Roku and Netflix. What do you think?

[disneysteve]

The Netflix Player by Roku | Watch Over 12,000 Netflix Titles Instantly on your TV

I am not generally a gadget guy or a home theater kind of guy, but this device is intriguing. We already have a Netflix membership but being able to instantly stream over 12,000 titles right to our TV whenever we want to at no additional cost except the $100 device purchase sounds like a great deal. There are so many times when even with 70 cable channels, there simply is nothing on worth watching.

Does anyone already have this? What has your experience been?

[noppenbd]

We don't have the Roku, but we do have an extra PC hooked up in our living room for the same exact purpose. We have watched a number of movies through Netflix and have not been blown away. The number one downside is that the selection is a tiny fraction of the movies available by mail. Browse through the Netflix library, and you will see that just a small number of movies have the "Play" button enabled. My feeling is that the movie companies are the ones causing this restriction because the selection of streaming movies are largely older or foreign films or TV series that would presumably be less profitable.

The video quality has been middling to good, and depends a lot on your internet connection in the evening hours.

Basically we use the Watch It Now service infrequently and would probably not consider buying the Roku because of the limited selection of movies.

[disneysteve]

We don't have the Roku, but we do have an extra PC hooked up in our living room for the same exact purpose.

Basically we use the Watch It Now service infrequently and would probably not consider buying the Roku because of the limited selection of movies.

Will the video quality from the Roku be the same as on the PC? That would certainly be a factor.

[noppenbd]

I think the video quality is a function of how the video is streamed so it probably won't be any better on the Roku. The quality is not going to be as good as a DVD, even with a great internet connection. With a slow or spotty connection the quality degrades even further. Personally I like the fact that with a full-fledged computer I can also use sites like Hulu.com or even surf the web if I want.

[disneysteve]

We actually have our laptop set up on a desk just a few feet from the TV so I could probably do the same thing as you. Do I need to do anything special to hook up the computer to play through the TV?

[saversaba08]

We actually have our laptop set up on a desk just a few feet from the TV so I could probably do the same thing as you. Do I need to do anything special to hook up the computer to play through the TV?

If your laptop and TV have S-Video ports, all you need is a cable and the picture will be transferred to your TV. You will prob also need audio cables hooking up the two if you want the audio to come from the TV instead of the laptop. No other special gadget needed.

Of course all the disclaimers about internet connection speed and TV vs laptop resolution will apply to the picture quality. If, on the other hand, your laptop has the newer tech HDMI ports, you will do considerably better.

[Caoineag]

Since my TV can double as a computer monitor, I just needed to buy a $2 cord for the sound to go through my surround sound system. To be honest, my picture quality has been as good as digital TV so maybe the direct connection improves the graphics over a cord connection (the computer being used is pretty high level and I have a cable internet as well so that probably doesn't hurt).

The only reason I still have netflix instead of cancelling it again is because I can watch TV series over the internet. I don't watch a lot of movies in the summer.

[zetta]

Although we've used the Watch Instantly feature occasionally, I find that there are some advantages to having a queue of movies. When I'm in the mood to watch, I have 3-4 to choose from (depending on what's already back in the mail) that I've already pre-selected. With instant watch, I have to spend some time searching to find something I want to watch at that particular moment. I really prefer having this list of things I want to watch eventually, and every time I watch one and send it back, the next one is sent to me.

[MiikeB]

I have heard good reviews of the product you mentioned.

If you have a regular old tv hooking a laptop up is probably not a going to result in pleasent viewing, this is something that works better with HDTVs and even then most laptops will not be able to power up a high enough resolution to make it worthwhile.

Another option is getting an xbox360. They are priced at $199 and will soon have an update that allows streaming through netflix. Netflix will also be expanding the list of streamable videos when this update comes out. The plus side to this is you get more than just a video player, as the xbox360 is one of the big console gaming systems out right now, although I am not sure how relevant this would be to your families interests.

[FrugalTexan75]

Zetta,

You can make a que of Watch It Now movies, so when you want to watch something you just have to look at your WIN que.

I have the lowest plan available, so only get 5 hrs/mo WIN streaming. I've been thinking about upgrading both my internet connection, and my plan (the next level is unlimited streaming), just so I can watch all the television shows that are available for WIN.