So I got my Netflix Player by Roku yesterday. It’s basically a little Apple-TV esque box that goes for about $100 but comes with no subscription fee other than the one you’re already paying for Netflix. Unlike Apple-TV, the quality isn’t as great (and I have the HDMI setup) but you’re also not paying $3.99 per movie.
Last night I watched the entire Master’s of Horror collection, which I think originally aired on Showtime. I especially liked John Carpenter’s “Cigarette Burns” and William Malone’s “Fair Haired Child”. Way better than Tales from the Crypt if you ask me.
So the good things about the Netflix Roku box is that there are tons of TV shows and movies I can watch without paying a dime more than I am already paying for Netflix. I have a Mac, so I was never able to use their “Watch Instantly” feature anyhow. The movies are good quality, setup with easy, the interface is fast, and I think definitely worth the $100 bucks. Especially since I now have 7 seasons of Law & Order SVU to watch at my leisure.
Here are the bad things and could depend entirely on my internet connection which is notorious for sucking. I got a “loading… please wait” message atleast once during every item I watched last night, however it always resolved in about a minute. One of the movies I selected never loaded at all, and I needed to get up and unplug the box before I was able to get back to the home screen.
Overall I think the Netflix Roku box is awesome and worth the money if you already have Netflix. They are clearly working on building the somewhat limited on-demand collection so I’m not worried that I’ll never have anything to watch. If someone asked me if they should get it, I’d tell them “hell yes”.