David's Musings, a Brit in the Bay

Having switched to DirecTV, I have to say I’m pretty disappointed with the range of movies available, even on the ‘have pretty much everything’ plan. Also, there are so many DirecTV OnDemand movies, that are old, are also chargeable. Air Force One being one example!

I started looking for alternatives – and I have a solution even better than I originally expected. Netflix + a Roku box.

Everyone is aware that Netflix allows you to rent DVDs that are mailed to your house, no timelimit – and then you return them when ready. However, they also have a streaming video service. To access this, you need a $100 Roku box. This Roku box, which cannot be purchased in stores, has to be ordered direct from the Roku site. There’s a 30 day, no-risk return policy, so I thought I’d give it a go. I’ve been blown away.

I subscribed to the lowest Netflix monthly rate, $8.99. This allows you to rent one DVD at a time, but also have access to thousands of online movies to either stream via your PC or Mac, or via a box connected to your TV, which in turn is connected to your home network.

The box arrived today. It’s cool, it’s quiet and the user interface is great. I had concerns about picture quality, but they have been alleviated.

I have the box connected wirelessly to a wireless router which is around around 80ft away. I have hooked up the box to the wireless network and it has a medium signal strength. This is more than enough to enjoy fast start speeds, high quality pictures and HD.

I switched on the box, hooked it into my TV’s HDMI connection – all the available sockets to connect are on the back of the Roku box. The startup was easy. After a quick firmware check, the upgrade was done – and I was ready to go. The box gave me a code I had to punch into the Netflix.com site to authorise – and I was away. The only problem now is that I have around 90+ movies in my queue.

It gets very addictive just searching and adding to your list… I highly recommend this box and I expect more video and OnDemand suppliers will start to leverage this easy-to-use technology soon.

You can buy the box now, through Amazon at my store by clicking here.