DirecTV is dangerously close to forfeiting the ever-escalating financial blood-letting that they extract from us every month...our $59.95 Roku box arrived today. That little device, combined with my $8.99 a month NetFlix subscription (drastically cheaper than DirecTV), offers me more instantly-streamed TV shows and movies than I could ever hope to watch. Looks like NetFlix is continually adding to their selection as well.
Old television shows like Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Columbo, Rockford Files, and others are what I would much rather watch than the stuff that is indiscriminately pumped at us through our current satellite system. The level of control that the NetFlix/Roku system offers is fantastic as well.
When I was picking the device from the lineup ($59.99, $79.99, and $99.99) I was worried that the least-expensive one's slower wireless networking would produce a problem with quality. From our initial experimentation it doesn't look like it will be an issue at all. I am glad I went the cheap route on this purchase.
Some might ask why I opted for the Roku over the newly-released AppleTV. Yes, the Roku is $40 cheaper, but the real deciding factor was the presence of regular, old, RCA outputs. Our "legacy" television does not have the port necessary to work with the HDMI-only Apple device.
Initial set-up of the device took a little while (maybe fifteen minutes). The device software had to update. I had to create a Roku account to pair with the device (code #1). Also had to pair the device (code #2) with my NetFlix account. Overall it was not too bad; but it is not a process that is technophobe-ready.
Today is only Day 1 with the device. Perhaps buyer's regret will set in later--but I don't really think so. Watch out DirectTV, you might be losing a customer.
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