Just ordered a Roku

[Nomo]

Roku 2 HD Streaming Player | Stream to your TV Instantly without a PC.

I figured for 50 bucks I'd give it a try.
It's not the 1080 version and doesn't come with Angry Birds but I've been thinking about giving it a shot for a while.

 

[j_garcia]

When my Dish contract is up in a few months, I may just switch to one of these too, but probably the XD which isn't on sale right now.

 

[zhimbo]

Roku 2 HD Streaming Player | Stream to your TV Instantly without a PC.

I figured for 50 bucks I'd give it a try.
It's not the 1080 version and doesn't come with Angry Birds but I've been thinking about giving it a shot for a while.

Nice cheap quick solution. I like my Roku a lot. Most of the channels are niche channels, but nearly all the major things one might want (except YouTube and Spotify) are there. If their USB Media Player was a little more sophisticated and capable, I'd upgrade from "really like" to "love".

 

[Nomo]

I don't see it actually replacing anything.
With 6 TVs in the house Dish isn't going away any time soon.
The main TV has Pandora.

Most likely a 50 dollar toy.

But we'll see.

 

[Serj22]

I got the Sony version. I like it because it navigates like the PS3 menu exactly, so my wife can use it easily. I have it attached below our 37" flat panel in the bedroom. Looks symbiotic with the TV. I like it. IT's a very nice solution if you don't want to run cable to every tv in the house.

 

[j_garcia]

I don't see it actually replacing anything.
With 6 TVs in the house Dish isn't going away any time soon.
The main TV has Pandora.

Most likely a 50 dollar toy.

But we'll see.

I have 3 TVs and a PS3 for on each, but can only have one Netflix login at a time, so even with the Roku would allow other viewing without that Dish bill

 

[bikdav]

Question

Roku 2 HD Streaming Player | Stream to your TV Instantly without a PC.

I figured for 50 bucks I'd give it a try.
It's not the 1080 version and doesn't come with Angry Birds but I've been thinking about giving it a shot for a while.

Can I stream any old radio station or other audio program from my laptop to the av receiver with that particular Roku?

 

[hizzaah]

Depending on what happens with the next Apple TV, I may be picking up the XD version of this.. Very cool toy!

 

[afterlife2]

I got the Roku 2 XS on ebay for $78.00 2 weeks ago. The netflix on there is way better than the Sony Blu-ray player, which keeps stalling. CNN is cool to have since I don't have and can't afford cable.
Here is the seller I got it from:
Roku 2 XS 1080p Streaming Player Black and Purple 3100R WiFi TV Stream Games | eBay

 

[j_garcia]

Just ordered my XD for $69 from Amazon.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I don't see it actually replacing anything.
With 6 TVs in the house Dish isn't going away any time soon.
The main TV has Pandora.

Most likely a 50 dollar toy.

But we'll see.

6 TVs means 6 Dish boxes??
If you'd cable or fios available to you, you could've cut it to one "box" (with some initial one time investments)

 

[j_garcia]

6 TVs means 6 Dish boxes??
If you'd cable or fios available to you, you could've cut it to one "box" (with some initial one time investments)

Dish has a whole home solution now too. A "master" box and small distribution units. I just dropped Dish though, which is why I bought the Roku I also currently only have 1 TV per dwelling though

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I don't see it actually replacing anything.
With 6 TVs in the house Dish isn't going away any time soon.
The main TV has Pandora.

Most likely a 50 dollar toy.

But we'll see.

6 TVs means 6 Dish boxes??
If you'd cable or fios available to you, you could've cut it to one "box" (with some initial one time investments)

Edit: Roku XS was on woot recently.. don't remember for how much, but it was cheap

 

[Nomo]

6 TVs means 6 Dish boxes??
If you'd cable or fios available to you, you could've cut it to one "box" (with some initial one time investments)

Edit: Roku XS was on woot recently.. don't remember for how much, but it was cheap

We have 2 dual room boxes. One standard, the other a DVR.
I've put selector switches on to feed the extra 2 TV's from either of the 2. Not a perfect solution, but at best only 4 rooms are occupied at one time.

I'm just not totally knocked out by the Roku.
The download speed is adaquate from my wireless network. So upping to the wired model would only give me 1080P as an advantage.
The Netflix streaming didn't do it for me when I had it for free. So I'm not going to pay them more money for it.
I'm considering the 1 week trial of Hulu plus, bus I'll need to wait 'til things at work calm down a bit to truly test it out.

Taking myself off the "Dish grid" so to speak is a ways off, and would take a bit of consideration and experimention. Unfortunatly I have no time for either.

 

[Nomo]

Dish has a whole home solution now too. A "master" box and small distribution units. I just dropped Dish though, which is why I bought the Roku I also currently only have 1 TV per dwelling though

I havn't checked into it yet, but I don't think it's available here yet.
I'm curious of the cost.

 

[j_garcia]

I havn't checked into it yet, but I don't think it's available here yet.
I'm curious of the cost.

Word was it was supposed to be out already, but I am guessing it is going to be hard to get a hold of them for a while, or they haven't actually released them yet.

I had to switch back to Comcast AT&T said it would take TWO WEEKS for them to get my service going, so I called Comcast and they said 1 day, so I cancelled AT&T. At least it is fast though, so that hopefully will be a benefit with the Roku; the PS3 sure hums along pretty fast now with downloads. Wasn't too happy to have to buy my own wireless router on top of their modem, but Frys is only a few blocks away now

 

[j_garcia]

The Roku interface is similar to, but not quite as clean as the PS3's application. I like it so far. The device itself is SUPER easy to setup and use, and all of the components feel well designed and built; not that there's much there It is a little bit slow when loading up the various queues for the channels, but that's about it after one day. Pretty neat.

 

[jaymz]

I also have been looking at these video streaming receivers, but my son claims that NONE of them really produces 5.1 DD sound.

True or not?

Jim

 

[j_garcia]

There are two connection options: a 3.5mm to stereo analog and HDMI. When hooked to a receiver via HDMI they can do 5.1 surround.

 

[sholling]

I also have been looking at these video streaming receivers, but my son claims that NONE of them really produces 5.1 DD sound.

It depends on the device, the application on the device, and the source material. For example (device) the Roku 2 XS and XD devices are capable of 1080P and DD+ 5.1 sound (over HDMI) but not everything streams in 1080P or with 5.1 sound. Second (the application), the Roku 2 XS/XD's Netflix application is capable of 1080P and 5.1 sound but that's not always true of the Netflix applications found on other devices. Third (source material), Netflix has some 1080P 5.1 sound videos but not all that many and because it defaults to stereo you'll have to manually select 5.1 audio when you find one. The rest of the channels I can't speak to. The final factor is available bandwidth, if you don't have enough bandwidth the application may adjust the picture quality down to fit. For a single Netflix feed I'd want at least an uncapped 5Mb/s internet connection and some applications may want more and multiple steams (2 or more devices playing) will need more.

Just understand that while pretty good a compressed 1080P internet stream isn't as good as Blu-Ray's 1080P or even Verizon's FiOS-TV (fiber optic cable). That's why for me streaming is a supplement to cable and not a replacement for cable or Blu-Ray.

If you have a 5.1 speaker set on your TV you can do a free Netflix trial and see if you like it. That way you're not putting out money for a streaming device before trying it.