Any personal reviews on the Roku Netflix set-top box? 1

[wahnula]

Howdy folks,

I have been checking out the Roku/Netflix set-top box as I'm a Netflix member and the idea of instant-viewing is appealing to me. All the online reviews I have read are at least six months old and I was hoping someone here had some personal experience with it and could share their experiences.

I am aware of the resolution/aspect ratio issues but have heard that newer models can produce HD-quality, but I would be happy with 420i or 420p, as my ancient 42-inch plasma is an EDTV (true HDTV's were $8K in 2003) and I like 420p just fine. I am mostly concerned that the image will be pixellated. I guess I could connect my laptop to the TV but I don't know if that would be an accurate comparison.

I have a very good broadband cable connection at the set (4MB avg. download speed) and will not be attempting to use the wireless NIC. Any input from anyone familiar with the device will be appreciated.

Tony

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[wahnula]

After much research I found the Roku Forums:

http://forums.rokulabs.com/viewforum.php?f=28

...which led to further indecision. Most people have no problems but some people are reporting buffering/rebuffering issue but most are using the wireless connector. I found this interesting quote from a tech-savvy Engineer:

..nothing will reveal (network) problems like a sustained large stream of data like a video stream.

...meaning what happens between your home and the Netflix servers is out of your control. I'm still on the fence, but it's "only" $100USD and, even though my job is secured and income is assured, I'm afraid to make even this piddling investment right now...but I'll bet I do!

I'll report back later with my results, if I get one.

Tony

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[tresanus]

Just to add some input:

I currently use my Xbox 360 for that same function. I would say watching Netflix instant movies looks just like watching the DVD.

You add your instants online much like your normal queue and then you can see them on the Xbox. I have been very pleased with the results.

Note: I am watching these on a 52inch 1080p DLP and I would say the picture quality is at least 480p.

If you fast forward, rewind or skip sections you will experience a few buffering seconds, but there is never any delay or long load times if you watch the movie start to finish.

Hope this offers some incite into other possible options!

 

[tresanus]

insight -

 

[wahnula]

LOL you might have just incited me to buy a Roku! I am not a gamer but if I were even a casual gamer I would look into a console that was a BD player as well as a Netflix streamer.

tresanus, what's the speed of your network (cable, DSL etc.)? There's a handy speedtest at

http://www.speedtest.net,

but I've learned what's important is not necessarily your overall network speed but the speed to Netflix's servers. Still, it would be nice to know for comparison purposes.


Tony

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[tresanus]

I will update my speed once I get back to my home network.

I wish I could fill you in on how well the PS3 works with Netflix Instant Streaming, but I haven't shelled out the big bucks for one of those yet :-(

 

[kmcferrin]

Interesting. The speed of my connection is about 6Mbps, and I've had varying results with using various laptops instead of the Roku box. I've been on the fence about buying one, especially since there is only a subset of their library that can be streamed. When I look at my queue only about 10-15% of the movies are available for streaming.

At any rate, I would disagree that the video stream looks like DVD quality. I usually watch on my 46" 1080p LCD. I have a 1080i upconverting DVD player for watching discs, and the difference between DVD and streaming is usually pretty noticeable. Some things aren't as noticeable as others. I watched all of the first three seasons of Heroes streamed, and I thought they looked OK. Then I saw one of the TV broadcasts from the 3rd season that I saved on my DVR, and the DVR copy was much, much better. But generally the streaming version was OK. Some movies, especially those with lots of detail or action, look noticeably blurrier or more pixellated. My wife tried to watch Becoming Jane streamed and had to stop because it looks so bad.

Of course, as was pointed out your network connection makes a big difference. I use cable, so my connection is shared with others in the neighborhood. When I watch movies (usually 11pm or later) the traffic tends to be OK. When my wife watches movies (usually weekend afternoons) there is more congestion. When I travel for work I take a laptop with me, and many of the Marriott's have LCD HDTVs in the room with a video hookup for laptops so I can watch Netflix instead of hotel PPV. But since I have to use wireless in such cases I usually get a lot of messages about buffering and downgrading the quality of the stream in mid-viewing.

________________________________________
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[wahnula]

Thanks kmcferrin. I'm not expecting HD, but "DVD quality" is only 420p and I would be thrilled with that, even though there are some who claim to get 1080i. In reading further reviews, it seems the hardware in the Roku box is not as good as, say, the Samsung or LG BD player, but they are $350 each. In one comparison, the $99 Roku produced a better picture than an XBox. I guess it's all about expectations...if you go in expecting HD and perfection, you'll be disappointed. But...if you're like me, and only using this as an adjunct to HD Satellite & DVD, and for casual viewing, it should be fine.

I'm in the process of fitting the Cat5E cable in the wall with jacks so I can conduct a real speed test at the device.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[kmcferrin]

There are a lot of factors that will affect performance. Wireless networking is great, but it's all shared media and consequently shared bandwidth. If your neighbor has a wireless access point and is using it at the same time as you, their bandwidth use on their private network reduces the amount of bandwidth available for you (unless you are using non-overlapping frequencies). So wired is definitely better.

The other thing to think about is what you mean by DVD quality or HD quality. It's relatively easy to stream a video at 1080i resolution, but if the bitrate isn't high enough then you're going to be using lossy compression. The image will still be 1080i but it will look pixellated/blurred.

You can see what NetFlix is encoding their video streams at here:

http://blog.netflix.com/2008/11/encoding-for-streaming.html

The highest bitrate content that NetFlix streams at standard definition is 3.4 Mbps. Their HD encodes have gone up to 5.5 Mbps, but they scaled it back to 3.8 Mbps using a more efficient codec. Standard definition DVD content is about 9.8 Mbps, depending on where it's reading from on the disc. HD-DVD starts around 30 Mbps, and Blu-Ray at 48 Mbps.

Even their highest bitrate encodes are not done at true DVD quality.

________________________________________
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
MCTS:Windows Server Virtualization
MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator

 

[wahnula]

Great link, thanks. What I mean by DVD-quality is 420p. Since that's the native resolution of my EDTV it should be fine and would be wonderful if it's sustainable at prime-time.

The problem I'm having is deciding whether or not to gamble on buying the Roku, at $99 it's cheap enough to take the gamble, but the reviews are scary. You have to be ready to accept it if the box doesn't work well. I'd just compare it to an expensive dinner out that wasn't very good......then put it in the closet so it would not remind me of my poor decision.

I would not dream of using wireless at this point unless it was absolutely necessary. I installed (2) runs of Cat5e when the house was built, I just need to terminate the ends. All my years of fiddling around this is the first time I've had to use an impact punch-down tool, it's kinda fun. I'm practicing on spare cable and jacks but wonder how I'll do in the cramped confines of the media cut-out.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[kmcferrin]

Well...if the experience isn't good you can always eBay it. There's enough demand for them that you could probably sell it without discounting it too much.

There's also the chance that the experience could improve with newer firmware releases, or if you upgrading to a faster ISP connection.

________________________________________
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MCTS:Windows Server Virtualization
MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator

 

[wahnula]

OK, I did it. It shall be what it shall be. There will be no upgrading of my Internet service (which is overpriced already, but at least I get free basic cable with it for the guest room) and no hope for revisions of the firmware saving the situation. I think with all my evaluations it's worth the risk and time to put up or shut up. Plus kmcferrin is right, the current selling price on eBay is more than I'm paying direct from Roku...go figure. You KNOW I'll be reporting back with the results. Thanks all.

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[kmcferrin]

Please do. I may have to pull the trigger on one myself.

________________________________________
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
MCTS:Windows Server Virtualization
MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator

 

[wahnula]

UPDATE:

Un-boxed easily, only comes with a composite cable, wall wart, and remote, but I kept finding myself saying "what do you want for $100?"

I would have SWORN that when I built my house in 2004 that I had a dedicated run of CAT5e from the home office to the media area but I was WRONG. Luckily I did have my "futureproof" 1" PVC conduit that I ran to every room and terminated in the laundry room in a cheap electrical panel box prior to construction...I could not afford structured wire at the time, plus this allowed for unknown "future technologies."

One of those "future technologies" was a hi-def OTA antenna, which, since I was taking the time to pull to three rooms of the house, I chose the RJ6 cable that had CAT5e splined onto it, for **ahem** future use. So, it was just a matter of pulling one leg of Cat5e through a single conduit to the modem and terminating everything. Putting a jack on one end was easy, but there were two areas that the Cat5 was cut, resulting in punch-down inline splice, which offers the least resistance when you absolutely HAVE to splice Cat5, but still is less than desirable.

It did not matter a whit. Setup took literally seconds and I was watching movies in minutes. I have not tried the wireless option. I connected it to my TV via S-Video cable and composite audio. The Roku has HDMI-out and component out, but these inputs on my TV were claimed by the satellite and the DVD player respectively. Newer TVs with more HDMI inputs could possibly produce a better picture.

Quality, which was my main concern, was surprisingly good. Way better than the best VHS Tape, approaching DVD quality on my set, a 42" Sony Wega plasma EDTV from 2003. I am watching on the Roku's 720p "HD" option which is handled by the set, 720p and 1081i are scaled up (down?). When I bought it Consumer Reports rated its HD picture quality as better than Sony's true HD Wega available at the time for twice the price, $8 grand, so I went with the cheaper EDTV and have been very happy, except when I see a modern equivalent for less than half the price

The first thing the box did upon hookup was update its software, a nice feature, then ran through a series of restarts, which took a few minutes, not the 10-20 minutes of Tivo & DVR boxes, more like restarting a PC. I would guess three restarts took about ten minutes, then I got my activation code and walked to the PC and entered it in, I turned around and the Roku was ready to go.

It presented me with the movies I had rented in the past that are available for viewing, but I went to the PC and selected a handful of choices to test it out. Man on a Wire was quite good quality, so I stopped watching it and chose Season One of 30 Rock. I watched the entire pilot episode, noticed a few artifacts in a few scenes, some Moire patterns on long shots, overall an but eminently watchable picture.

I would say this was the most pleasant surprise. After reading reviews of "it's not ready yet" and "the picture is horrible" I was prepared for the worst, but that must be for weak signals or poor wireless connections. My cable speed on speedtest.net averages about 5000 down and 1800 up.

I would recommend this to anyone who's not a stickler for perfect-quality and, like me, enjoys getting stuff FOR FREE! I will post back in the future if the honeymoon ends.



Tony

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[Freestone]

Tony - Thanks for the great review and being our, ahem, test subject A star for you! -- Dell

 

[kmcferrin]

Awesome! Glad to hear it.

Now I just have to convince my wife that I need to spend $100...

________________________________________
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MCTS:Hyper-V
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MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator

 

[wahnula]

kmcferrin,

Browse the catalog and find some programs that SHE likes that are available, like old Hollywood movies or recent TV series. My wife's not a big TV watcher, but she loves old movies, and there's a ton of them available. Plus, it's cheaper than a good dinner out and the content is FREE, my wife did not realize that part of it and was surprised at the size of the catalog. I caught her browsing it last night! I encouraged her to "load it up"!

Tony

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[tresanus]

To update my portion of this discussion:

I recently purchased a Playstation 3 which I am pleased to announce does stream netflix. This is nice for me (a gamer) having my game system, bluray player, and netflix streaming all in one set up. Of course the PS3 also has a web browser, large hard drive, wifi, bluetooth etc etc (but I really have yet to take advantage of all those offerings!)

I have yet to compare the netflix quality with my xbox360 since I haven't activated my PS3 (w/netflix) yet. Although I am still more than happy with the quality achieved by my xbox, and my eyes I cannot tell if I am watching a DVD or streaming a video (unless of course I pause FF rewind etc!).

Wahnula - I am glad to hear you are happy with your purchase! For 100 bucks you cannot beat that! You will now unleash the full potential of netflix "instants"!

 

[wahnula]

In independent tests I read that the Sony & XBox hardware both produce a better picture than the Roku, due I suppose to the processor and GFX present in both boxes. Like I said, as long as you don't expect perfection, you won't be disappointed.

After further viewing, its main failure is accurate color; the quality of the Roku is actually sharper than digital SD (like The Daily Show), but Roku can't compete with the color quality of digital satellite. Still, it's great to have all that content!

Tony

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