The Roku Has Landed

Convergence is coming! We got our Roku Netflix Player today. It was extremely easy to set up and configure. We haven't tested it too much, but we did watch episode 1 of Simon and Simon (one of my favorites from the 80s) and the classic The Day the Earth Stood Still. That was chosen because last night we saw the remake (sorry, no move reviews here. I'll leave that to the pros or the more dedicated bloggers). Let's just say Keanu Reeves is a perfect choice for a humorless, largely expressionless alien. :~]

Streaming movies takes a little bit more patience than using the Dish DVR for instance, because if you back up or fast forward, there is a pause while it re-streams enough video to buffer for playback. There's also the initial pause to stream enough to get started watching, but it's no worse than the time it takes to open a jewel case, pop in a DVD, and dutifully read every word of the copyright notice and anti-bootleg warning (yeah, right). We are using the wireless connectivity since the cable modem/router are on another floor and there's no practical way to run a cable to the unit.

Performance has been good. For both the show and the movie that I watched, we had the highest quality stream throughout, and there was only one momentary glitch where I had to wait for a few seconds for the movie to stream after I had paused for a while. I don't know if it normally continues to buffer while paused because it doesn't show a buffered indicator like most media players you see on the PC. Also, when I switched to the Roku after watching TV once, it was on a green screen and wouldn't respond, but I simply pulled the plug and waited the minute it takes to boot up.

We now have access to 12,000 shows and movies available from the ever growing Netflix watch-it-now collection. Add that to the regular netflix, Dish movies-on-demand, and regular programming, and we should never have to complain that there's nothing on.

Now, I have to get back to my project of comparing and contrasting all the known versions of Dicken's A Christmas Carol that have ever been filmed. Bah, humbug!!!