Roku update
I've had my Roku box long enough to get past the novelty love phase of it and I'm still really appreciating it.
I find myself not watching my normal videos on DVD and blu-ray quite as often despite the fact that they of course have better video quality.
A few nights ago I wasn't happy with what I had available in my queue so I grabbed my laptop, sat down and opened up the new to watch instantly page on Netflix.com. They've got some work to do on this page, but it was still organized enough for me to realize that a large chunk of Alfred Hitchcock has been captured for watching. I was really excited to see that, but I wound up watching an old obscure Billy Wilder film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. I really go in for these campy old comic re-tellings of Sherlock Holmes' life.
Anyway, not to get distracted by the movie review...
I love that I can sit down, and rifle through my queue quickly and watch whatever I want. The lazy man factor of not having to walk across the room to change out DVD's is nice as well, but honestly I just like being able to access a sub-section of my video queue for instant gratification.
The video quality of a smaller number of the movies and series is still sub-par. I'm not sure if these were just hurriedly done or if they were part of the original watch instantly group and have never been re-captured, but they're very jaggy when you watch them on a 46 inch screen. I'll cross my fingers that Netflix isn't asleep at the wheel on this as it really would be nice to be able to watch some of these without crappy resolution.
Overall, I'm very happy to have dropped the $100+ on this gadget and I hope they keep innovating and updating the tech behind it.
I found out a month ago that Criterion Collection intends on scanning all of their collection for online hi-def delivery, so if they ever decide to partner that would be dream come true.
I find myself not watching my normal videos on DVD and blu-ray quite as often despite the fact that they of course have better video quality.
A few nights ago I wasn't happy with what I had available in my queue so I grabbed my laptop, sat down and opened up the new to watch instantly page on Netflix.com. They've got some work to do on this page, but it was still organized enough for me to realize that a large chunk of Alfred Hitchcock has been captured for watching. I was really excited to see that, but I wound up watching an old obscure Billy Wilder film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. I really go in for these campy old comic re-tellings of Sherlock Holmes' life.
Anyway, not to get distracted by the movie review...
I love that I can sit down, and rifle through my queue quickly and watch whatever I want. The lazy man factor of not having to walk across the room to change out DVD's is nice as well, but honestly I just like being able to access a sub-section of my video queue for instant gratification.
The video quality of a smaller number of the movies and series is still sub-par. I'm not sure if these were just hurriedly done or if they were part of the original watch instantly group and have never been re-captured, but they're very jaggy when you watch them on a 46 inch screen. I'll cross my fingers that Netflix isn't asleep at the wheel on this as it really would be nice to be able to watch some of these without crappy resolution.
Overall, I'm very happy to have dropped the $100+ on this gadget and I hope they keep innovating and updating the tech behind it.
I found out a month ago that Criterion Collection intends on scanning all of their collection for online hi-def delivery, so if they ever decide to partner that would be dream come true.