Roku HD Player
by Roku, Inc.
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Our Price: $75.50 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Home Theater See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Roku HD Player
Customer Review: I canceled my cable
Summary: 5 Stars
Buying the Roku player was a no-brainer for me. I got it about six months ago, and since then I've barely even used the DVD-by-mail aspect of my Netflix account. I'll leave them sitting around unwatched for a month or more sometimes, and I don't really mind. This box alone makes it worth the $10 per month.
A quick (less than five minutes) setup, and I had the Roku player linked to my Netflix account and was browsing my Watch Instantly queue on my HDTV. It shipped with an HDMI cable (optional), so I was all set when they upgraded the firmware to support HD streams. The video quality is exceptional even on non-HD titles, and I rarely have any problems with rebuffering during playback. A few streams have had a weird audio sync problem, but that's a problem on Netflix's end (and it's only happened once or twice out of dozens, possibly a hundred or more movies watched so far).
The interface is as intuitive as it gets: just move back and forth to scroll through titles in your queue, as represented by the cover art with titles and descriptions at the bottom. You don't actually get to browse Netflix's library from your TV -- just your own Watch Instantly queue, consisting of titles you've added using your computer -- but this doesn't bother me. The remote has just a few buttons: four directional buttons for navigation, an "enter" button, a "home" button to return to the main screen, a play/pause button, and buttons for backward/forward scanning. That's all you need, really.
The player itself is tiny and doesn't have a footprint much larger than a CD case, if that. It seems rock-solid, too -- it's been knocked over a handful of times (sometimes violently), and it hasn't skipped a beat yet.
I do wish there were a way of scanning through my queue more quickly. I usually have a large queue (I'll add anything that looks even slightly interesting, just so I don't forget about it), and it can be tiresome scrolling to something a hundred titles down.
I was indifferent to the addition of Amazon VOD streaming, but HD support was most welcome, and I'm hopeful Roku will add support for free, Internet-based content. I already watch most of my TV through Hulu or network web sites, and I'd love to be able to watch everything through the same box. YouTube would also be nice, as well as the ability to stream video content from my computer's hard drive.
Customer Review: Maybe the Future of Home Entertainment!
Summary: 5 Stars
Since installing the Roku I've hardly watched any other source of news or entertainment. The Netflix channel alone made the purchase more than worth the money, but there are many other channels with interesting, entertaining and informative content as well: Amazon VOD, podcasts, newscasts from the major networks and NPR, Youtube, reviews and news about the technical world, nature films, comedy, classic radio, old film noir movies, Pandora radio (where you create your own music stations based on your music preferences), sports coverage and more.
This model provides video: composite, S-Video, component, and HDMI (720p). Audio: left/right, HDMI, and optical. It also connects with either an Ethernet cable or wirelessly.
It's very easy to install and operate, but you must have high speed broadband internet service, and you must have connectivity with a separate computer at the time you register to the various channels.
The remote control is quite comfortable to hold and use, although there is no alphanumeric keyboard. When doing a search and you need to enter letters and numbers you have to steer a cursor around a grid on the screen and press the Select button when the cursor is on the character you want. This could be improved if the cursor would wrap when you reach the end of a line.
Many of the content providers (the channels) provide the ability to search for specific content. E.g., on Pandora you can search for music by your favorite composer or artist or title.
What I cannot seem to do is search on generic content and be directed to a channel or channels that has that content. For example, one of the channels has a "sub-channel" (my term) called "World Chess News". Now that I remember it's under the "Dream TV" channel I know where to find it, but if I didn't know that I would have to spend perhaps ten minutes looking for it. Suppose I want to listen to "Car Talk" right now. I know it's there, because I've seen it, but it would take me a while to find it because there are so many channels with many sub-channels I'd have to look at. But this is a problem I love because it's a reflection of how much content there is available on the Roku! And I expect that as more and more content is added the Roku folks will do something to make it easier to find stuff.
I like my Roku!
Customer Review: Good quality, excellent value
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought mine when it first came out as a Netflix viewer, and receiving the update to access Amazon VOD just adds a ton value to my initial purchase.
Despite its diminutive size, the Roku player is well made, and the remote is nice and simple, yet fully-functional.
With both WiFi and "wired" Ethernet access, there is a lot of flexibility for connecting to the internet.
I have a relatively slow connection at 1.5 meg down, 384k up, and the Roku performs adequately, even with a Wii, two PCs, and a laptop all sharing that same internet connection.
Each time you begin streaming a movie, it assesses the available bandwidth while beginning the stream, and determines the quality accordingly. The quality is rated from 1 to 4 (4 is best), and I usually get a "4" even with other active streams (e.g. someone else in the house watching Youtube) running concurrently. Occasionally, I will get "2" during peak usage hours, when the ISP itself slows down.
As with all WiFi gear, if you intend to use the Roku player wirelessly, make sure your cordless phone does not share the same footprint (2.4GHz) or is DECT compliant.
The only down side I have found is that the box could benefit from a little bit more of a buffer -- 30 seconds is all it has -- in order to smooth out streaming and bandwidth issues that can arise, as well as to provide smoother rewind / review functionality. It would be nice to have a 30 minute buffer so that you can get up and do something, leave the box paused, and not have to worry about re-streaming or re-buffering. When you DO have to re-stream or re-buffer, it only takes a few seconds, but this can be annoying if you are trying to rewind to catch what someone said a few minutes ago (etc...). This is an area where I feel the PC-based Netflix player beats the Roku, but not by much.
Having access to my Netflix account was the primary reason I bought this device almost a year ago -- it's nice not to have to Tivo CSI and some of the other CBS shows that are usually available as a stream the next day. Unlike Amazon VOD, the Netflix queue has to be managed primarily through the web, with minimal queue management functionality on the device itself: Select, play, remove, rate is all you get in terms of queue management for Netflix.
I highly recommend this product.
Customer Review: Wish I would have bought one sooner! Love it.
Summary: 5 Stars
Everything went great with this purchase. Item arrived on the 5th business day by Fedex ground. California to Texas. I love my Roku video player. Works great and was easy to set up just like they say. I just wish I would have got one sooner. A friend has ordered one after seeing mine. If you have Netflix you should have a Roku too.
I only have a 1 meg service from Suddenlink but I have had no problems. I don't have a new tv. Mine is at least 10 years old. The Roku picture is as good as watching regular cable TV. I don't use the wireless feature but plan on trying it. I use the direct connection from my router. I had every connection used on my TV with a DVD player/recorder, VCR, cable box and surround sound. The easiest way I found for me to hook this up was the front yellow, red and white connections on the front of my DVD player. My TV doesn't have HDMI inputs. All I had to do was change the input setting on the DVD player and everything else still worked fine, cable TV, playing DVDs, VCR.
Now I don't have to watch much cable. I have been watching seasons of TV shows that I want to see. Getting a whole season by disc wasn't ever this convienent.
The Roku unit is so small I set it on top of a stereo speaker. It turns itself off when I switch to cable or disc. The interface and remote are so easy to use. I had movies on my Queue the day before it arrived. The activation was also very simple using your computer and entering a short code. Just took minutes and I was watching a movie. You can stop a movie and come back to it and start where you left off. I even had started more than one. I have not tried the Amazon option yet. They have more up to date movies you can rent but Netflix has a lot even if they aren't brand new and a ton of kids shows, documentaries and whole seasons of TV shows.
I love it. Next I need to buy a new TV to watch all this on. Need lots of HDMI inputs too. I think this is just the beginning of the future of movie watching. If you like Netflix like I do and plan to keep it, it is very much worth the price of the unit even though you have to pay shipping.
Don't forget a Cat 5 network LAN cable if you want to use a direct hookup. You use that to connect your router to the Roku box that needs to be by the TV you will be watching. I found the best price on a 100ft network cable here at Amazon.
Customer Review: Outstanding Product !
Summary: 5 Stars
I was looking for an alternative to purchasing an expensive gaming product (e.g. Nintendo) to watch my Netflix movies and other streaming content. This product is perfect ! I couldn't be happier.
Roku Digital Video Player
First - my services and infrastructure. I have Verizon FIOS that consistently tests 19MB download and 4.5MB upload. Then I deliver this to my wireless network through a Netgear WNDR3300 Wireless N router.
Second - product setup. I started with the direct Cat5 wired setup, since my experience is that setting up new wireless devices can be more problematic, expecially configuring through the security settings. I connected the Roku box to my TV with a component video and digital audio. Then powered up the box and loaded the setup screen on my TV. The Roku box found the network and Netflix account in about 10 sec. It gave me a special code that I had to go back to my PC and enter (after logging in my my account). By the time I went back to the TV, the account was configured to use the Roku box. Total setup time - about 10 min. This TV was running 720p mode, so I decided to test the HDMI and wireless capabilities.
Third - I connected the box to the network through the wireless connection. (Remember: if you have router security enabled - AND YOU SHOULD !! - then you must turnoff wireless access control so the router knows the Roku is "friendly". After the Roku is connected wirelessly, and the router is configured to accept its connections, then turn wireless access control back on.) I also connected it to a 1080i HD TV through a HDMI cable. Again, total setup time was about 5-10min.
Finally - enjoy. I brought up a favorite TV show ("The Office"). It required about 15 sec for the episode to load into the buffer, then played in beautiful HD format. The same for just about everything in my queue. Some streaming content is not delivered in HD, but I still get fast download and "4 bars" (high resolution) streaming delivery.
Overall - this is a terrific value at $99.99 + delivery. The hardware connections will accommodate just about every need - S-Video, component video, digital optical, HDMI. The wireless capability is robust. I highly recommend.