Netflix "Instant to your TV"

[MichaelB]

Anybody here use netflix Roku to watch content downloaded to the tv? Am thinking abouyt trying and can't find much feedback or recent reviews.

Michael

[saluki9]

I've used the Netflix service through the Xbox 360 which works off of the same library of movies.

It's great if you love old B movies and fairly recent TV shows. Other than that the library is pretty think on new movies.

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by saluki9 I've used the Netflix service through the Xbox 360 which works off of the same library of movies. It's great if you love old B movies and fairly recent TV shows. Other than that the library is pretty think on new movies.

I use it on my large widescreen monitor. I prefer many older and foreign movies, and many of these are available for immediate download.

I would recommend it.

Ha

[laurence]

I bought the box and love it. They upgraded to HD (720p) through firmware and it looks great on my 50" HDTV. Before the upgrade I was iffy on it due to lack of content, but between that and the agreement with STARS for additional movies it's a definite winner.

If you like PBS specials, they are all available through the box in HD, very nice. After the $100 outlay for the Roku box an $8.99 a month subscription gets you all the instant view you can stand plus 1 DVD at a time as much as you can turn around. We went down to basic cable and we are now paying less for what feels like more good content and on demand.

One nit is sometimes the instant movies are 4:3 instead of widescreen and there is nothing you can do about it, it's just the source they pulled it from.

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by laurence I bought the box and love it. They upgraded to HD (720p) through firmware and it looks great on my 50" HDTV. Before the upgrade I was iffy on it due to lack of content, but between that and the agreement with STARS for additional movies it's a definite winner. If you like PBS specials, they are all available through the box in HD, very nice. After the $100 outlay for the Roku box an $8.99 a month subscription gets you all the instant view you can stand plus 1 DVD at a time as much as you can turn around. We went down to basic cable and we are now paying less for what feels like more good content and on demand. One nit is sometimes the instant movies are 4:3 instead of widescreen and there is nothing you can do about it, it's just the source they pulled it from.

This sounds terrific. Thanks for the information. I might get this setup after I retire and move.

[tmm99]

laurence

Quote:

I bought the box and love it. They upgraded to HD (720p) through firmware and it looks great on my 50" HDTV.

How did they upgrade it to HD? I can't seem to find any info on that on roku.com.

Thanks,

tmm

[slouch]

The movie selection is slowly getting better over time; at this point, I watch all my netflix movies via the Xbox 360 instead of by the mail-in dvds now.

In addition to the existing roxbox, xbox360, and Silverlight (Mac and PC) clients, Samsung and LG are releasing TVs and BD players that have built-in Netflix streaming client support.

Samsung, LG to Stream Netflix HD - TVWeek - News

[MichaelB]

I think I'm going to buy one. We already subscribe to netflix so the only cost is the box. Right now we have some comcast package plus HD (but no premium) but that's at least $25 per month just for the box and HD - and I'm thinking we don't watch it that much. The TV programming available now on Netflix is good enough and the movie feature allows for the occasional impulsive choice.

Thanks for the feedback

Michael

[slouch]

I forgot to mention the one thing I dislike about the service -

You have to use your computer to add movies into the "watch now" queue, you can't do it from the xbox360. Once you add the movies to "watch now" from your web browser, it usually takes 1 minute before the selections are available from the xbox. Perhaps other netflix streaming clients are better in this regard.

[laurence]

Quote:

Originally Posted by slouch I forgot to mention the one thing I dislike about the service - You have to use your computer to add movies into the "watch now" queue, you can't do it from the xbox360. Once you add the movies to "watch now" from your web browser, it usually takes 1 minute before the selections are available from the xbox. Perhaps other netflix streaming clients are better in this regard.

Exactly the same with Roku, although their new home page states additional updates/upgrades are coming, so perhaps that will change.

[rgarling]

If your budget allows, you can spend a little more and hook up a computer with rf keyboard/mouse and have a more flexible setup. Dell has something they call the studio hybrid that has an hdmi connection. (<$500)

[saluki9]

Quote:

Originally Posted by haha I use it on my large widescreen monitor. I prefer many older and foreign movies, and many of these are available for immediate download. I would recommend it. Ha

I will have to look into the offerings a little deeper. There are a lot of older movies that I like too.

[laurence]

Not to go Zen on everybody, but with the instant view it's about a state of mind. If you are the type that says "I have to watch 'X' movie" it will disappoint, but if you are willing to be flexible and just want something in a general category (comedy, drama, action) you will find plenty of quality stuff in each area. It's T.V. show selection is the area it shines. I watched all the episodes of Jericho in two weeks without commercials, it was great.

[ERD50]

This would be more interesting to me if I could schedule downloads for overnight, and store on an HDD for viewing whenever. My internet connection is medium speed ( ~ 1Mbps sustained, 3Mbps burst), and I would not want to tie it up every time someone wants to watch something - downloads will sometimes affect our VOIP phone connection. I also don't like that it has to re-buffer for any FFW/RW. An HDD would solve that.

-ERD50

[laurence]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ERD50 This would be more interesting to me if I could schedule downloads for overnight, and store on an HDD for viewing whenever. My internet connection is medium speed ( ~ 1Mbps sustained, 3Mbps burst), and I would not want to tie it up every time someone wants to watch something - downloads will sometimes affect our VOIP phone connection. I also don't like that it has to re-buffer for any FFW/RW. An HDD would solve that. -ERD50

You might be surprised by how quick it is. Sure, if you FFW 30 minutes it has to buffer for a bit, but pause and RW works perfectly, and if you have to stop watching a show/movie or switch to a different show, when you return to that program it will remember where you left off. My phone, internet and T.V. all run over the same line, I haven't had any issues at all. Incidentally, services like VOIP are given greater access priority since it needs a seamless transmission, if you are having trouble I'd be inquiring why from your service providers.

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by laurence You might be surprised by how quick it is. Sure, if you FFW 30 minutes it has to buffer for a bit, but pause and RW works perfectly, and if you have to stop watching a show/movie or switch to a different show, when you return to that program it will remember where you left off. My phone, internet and T.V. all run over the same line, I haven't had any issues at all. Incidentally, services like VOIP are given greater access priority since it needs a seamless transmission, if you are having trouble I'd be inquiring why from your service providers.

Thanks, but the performance might not be the same, depending on what service you have.

I assume you have high speed cable? Some people have DSL, and I have a 'medium speed' fixed wireless. They give the speeds they promised, but that is the 3Mpbs/1Mbps rates I mentioned. So I can't really 'complain' when they are meeting contractual obligations.

I'd still rather have it on a hard drive and view when/where I want, w/o a dependency on the network.

-ERD50

[FUEGO]

ERD50, do you have a router with "Quality of Service" (QoS)? That enables you to prioritize your VOIP connection in the network traffic stream and can really help sound quality with VOIP. I don't have a QoS enabled router yet, and I occasionally have quality issues with my VOIP even on a 7mbps line. The limiting factor for me is the upload speed, and I'm at 368 I think.

This netflix service sounds good. Maybe a cheaper way to get HD programming without the massive packages my cable co requires you to get if you want even basic HD.

[Leonidas]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelB Anybody here use netflix Roku to watch content downloaded to the tv? Am thinking abouyt trying and can't find much feedback or recent reviews.

Use the search button - everything under the sun is here someplace.

http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...ort-37579.html

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FUEGO ERD50, do you have a router with "Quality of Service" (QoS)? That enables you to prioritize your VOIP connection in the network traffic stream and can really help sound quality with VOIP. I don't have a QoS enabled router yet, and I occasionally have quality issues with my VOIP even on a 7mbps line. The limiting factor for me is the upload speed, and I'm at 368 I think.

No - it's something I'm thinking about though. IIRC, CFB mentioned a couple shortly before he left the forum. (google....)

here it is...

http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...ers-39064.html

But I do have the Telephone adapter first in line. I would think (but don't know) that the TA box being first (as they recc) would grab priority, but maybe it does not have that much smarts.

Here's a good site to check your line:

TestYourVoIP.com

they measure stuff that is important to VOIP. One is packets discarded due to 'jitter' delay between data packets, which is not so important for other internet uses. Normally, if there is a slight delay of some data, your web page or file will appear just fine, the order does not matter so much, as long as all the data gets there quickly. But for audio, they need to keep up with the flow, so they just have to throw away data that does not appear fast enough in near the order it was sent. IOW, your raw speed throughput may be great, but if overall a lot of packets are separated and delayed slightly, it can hurt the VOIP quality.

I've got 2.8 to 3.5 on their scale (4.4 is the best that a VOIP codec can do under perfect conditions).

-ERD50

[laurence]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leonidas Use the search button - everything under the sun is here someplace. http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...ort-37579.html

Missed this one!

Hey, so with the firmware upgrade at new years, how are you liking the HD quality? I'm excited about new channels etc. I'm running 802.11g as well and having no problems.

ERD50, you are correct, I'm running COX cable for everything, my download speeds can exceed 20Mbps but my upload is fixed at ~512kbps (I think).