Roku Review: Infinite Scooby Doo
Glenn has been singing the praises of the Roku Box. I’ve had one for about a year now. I love it. If you have Netflix streaming, you can stream instantly right to your TV any movie Netflix offers. It’s easy to use, our four year old does it all the time. One thing you realize with limitless access is how many Scooby Doo episodes and movies there are. Seems like thousands, honestly. I don’t know that we’ve watched the same one twice.
A few cons:
The remote is cheap. And I can’t program my other remotes to operate the Roku.
Not the most reliable. I have to reboot it on occasion, which consists of me unplugging it for a few seconds and plugging it back in.
Occasionally, it loses my network settings. Easily fixed, but a pain. Just run the set up again.
Some times, lag depending on internet connectivity. Not an issue with the Roku, but still annoying.
Overall, it’s worth it and I enjoy it immensely.
February 16th, 2011 at 11:23 am
The Roku is a great idea, but I’ve heard a lot of complaints along the lines of yours. I run Netflix on my PS3, and you just about can’t buy a Blu-ray player without Netflix streaming anymore. There’s a lot of ways to get Netflix to your TV.
tweaker
February 16th, 2011 at 11:58 am
Can you also run Hula TV off of it?
I’m very interested, since I’d like to drastically cut down my cable bill.
February 16th, 2011 at 12:00 pm
yes, you can. but i have not. also, amazon on demand and pandora.
February 16th, 2011 at 12:38 pm
I use the Wii and my Blu Ray player. Love netflix instant.
My Mom-in-law has a Roku, and she loves it too.
February 16th, 2011 at 12:54 pm
I use an XBox360 to stream Netflix and (using PlayOn) Hulu, Amazon, YouTube and other “web TV”. We don’t even have a cable/satellite subscription anymore ($150 savings). So, I love it. I have considered a PlayStation, but I picked the wrong side in the HD-DVD vs BlueRay wars and, frankly, I’m still bitter about it. Its all going digital delivery anyway, so I am not going to invest in another player…
February 16th, 2011 at 12:56 pm
I have a regular PC with, HDMI output running Boxee. Does Netfix, Vudu, Hulu (if you hack it just a little bit), Pandora, and a bunch of other stuff. I went that route so I could use it as a media center to store my DVDs, MP3s and family pictures and videos.
February 16th, 2011 at 1:22 pm
Logitech Harmony remotes will control that roku!
February 16th, 2011 at 1:22 pm
Basic windows 7 box with an HDMI connection gives you an awesome platform to start with to kick the cable habit. Its amazing how many people are starting to shrug off the entertainment bill…..
February 16th, 2011 at 2:01 pm
So everybody here talking about dropping cable for streaming is on DSL then? In our neck of the woods you’re either forced to have cable TV with your cable modem or a land line with your DSL. The Comcast option is enough $ less that we go cable TV+modem over Qwest. At least I do watch some TV; we really really don’t need a land line.
As to Roku, we like ours too. When I first tried Hulu through it I found you needed a prime subscription, though this might have changed since. Pandora radio (free) is also nice, as is SmugMug picture viewing.
Having an Xbox or PS3 in the house would turn us into 400lb couch potatoes way too quickly.
February 16th, 2011 at 8:03 pm
Had the Roku XDS for a couple of months; wish I’d got it sooner. I didn’t realize how much content is available, most of it free.
I’ve had a couple of connect glitches, but easily remedied. They *could* have included an on/off switch, though.
If you have no other way to stream, and don’t care about gaming, Roku is the way to go.
February 16th, 2011 at 8:05 pm
Like trackerk, I wanted to be able to stream NetFlix, play back DVDs, music, and other video files (DivX) on my TV, but I went with the Western Digital TV Live Plus. So far it has worked great. It is a lot smaller and less expensive than dedicating a computer to the task. We are planning on buying a couple more for other TVs in our house and by ripping all of the DVDs we have purchased to a network hard drive, we will have our own private video on demand system. DVDs will no longer get lost by the kids, scratched up or otherwise destroyed.
From what I’ve read, all of the various media players have some quirks. For instance it took a little work to figure out the best way to rip DVD for the Western Digital to play them back.
NetFlix playback is solid on the Western Digital, in fact the interface in exactly the same as on a Panasonic plasma TV we have with VieraCast which makes me wonder if NetFlix is simply licensing the same code to different device manufacturers…
February 16th, 2011 at 8:13 pm
Any “learning” remote can control it. Remotes that accept new codes (Harmony, One4All, etc) can probably do it.
February 16th, 2011 at 8:26 pm
I went with Apple TV2. As usual with Apple, almost instantaneous setup. The only downside is I had to decide whether to run it off of ethernet direct to my cablemodem, or connect to my wireless. With ethernet, no streaming pauses, I would think. But with the wireless, I can take music, videos, &c off my iMac. Plus I can run it with my iPad.
I had previously gotten a blueray dvd player with the same connectivity, but the interface was just terrible. Not so with Apple.
February 16th, 2011 at 8:31 pm
I’ve had the top of line Roku box since almost the day it came out and haven’t had a single problem with it. It works perfectly.
February 16th, 2011 at 8:33 pm
i’m running the roku on a clear wimax internet connection with absolutely no problems at all. cheaper than both qwest dsl and comcast internet. my only complaint was that the roku will run “hulu plus” but not the free hulu. i also discovered that the licensing of some shows by hulu prevents them from providing it to roku boxes but you can watch them in a browser. i did decide that the subscription option in hulu plus was worth the money. since i was used to having a dvr before i gave up dish network, i like hulu creating my queue for me automatically.
February 16th, 2011 at 8:34 pm
I’ve two Roku boxes, one has been up & running continuously for almost four years without a blip. One runs over wireless the other hard wired. Occasionally Netflix will buffer for a few seconds at the beginning of playback, but that’s a Netflix issue, not Roku.
Watching Hulu+, Youtube, Netflix and Amazon On Demand is as easy as cable TV.
Roku also pushes upgrades seamlessly. I am very impressed with this little black box and the company.
I programmed the Roku remotes to a Logitech 880 and a 700 remote, via remote-to-remote function cloning…they work perfectly.
February 16th, 2011 at 8:54 pm
My Roku kicks ass! I never have to reset it and reliability hovers in the 99.9995% range.
February 16th, 2011 at 9:19 pm
Aside from the supposedly easy to use interface, is there anything this box does that my HTPC can’t do? I already have one of those. Why would I want a special-purpose computer instead of or in addition to a general purpose one?
February 16th, 2011 at 9:50 pm
The minute I know for sure that English Football (we call it soccer) is on Roku, I’m ditching the cable.
February 16th, 2011 at 9:51 pm
Saysuncle:
Can it stream media files from a network share?
.mkv format?
Just curious
February 16th, 2011 at 10:22 pm
gonzo, never tried.
spiffy, no need, i would think. bought mine because i didn’t feel like running a network cable to the upstairs.
February 16th, 2011 at 10:25 pm
I’ve not tried it, but the Roku XD|S has a USB port for the attachment of external media. And if you plug in a WMS–wireless media stick–(http://hsti.com), you will be able to access media on any device that supports Windows file share (aka Samba or CIFS) technology. This can be a Windows computer or a NAS device. My TV has a USB port, so I don’t need the Roku for this function. But if your TV can’t access a USB drive, maybe the Roku can bridge it for you. I watch m4v format media all the time. The WMS will do avi also, but not wma or mov.
February 17th, 2011 at 12:12 am
Two comments: 1) Rumor has it that the Roku will be signing up for NFL Sunday Ticket, assuming there is no lockout. That would be a terrific addition, as they already have NHL and MLB games (subscription, of course), 2) DVPRemote is an iOS app that works swimmingly for the Roku. So no more losing those cheap Roku remotes. Price – $2.99.
February 17th, 2011 at 7:08 am
I have been looking into streaming, but I must be missing something. I am signed up for Netflix unlimited streaming, but the library, although I suppose it is vast, has basically nothing that I go and look for – you have to do another few $’s and then get the “A” stuff on DVD’s or they just don’t have it. I can understand a two tier pricing (like Hulu/ Hulu +), but why would they force you to deal with the DVD’s? It seems the streaming stuff is basically B and C list fare. Again, am I missing something?
And Hulu – the commercials are very annoying if you are paying for a subscription – they let you watch the first half of the show, but then interrupt the second half every few 5-6 times in a half hour with comnmercials.
If I wanted to get rid of cable, how do you get your news channels? Network stations? All of the sports tickets are then fairly steep subscriptions, aren’t they?
I am interested, but I have not seen enough good out of the streaming yet – not easy to surf for good content, not enough good content to make the switch.
February 17th, 2011 at 10:53 am
My ROKU is great. I went with it instead of AppleTV because ROKU also had RCA in addition to HDMI and I have a couple older TV’s. I never have to reset mine unless I take it down to my Dad’s to watch something with him.
I downloaded an APP to use my iPOD as a remote. Maybe there is one for Droid too.