Roku box rocks Netflix straight to television

BY GREGORY COAN

This week I got to check out a nice addition to Netflix, the Roku set-top home delivery box. Think of it as Netflix movies on-demand without the hassles of DVDs, envelopes, and stopping at a mailbox. The Roku box is the first entry in this arena for Netflix and according to the company there will be other devices coming in the future as well. Keep in mind the Roku box works with Netflix and Netflix only. So what does it add to your Netflix experience and is it worth the $99 price tag?

The hardware itself is impressively small and easy to setup and use. The box is black, sat nicely atop my Wii, and except for its single glowing light it nearly disappears in my home entertainment rack. The Roku is “HD Ready” and has all the connections on the back you could need. There are HDMI and component video outs for HDTV connections, composite and S-VHS video outs for connecting to standard def TVs. For surround sound audio there is even an optical audio output. The final jack on the rear is an ethernet port to connect to your home internet, but the unit also has a built in wireless. With so many well thought out connections the Roku seems like the perfect content delivery box.

Note that I said the box is “HD Ready.” There are two current problems with the Roku. First the box only outputs a 480i signal, which is standard definition. Secondly, Netflix does not offer any HD content for streaming. Despite the optical sound output, none of the content contains Dolby Surround Sound, only stereo output is available. But if you can overlook these shortcomings, or rather wait for the inevitable updates Netflix claims are coming, the box is quite easy and nice to use.

If you are a Netflix junkie, you know that for a while now you can stream movies to your computer instantly. This is the same library the Roku box accesses. In fact, once you’ve linked the Roku to your Netflix account these movies show up in a new “Instant Queue.” This is separate from the DVD queue which delivers DVDs to your door. Netflix allows you to have 4 devices per year for streaming so you could have multiple Roku’s in your home.

This setup isn’t perfect. Now, the good part is that even if you start watching a movie on your PC, the Roku box will automatically pick up where you left off, and vice versa. This is quite handy, and also allows the Roku to be mobile. After I set mine up initially, I could move it from the living room to the bedroom with ease. Queue management is also centralized via the Netflix website. Movies cannot be added using the Roku itself so everything is done via the website.

One downside to the Netflix Instant Play library is movie choice. Netflix claims to have 10,000 titles ready, and while I believe that number, a lot of the content is rather strange. You’ll find very few current TV series available, but if you like the old Dragnet you’re in luck. I found another quirky glitch when I added the third season of the old Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV series - some of the episodes show up as “Only Available On Disc” which means I’d have to get the DVDs in the mail anyhow. The movie choices are diverse but again, until Netflix makes more of its library available the most current choices are only available on DVD by mail.

Using the Roku box on an HDTV is certainly feasible right now, despite its limitations. The marketing hype of “DVD Quality” movies streamed to your house is an exaggeration. Since the Roku box has no hard drive, all content is streamed via your Internet connection. I have zippy cable Internet access, and even when the Roku was streaming at the highest quality (4 of 4 bars on its scale), the picture was nowhere near DVD quality, but it was perfectly watchable. Until the Roku outputs at true HD resolutions, the bigger the TV you have, the more flaws in the picture you will notice.

The Roku interface couldn’t be simpler. Those movies you added to your Instant Queue on the Netflix site show up instantly as thumbnail movie posters. Clicking on one gives you a brief synopsis of the movie and a Play button. The Roku remote is barebones; a home button, play/pause button, and fast forward / reverse buttons. The Roku doesn’t fast forward in the usual way. That is, you don’t see the movie flying by like on a DVR or VCR - small thumbnail frames are generated from the stream and you pick one. It’s kind of like the DVD chapter and scene setup but it does take some getting used to. The stream will also re- buffer so you have to wait for the movie to continue, which is one huge downside of not having a hard drive in the unit. For TV series there is no option to play all episodes so you must start each one separately. When you are finished with a movie you can delete it from the Roku and this also deletes it from your Netflix queue.

When I first got the Roku I was skeptical, but I ended up finding it quite handy. You must have a Netflix account that includes unlimited DVDs per month and you must be willing to spend the additional $99 for the Roku box, but there are no additional charges for the content. If you are already a Netflix junkie this box will be perfect for you. If you have good On-Demand choices from your cable or satellite provider, you might want to wait until there is more content available from the Netflix library. If you’re tech savvy and already stream Netflix content to your computer and know how to hook that computer up to your TV, the Roku would be redundant. Overall I think the Roku is a fun addition to the home entertainment scene. I even had fun digging through the Netflix library and watching some films I might not have seen, simply because they were free.

Unless you’re like me and have extra HD cables lying around your house, you’ll have to fork over another $20 for the expanded cable pack. The Roku only ships with composite video cables, but until there is HD content, these aren’t a necessity.

You can e-mail Gregory Coan at ee5150@gmail.com.