I currently have a Verizon FIOS DVR. What will this do for me in terms of capability that I do not have now?
Thanks!

zanybabe wrote:I have a Tivo Premier but the Netflix streaming is really bad, it keeps running "Out of memory" for some reason and freezes all the time half way through a movie. Streaming Netflix with Wii is even worse, just slow slow slow. Netflix or Amazon is also not so great with a Panasonic Blu-Ray player. It's only marginally better with a Sony BDP S570 Blu Ray Player but still freezes from time to time.

So my question, is the Roku HD the answer to my prayers?

You sure it isn't your connection speed?? I had problems with my Tivo locking up while viewing netflix but once I upped my connection speed with my service provider I haven't had a problem. Anyways I wouldn't waste your money on this if you already have internet enabled devices

evilcartman01 wrote:You could add a mystery USB port on it that does nothing for a year and charge 30 bucks more. That's my new business model for anything. Add a USB port (doesn't have to be connected to anything) and jack up the price $40.

With their awful service and support, I would touch the thing for free. SO with the Seagate player and you get media center playback.

Hmmmm... I'm wondering how my media files are magically playing on my TV right now? Is it the USB drive I have connected to the USB port on my Roku XR box - or is it magic?

I paid $109 for the Roku XR box with the Netflix $20 promo... I could have bought the standard non-HD box for $59, or the HD for $79, but the USB port makes it a lot more versatile for how I use it... so there!

I'm confused. Why would you buy this refurbished one at this price when you can get a brand new one direct from the Roku website for $10 more?

valence78 wrote:what advantages does the roku box offer over just streaming netflix from an xbox 360?

No real advantage. We use a 360 for Netflix, and my parents use Roku: they do essentially the same thing.

One thing to consider is that you can run a Roku and a 360 (or laptop, etc) off a single Netflix account at the same time. If you try two game systems or a laptop at the same time, only one will connect.

cokac wrote:The economy in the US must be going great! Anyone who pays $60 for this thing must be rolling in the dough. If you need another box to watch youtube or netflix send your money to me via paypal and I'll send you an email with how to connect your pc to your tv with way better features/results/resolution. But hey, for those that have more money than brains/time I guess this is a great product.

A. 60 dollars is the cost of one month of cable where I live. If this + netflix + youtube, provide me enough media then it will pay for itself in 2 months.

B. Hooking your computer to your TV will not likely result in higher resolution viewing on netflix.

C. OK I have my PC hooked to my Projector, what do I do about my other 2 TVs? Two more PCs? The operating systems (that support netflix/silverlight) alone will cost me more then 2 Roku.


At 100 bucks I would question this purchase, but this price point is pretty good. The best reason for NOT getting a Roku is if you plan to find a blueray player/TV with the same features. Or if you have a game system with similar features.

zatxwoopyoax wrote:I'm confused. Why would you buy this refurbished one at this price when you can get a brand new one direct from the Roku website for $10 more?

The $70 model only does SD output.

Grrr...I just bought one of these last week from the Roku website. Then saw the $20 off on Amazon Goldbox. And now this. I'm bummed, but it is a pretty cool little machine for a small price. Since I refuse to pay for Cable, I'm still waiting on Google TV, but for the time being this thing is great!

I've found a few private channel listings...they allow you to add youtube, twitter, USB media browser, and woot! HA!

http://www.thenowhereman.com/roku/

I've had mine for two years and I love it. Great product! Perfect quality streaming videos from your Netflix account to your TV. I keep my instant queue filled with about 200 movies that I can select directly from my TV whenever the mood strikes. Roku also gives you a bunch of cool channels free from your Roku box to your TV, including streaming radio stations and Pandora.

ConstyXIV wrote:The $70 model only does SD output.

With the mp3tunes $30 off, it's $69 for the HD with the HDMI port.

http://www.mp3tunes.com/cb/rokubundle/

I opted for the "XR" version with the USB port for $109 with a $20 Netflix promo

(BTW, I was already subscribed to Netflix, but added a new trial membership to my work address, then canceled when I got my Roku. When setting it up, just link the box to your home Netflix account.)

Have one! Love it! Works great over wireless for HD streaming of baseball, movies, and Pandora. Best $100 I ever spent, so this is a deal

I just bought one of these. All they do is play netflix and a few other "channels" The channels play things like baseball and they cost like $30/month extra. There are some free channels like pandora. If you have a netflix account you need a device to use it. this is a nice wireless device that does this and is the cheapest device you can buy. They cost normally $69 plus $10 shipping. You can only order them directly from roku.com normally. It looks as though they are branching out a bit though if they are on amazon too.

scmglove wrote:This is a great way to watch HD football on your TV from your computer. Various websites like espn.com and nfl.com offer packages that are way cheaper in the long run than Direct TV and you can use this Roku HD player to watch the games on your TV. It's pretty otterific.

Is this really possible? How do you get NFL content without the Sunday Ticket subscription?

Tarrana1 wrote:No it can not. It can only access the channels it provides to you

Which kills any interest for me. I wanted something for the Bedroom to stream divx from my server. Oh well..

frantix wrote:Which kills any interest for me. I wanted something for the Bedroom to stream divx from my server. Oh well..

Can't stream my own movies? Ah, going to have to wait it out for the boxee box (coming this November) **hopefully**

There is no subscription cost for this like there is for TIVO is there?
also if I want to stream Netflix to TV's in 2 different rooms- would I need 2 of them?
Thanks

troydogtvtv wrote:Yes all you need is internet service like dsl,

Buying this box will not magically bring cable or satellite service to your house. There is still no cheating here. However, Roku does have many of its own "content" channels including MLB and some major networks - check out the cnet review...
http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-media-receivers/roku-hd-player-netflix/4505-6739_7-33018087.html#reviewPage1
(looks like the link is posted above)
AND as noted by previous post MLB is paid.
We use the Wii to deliver Netflix to the TV. Although fully aware that a media computer dedicated to the task might be best, we use our laptops for surfing, financial, photos, and music. I guess we have not been willing to shell out 500+ to drop a grey box next to the TV for something we only watch a couple nights a week. We don't have cable either. People can survive without it... SHOCKING -I know.

Got one of these about a month ago & I LOVE it!! I don't have cable or satellite, and for $10 a month I get Netflix. It's brilliant. Incredibly easy set up (if I can do it anyone can!). Worth every penny. I love that I can play my Pandora radio on it too.

Exit82 wrote:There is no subscription cost for this like there is for TIVO is there?
also if I want to stream Netflix to TV's in 2 different rooms- would I need 2 of them?
Thanks

No subscription for Roku itself. Some of the stuff you can get through it is free (some sports channels, Pandora radio), but I have Netflix for $10 a month. Yes, I think you'd have to have one in each room. But if you cancelled your other services, it'd pay for itself in no time.

I love this thing! I have three of these, and paid 110 bucks for each! One in my son's room, one in the basement, and one in the bedroom (living room has netflix in the set). We love the versatility of the thing, how fast it loads, how small it is, and the fact that for 9 bucks a month, we can watch about 15 thousand movies in near HD quality. Plus, I can stream my mp3s, listen/watch the TWiT network, and buy new movies on amazon, amongst a bunch of other channels! It seriously can't be beaten. I'm enamored with the thing.

uPnP/DLNA is still not supported on Roku, but is becoming the standard, and is found on almost all other networkable media players.

Please catch up Roku.

zatxwoopyoax wrote:I'm confused. Why would you buy this refurbished one at this price when you can get a brand new one direct from the Roku website for $10 more?

I got mine for the same price (new) when I signed up for Netflix.

so, if I have a dedicated pc attached to my TV, all this give me is a nifty interface? Probably already covered, sorry 'bout that.

cokac wrote:The economy in the US must be going great! Anyone who pays $60 for this thing must be rolling in the dough. If you need another box to watch youtube or netflix send your money to me via paypal and I'll send you an email with how to connect your pc to your tv with way better features/results/resolution. But hey, for those that have more money than brains/time I guess this is a great product.

hum... because some people with a little bit of brains prefer NOT to use their $2500 computers packed with photos, music, financial information, and $3000 worth of business software to serve movies to their television.
But hey - that's just me... but I also have a 1Tb backup drive I use daily - how stupid is that!

I am dropping my Tivos I am tired of paying the monthly fees. I have 4 units just keeping one unit on the main TV in the living room with a media player to my PC by my xbox 360. I was looking at Roku player on Amazon over the last month thinking of using one in my guest room. I almost went for it as the goldbox but today I could not pass it up. Do not really need HD but I can grow into it.

Also I already have a nice Unbox collection.

sucker4crap wrote:That's me too - I don't have cable TV

Has anyone used it with a DSL line) - what speed? Right now my neighborhood only has 3mbs for DSL - Comcast is @15mbs download here.

I used it for about a year with 3mb and it worked fine until I Netflix came out with HD. I could not stream an HD movie until I upgraded my DSL to 6mb and then it works fine unless my son is watching Netflix on his XBox at the same time I am trying to watch something on the Roku.
Another really nice thing for me on the Roku is all the radio station options that they have. No commercials on many of them and if you like talk radio some of them have most national personalities and some have archives of recent shows. They also have foreign radio stations. Far more stuff than I could ever try unless I was totally retired or a college student.

nnJim wrote:Hate to burst your bubble but this is incorrect. 720p took more bandwidth with older CRT displays, but not with new flat panels. It is the exact opposite. (This is all assuming bit rates are EXACTLY the same for comparing files since bitrate not resolution is the actual determining factor)

1080i, properly deinterlaced and displayed on todays flat panel 1080p screens provides significantly more resolution than 720p. Your 'twice the field rate' comment would be valid to a crt which does display an interlaced picture (540 lines, another 540 lines etc). But todays flat panels are progressive and they display all 1080 lines at once. . . . first 540 lines are held in memory, weaved together with the next 540 lines and then all 1080 are displayed at once.

Here is the math...

- 720p60 = 1280X720 frame 60 times a second (60*921,600 pixels/sec)
- 1080i30 = 1920x540 fields 60 times a second (60*1,036,800 pixels/sec)

Did you miss the part where i was replying to someone with an 8-year-old CRT?

Also, what is this nonsense about files and deinterlacing? I was talking about video signals.

I have internet via satelite, will the Roku work with this?

weibjunge wrote:Netflix allows you to register up to 5 different devices on a single account - you'd be able to start it downstairs, exit out, and then finish it upstairs. Same goes for watching two movies at once - you can get up to five streaming at a time, but unless you've got the sort of connection that leaves me drooling at night, the quality will be crap.

I have Cablevision with a relatively consistent 30 meg download speed. Even watching multiple streams (Roku and BluRay players) with PC activity, the image quality is excellent. The 30 meg speed is only $14.95 a month but quite worth it. So realistically you can get great connections without breaking the bank.

sdc100 wrote:Yeah, I agree. I simply can't see any reason for spending money on something that the subscription services should provide for free. I don't, for example, pay for my cable modem. It's supplied by the cable company. Seems to me that this box is nothing but a doorstop without the subscription boxes. Like you, my laptop has HDMI output but I acknowledge that most laptops don't. My HP laptop also has a remote so I'm set....

You pay rent on your cable modem. Nothing is free.

So just for clarity before I waste, er, spend $65:

Already have DVI output from computer to TV. With wireless mouse, can sit on couch and use computer (mostly netflix, hulu, and stored videos).

Does this thing add any capability?

marcusdavidwong wrote:My friend has this and she really likes it (because she doesn't have a PS3/XBox/Wii).

I feel bad for all the people that paid $79 on Amazon Gold Box last week.

Does the fact that it is only 720p matter on Netflix instant? Some stuff is now in HD, but I'm not sure if Netflix streams in 1080p...

Netflix only currently streams in up to 720p / there are rumors that 1080p is in the works...

valence78 wrote:what advantages does the roku box offer over just streaming netflix from an xbox 360?

as far as the streaming is concerned, none; only slight UI differences (AND the roku doesn't require an xbox live GOLD membership obviously :P )

frankz00 wrote:You're not going to get the bandwidth so I don't really see the point...

VuDu does 1080p so the point is a lot of people either do have the bandwidth and/or wait for a bit of buffering.

anyboatyourow wrote:So just for clarity before I waste, er, spend $65:

Already have DVI output from computer to TV. With wireless mouse, can sit on couch and use computer (mostly netflix, hulu, and stored videos).

Does this thing add any capability?

No, probably not. This device is specifically to watch stuff on your TV and you can probably get all the content on your computer without buying this. But of course not everyone has their computer connected to their TV (or even in the same room). Yes, using a computer gives you more and is more flexible, but some people just want their Netflix on their TV without buying computers or running wires.

I've had this model of the Roku box for several years now, back to when it first came out. I haven't used it as much as I could have, and I'll explain why in a minute. But, first, I want to pick a nit with the today's write up:
"No, no, don’t go all conspiracy here, we want to be sure you understand that a movie from 1931 probably won’t ever be “High Def” no matter what you do."
Absolutely not [delete explitive] true. Movies from that period were shot on film. If preserved and/or restored the mimimum resolution of a scan is 2k (slighly more than 1080p). The best restores are scanned at 4k, or doubel the line resolution. Here is a neat article with a good graphic about halfway down that show it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_cinematography
Casablanca looks amazing on bluray, as does The Wizard of Oz. Since most of us have never seen any of these on film, or a good print, it is eye opening to see these restored.

Back to the Roku. If you don't have any other way to watch Netflix, this is a great little box. I have had some issues with quality degredation during streams. I have an insanely fast internet connection (10 Mbps min), so I always wonder if either the Netflix servers can't keep up, or if Comcast and the other ISPs aren't throttling the connection. One annoyance with Netflix watch it now. Although they have an ever expanding catalog, especially of old TV shows, for whatever reason the seasons are incomplete (for the most part). See the discussion on Woot of the Miami Vice boxed set. The first season on Roku is missing about 5 or 6 episodes. I wanted to watch the pilot of Quantum Leap: no joy even though the series is on watch it now.

For those whining about no Hulu. You all need to understand: The network affiliates pay to get exclusive rights to show network shows on their OTA network on TVs. Likewise the cable and satellite providers pay for that license. Hulu is ONLY licensed to play on computer screens. Streaming network content to a box designed to play on a TV (like this) would stomp all over the current contracts. The network affiliates, cable companies, and satellite providers would attack with lawyers in company strength should this happen (and probably win).

Likewise, even though the NFL is playing with streaming games in the pre-season I don't expect them to do what MLB is doing. DirectTV is paying a huge amount of money for exclusive rights to out of market NFL games, this exclusive extends to (I think) 2014. Thus DirectTV can collect a huge fee from their subsribers for the NFL Sunday Ticket: they are the only game in town. Maybe this exclusive will end then, but for the moment don't expect it on anything else.

inod3 wrote:You can stream Netflix over most console game systems. Just a thought...

Great...I'll dust off my Atari VCS then.

i24u wrote:Ok a couple of questions. I have a wii downstairs family room. I don't have netflix yet on the wii. If I were to get this and put upstairs in living room would I be able to use netflix on both devices. I'm sure I wouldn't be able to watch two different movies at once but would I be able to start watching it downstairs and then move upstairs to finish watching it. I guess what i'm trying to ask is if I ordered a movie on nexflix would it stream to both devices at the same time or would I have to have two different accounts. One for wii one for roku. Hope that makes sense.

Also is there stuff you can watch for free or do you have to have some sort of subscription of some service to watch anything.

Firstly: You can have 6 different devices connected at any time (Wii,Roku,PC,etc. each count as one) to any ONE Netflix account and you CAN stream on two devices at once if you are on the $8.99 plan (provided you have the bandwidth to handle it), if you want to stream on more than two devices at once you'll need a higher level subscription.

Each device has its own menu system and movie selection screen so you can stream different titles from each device simultaneously.

This is yet another media device that is lacking in many areas especially in regards to playing back your own content and supported codecs. If only I had a dollar for every handicapped media device that was released. Id be sipping margaritas in the Bahamas right now. In all honesty I wouldn't buy this for 5 bucks, let alone 60. Ill stick with my WDTV's and my Blu Ray Player.

Trust me, spend a few dollars more and get a WDTV Live or WDTV Live Plus. They absolutely destroy this thing in every possible way and you wont be buying a refurbished product. Paying less is never a good thing if it gets you a vastly inferior product and this is without a doubt a VASTLY inferior product.

No need for this. LG Blu-Ray player has Netflix streaming already.