Netflix Box Is Appealing, but Not Enough

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Netflix movies are to Roku what video games are to a video game system. It's the movies that will drive its success or failure. Netflix, the top dog in online rental (and soon to be movie streaming) already has at least 10,000 movies to stream with more being added all the time. It seems like an automatic success. The only thing to stop that success is another company offering a box to stream Netflix and/or Amazon movies. It's just like a video game console in that it's the games being offered that determine the consoles success. That's the lesson Atari learned.

Ron of CA 4:35PM July 24, 2008

I have one Rokus, and at the beginning it was hard to start because im a mac user, i spend almost 2 1/2 hours at the phone trying to upgrade my firmware. Second bad think, 10.000 movies, yes but what movies? nothing new. the newest 2005. The quality of the image its good for a 32 inches plasma tv but if you go big like a 42 with a 1028 resolution its wasn't very good. Its easy to find movies and download to the tv but they dont have children control on the tv menu.
Talking about price its the most competitive on the market, $100 the box, $9 month the service, 10. movies on tv, 1 dvd at home by day. No one has that.
Vudu its Fancy nice colors, nice menu, all titles, but have you see the prices?, $299 the box and $3.99 to $5.99 the movies each one.
I think Netflix have a good product, but they need fix a few thinks to be the best.

Yuste of TX 1:52PM July 07, 2008

I don't think Dave has any hands on experience with the box. I think he just read some blogs/reviews.

Chris of TX 1:57PM July 04, 2008

Netflix if you notice isnt pushing this much at all, the "NEW - Watch instantly on your TV" is in tiny letters on the bottom of there page. its almost like they dont want you to know about it. And yet there estimates on demand where considerbly lower then actual demand. If you try to order one right now (a month or so after release) there is a 2-4 week wait. From my reading they are looking to ramp up production and it will (the hardware) soon be intergrated into some DVD/Blueray players (if netflix is to be believed). Seems to be a success to me, but i guess only time will tell. the only real nagative i see is content. Right now there is enouhg to keep me interested for maybe 6 month to a year (depending on how lazy I am and how much time on couch watching tv i waste). I dont see alot of movies (no I havent looked through them all yet), but the Genres i like dont seem to have to much. I do see alot of TV shows, anima, and so old stuff I will watch. So for $100 ($109 with shipping and add a HD cable (price varies)) i get maybe 3-500 hours of tv, plus my DVD rentals. I doubt even at $1 a disc at the local video store and gas i could touch that price. I know i would love to see new movies, but I dont see how they could do that unless they limited it to so many in a certian time. So far I think its a pretty small investment for what im getting.

Clok of ND 10:26AM June 24, 2008

I think that you are saying its not appealing because it is similar to the Vudu? How hard is it to connect another device? Anyway, most of have some kind of disc based media player, maybe a video game console, and maybe a cable box.

chris of AZ 1:59AM May 23, 2008

I don't think this player is supposed to be some huge success to take the world by storm and it's not something like VuDu where if that 1 product fails, the company fails.
Roku is bringing other services to this box, and Netflix is bringing their service to other integrated solutions. Both companies see this player as a small part of the over all strategy and their product offerings, not all of the eggs are in this one basket.
Failure and success are relative.

of CA 2:50AM May 22, 2008