Roku HD Player
by Roku, Inc.
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Our Price: $69.99 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: Impressed by the Performance
Summary: 5 Stars
My experience with electronics began in the "Sixties" and there have been many advances in applying this technology to products that enhance our lives, but few have been as impressive as the ROKU HD Player.
Out of the box, it appears well designed and well built, offers enough connection options to adapt to a variety of television displays, is a complete outfit ready to use, and the good news does not stop there.
Once I connected the ROKU HD to my HDTV the on screen installation process was easy to follow and actually worked on my first attempt; adding it to my home network was easier than any device I have ever added. I really wonder how the firmware designer(s) accomplished this: my complements to all who were involved. (I feel like an "Ad man" in a infomercial) But wait the best part is yet to be explained: The connection to the internet via my 3 megabit/sec DSL service has been the most consistent and reliable that I have ever experienced.
I have the Netflix one DVD out at a time and unlimited on-demand video account: I activated the ROKU HD following the instructions provided by Netflix and the ROKU on-screen menus and was enjoying programs in just a few minutes. The streams have exhibited virtually no drop-out and I often forget that I am watching programs from the internet and not from cable or my satellite feed. The biggest surprise was that I read that the recommended internet connection speed was 5 megabit/sec in order to see HD quality but I obtained this with my current bandwidth referenced above. I have a 720P Samsung 46" DLP set so I can not comment on higher resolutions, but as a matter of practicality (economy and general use), I am very happy with the system I am using now and consider it the most economical way to expand entertainment options. The ROKU box is even more versatile than that because you can access several other sources of material beside Netflix: Amazon On Demand has a vast catalog program material and ROKU has even some free providers the best for me being the Pandora internet radio service.
Oh I almost forgot: the sound provided by the ROKU HD box is excellent. I feed my TV with the HDMI cable and in turn an optical feed from my TV to my discrete surround sound receiver and have experienced rich multi-channel audio similar to what I experience when I play DVDs.
The bottom line in my opinion: You would be hard pressed to find an easier and more economical way to greatly enhance your in home entertainment options that the ROKU HD box provides.
Jim HalifkoRoku HD Player
Customer Review: Well worth the money. You should have one.
Summary: 5 Stars
I actually bought my Roku HD Player the first week that they were made available, but I just bought a second unit, so I thought I'd go ahead and jot down a few comments.
1. The reason I bought a second unit was that my first one stopped working after the one-year warranty expired. I did not contact Roku...I simply ordered another unit. (I like mine so much I would have done this if they cost four times as much.) When the new unit arrived, I figured out that only the power supply on the old unit was bad. I sent an e-mail to Roku support and now they are sending me a new power supply at their expense, even though it was at least three months out of warranty. Nice product support, guys!!
2. When I ordered my first unit directly from Roku, it arrived in only a couple days. If you order a unit through this site with "Free Shipping," expect it to take 10 - 14 days.
3. Do not expect to use this unit on a shared wireless system and get consistent, high-quality images. Just suck it up and hard-wire the unit to your switch or router. Broadband service is wobbly enough without introducing the additional uncertainty of your wireless network.
4. I've used all of the output types the unit provides, including HDMI, optical audio, component video, and S-video. They all work flawlessly. The unit configures very easily and should set up in minutes.
5. You can use several of these units on the same Net**** account, usually simultaneously. Check their site to see about limitations. This is VERY handy to know.
6. This unit is very small and does not produce much heat. The IR remote seems to work over a very wide angle throughout the room. However, I have two issues with the remote: First, the darn thing can be very tricky to open. (The instructions with the unit are NO help.) Second, both my remote and a friend's remote have had problems with battery leakage. We used different types of batteries, but both units began to corrode at the battery contacts after about six months.
7. This site's VOD service should really work on their interface for users. Looking up a specific film can be VERY time-consuming. Imagine stepping through EVERY film that begins with the letter "M" (in alphabetical order) to find out if they have the movie you want to watch. You can do a search, too, but some of the results are really unpredictable and I have missed movies that I later found out were available. It would help if you could do just a text-only list of titles.
In summary, if you have a Net**** account (or even if you don't), you really owe it to yourself to get one of these.
Customer Review: We are very satisified
Summary: 5 Stars
We are a typical Netflix customer with a subscription that includes the (pretty much) unlimited play-now service. Comcast broadband. Home wifi.
The Roku box was a snap to set up. We use it on a 27" CRT TV with video-in / audio-in jacks. Completely compatible with one of the several options that Roku provides for connecting a TV.
The Roku found our wifi no problem and offered it as first choice above the weaker access points of our 3 neighbors also wifi-visible from our premises. We use WEP encryption and the Roku knew this and had us enter a key. Instant connection.
Then we were told by our Roku-TV that we needed to go online and register the box with our Netflix account. This was a brief nuisance but went absolutely smoothly.
So all of setup was a snap. The actual usage of the device is a pleasure. We had previously been using a notebook computer to which I had connected one of these PC-to-TV converters, which takes the notebook's RGB out and coverts it to NTSC video. Playback was via using the Netflix-Windows Media Player. This worked but was nerdy tedious, and video quality was acceptable but definitely below the Roku.
Our likes about the Roku:
1) It is easy easy easy to use and always instantly available.
2) Picture quality is excellent. We almost always get 4-of-4 dots of video quality thanks to a decent Wifi implementation and a reliable Comcast connection (a broadband oxymoron for many, I know).
3) Can stop any movie whenever you want (more than one at a time) and it remembers where you were.
Caveats:
1) For Netflix, it only sees items in your play-now queue. No browsing of inventory. That has to be done online, adding desired items to the queue.
2) Sometimes it loses network connection after sitting idle for a few days. But it will step you through a reconnect procedure that takes about 20 seconds once you realize all you basically need to do is click "next".
3) It's SO easy to use that your kids will take it over if they also have access to your Netflix account as ours do. Turns out that the kludgly notebook computer approach we had been using (that only I could set up) was was kind of an unappreciated advantage in that context.
4) Seems no way to random-access to a point in a movie as we could using the Netflix Media Player on the notebook computer. The Roku remote control is very simple to use and has no click-drag equivalent to move a slider onscreen the way you can with Media Player in Windows.
We have not used the Amazon features yet.
Customer Review: Yes, this thing actually works
Summary: 5 Stars
1. I was somewhat skeptical as to whether or not this thing would actually work out for me, but I'm happy to say that it lives up to it's claims.
2. Here's a brief summary of what I see as the pros / cons:
* You basically need a netflix membership; the other channels are "fluff" in my opinion. The main reason to get this is to watch movies via netflix "on demand". It was not an issue for me because I've been a very happy member of netflix for years. For those who aren't netflix members, you have to weigh the pros / cons of joining (basically if you tend to watch DVDs, then it's almost a no brainer). You also have to understand that via the Roku device, you can't watch 100% of the Netflix library of DVDs; you can only view a relatively small percentage of their DVDs (ie the "watch now" titles). But in fairness to netflix, the "watch now" titles may be a small percentage of the total titles, but the actual number of titles is large (which is why I bought the Roku).
* Speed/ Video Quality etc...: Yes, the time from turning on the TV / Roku and then actually watching the movie does take some time... but not a huge amount of time; I'm guessing... a minute? Not a big deal for me because when you're using this device, you're not channel surfing, but you're actually wanting to sit down and actually watch something. Once you find something to watch, no problem. In terms of the video quality, I think it's "good enough". I can't quantify the quality, but I just watched a fairly recent IMAX documentary and the overall quality seemed good, but I'm guessing it wasn't as good as if I watched it via actual DVD (that's just my guess / feeling). Sound quality if fine etc... Most importantly, I'm running the Roku via basic yahoo DSL and I haven't experienced any stops or buffering issues or nothing like that.
* Set up: the setup takes a bit of time because you have to punch in some passwords via the TV and your cpu, but it's straight forward. The actual set up with the TV is a no brainer if you know how to set up a DVD player to a TV. Very simple, fairly easy. No need to look at a manual etc...
* The price: for what you get, for the stability of the product and no fuss, one of the best deals around these days.
3. Bottomline: for all netflix members and for all who watch a fair amount of DVDs (regular movies, documentaries, concert videos, kids stuff, TV show / series)--> this is almost a no brainer. Note: if you have certain game consoles or blu-ray players, you might be able to view netflix "watch now" titles via those devices already.
Customer Review: 50 Kinds of Awesome!
Summary: 5 Stars
Where do I start as this box is 50 kinds of awesome?
I've had the Roku HD several months now and use it almost every day. I had always wanted to catch up to the Heroes craze and watched the first 3 seasons on the Roku finishing up right before season 4 came on TV. Picture quality was awesome and being able to watch without commercials made the the viewing much more enjoyable. I did the same thing with Weeds and watched a few seasons of it as well. I've also watched tons of documentaries from Netflix including many that I might not have pushed up to the top of my disc queue. According to my Netflix history I have already watched 240 titles via the Roku. Not a hitch with any of them.
Here is an overall review:
SETUP:
Piece of cake. You can do it without even reading the quick start guide. Had the wireless up and running in 2 minutes after connecting it via HDMI to the TV. You literally could be watching titles in < 10 minutes.
DESIGN:
Small and compact with only what you need. Build quality looks excellent. The "cute" little remote that comes with it is great. I could have easily offset the functions on this to another remote but stuck with the included one because it is so nice. Ergonomics on it are great. It has a notch in the back that is perfect for resting your forefinger and properly orientating the remote even in the dark. The buttons are firm and response and the remote just feels great in your hand. I use it in the dark all the time.
OPERATION:
I recently picked up a Samsung Blu-Ray player that included Netflix streaming and have it hooked up in another room. The very first thing I noticed when using it is that it felt much slower than the Roku when navigating between items. Also, I think the picture quality is slightly better on the Roku. Now that I see Roku is adding more streams I think I will pick up the new Roku HD XR to replace the functionality built into the Blu-Ray player. On the Roku everything is snappy. The performs its job well and has never given me a hiccup. Comes to live in just a second or two. (Unlike the Blu-Ray player)
VALUE:
An incredible deal for what this device does. Ironically, I was hesitant to buy this in the beginning because the price just seemed too good to be true. I kept thinking "there has to be something wrong with it to be that price". Guess what? There isn't. Great value.
OVERALL:
I gave this 5 stars because there was not a 6th star. Absolutely love it.
If you do not have one already, quit reading these reviews and go buy one now.