Back in the 1990s, when the World Wide Web was still new and shiny, and all things seemed possible, television ads promised us a future where every movie ever made would one day be available for streaming on the Internet. (At least if I’m remembering the ads I saw around ’97 or ’98 or so correctly.) The Roku set-top box is a big down payment on that promise. And if I were the cable or DBS companies, I’d be a little scared.
While lots of people will keep watching good ol’ network TV, the ability to cut the cable is now within sight. After seeing numerous links at Instapundit.com, typically with comments from readers about how much they enjoyed their Roku set-top boxes, I decided to give one a try.
Once out of the box, while a few people have complained in comments at Amazon about interconnectivity issues, for me, hooking up the Roko XS couldn’t have been simpler. Plug in a LAN cable, plug the Roku’s A/C adaptor into an outlet, pop a pair of AA batters into the remote, and then follow the instructions on its GUI, and let it do its thing. Within a few moments, it was happily talking to the server back at Roku HQ, and was good to go.
The whole design philosophy of the Roku seems to be “strip everything down to its basics, and keep the interface as clean and minimal as possible.” The remote control bundled with the Roku XS only contains 10 buttons, and an up, down, left, right controller. The onscreen GUI is similarly minimal. But then, this is a unit designed primarily to do one thing: get streaming content off the Web and onto your TV screen.
One element of the Roku is too minimal, in my opinion. I was surprised that the only hook-up options are an HDMI cable to connect to most of today’s HDTVs, and an all-in-one analog output, with a mini-plug-sized jack on one end for the Roku box, and RCA connections for video and analog on the other. I would have liked to have seen a separate digital audio output, whether it was RCA or Toslink, to plug the audio into an A/V receiver for surround sound. Fortunately, my LG HDTV has its own Toslink audio output, and I was able to snake a cable back to my A/V receiver as a workaround. Currently, only the Roku XS model has an outlet for hardwired 10/100 mbps Ethernet, and a slot for a microSD card.
Where No Set-Top Box Has Gone Before
So how is the picture? Pretty damn good, I must say. All of the Roku units output a minimum of 720p HD; the Roku XD and XS up the picture quality to 1080p. Of course, picture quality is dependent upon the source material the unit outputs, which can vary widely. But I watched the remastered version of “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” the second pilot for the original Star Trek on Netflix, and this was the sharpest I had ever seen the original show. (Which sometimes didn’t work in its favor: the picture was so sharp, you could see where Leonard Nimoy’s makeup was applied. And the crude appearance of Gary Lockwood’s reflective silver contact lenses.)
By happenstance, on Sunday, I watched part one of an early episode of Law & Order on TNT via my HDTV DirecTV receiver. On Monday, I tracked down the second part on Netflix via the Roku box, and the picture quality of the second episode easily held its own with its TV counterpart.
Similarly, an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise streamed from my Amazon Prime account on the Roku box looked equally sharp. This is true HD quality, delivered to the big screen, without cable TV or satellite.
There are occasional hiccups along the way. Netflix videos start out in SD, looking a bit like a low-res video tape, before being sufficiently buffered to play in high-definition. The process takes about 15 seconds to a minute, I’d estimate. You may also notice an occasional jitter or repeated frame, particularly if you’ve got a lot of other activity on your household LAN. And the Roku box assumes your home has a certain amount of Internet infrastructure already in place: high-speed Internet via cable or DSL. Roku states, “Generally we recommend a network speed of at least 1.2 Mbps, but to view live events, like Major League Baseball games, you’ll want at least 3 Mbps. For HD viewing, we recommend 5 Mbps.” Chances are though, if PJM loads easily on your browser, you’re good to go to connect a Roku box to your LAN or Wi-Fi.
To do that, you’ll need a Wi-Fi-enabled router or hardwired Ethernet LAN (if you have the Roku XS model and want to go the hard-wired route) to send the signal to the Roku unit. You’ll also need Netflix, Amazon and Hulu Plus accounts to take advantage of those entertainment services, needless to say.
Hopefully more channels will be added to the unit’s featured choices, which are installed onto the unit via its GUI, which takes you to its equivalent of the “App Store” in a smart phone or tablet. Videos from Fox News and the Wall Street Journal are there already, as is GBTV. YouTube apparently used to be on the Roku, but some of sort of contract or financial dispute has caused them to vanish, at least temporarily. And while Amazon’s videos are available on the Roku, where’s the Amazon MP3 Cloud? (Currently, Roku works with Pandora, MP3tunes, and others to provide music.)
Fortunately, these days, there are workarounds for all of those: my HDTV DirecTV box added YouTube videos almost a year ago. And many Blu-Ray players, such as LG’s BD670 unit work the Windows Media Player to stream music from your hard drive to your home theater or media room. (But that’s the subject for another post…)
Back when in the 1990s, the home theater industry pushed the concept of “convergence” with a vengeance. It took a while to finally for the concept to be perfected, but the Roku XS delivers convergence in spades.
Pros: Cheap to purchase, no monthly fees for the unit itself. Easy to hook-up. Massive amount of content, if you already subscribe to streaming Internet services.
Cons: Currently no YouTube; only analog or HDMI video output. Only XS box had a hard-wired LAN port. No separate digital audio output.
Bottom Line: A must for the high-tech multimedia home theater junkie.
ROKU is great! All I need to do now is upgrade my older model so I can access closed captioning. I am rapidly entering the older and harder of hearing generation.
We have one at home and it’s a big hit. We mostly use it for Netflix and Crackle (a free movie channel, but with ads). There are other channels being added every few weeks, including Glenn Beck’s (if you like him) and channels catering to specific churches and regions (Including two Jewish life channels).
Some of the channels require you to have a subscription (like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon VOD) or login that you need to set up via a computer, but many are free, or have free content.
Ed,
I cut the cable almost a year ago and my Roku has paid for itself many times over. I view it as the best home entertainment decision I’ve made in years, I couldn’t happier.
Roku “Stick” device coming soon…
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/roku-hdmi-smart-tv-usb-netflix,news-13751.html
If PJTV had a channel on Roku, I’d watch it.
(How to make your own content channel on Roku)
http://www.roku.com/developer
I currently have two of the amazing little boxes. Both perform nearly flawlessly and content is improving. Still waiting for real time TV – Fox? anyone? – but the entertainment variety is already sufficient for my limited TV needs that I have dropped satellite and use broadcast TV and the Roku devices exclusively. There are apps to stream your stored MP3′s to the device
I also use the LG Blue Ray – the limited features (no search or shuffle and browsing files is tedious) of the media player make it a mediocre – at best – player. I have my PC hooked directly to my home entertainment system. Much better.
Get a Roku device. You’ll be glad you did.
I’ve been running my Roku for about a year now (early adopter, I have the old v1 square box, made in USA) and and very happy with it. The local cable company is not. Tough. You mooks charge too damn much for worthless content.
Already dropped the cable back to bare basic, considering going internet-only.
I too love my Roku. My only big issue with it is the Hulu app. Hulu chose to use their own software layout instead of Roku’s and it’s buggy and slow.
Enjoy the Roku and watch out for those Korean dramas (they’re ridiculously addictive)!!
We went to Roku just about a year ago, and I can say we’ll never go back to satellite tv. The Roku box was really easy to set up, and it’s performed just about flawlessly. We’d lose tv reception when our satellite dish got covered up with snow, or if it was really cloudy. For some reason we notice blips with Roku when it’s really windy, but our internet does come in over the phone line, so maybe the wind blowing the wire has something to do with it. But we’ve never lost it completely.
We love being able to watch what we want, when we want. Our satellite provider kept calling, trying to get us to come back. They didn’t seem to have a clue what Roku was a year ago. Maybe they do now.
got 2 of them, an XDS and new Roku 2 XS
use them a lot, use the roksbox addon and I stream from nas here to the units also. very handy units.
One problem with the Roku at least in the 1rst and 2nd generations, was its somewhat limited support of codecs. It cant handle the full range of streaming video.
Have they addressed that in the new boxes?
IMO, Netflix and Roku dropped the ball by not backward compatabling the subtitles/closed captioning on the 1rst and 2nd gen boxes.
I have an original HD. I stream over WiFi G, 480 resolution.
PS- Roku was brilliant in hiring a fan hacker who was creating private channels, to support his work officially.
I received a Roku as a birthday gift in January, 2011. I give it thumbs up. I watch netflix, several other fun (and free) channels, plus Major League Baseball (subscription fee). The ability to watch all the playoff games is great if you’re a big MLB fan.
Curious you don’t compare this to the Apple TV alternative. That one *does* include the digital audio out, supports YouTube (and NetFlix), connects over wireless or wired ethernet, and has an integrated power supply. (No wall wart, as needed by the Roku.) I own neither device.
No need to be curious about that — I simply haven’t tried that unit out yet.
The big adavantage that the Roku has over AppleTV is its myriad of Channels.
AppleTV is loathe to have competition on its box to its iTunes Store.
Anroid and Roku are greater than Apple.
Digital audio out is useless for most people, if this is your only device maybe, otherwise what are you using it for? Plus almost all content is not 5.1 online anyway. But the problem with Apple TV is iTunes, expensive, proprietary. If you live in the Apple world it’s great otherwise no. It’s only 720p too, but again little content is higher anyway.
Thanks Ed!
We cut the cable (sat actually) more than a year ago and like the others we are glad we did. I decided that I could take the little lady out to dinner once a year or so on the $100 per month savings. Heh!
One thought for adding content and lowering cost: PlayOn is an app designed to sling internet content from your computer to your TV. While Roku does not have a public channel, it does have a private channel which allows you to use the PlayOn app. You can find all the information about PlayOn and the private channel at the PlayOn site.
This allows us to stream dozens of channels including Hulu which is free and not pay the monthly charges associated with Hulu+. It also allowed me to pick-up more sports through ESPN and ESPN3. This is the real downside to the current streaming devices like Roku – little access to sports. They are changing that but slowly.
PlayOn does require either a subscription or lifetime buy in which recently was $19 per year or $45 lifetime so really not a big cost. I expect most of the options on PlayOn to come to streaming via TV, and devices directly in the fairly near future but that could be a few years off yet.
Between the public channels on my Roku, the HD broadcast channels, Netflix, and the PlayOn channels I must have hundreds of thousands of options to view every night including a reasonable sports selection.
The future is closer than we think
Mark Sherman
I cut the cord 5 years ago. I’m using a Mac Mini rather than a roku/AppleTV and it addresses all the cons you listed. HDMI out. YouTube capable. Plays free Hulu content on my TV. iTunes and Amazon streaming content avail for it. By having access to any website I can goto off brand sites that carry obscure and forgotten content.
And I use my iPhone as a touch pad remote for the thing.
The downsides, expensive upfront cost but it paid for itself w/in the first year. Videos stored locally (iTunes) is best watched through Front Row, which doesn’t exist under OSX Lion.
The Roku and others like it are running out of space if you ask me. Would I like one? Yes, but I have an XBox, that has all the main characters (Amazon even works) and Media Center plays everything you throw at it. But TV’s are getting better everyday, and built in Google may change things too.
What I’ve been trying to find out is whether or not any of these services provide coverage of Formula 1 racing. That’s the only reason I have dish. Can anyone tell me? Speed hasn’t answered my emails and neither has netflix. I’ve been lax about researching but this seems like a good time to cut the satellite if I can get that. I’ve cut my landline, thinking about cutting my ISP in favor of using my phone’s internet capability and this would be great too.
I have had my Roku for about two years and it has finally settled down. After about three months it rejected the router and would not connect. I went to the tech line, then English native speakers, and was told to re-code my router and make a few security changes to it and it has worked since. My sister had the exact same problem after only one month. My biggest complaint with Roku is the format of viewing the available movie options while on Roku. I do not need to see “Recently Watched Movies”. I know what I recently watched. If you do not know the correct name of a movie you will never see it available. I would like to see more genre based categories than are now available. Roku advised me to go online and select movies for my instant queue but when I sit down to watch TV I do not want to have to go to the computer first. There are also glitches with viewing sometimes such as freezing or jumping frames. The fast forward or back controls are archaic. I think for the money it is a good buy and would recommend it to new subscribers.
I was an early adopter with the first Roku box, and am still streaming on the original unit.
Another “pro” is Roku’s customer service. I had the power supply go out on me, and they quickly replaced it.
I am planning on upgrading to the new unit soon.
I also have a Play On subscription as mentioned above, and have discovered the private channels. Nice.
Chris in California,
I just checked my PlayOn and it appears that ESPN and ESPN3 do have some auto racing including NASCAR, NHRA, some American Le Mans Series, and some Indy Car. I do not know if they have any other formula one auto racing or euro formula one racing. I don’t follow auto racing and I don’t know whether it is in season now or not.
You might want to head over to PlayOn and see if you can use the 14 day free trial to see if what is offered is worth your time.
I didn’t mention it but PlayOn offers a link which allows me to use my tablets including my Amazon Fire to consume PlayOn media. I checked the availability of the above on the Fire.
I wish finding this information were easier but it is not. It really just takes digging and asking questions on forums until you find the answers.
Good luck.
Mark Sherman
I bought a Roku about 1 1/2 months ago and I am extremely happy with the product. With this and a Magic Jack (we still like to maintain a land line)I cut my monthly billing by 2/3 and will recoup what I spent in less then 2 months. We now have one TV using Wii (with Playon TV) to stream and one using Roku and in combination with “over the air” local channels we watch all the programs we like.
A really really dumb question.
I have Netflix and download movies which I watch on my computer.
My computer is on one floor and my television is on another.
I’m a DirecTV customer.
What do I have to do to use Roku?
Will it work without a cable connecting my computer to the tv?
Will it work without me installing wi-fi which I otherwise do not need?
Hi James,
You have to get a broadband signal into the Roku box somehow. The Roku XS supports a hardwired LAN and Wi-Fi; the other Roku books are Wi-Fi only.
James,
Do you have a router or switch connected between your internet modem and the computer? If you do, you can use a power line adapter like this: NETGEAR XAV2001 Powerline AV 200 Adapter or the wireless model: NETGEAR Powerline AV 200 Wireless-N Extender Kit (XAVNB2001) to connect the router to the Roku device. You could also fish Cat 5/6 cable directly between the two but that is much more work.
The nice thing about the powerline adapters is the simplicity of installation, just remember you need one at both ends for the system to work and some models come as a solo unit.
We found that the Wi-Fi Roku units needs to be in direct line of sight to the Wi-Fi sending unit or there will be additional delays in page loading and video downloading.
So, as Ed said the Roku XS can use hard wired LAN only but you will need to provide the wired connection. Either fishing cable or something like a power line connector will provide you with the access to your router/switch.
I hope this helps.
Mark
The Roku XS has both Wi-Fi and hard-wired LAN; it’s the only Roku unit with a LAN jack.