Netflix Streaming Box

aberkowitz

aberkowitz

Audioholic Field Marshall
There was a lot of discussion about the Roku box being released for netflix back in May, and I was wondering if folks had finally got their boxes and what general opinions were. Not a Netflix member now, but I would consider getting a membership just to use the streaming functionality. What are people's thoughts 4-6 weeks later?

NB- I thought it was interesting that when I went to Netflix.com I didn't find one mention of the roku box under the "How it Works" section.
 
tomd51

tomd51

Audioholic General
NB- I thought it was interesting that when I went to Netflix.com I didn't find one mention of the roku box under the "How it Works" section.
You mean like this below?

Maybe they updated this page after you saw it... -TD
 

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tomd51

tomd51

Audioholic General
I see why. I have a Netflix membership and I went to the 'Watch Instantly' tab they have, which directs you to the page where you can select a bunch of titles to watch directly on your PC. On this same page, they have a link called "NEW-Instantly to your TV", this leads you to the page from which I took the snapshot.

Because it's relatively new (well, it seems 4-6 weeks later is new to them, anyway... :)), they don't seem to have any easy way to see this info from the main page if your not an existing Netflix member.

The only way I could get to this info as a non-member was to snag the following link, which explains using the Roku box, etc.:

http://www.netflix.com/NetflixReadyDevices?tb=what
 
aberkowitz

aberkowitz

Audioholic Field Marshall
Well there we go!! :D

My goal here wasn't to bash Netflix or the product, I'm hoping for any sort of feedback from people who have used the box. I do remember hearing that there was a 2-3 week backlog, so I don't know if users have been able to get the box yet.
 
tomd51

tomd51

Audioholic General
I'm curious as well, though with the selection of movies they currently have available as 'Watch Instantly', not sure if it'd be worthwhile right now.

Out of a relatively wide mix of genre and movie release dates (1978-2008), my queue of over 90 movies only has 9 movies that could be viewed with the 'Watch Instantly' option. For clarification, almost all of these titles are commonly known, not some of the terribly obscure titles. This amount would need to be quite a bit more to intice me... -TD
 
AverageJoe

AverageJoe

Full Audioholic
After about three weeks of viewing, I'm still more than satisfied with the performance of the Roku and the selections offered for Instant Viewing (not Thrilled with the selections, but there's still plenty to watch).

I particularly enjoy trying out obscure/unknown films that I would otherwise never view. Granted, some of them I give up on after a few minutes, but others are gems well worth watching. I guess it's something akin to finding a rare antique at a yard sale - you just never know.

Picture quality is typically somewhere between SD Dishnet and HBO/Showtime on cable, and that's acceptable to me (it must be... I still watch those).
 
My first impression is that it's freaking awesome for $99. Quality ranges from near-DVD to soft VHS. Nothing (so far) seems blocky, just soft. So far most titles are widescreen, though I've run into some 4:3.

For existing Netflix owners it's simply a no-brainer. If they do end up releasing the Xbox 360 to handle Netflix, then I'll benefit from having two boxes in the house (one for the theater, and one for the living room or bedroom).
 
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DaleAV

Full Audioholic
I am running 4-6mb with Comcast cable. For giggles I watched the original widescreen version of 'Speed'.
It looked pretty damn good. Not quite as good as the better SD DVDs out there, but certainly watchable. I had to rely on Pro-Logic II audio to give me some ambiance over stereo.
The wife and I had already loaded up the queue with some old TV series, etc.. but even for an classic or a less known new movies the Roku seems to get the job done ok. I have hit 4 dots for quality on every download so far for the week I've had it. It's likely a keeper as an adjunct with my Netflix rentals and Dish. I don't see a big downside for one C note.
 
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MikeD105

Enthusiast
If you are the proud owner of an XBOX 360 you can now access this feature without having to buy the Roku box. Pretty sweet if you ask me.

there's a page on lifehacker that details how to do it...a google search for "use xbox 360 for netflix" found it quite easily

Sorry no link...1st post
 
M

MikeD105

Enthusiast
Yup, thats the one...I've been dying to try this out, but haven't had a chance to get to it.

Here's to hoping the "Watch Instantly" library gets better than it is now.
 
Adam

Adam

Audioholic Jedi
I have 1.5 mbps over DSL, and I hope that Netflix will start doing more buffering like other sites do. I can watch shows off of abc.com, cbs.com, or nbc.com, and they look great. ABC in particular...just crystal clear. However, stuff from Netflix is received on their "Basic" video quality setting (the lowest) and looks pretty bad.
 
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lbolts20

Junior Audioholic
I was looking to join netflix. Do you know can I just hook my computer up to my avr and watch the movies. If so will it be in 5.1 and what about picture quality? I have wireless internet and a laptop I can use. Just wondering if that would work or is this new box for $99 better.
 
If you have S-video out to your TV you can use your PC... For $99, however it's a no-brainer to just get the box... or wait until Xbox integrates it (heavily rumored) if you already have that.
 
Adam

Adam

Audioholic Jedi
I was looking to join netflix. Do you know can I just hook my computer up to my avr and watch the movies. If so will it be in 5.1 and what about picture quality? I have wireless internet and a laptop I can use. Just wondering if that would work or is this new box for $99 better.
If you have S-video out to your TV you can use your PC... For $99, however it's a no-brainer to just get the box... or wait until Xbox integrates it (heavily rumored) if you already have that.
One nice thing about checking it out on your computer is that you can do that during a trial membership to Netflix (I think that they still give out two free weeks to try it first) before spending the $99 on hardware. I think the question might have been - will the box give better video or audio compared to the PC? I don't know the answer to that. I would suspect based on what I've read that the box doesn't offer better performance, just better convenience for a lot of people.
 
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lbolts20

Junior Audioholic
I don't have an s video out on my laptop. I was thinking I could use the I think it's called dvi out with an adapter to switch it to component or rca to plug into the receiver. Then the audio would be from the 1/8" with an adaptor to rca with a y splitter for left & right into the receiver. Would that work or will the video and audio quality be bad? I took the laptop and hooked it up to my tv/monitor in the bedroom via dvi on the laptop to dvi on the back of the monitor and 1/8" to 1/8" on the tv. It seemed in that case the video quality remained the same, however the sound wasn't very loud.

Just wondering if anyone has done this before I go out and buy all the adapters to try it. The cables from the laptop to the monitor came with the monitor so I didn't have to go out and buy those.


Correction, yes it does have an s video output and the connection is not dvi it is vga "blue" that's how I hooked it up to the monitor. How do I do the audio? Via the adapter I mentioned? Since it would be going through the receiver will it be stereo, 5.1 any louder than what it was on the monitor? I had the volume cranked and it only seemed like it was about 20%
 
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Adam

Adam

Audioholic Jedi
lbolts20, if your laptop has a regular headphone jack, then it will only be stereo. Those are two-channel jacks and can't send 5.1 audio. If the minijack is a combination headphone jack/digital audio jack, that's different. Let us know which one you have.

When you connected the laptop audio to the TV, did you check the volume setting on the laptop? Perhaps you had the volume turned down on the laptop, and that caused it to be low when it played through your TV. The thing to remember about laptop headphone jacks is that the output level depends on how you set the volume - it's exactly like it would be if you were wearing headphones connected to that jack.
 
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lbolts20

Junior Audioholic
I had the volume maxed on the laptop and the tv. I'm not sure what a combination headphone jack/digital audio jack is, but on the side is two 1/8" jacks so maybe that is? The laptop is a dell insiron 6000 and is about 3 years old. I have the same thing on the dell vostro 1500 which is about 6 months old.
 
Adam

Adam

Audioholic Jedi
I had the volume maxed on the laptop and the tv. I'm not sure what a combination headphone jack/digital audio jack is, but on the side is two 1/8" jacks so maybe that is? The laptop is a dell insiron 6000 and is about 3 years old. I have the same thing on the dell vostro 1500 which is about 6 months old.
I've read other comments on this forum about low output from laptop headphone jacks, so I don't think that your experience is abnormal. I don't know if Dell's have combo analog/digital jacks (the two jacks on yours may be one input and one output). My MacBook has a combo jack, and it can output either two-channel analog (just like a headphone jack) or a digital optical signal. Pretty nice, actually, although I hardly ever use that feature.
 

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