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I recently received the Roku as a gift, and have a few thoughts that I wanted to share in case others were thinking about getting one. I set it up last night, and found:
1) You DO actually need a PC to connect. There is a step after you have connected to your wifi that requires you to go to a PC and enter a code at a specified URL. I thought about trying to do it on my phone, but wasn't sure if the process would complete normally or if it needed a device connected to the wifi to navigate to the URL and enter the code.
2) It's free, technically, but to use the Roku for anything you need to register with them, which also includes being required to provide credit card (or PayPal) information when you register. They say this is needed in case you buy premium content, but is sneaky in my opinion for a device that says it's free to use.
3) I guess you should assume that anything free isn't ever going to be good, and Roku is pretty much the same way. When I finally got going with it, there were two limitations that I faced. One is that even though HBOGO could be set up to stream to the Roku, it isn't allowed if you usually connect to HBOGO via a DirectTV account. Seems like I still need my laptop to watch HBOGO. The second limitation was that most of the content was, for lack of a better description, low-grade B-level fringe programming. I have never heard of most of the movies available, and the ones that I had heard of, like Pumpkinhead, were the 5th in the series and not the original movies. I was looking at a screen and had a choice between Pumpkinhead 5, The Fan, and Gladiator (no, not with Russell Crowe).
All in all I'd say that the Roku isn't worth it. I don't know if the features are a lot more than I was able to peruse at the time, if I expected it to be something else, or just don't get the concept of the device, but it just seemed like to me a $50 network adapter card that allows you to watch things that you already have a subscription to on a non-connected TV. For that, however, I already have a laptop and would recommend to others who have laptops and are considering this to not bother; it will likely be found as a waste of money.
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i thought Roku was simply a device to get some internet streaming video onto your TV. Like netflix. Which is does perfectly. I feel like you're expecting something more than it's intended purpose.
As it were, your last paragraph is exactly what I expect it to be. As I like to watch shit on my TV over my laptop, and not have to give up my laptop to hook it up to the TV in order to do so.
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Put XBMC on it and call it a day  . Or grab a Raspberry Pi for 35$, put XBMC on it.
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On August 21 2012 01:27 Gene wrote:
i thought Roku was simply a device to get some internet streaming video onto your TV. Like netflix. Which is does perfectly. I feel like you're expecting something more than it's intended purpose.
As it were, your last paragraph is exactly what I expect it to be. As I like to watch shit on my TV over my laptop, and not have to give up my laptop to hook it up to the TV in order to do so.
Yeah I feel like I didn't get the concept of it and also initially thought it was over $100. A clarification about your first sentence would be yeah it is, but it comes with it's own brand of netflix, called crackle (you have to register a Roku account to use this and anything else), which has all the crappy programs on it, and you need to have a netflix account already to watch anything. You can't, however, stream just any video onto the Roku, it has to be something that they have setup already to be allowed and then you have to go configure it.
I was basically saying that since I need an HDMI cable anyway for laptop to TV, the reasons for buying Roku which requires HDMI to TV as well are few and far between. Also, the device claims to not need a PC, but that's not true, and it claims to be free. While technically true, they require credit card information to register and I think that's a bit of an underhanded sales pitch.
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I bought the Roku, for Netflix, shortly after its initial release and i dont regret it. However, i can totally understand your disappointment in using the free channels (they suck) - i guess they envisioned a much larger influx of quality custom channels.
There is a big difference in using a PC connected to your TV and a dedicated box. While you may not appreciate the convenience and beautiful integration such a dedicated box offers i wouldnt want to use Netflix via an HDMI connected pc.
During my (Netflix ROKU/PC) tests it seems like that the roku is capable of pulling in 20Mbps+ peaks while my PC cant even pull the 3.6Mbps HD Stream. Meaning that there is probably a lot more going on under the hood in terms of optimization.
1) One time setup
2) While this is an annoyance good things might come out of it, for every credit card/PayPal address entered the chance of decent new custom channels rises (nobody wants to develop for a system where it is unlikely to sell your stuff).
3) free content being shitty? get out of here ^^
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On August 21 2012 09:55 icydergosu wrote:
I bought the Roku, for Netflix, shortly after its initial release and i dont regret it. However, i can totally understand your disappointment in using the free channels (they suck) - i guess they envisioned a much larger influx of quality custom channels.
There is a big difference in using a PC connected to your TV and a dedicated box. While you may not appreciate the convenience and beautiful integration such a dedicated box offers i wouldnt want to use Netflix via an HDMI connected pc.
During my (Netflix ROKU/PC) tests it seems like that the roku is capable of pulling in 20Mbps+ peaks while my PC cant even pull the 3.6Mbps HD Stream. Meaning that there is probably a lot more going on under the hood in terms of optimization.
1) One time setup
2) While this is an annoyance good things might come out of it, for every credit card/PayPal address entered the chance of decent new custom channels rises (nobody wants to develop for a system where it is unlikely to sell your stuff).
3) free content being shitty? get out of here ^^
Thanks for that. Makes sense.
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EPT
