roku internet streaming player

Dean

in memoriam
http://www.roku.com/

I bought the earlier version months ago, works decent enough.

Basically it allows internet streaming to a TV without using a computer, and has a remote control. They have 'channels' that need to be 'added' before using them, and while the device is certainly not perfect - it works well enough.

And it has a Vimeo channel so you can watch the Have You Seen videos Kier does on the big screen...

(I've no idea if it works internationally)
 
I'll stick with my Western Digital live Hub. I don't think I could honestly migrate away when it comes to media players and so far western digital players (i've purchased all their hd players) and found they are very reliable and very well supported. http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=570
I will stick to my custom build of boxee on my HTPC... Works amazingly not only for streaming content but also in indexing and playing what I have stored / recorded on the HTPC... http://boxee.tv/
I looked at those solutions as well, it was a difficult choice.

Other solutions I considered was to use a spare personal computer and build custom, or an apple laptop with remote. In the end I went with the cheapest available, and at the time, seemed like the most flexible. I also took into consideration that roku company is quite close to my house i.e. trying to support the local community in some small way.
 
I looked at those solutions as well, it was a difficult choice.

Other solutions I considered was to use a spare personal computer and build custom, or an apple laptop with remote. In the end I went with the cheapest available, and at the time, seemed like the most flexible. I also took into consideration that roku company is quite close to my house i.e. trying to support the local community in some small way.

Well I didn't get a boxee box.. I went down the route of use spare PC with boxee software installed... install boxee remote on my android phone and created a boxee app for my chrome browser... so I can either control the TV from my laptop or my phone...

I went a bit deeper with setting up and mounting remote sftp drives as local drives and also indexing the videos/recorded tv on those machines also.
 
Well I didn't get a boxee box.. I went down the route of use spare PC with boxee software installed... install boxee remote on my android phone and created a boxee app for my chrome browser... so I can either control the TV from my laptop or my phone...
Right... understood. I did look into doing that, but 2 things:
  • I did want a dedicated remote not used for anything else
  • I did not want to invest the time earlier this year. Time was extremely precious then.
The other thought I had was that the little roku could be used anywhere. Spare bedroom, etc. And pricing was a large consideration, considering I had no idea how well it would work for my purposes.
It is handy to be able to watch Vimeo on the big screen at night and not have to watch on the computer during the day. Our members put up much video on Vimeo.
 
I use xbmc for linux @ xbmc.org.
The new auto updating plugins are great.
Just added a Logitech RF remote.

Love xbmc, but I had issues with the indexing that I don't get with boxee for some reason (Which is strange considering that boxee is built off xbmc)
 
That Roku is a cool device with great value :)
:)

There is also apples version here, but is seems to want a far higher bandwidth requirements for HD.

Given the same parameters, I might repeat the same decision. Inexpensive device, extremely simple, with remote, and can get a large variety of channels. For those who don't know people are 'making channels' in the same type of way the xf modifications are being made. People create them from content on the internet, then put the channels on the roku forums.

Not nearly as good or flexible as some other solutions for sure.
 
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