Netflix Player (1 Viewer)

[Paul_Medenwaldt]

I couldn't find anyone talking about this player in any thread, if it has been discussed, please close the thread and direct me to a current discussion.

The player was announced last week and I was wondering if anyone was planning on getting this? Netflix Online Movie Rentals - Rent DVDs, Classic Films to DVD New Releases

I like the idea and it might get me to start my netflix subscription again. My main concern of course is that it is 'near dvd' quality. I'd like to hook this up to my home theater which is a projector and a 92 inch screen. I wonder how that 'near dvd' quality would look on something that big.

I have a wireless network setup going to a DSL connection with a 1.5/1.0 speed. I think that is the minimum it requires for streaming.

Any thoughts? What other players like this may be coming to market or is already out?

Paul

 

[Brian^K]

I got as far as "doesn't support closed captioning for the hearing impaired" and stopped reading.

 

[Lew Crippen]

If this were available in Mexico, I’d sign up—at least after HD was available. The downside seems to be that you need a pretty fast connection to get DVD quality. The doc states that you need a minimum of 1.5mbs and implies that this speed will get you VHS quality. It also states that you need 4mbps download speed for “high quality video and audio”, but there is no indication if that is the speed needed for DVD quality or HD quality.

This looks like a great deal if you have a fast-enough bandwidth, live in the States and don’t care about extras. Personally I like Apple TV’s technical approach a lot better as the movie is stored on a hard disk so the download speed is not so important. But Netfilx has such a big library (especially compared to iTunes) and does not charge per title (as does Apple) but only a set monthly fee.

Bottom line: I’d sign up for this in a heartbeat if I lived in the States where I could get either a very fast DSL or cable connection.

 

[hodedofome]

I have the Netflix "watch now" service running on my media center pc and streaming it through my xbox 360. It's the same thing as the Netflix box just free

I would not play the current content on a 92" screen. I have a 50" 720p plasma and it looks "ok." It's watchable for me for tv shows, classic movies, etc. I would not want to watch a new movie on it at this time, not to mention the audio is stereo not 5.1 surround. I have roadrunner ~8mb download so I'm getting the best quality.

If you still want to try it, I would suggest grabbing a computer and hooking it up to your projector and seeing if you like the quality, if it's good enough for you then get the netflix box. If not then you've only wasted $9 for the first month, no big deal.

 

[Paul_Medenwaldt]

I think i'd be more inclined to get it if it had a hard drive where it downloaded the content to the device and then watch it later, but i'm sure there are copyright issues regarding the storage of movies and shows to a hard drive.

Paul

 

[Lew Crippen]

There maybe some copyright issues Paul, but Apple TV for one has managed to address the problem.

 

[Jon Martin]

I ordered earlier this week, but it still hasn't shipped.

 

[Jon Martin]

I posted up a review for the player

The Moviezzz Blog: TECH REVIEW: The Netflix Player by Roku

If you are a Netflix fan, it should be a must buy.

 

[Chris Lockwood]

I was going to buy one of these, then I found out the Xbox has similar capability, so now I'm thinking why not pay the extra $100-200 and get a game console out of the deal?

Is there any downside to that idea other than the extra cost? I'm assuming the video quality through either device is similar, but if that's wrong, please let me know.

 

[Stephen Tu]

Xbox downsides:
- need gold membership, not just silver, $50/year. Not an issue if you were going to get gold for online gaming anyway.
- fan noise

For those reasons I'm going to use my TivoHD for Netflix rather than my Xbox. Otherwise I'd get a Samsung 2550/2500 or LG BD300, Blu-ray player w/ Netflix streaming. $200 more than the Roku, gets you BD and saves rack space, loses wi-fi though.

 

[Chris Lockwood]

Thanks. I didn't know the Xbox had an ongoing charge- it looked like as long as you were already paying for Netflix, just having the Xbox hooked up properly was enough.

Weird that Xbox has an annual fee for that while the cheap Netflix-only device does not.

I may go the Bluray route for that since I still have just a standard DVD player. Does the Netflix feature add much to the price? I haven't really shopped for Bluray players.