Roku Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Discuss: Is Roku's Netflix Player Tempting You Yet?
Filed under: Disney », Sony », Home Entertainment »
You might recall that I bought a Roku player a few months ago to make it easier for me to watch high-quality versions of Netflix's Watch Instantly offerings. My biggest complaint about Roku and Watch Instantly was that the selection was pretty slim -- mostly we've used it to watch old TV shows, and even then I suspect we watch more TV on Hulu.com. Watch Instantly has a great selection of low-budget independent features and documentaries, and even some short films, but if you want Hollywood blockbusters you're better off with the DVDs.Fortunately, the Watch Instantly pickings are starting to improve. Netflix has just partnered with Starz Entertainment to offer more than 1,000 movies that Starz has licensed for its own video-on-demand services. Starz already has deals with Disney and Sony, so these movies include a lot of (relatively) newer Hollywood big-budget films, like Ratatouille, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, No Country for Old Men, and Superbad. These still aren't as recent as the films you can get mailed to you on DVD from Netflix (or rent at your local video store), but it's a significant improvement over the previous Watch Instantly offerings for recent mainstream movies. In addition, Netflix also signed deals last month with the Disney Channel and CBS to add some of their TV shows to the Watch Instantly lineup, like Hannah Montana and CSI. Those aren't movie-related deals, but I got excited because I can now watch the Disney TV show in which a cousin of mine plays an amusingly bad-tempered chef.
Latest Movie Streaming Site: Amazon Video on Demand
Filed under: Tech Stuff », Home Entertainment »
With the popularity of those new Netlix-playing Roku devices and this week's news that Xbox will also work with the Netflix Watch Instantly service and yesterday's launch of the documentary site SnagFilms and the fact that everyone including your grandma has a site that streams movies, it's no surprise that Amazon has finally also launched a stream service called Amazon Video on Demand. And it's got its own special Roku-type device to be manufactured by Sony, only it's much more expensive at $300 (compared to $99 for the Roku). And it seems you also need a Sony-made hi-def television to use it. The good news: eventually Sony's Bravia TVs will cut out the middle man (aka that $300 device) and Amazon may be able to work out future deals with other TV manufacturers.Because it comes a little too late in the game, and because iTunes will likely forever keep its rival from offering Disney and ABC titles, I don't see Amazon Video on Demand being hugely successful. But the service at least sounds better than Amazon Unbox, which sold movie downloads. Because everyone and your grandmother subscribes to Netflix, if anyone wants to stream a movie they're going to just go with Watch Instantly and Roku. And because the main downside to that service is that it doesn't transfer to portable devices nor does it allow offline viewing, movie consumers are better off with iTunes for their non-Netflix needs. Hey, at least Amazon is still the preferred place to buy books, whether in paper or digital format.
[via Cinema Tech]
What's The Deal With: Roku's Netflix Player
Filed under: Tech Stuff », Home Entertainment »
A couple of weeks ago, I ordered a Netflix Player by Roku -- a little box that lets Netflix subscribers watch the company's video-on-demand selections on a TV set. We already had a media computer hooked up to our TV, but it runs on a Linux platform so we couldn't use it to Watch Instantly on Netflix, which is Windows-only. The Roku player was priced at $99, which is a little steep for a gamble on whether the quality would be acceptable and whether we could make it work with our increasingly bulky TV/media setup, but we decided to give it a shot.
The box, which is about the size of a large paperback, arrived last weekend while I was at the farmers' market, and by the time I returned with tomatoes and peaches, my husband had hooked the box into our TV setup and activated it through our Netflix account. He tells me this was a very easy thing to do, although we're talking about someone who spent time the night before creating a fancy diagram of our devices and cabling input/output so he'd know exactly where and how to hook up the Roku box. (We also have a digital TV tuner, two DVD players, a VCR, and the media computer.) Here are the ups and downs we've discovered so far about the newest addition to our home's TV/media setup.
Netflix Sells Out
Filed under: Home Entertainment », Cinematical Indie »
Less than one month after introducing a set-top box that allows "instant" viewing over a broadband connection, Netflix says that the current supply of devices has sold out. CEO Reed Hastings did not disclose any sales figures, but he told Bloomberg News that the company is pressing their supplier, Roku Inc., to step up production. The backlog of orders will reportedly take six to eight weeks to fulfill.As I've mentioned before, I think this is a good option for indie film lovers, who'll find a decent selection of docs and foreign-language films available. Netflix "is working with three other consumer electronics manufacturers to build Netflix software into products and game consoles," Hastings said. Rumor has it that Microsoft is one of their potential partners; Hastings is a Microsoft director, according to Bloomberg News.
I'm exploring other possibilities, too; a friend just gave me an original Xbox modified with the Windows Media Center software, and I'm finally setting up a proper wireless home network so I can better manage a growing collection of boxes and media. I'm not technically-minded, so all this is very daunting to me. I'd love an easy solution that allows me to watch more movies rather than wade into DNS setttings.
Did you nab one of the new Netflix boxes? if so, how did it work? Are you planning to invest any coin into a set-top device? Or are you content to watch downloaded and streaming movies on your PC?
Indie Online: Netflix, Televandalism and Jaman
Filed under: Documentary », Independent », Home Entertainment », Cinematical Indie », Indie Online »
Apparently we're in a home entertainment transition period in which we're gradually being shoved from DVD to downloading movies, with Blu-ray and streaming video only temporary stops along the way. At least, that's my impression, but it still seems like a good time to survey three recently-introduced models that may benefit indie film lovers.Netflix generated a fair amount of comment when it announced a new set-top box made by Roku that will allow their subscribers to watch about 10,000 movies and TV shows (10% of their total available) "instantly" on a television over their broadband connection (wireless too). Engadget has more information and a round-up of reviews. (We wrote about Netflix's plans in January.) Though some have complained about the paucity of titles available, I was impressed by the number of documentaries and foreign-language films that are available. The box retails for $99 and, as of now, no additional monthly charge by Netflix. If you're already a subscriber, that could be a boon. I don't like to watch anything longer than a trailer on my laptop, so I am sorely tempted to pick one up so I can watch on my TV.
On the other hand, if you are comfortable watching movies on your PC, two other companies are trying out new models for online viewing. Last November I wrote about the difficulties that distributor Halo-8 Entertainment had in getting online retailers such as Amazon to stock the excellent doc Your Mommy Kills Animals.
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