Two weeks ago, I posted a video podcast episode discussing the Roku player, how it worked, the ease of setup, and so on. After having two weeks with the device, I thought I'd write a quick review regarding having the entity as a living piece of technology in the house.
First off, I still love the form factor of the player. It's very small, smaller than most external USB hard drives I've got scattered around the house. The built-in wi-fi is genius, the connection options are great, and the remote is so simple, a 4-year-old child could (and has, in my house) run it.
Disappointing, though, is the Netflix selection. On Christmas day, I had a handful of family members over, movie buffs all of us. With their curiosity fueling the fire, they tossed out movie after movie to me as I searched each one on Netflix to see if it was possible to stream. Much to everyone's disappointment, 85% of the films they named were NOT available to stream. Netflix would happily mail them to me, but not deliver them to my Roku on demand. Now please note, these were not all brand spanking right from the box office movies like Iron Man or The Dark Night (neither are streamable at the moment). We hit some oldies but goodies like One Flew Over The Cookoo's Nest, Annie Hall, Dances With Wolves, Top Gun, and even Porky's for God's sake! None were available to stream. These movies are 20+ years old and any viable financial benefit to keeping them in the "for mail only" category is just flat out crazy!
Not being a business man, I really don't know much about how Netflix determines what they turn into streamable items and what they don't. I'd sure like to know so if any of you have inside info or links to details, please post in the comments.
So after two weeks with the Roku, I still give it a 10 for 10 when not taking the lacking Netflix content into consideration. I'd have to give it a 4 of 10 when you do take into consideration the poor movie selection. If Netflix would please be so kind as to focus on getting a LOT more movies in their stream queue and focus less on getting old episodes of Family Ties (yes, I'm serious...you can now get season 1 of Family Ties streamed to you....but no ALF?!?! WTF?), they'll have a LOT more success selling Roku players.
On a good note, I can and have been streaming the first season of Dr. Who...and had I paid $4.25 per DVD (I think there are 4 episodes on a DVD) it would have already cost me about $15....so in terms of financial savings buying the Roku vs. renting from the local Hollywood Video, the Roku has almost paid nearly 1/6 for itself so far just in Dr. Who episodes alone. Though it must be said I can't stream any Battlestar Galactica nor Stargate. *sigh*. Netflix, get your stuff together and start digitizing your ENTIRE library. You will, only then, slay Blockbuster...