Movie watching with Netflix Roku player

It's Wednesday's IT Blogwatch in which we're watching movies on the new Netflix player. Is it an Apple TV killer or the Comcast killer? Only time will tell. Not to mention the impossible is cumulative ...

Om Malik sums it up:

Just when I thought Roku, a device maker started by Anthony Woods, had kicked the bucket, NewTeeVee reports that they are coming back as a set-top box supplier for Netflix and its video download service. Woods had joined Netflix after leaving Roku in April 2007. The box basically downloads movies from Netflix via a broadband connection. more

Peggy Watt has some details:

Beginning today, customers can purchase the box from a small company called Roku, known for its SoundBridge digital radio, for $99.99. The Roku box is about the size of a paperback book, has no hard drive, and simply streams video through an ethernet or Wi-Fi connection. For the best possible viewing experience, Netflix recommends an Internet speed of at least 1.5 Mbps. more

Tim Gideon provides the haiku review:

Roku and Netflix
Have made a simple set-top
Device. I dig it.
more

Our own reviewer, Barbara Krasnoff, calls it a no-brainer:

Setup took under 15 minutes from unboxing to watching ... The Netflix Player gives you access to any of the Netflix movies that you've entered into your Instant Queue ... You click on the movie icon for a description of the film; click again, and it starts to play. ... The Netflix Player also automatically bookmarks the movie so that you can continue from where you left off (although it's not foolproof [)] ... But at a one-time cost of $99 -- and especially if you're already paying Netflix's $8.99/month fee -- the Netflix Player is pretty much a no-brainer. more

Previously our own Ian Lamont thinks it sounds like a good deal:

DVDs are so 1990s, and observers have been predicting Netflix's demise for years. However, the partnership with Roku shows that the company has made some solid plans for the future, and is a force to be reckoned with as the industry and viewers make the transition from physical media to the Internet. more

Michael Arrington likes free:

Instead of wading into a losing battle over cheap downloads and rentals (see Vudu, BlockBuster, AppleTV, Google, etc., which charge for each movie), they jump right to free. They know what the consumer wants.

Of course, the service isn’t really free. Users have to buy the $100 box, and continue to keep a Netflix subscription active ($18/month). There are 10,000 movies available on on the box, which is significantly less than the 100,000 or so titles on Netflix’s DVD mailing service (and it’s old titles, not new releases). But it’s also an order of magnitude more titles than are currently available on demand via Comcast, my cable provider. more

Peter Suderman peers into the future:

Some day, I plan to write a full-length, filmed musical about one man’s struggle to defeat Comcast. Hopefully, it will end with our hero triumphant, a beautiful lady in his arms while he downloads a movie to his new Netflix box, which has triumphed in the video-on-demand market and become a benevolent monopolist. more

Dan Frommer doesn't see it:

Most people haven't even thought about adding a Web video set top box to their living room setup, let alone a $100 box that's, at best, going to replace a few obscure cable channels showing reruns and bad movies. If newer movies are available for a few bucks on your cable box's on-demand system, that still makes more sense than wasting time with a Netflix box. more

And finally... eternal self-annihilating truths

Buffer overflow:

• TipAdept Dot Com: Cisco Systems Denies Online Censorship Role in China
• Stephen Shankland: Mashup alert: Google Earth gets Google News
• Windows Virtualization Team: Hyper-V RC1 Release Available on Microsoft Download Center!
• Ted Samson: Green IT numbers don't lie
• Kara Swisher: Memo to Mark Zuckerberg: The Chicken or the Egg (or the Golden Ticket)
• Ryan Paul: OLPC 2.0 coming; will project survive to see its launch?
• Rich Miller: Voxel: Why Is CDN Pricing So Mysterious?

Other Computerworld bloggers:

• Robert L. Mitchell: The Microsoft/Facebook/Yahoo conspiracy
• Mark Hall: Shut down servers when idle
• Shark Tank: Why we love vendors
• Shark Bait: To Quit, Or Not To Quit?

Like this stuff? Subscribe to the RSS feed.

Our usual watcher of blogs and movies, Richi Jennings, is away. Joyce Carpenter set up today's post.

Previously in IT Blogwatch:

• Google Health is alive and well
• Mozilla releases release candidate 1 of Firefox 3
• Microhoo: ready... PROXY FIGHT!