Friday, Jul. 25, 2008

Get Movies, TV on Demand

By Scott Price

Staff Writer

As the big electronics companies are competing to become the dominate choice for streaming television, a small California-based company called Roku has quietly released the Roku Netflix Player that allows people to instantly watch more than 10,000 movies and television programs.

The player can be purchased for $100, and by joining Netflix, starting at less than $10 a month, a person can watch unlimited movies and television programs in their home.

The player connects to almost any television and needs a high-speed Internet connection. A 1.5 Mbps connection is needed to watch programs instantly, and for high-quality video and audio a 4.0 Mbps connection is recommended. For those with wireless Internet connectivity, the player is WiFi enabled.

Netflix is the world’s largest online movie rental service, with more than eight 8 million subscribers. Members can have DVDs delivered to their homes or have movies and television programs streamed to their TVs or computers.

When Roku, which sells their equipment only through www.roku.com, released the player two months ago, they couldn’t keep up with demand.

"The key breakthroughs of The Netflix Player by Roku are simplicity and cost," said Reed Hastings, Netflix chairman and CEO.

Once the player is set up, a person can log on to their Netflix account on a computer and add movies and television shows to their "Instant Queue." The programs are available to watch within seconds. The remote control that comes with the player is used to select programs displayed on the TV screen. Users also can read synopses and rate programs.

The programs are streamed from the Internet, so rewinding or forwarding can be done with a delay of less than 10 seconds.

"We’re excited to bring the first Netflix-ready device to the market," said Anthony Wood, CEO and founder of Roku. "The seamless integration of the Netflix service into our player has resulted in true ease of use for the consumer. Now, streaming video isn’t limited to people sitting in front of the PC; it’s ready for the TV in the living room."

The player also has built-in connectivity for automatic software upgrades, which will keep the device current with system enhancements, according to Roku.

The big drawback with the Roku Netflix Player, at this point, is that many movies are not yet available to watch when those movies are being sold on DVD, and in some cases a movie may never be available to watch through the Netflix Player.

But meanwhile, Roku may be a good choice for those who like to watch a wide variety of television shows.