Interesting: Netflix / Roku Box

July 14th, 2008

The Netflix / Roku box just arrived, and after a mere half hour of playing with it, I’m blown away. It’s compelling, affordable, and above all, super easy to set up and use. It’s even better than the Apple TV in several ways, and that’s really something coming from me, a clinically diagnosed Apple fan.

The Good

• If you already have a Netflix account, the box is only $99.99. There are no extra monthly fees, or fees for any of the content. It’s essentially Netflix “watch now” on your television.
• Set-up was ridiculously easy. It’s a box, remote, and a video cable. There are component, HDMI, and optical audio outputs. The box boots up to a step-by-step series of screens to enter your WiFi password, and gives you a code to enter on the NetFlix website to authorize the device. The whole process took a mere five minutes.
• The Netflix website is used to make content available to the box. On the website, you get a new tab for an “instant” queue which has its own browsing area. Any of the red “add” buttons now have an “instant” tab so you can tell what movies are available to watch using the box.
• The selection is surprisingly huge, mostly consisting of back catalog movies, TV shows, and bizarre stuff I’ve never heard of. Still, I quickly filled my “instant” queue with hours of viewing fun — original Battlestar Galactica, How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days, Beetlejuice, Ghost Busters, Fay Grim, and Real Genius. But the content is all-you-can-watch, so does it really matter what corn is piled on?
• I was worried that the streaming nature of the box would mean low picture quality, but it’s actually quite decent — a little below a DVD. Definitely not HD, but I can’t complain about essentially free viewing content.

The Bad

• The UI isn’t as pretty as Apple’s. Most notably hokey is the pause / rewind interface.
• It’s yet another box to add to your entertainment system, and kind of goofy looking at that (the remote in particular looks like a kid’s toy). Luckily, the box is only about 5 inches square.
• The selection skimps on new releases.

Conclusion

In comparison to the Apple TV, the Netflix box is surprisingly compelling. I found it easier to set up and use because it has only one function: browse and watch movies. The selection is arguably superior to Apple TV in number of movies and cost, and lacks restrictions on rentals.

The Apple TV does win out in a few areas: newer movies, better video quality (HD content), photos, music, and streaming content from a computer, the latter of which I find essential for the movies I do own.

But the Netflix / Roku box has basically torpedoed my movie rentals on the Apple TV. It’s essentially on demand television gone crazy, like Joost that actually works and in the living room. It even has me thinking I’ll cut down on those little red envelopes I’ve been churning through.

Today, it was announced that this Netflix streaming service will be coming to the XBOX. Owners of that game console are in for a huge treat.

I can’t expect Apple will sit still with this development, so I’d expect either a huge push toward more content or an easing of video restrictions. We may be seeing the beginning of a new video war, similar to HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, but in this case, hopefully us viewers will reap all the benefits.