In order to use the Netflix player, you must be a Netflix customer and you must subscribe to a plan which offers unlimited rentals. At press time, the cheapest entry point was the $8.99/month plan which gives you unlimited DVD rentals (one out at a time) and unlimited streaming. The important thing to remember is that the video streaming is essentially a bonus freebie. Apart from the modest $100 cost of buying the box, there are no monthly charges or additional costs associated with streamed offerings. Contrast this with video on-demand (VOD) boxes from Vudu ($295) and AppleTV (from $229) – where every movie or TV episode you watch means a $2-6 charge – and you’ll see why the Netflix player has more than a few eyebrows raised.
Before you toss your DVD player, it should be noted that the number of quality titles available for instant streaming is rather small. Although I was thrilled to find a number of great TV series available – Dexter, The Office, Heroes and 30 Rock to name but a few – Grade A movies and new releases are few and far between. I checked out a few episodes of The Office plus Civic Duty and Seraphim Falls to get a taste for the unit’s video capabilities.
With a fast connection, playback looked solid and steady but it definitely fell short of DVD quality. Rewinding and fast forwarding is impressive and includes thumbnails for reference, but some buffering does occur when jumping around. If your network bandwidth is slow – which mine was one evening – video quality decreases automatically to near VHS levels. It’s still very watchable and the video doesn’t stutter, but a Blu-ray Disc it isn’t. That said, I’ve seen cable TV look a lot worse and the ability to watch something NOW coupled with its price tag earns this player a lot of leeway.
Roku and Netflix have indicated that this player is “HD-ready” so it’ll be able to handle high def content if and when Netflix makes it available. In the meantime, the Netflix player by Roku is still worthy of serious consideration. If you’re already a Netflixxer, $100 seems like a small price to pay for instant access to their growing library of instant content. If you’re not yet a customer, something tells me this little box may be just the thing that gets you off the fence.
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