Written by Chris Albrecht
Posted Monday, July 14, 2008 at 5:47 PM PT

 

Roku, NetfliXbox and the Future of TV

After playing around with the Roku Netflix streaming box review unit this weekend, I was ready to plunk down 99 of my hard-earned dollars to get one, even though Microsoft has announced that my Xbox 360 will soon do the same thing. And while everyone keeps focusing on the negatives of the Netflix streaming service on either box, it seems that they actually work the way TV should.

This fall, Xbox users (with a gold Xbox Live membership) will be able to access the 10,000 titles Netflix makes available to “Watch Instantly” on their TV sets. Just like the Roku, Xbox will stream the content, though unlike the Roku, Xboxes have a hard drive that could be possibly be used for downloading content at some point.

Yes, the gripes about Netflix’s service are all true. That “10,000 titles” stat is awfully misleading as most of those films are crap. The service is not in HD (though it still looked great), and on my HD TV, the colors all looked washed out.

So what, I freaking love that little Roku. And even better — my wife loved it (the first test for any set-top box).

It took two minutes to set up, it was easy to navigate and there were no hiccups during a marathon Friday Night Lights viewing session that ate up most of the weekend. And truth be told, I think that Roku is probably a better option than the NetfliXbox. It’s smaller, quieter (the Xbox cooling fan is annoyingly loud), and so, so easy to use.

But what the Roku really does is open your eyes to what the future of television should be. Pay a monthly subscription, watch what you want, when you want.

Sure, right now Netflix’s vision of the future of video entertainment is mostly bargain basement B-movies. The company has to know this is a problem and is hopefully working on a solution. So take off your hater pants and put on your happy, optimistic ones. It’s 10,000 titles now, but what about when that number grows to 100,000 or a million? It’s all there to watch as much as you like. Watch episodes of 30 Rock on your big TV set, where it looks good, and you don’t have to pay $1.99 for each episode or take up any hard drive space.

Mark Cuban suggested today that the video cloud should move from the last mile onto the existing TV distribution node. There the content could be transcoded to the right format to fit your TV, as well as be beamed via existing channels.

This, he argues, would save on bandwidth and could even eliminate the need for a personal DVR. It’s a good idea, and the Roku is a good first step in this direction. Netflix stores all the content, you just access it when you want. But the streaming issues need to be solved because while it worked well for me, others have reported bigger bandwidth issues. Plus I’m not interested in Comcast jacking up my ISP fees for using the Internet to get movies instead of its VOD service.

I don’t necessarily agree with Cuban’s assertion that coordination between video sites and distributors would be easy. If cable and satellite companies’ previous behavior is any indication, their ability to play nice and create an easy system for enjoying web video is unlikely to turn out the way we might be hoping.

Regardless, through the Roku I’ve gotten a first taste of my video future and can’t wait to see what’s to come.

Sphere
Topic: Hardware
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Comments & Trackbacks

  1. [...] flaws, but so does the Xbox, as more than one person has pointed out (Christ Albrecht of NewTeeVee still likes the Roku server a [...]

    Is the Xbox the living-room winner? » mathewingram.com/work | on July 14th, 2008 at 9:14 pm - Permalink

  2. I love the direction that media’s been taking lately. We just put our Netflix on hold to save money, but I have a feeling that by the time we get it back, there will be all sorts of amazing new features to try out.

    Liz on July 14th, 2008 at 9:22 pm - Permalink

  3. I’m kinda thinking now that I might need a Roku box, Chris…

    Daisy Whitney on July 15th, 2008 at 5:35 am - Permalink

  4. [...] NBC, ABC, FOX NBC Adds TVs, Movies to Xbox; in addition to Netflix content, Microsoft will be getting The Office (take that, Apple). (Wired [...]

    Vid-Biz: NBC, ABC, FOX « NewTeeVee on July 15th, 2008 at 8:32 am - Permalink

  5. I just got a Roku box and I, like Chris, really love it. The colors do not look washed out on my 42″ HDTV, and in fact, the picture quality in general is quite good (better than I anticipated). I’d say it’s better than watching standard def programing from cable (at least Time-Warner Cable in Los Angeles, which is bad beyond belief). The lack of a lot of decent programming is a problem, but clearly NetFlix must realize this, so within 6 months, hopefully, this service should improve its library of offerings. At that point, the $99 will be easy to justify and I can see widespread use of this device, at least in the short term. Apple TV’s quality is better, but who is going to pay $1.99 ala carte and watch 6 episodes of 30 Rock in a row, like we did last night and fork out $12? Selection aside, this is a fantastic device. I’m happy with my purchase and it really does take 5 minutes to set up.

    Richard on July 15th, 2008 at 9:24 am - Permalink

  6. Bout time ROKU caught up with the times. FyreTV already has this delivery with great quality and 20,000 movies. The only thing is…it’s all porn. I’ve seen it and its pretty awsome. Looks like ROKU will have the same for mainstream hollywood. Good bye video stores!

    gregg on July 15th, 2008 at 9:50 am - Permalink

  7. Forget the box. Hook your TV up your laptop. All you need is a $20 cable. I’ll be posting details next week on Zipityzap.

    geraldz on July 15th, 2008 at 11:29 am - Permalink

  8. Hey Geraldz,

    That might be a good solution for some, but I don’t really want to haul out the laptop each time, and I know my wife doesn’t. The Roku is the first TV gadget that she actually loves.

    Chris Albrecht on July 15th, 2008 at 11:56 am - Permalink

  9. Chris, I too liked the Roku box, but after two weeks had nothing left to watch. Not sure how many people want to spend $99 on two weeks worth of entertainment based on the promise of more titles coming soon. Plus, then it sits in your cabinet taking up space, albeit just a small amount.

    Stacey Higginbotham on July 15th, 2008 at 1:13 pm - Permalink

  10. [...] entertainment hubs. Sony’s announcement comes just a day after Microsoft said that it was hooking up with Netflix to stream movies to the Xbox. The NetfliXbox is like a buffet; users can stream all they want for [...]

    Sony Launches Video Download Service « NewTeeVee on July 16th, 2008 at 8:25 am - Permalink

  11. Some good older movies on there, though. And lots of TV series. Love the Roku…

    marwick on July 21st, 2008 at 6:58 pm - Permalink

  12. [...] past few weeks, there have been a flurry of announcements from Microsoft, Netflix, TiVo, YouTube, Roku and others detailing how their devices can be used to play movies and other video-based content, [...]

    Content Offerings Only Reach a Few Million TVs - GigaOM on July 23rd, 2008 at 1:23 pm - Permalink

  13. [...] company is prepping for a disc-free future by streaming 10,000 of its titles to the Roku and the Xbox 360. Both offer an all-you-can-watch video buffet baked right into your existing subscription, which [...]

    The Battle Over Your TV - GigaOM on July 25th, 2008 at 10:44 am - Permalink

  14. [...] Click to read more… [...]

    , NetfliXbox and the Future of TV | Something about Everything on July 28th, 2008 at 6:30 am - Permalink

  15. [...] is available now; the LG BD300 Network Blu-ray Player is coming soon, and later this fall the Xbox 360 will be compatible with the Netflix service as [...]

    Hands on with Amazon Video on Demand « NewTeeVee on September 5th, 2008 at 3:01 am - Permalink

  16. [...] company ramps up the availability of its streaming service beyond the Roku to more devices like the Xbox and LG Blu-Ray player, the company must have decent content in place or it will lose the audiences [...]

    Netflix Streams Disney, CBS TV Content « NewTeeVee on September 23rd, 2008 at 7:39 am - Permalink

  17. [...] pushing to expand their respective products. Netflix has partnered with Microsoft to deliver streaming movies to the Xbox, and just last week Netflix announced it was streaming movies to Samsung Blu-Ray DVD [...]

    Watch Netflix on a Mac (Thanks, Microsoft!) « NewTeeVee on October 26th, 2008 at 9:54 pm - Permalink

  18. Dear friends: and what about Close Captions and subtitles??? I’m hard of hearing and those features are a must….. so tell me about it. Sincerely: A. Raffta

    Alex Raffta on November 8th, 2008 at 5:21 pm - Permalink

  19. [...] has gone full-steam ahead with its movie streaming service this year, partnering with Roku, TiVo, Microsoft’s Xbox, Samsung and LG Blu-Ray players, as well as PCs and Macs. Not to mention Netflix delivering some of [...]

    Blockbuster Launching Set-top Box for the Holidays « NewTeeVee on November 9th, 2008 at 4:49 pm - Permalink

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