remote is surprisingly sturdy.
My only request isn’t Roku’s fault — it’d be nice to have an auto-magical way to know that a movie is available for free on Netflix before I hit the button to rent it on Amazon. And, I’m seriously going to have to second guess having *any* DVDs sent to the house by Netflix (I may just switch to one-at-a-time) because we seriously haven’t watched or sent back a DVD in about a month.
The Roku has replaced any impulse I had leaning toward the purchase of an Apple TV — there would be some advantages, yes, but the inexpensive Roku trumps them since I only have a standard definition TV. But here’s hoping the Roku continues to partner with other services such as Hulu. YouTube access would be nice as well. But, for right now, the combination of Netflix, Amazon and sheer ease-of-use make the Roku perhaps the best $100 I’ve ever spent on home electronics.
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