Have any of you tried a Roku Box and have a strong feeling about it? I am considering picking one up for my home because I feel it maybe a good fix for our household. I haven't read much positive or negative about the Roku Box and hope a couple of you kind posters may have some experience with them.
A wha? O.o
I installed a boxee on my sisters network with a NAS. I liked the boxee better because of the full 1080 and some versatility issues, If I remember roku max's at 720.
I have one (used largely for Netflix streaming) and haven't had any major issues with it. Frankly, given the very basic nature of the Roku box's functionality (essentially just a way to deliver content, not much more important or review-worthy than a cable box) it's not surprising that people aren't raving about it.
The basic version (the Roku 2 HD) only does 720p. The two versions above that (the Roku 2 XD and Roku 2 XS) can handle 1080p.
I've got one from the previous generation, so no bluetooth game remote or the like. I love it though, granted I don't watch a lot of TV but I get enough on it to where I don't pay for cable. Netflix and Amazon have me covered for stuff to watch. (Amazon for current stuff.)
Thanks friends! I think our Christmas gift is now a Roku box with Netflix for 2012.
My family and I have both a Roku and a Roku 2. They are very good devices, so much so that we were able to cut the cable because of them. We save $80/month on TV also with the help of an HTPC to stream Hulu but an antenna would probably serve us just as well if we had one.
This isn't a solution for everyone. We don't really care if we can't see everything that's on TV but there's more than enough content for the amount of time we have to watch to make it worth our while.
I'd suggest the $99 Roku 2 XS mainly for the remote. It's Bluetooth and works so much better than the regular one. Angry Birds is also much more fun on the big screen than on my phone (and I have a Dell Streak 5). It's easy to set up and use. My 4 year old has no problem with it.
There's also a lot of other good, free content that you can stream through your Roku that goes beyond Netflix. If you have [paid] Amazon Prime, you get that Netflix-like service as well. Hulu Plus is okay although I dropped it in favor of regular Hulu like I mentioned before. Crackle has free movies (ad-based). Pandora gets a lot of play on mine. Pub-D-Hub has got a lot of good public domain content. My son likes the classic cartoons. There are tons of podcasts that can be streamed to the TV. There's a ton of channels for it although, as you might expect, many of them do suck. Full YouTube is about the only thing that's missing but it's supposed to be coming. That's really its only major flaw.
Make sure you check out the private channels as well. Here's a link to the unofficial Roku Channel Guide.
Enjoy your new Roku.