June 1, 2008

Roku's Netflix Media Streamer Gets Unboxed

AppleInsider has already received their Roku Netflix player and has it all unboxed and setup as show in the pics below. Apparently easy to setup and use, the Roku player is roughly compared to the Apple TV. Smaller and lighter than the Apple TV, but a little taller, the Roku features almost identical outputs aside from a composite video output not found on the Apple TV. Neither have a USB connection. Setup requires you to follow a series of pages that'll show you how to connect the Roku box to either a wired or wireless network, then requires you to download a software update from a Netflix server which is followed by the presentation of a code that'll need to be entered into the Netflix website. This'll activate the service after which you'll have access to about 10000 Watch Instantly titles right from your PC or Mac, then streamed to your television.

Video quality is comparable to digital cable and download speeds are fast over a DSL or cable internet connection. If you have a slower connection, the device will just downscale the video quality in order to speed up the download. Check out the unboxing by clicking on the thumbnails below.