Roku HD Streaming Player

Manufacturer : Roku, Inc. Model : 2000C ASIN : B00426C55G Price : 69.99$ See Special Offers Product Description Roku is a little box that allows you to instantly stream tons of entertainment on your TV. Watch movies and TV shows from Netflix, Hulu Plus or Amazon VOD, listen to music on Pandora, catch the latest ballgame, and more - it's all available whenever you want it.The HD, with built-in wireless, delivers top value in high-definition streaming. Most Helpful Customer Reviews 115 of 119 people found the following review helpful: Horrible Customer Service!    This review is from: Roku HD Streaming Player (Electronics) I purchased a Roku HD Player from Amazon.com on June 3, 2010. After five months of use, the unit began malfunctioning. It would not stream movies. I contacted Roku's technical support people. They walked me through several tests (both of the unit and my wireless router), and they decided that the unit was defective. I shipped the unit via UPS per Roku's return protocol on December 23, 2010. It was insured for $100. Roku claimed it did not receive the unit. I provided them with a copy of the Proof of Delivery slip that I obtained from UPS. I have contacted Roku's support center more than three times about this issue, and I still have not received a replacement unit. I began to do some research on Roku, and I discovered that many other customers have had the exact same problem. They tell the customer that the defective unit was not received. When proof of delivery is provided, they refuse to give a firm date as to when the replacement unit will be sent out. Roku also makes the customer pay the shipping costs to return the defective unit. If Amazon.com provides a buyer protection plan, I suggest you purchase it because you WILL have problems obtaining a replacement directly from Roku. My unit is still under warranty, and Roku has not fulfilled its obligation as stated under its warranty agreement. 110 of 114 people found the following review helpful: Setup a bit rocky, but here's some help. Once set up, works great.    This review is from: Roku HD Streaming Player (Electronics) CHANGES SINCE INITIAL REVIEW; 1.The Roku has both composite and HDMI outputs; only composite cables are furnished. You'll have to buy an HDMI cable if you want to use the HDMI output. If you use the composite output, the image will be degraded vs HDMI. HDMI cables are much cheaper from amazon than a local store where they tend to be pricey. 2. You now must register the Roku at it's site before moving along to register the device with Netflix or other channels. 3. Before you can register, Roku also now also demands your credit card information in case you purchase other pay channels from them. Comment: Those that have given bad reviews based on Roku's service support; well, they are right. The support is outsourced to Mumbai or somewhere in India, and support on warranty is just awful. Dealing with them may drive you nuts. There is no way of contacting Roku headquarters in the US to complain or get help. The phone number given on their website doesn't work. If you buy this device and it fails, you may possibly have to treat it as a throwaway. It pays to get it from Amazon or another supplier that has return privileges for at least a month in case it fails. As with most electronic devices, the majority of failures will happen within the first several days. INITIAL REVIEW AS FOLLOWS; OUT OF THE BOX; Comes with the basic unit, Composite cables (pretty useless), power supply, remote, a very minimal setup guide, and batteries for the remote. WIRELES SETUP: Wired ethernet is also an option. 1. There is some plastic film to peel off. Plug the unit in and connect your HDMI cable, composite cabling (or component cables-older Roku's) to your TV or HD AMP. Turn your TV and amp on and set the correct inputs. The unit will display the first screen on TV and immediately ask what kind of connection you would like. I used wireless, which I suspect will be most popular. 2. Wireless networks in range with SSID broadcast on will be displayed. Choose your network and click Ok. The next screen has alphanumeric input to supply your network password if your router is set to WEP or WPA protection. If you have MAC filtering on, turn off your MAC filter or add the MAC device ID to your router. The ROKU's MAC is displayed if you seek help from a help menu button on the password screen. 3. If the following sounds a bit complicated, it's not really. The setup proceedure will lead you through it well. The unit will connect and do a rather lengthy download of a "software" update. If this is successful, the home screen will be displayed with options of what service you want to link to the ROKU. If any step fails, back to the first setup screen. Thankfully it remembers your net password. You will also have to choose a display size configuration and resolution. The unit will then display a code to link to the ROKU site. You can ignore it or link to the ROKU site and choose your service from there. I picked 1080P HD, and chose Netflix directly from the ROKU menu. Be careful here! If your TV can't display HD, the screen will scramble requiring a hard Roku reset and start from scratch. (button on the bottom of the unit). This might damage the Roku, so choose the right TV resolution. A new Netflix specific code will be displayed. Then I went to my computer to pull up the Netflix site, migrate to streaming access, pick the ROKU out of a menu of devices (it's "other") and input the Netflix code. 4. Thats it! The ROKU will now be ready and will display a nice Netflix menu to choose what you want to stream and play. The Computer menu is a bit easier to browse when choosing a DVD or show to watch than the ROKU screen, but the latter is perfectly serviceable, especially if you know what you want to watch. Some caveats/suggestions/musings. When I started the setup routine, the device kept rebooting and loosing network connectivity. It was position. It is VERY sensitive to it's placement. Don't put it in between a large amp and a DVD player, or in a deep cabinet, say. Have it positioned out in the open. If you don't have a gigabit 802.11 "n" router, get one. There's lots of info downloading and streaming to this device through your router. Some reviews have criticized the ROKU's remote. I found it worked just fine. If you are wedded to the idea of streaming media, this device is great at present. But, there is an increasing selection of Blu- Ray DVD players with this capability already built in. They are much more expensive at this time, but prices will come down. If you are almost ready to upgrade to a Blu-Ray player, maybe good to wait a bit and pick one when prices fall in the near future. AFTER SETUP; Great. video quality and sound are terrific at 720p. 1080p and surround sound to probably come from Netflix next year, I hear. Wasn't disappointed at all. Terrific buy. 235 of 259 people found the following review helpful: Worst Customer Service EVER This review is from: Roku HD Streaming Player (Electronics) I bought this Roku player and it completely died 35 days after I received it. It's easier to pass a kidney stone than deal with Roku's outsourced customer service. If you can get past spelling your name 10 times, you're told that you have to send the box back before they will send you a replacement...BUT..when they send you the RMA email (with the number you have to put on the box), they tell you they are first sending the replacement along with a pre-paid label to then send the broken box back. You wait three days for FedEX to deliver the replacement and when it doesn't come you call for a tracking number. After repeating your name another 10 times and the RMA number about 5 times,(seriously lots of folks in India speak perfect English but not the ones hired by Roku) you're put on hold for 10 minutes only to be told that you're supposed to send the box first before the replacement is sent. But of course, you wouldn't want to do that because the RMA email says they are sending the replacement first. If you had sent the broken player back first, they will no doubt tell you that you must have already received the replacement BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT THEIR STUPID RMA EMAIL SAYS. Fortunately for me, Amazon's stellar customer service came through and agreed to let me return the device. When the thing works, it's pretty cool but if it breaks - good luck. I'm going to look for an alternative - I don't trust a company who's product fails in 30 days and doesn't provide the decent customer service necessary to rectify a pretty simple problem. LET THE BUYER BEWARE. UPDATE - 5 days after I started dealing with Roku support and they sent me the erroneous RMA, I got an email from their Indian support center telling me that they would not accept the email receipt from Amazon that I forwarded to them as proof of purchase. They need it faxed. Only the fools running Roku support would know the difference between email and fax. They just went from the Worst Customer Service Ever to the VERY WORST Customer Service Ever. Most Recent Customer Reviews Nice additional to my OTA cable antenna I own a total of 3 Roku units now. I've got them separated on to two different wireless networks to distribute the contention for the wireless spectrum. They work great. by Chris Hallman Needs stronger Wifi ability I was excited when this was available through the Amazon Vine Program. We were going to use this downstairs on the TV, but things just did not work out. by Princeps P A great little device Bought one to test it out, it worked so well, I came back to buy another. It was easy to set up & get started. by The Other Mike I love it. Seriously one of the best inventions ever. It is very easy to use and makes me feel that i never need to leave the couch. I really really like it. by Neli Godovich It does what it's supposed to. This box is magical. It has completely changed the way I watch anything - movies or TV shows. Mine has never malfunctioned or cut out during a presentation. by ViVeriVeniversumVivusVici customer service is a joke -- don't buy I've spent the last 42 minutes on the phone with "James", whose accent convinced me that he was not in the US. by tedc Little Ant Small with a good punch easy to use, quick response simple and effective with a good pause feature, for this being a basic model it has deluxe features. by Andrew Works as advertised! Wireless feature did not quite pan out and would have liked an old fashioned power on/power off feature, but it does what it is intended for and the super simplistic remote was... by kman78602 Watching Netflix on ROKU sucks My Roku 1080 HD player is a piece of crap. Great idea, lousy execution. The first time my wife and I watched a Netflix movie on the player, it worked fine. by ROKU 1080 HD Sucker roku hd i bought this a while ago from amazon.it has worked flawlessly.i recently bought a tivo primere to replace this since it has amazon vod and netflix streaming as well. by T. Hansen

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