Manufacturer : Roku, Inc.
Model : 2050X
ASIN : B00426C56U
Price : 79.99$
Last Price : 109.95$(Discount -37.4546818352294%
See Special Offers
Product Description
Roku is a little box that allows you to instantly stream tons of entertainment on your TV. Watch over 100,000 movies and TV shows from Netflix, Amazon Video On Demand, Hulu Plus and more. Listen to music on Pandora, or listen to your own iTunes playlists. Watch major sports, news, or original Internet programming. It's all available whenever you want it. The all-new Roku XD delivers the highest quality HD video, in the smallest box, at the lowest price. No wonder Roku is the best selling streaming player ever.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
611 of 644 people found the following review helpful:
Apple TV vs. Roku XD. Fight!
This review is from: Roku XD Streaming Player 1080p (Electronics)
Luckily, I was able to satisfy my curiosity by getting a Roku XD, and I thought my experiences and opinions might be useful for those shopping for such internet-streaming set top boxes.
---------------------------------------------------------
Quality/Content
---------------------------------------------------------
My first and biggest question was, "How does the quality compare?". 1080p capability is one of Roku's biggest selling points against Apple, because the Apple TV "only" streams 720p. What I found was that it was a mixed bag. Roku has the capability to stream 1080p, but something surprising is that a huge portion of available content isn't HD to start with and doesn't take full advantage of Roku's hardware. Some content you can stream from Amazon and Netflix looks little better than VHS quality, while some looked somewhere between DVD and HD broadcast quality.
The vast majority of Netflix, for example, is SD content including most bigger-name movies that make their way to the library. Thus, the HD capability of Roku is MOST noticeable in Amazon Video On-Demand's vast library of HD TV shows and movies.
Amazon Video On-Demand offers everything you could find through Apple TV's store and then some, but it has a superior pricing model. You can PURCHASE TV shows for .99c vs. .99c rentals on Apple TV, and you may save a buck or two renting older movies, especially if they're SD.
A drawback (maybe an advantage to some) to the Amazon's On-Demand store is its availability of soft-core porn, so parents be ready to tweak parental controls a little more than you'd have to with Apple TV, which limits its offerings to R-rated major studio movies.
---------------------------------------------------------
Flexibility
---------------------------------------------------------
The biggest selling point of the Roku in my opinion is the flexibility already established with its "channels" store, which is basically like an app store for your Roku. The big-three apps are "Amazon Video On-Demand", "Netflix" and "Hulu+ (coming soon)", but you can also choose channels from "Pandora" (if you like listening to music on your TV), or "UFC" (though the UFC channel is a bit of disappointment since they want to charge you $45 a pop to view past UFC events!).
Apple TV doesn't currently have an app store, though one is probably coming, and it will soon pick up the ability to stream a variety of content from an iOS device via something called "AirPlay", but Roku is clearly a bit more flexible at this point.
That said, a big feature I like about Apple TV that isn't available in Roku is the ability to view iTunes content. I like being able to watch movies on my TV then take them with me on my iPhone for my kids to watch on car trips or plane rides, and Apple has a better, more integrated ecosystem to support such capability.
I also like watching YouTube, which I can do on my Apple TV, but not straightforwardly on the Roku as far as I can tell (EDIT: apparently there's a secret beta YouTube channel if you Google for it, but it's not highlighted in the channel store).
---------------------------------------------------------
User Experience/Interface
---------------------------------------------------------
I think the biggest disadvantage of Roku vs. Apple TV is in its user experience. The Roku is slightly more complicated to set up (for instance, you need to find the TV settings menu then designate that you have a 1080p TV before you can watch HD content), and the user interfaces for many features, while good, just don't match the smooth feel and responsiveness of the Apple TV. With Roku, you tend to get longish, frequent load animations when navigating between channels. Plus Roku's content suggestion features don't work quite as well as Apple TV, and with Roku you don't have an "Apple Remote"-quality iPhone app to let you control the device.
---------------------------------------------------------
Conclusion
---------------------------------------------------------
While Roku markets its device as higher quality than devices like the Apple TV because of "1080p", limited content and bitrate minimize any noticeable advantage. The fact is that if you REALLY care about quality, you get a Blu Ray player, not a media streamer from any manufacturer. Nevertheless, the Roku is at least as good, if not better than competing streaming devices if you're viewing the right content.
It lacks a few of the iTunes-specific features of Apple TV, and the user experience isn't quite as good, but if you don't care about those things, the Roku is more flexible, cheaper both in purchase price and content prices, and offers more content than the Apple TV.
Overall, the Roku XD is an EXCELLENT device that's priced to move! For $80, why not try it?
142 of 145 people found the following review helpful:
Roku Rocks with NetFlix and Playon
This review is from: Roku XD Streaming Player 1080p (Electronics)
We were a longtime Dish Network customer paying $80 a month for video service. While we had no complaints about Dish, we decided this past summer to take the plunge into internet video to see if we could save some dollars. My family was shocked the day I unplugged all of the Dish receivers and sent them back to Dish Network. "What are we going to watch?" "What about my favorite shows?"
As a 3 HDTV family and not knowing the best hardware option to use, we decided to try a selection of devices. For our main living room TV, we purchased a Roku device. For the den, we used our Wii and for the master bedroom a Sony Blu Ray Internet DVD player.
For content, we have moved our NetFlix usage from DVDs in the mail to internet streaming. We also installed playon.tv on our PC for access to Hulu (primarily), CBS (Survivor and Amazing Race) and Comedy Channel. Both NetFlix and Playon streaming to all of the devices we use work fine. This includes the Roku via playon, despite reports that Roku pulled the plug on playon (continues to work fine to this day).
We also purchased Comcast Basic (Limited) Cable ($14) for local news and sports. This is the plan that just uses the cable, no digital cable boxes required, allowing us to wire cable to all of our TV's. What Comcast will not tell you is with HDTV's we get full HD channels for ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS, CBS, etc. without having to purchase a digital plan or rent their digital boxes.
Comparing the Roku, Wii and Sony Internet DVD devices, we like the Roku the best of the three. In fact, we just installed a second Roku, moving the Wii back to a game system. The reason was primarily ease of use. Some of the reasons include the following:
- Roku Remote is the simplest to use than the Wii and Sony remotes with fewer and easier to understand buttons
- Roku provides access to NetFlix suggested titles and search. This is also available for the Wii but not the Sony Internet DVD player
- The Roku seems to do a better job at buffering the streaming content resulting in less video interuptions
In conclusion, we have a better video experience today than when we were paying $80 for Dish. Netflix gives us access to movies and past seasons of TV shows. Playon with Hulu gives us DVR access to all of the latest TV shows, we love the Hulu favorites Queue and the emails letting us know the latest episodes are in the queue.
Outside of our internet connection (need 2MBPS or more) which we already had in place, our total internet video monthly fees are $12.95 for NetFlix and $14 for Basic (Limited) Comcast Cable. A great savings with a better video experience.
197 of 212 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent product
This review is from: Roku XD Streaming Player 1080p (Electronics)
One can make a good case that with Roku you really don't need cable or satellite TV. With a $10 monthly subscription to Netflix you can get more movies than you have time for over the internet at the time that you want to see them. I doubt that one movie that TCM shows is not available this way.
You can listen to almost any radio station in the country free, meeting your needs if you like any particular kind of music or listen to talk radio, sports, etc.
You can watch Youtube clips on your big TV as well and can send the sound to your stereo system, home theater nowadays.
There are lots of other specialized sites, both free and by subscription, that are available. I like Pub-D-Hub which has movies in the public domain for free, many are poor but others can be quite good, I had never seen a picture with legendary Lillian Gish before.
Roku is a winner.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
rocku xd
this box is simple to setup and it is slammin with a lot of interesting sites of entertainment for the entire family. it is so great that my son wants one for xmas this year. by watchn
Must Have Credit Card to Use, Loses Connection
I was shocked that there is no way to use this without giving up your credit card info. You have two choices: Enter your credit card info or don't turn it on. by Eric R. Nelson
surprised by how much I love this device
When my husband ordered this for the small TV in our bedroom I thought he was just wasting money. Boy, I was wrong. by M. Sherman-sporrong
Good at first, horrible customer suuport
I bought this in order to cut my monthly bills by eliminating my cable. I use Netflix and Hulu to get all the TV I need. by Lee Trotter
a big thing that comes in a small package.
We've had this device for less than a month. So far, so good. I just wish it has an "on and off" switch though instead of just a plain box with outlets at the box for the cable to... by rafloids
Bought one for the other room!
I like the XDS model so much (So did the wife, as she swipped it for her TV), that I decided to purchase another of the series minus the Dual Band wireless and the USB port... by R. Diamond
Roku HD
I have tried to switch to the Roku player to cut satelite but unfortunately it tends to hang on streaming and is very slow to switch channels. by Robert A. Moore
Roku XD
My Roku XD fried in less than a year, we did use it all the time and when we researched for a new stream box, I have to say that Roku seemed to be what we were looking for. by T. Ferris
Awesome product - when it works
Roku is awesome. Connects wirelessly to my network and allows me to stream movies, TV shows, etc. One small problem... by G-Man
Love My Roku
A snap to hook-up and setting my Roku Account was easy. Yes you do need to supply a credit card as you can also purchase other content. by Dale |
See More Facebook And Join
0 comments:
Post a Comment