Using Roku: Week 4

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By Dennis D. McDonald

General observations

• I’ve been using the Roku box for over a month now.
• I like this product a lot.

Where it’s used

• Primary connection is in the living room with the 36” TV. This TV no longer has a digital cable tuner and is used only for occasional DVD’s and Roku streaming.
• Secondary connection is in the kitchen. (I like watching TWiT netcasts while washing dishes. Go Gina!)

Likes

• Easy to move around and connect to different devices.
• Easy-to-navigate interface takes advantage of straightforward categorization, for the most part. 
• Navigation is significantly simpler and more convenient than various Comcast Cable menuing systems.
• When available for a channel, text search works nicely.
• Amazing variety of programming.
• Access to YouTube, CNN spots, Al Jazeera English daily reports.
• Synchronization between web and Roku program configuration — e.g., YouTube and Pandora channels.
• Still amazed at variety of programming available via Netflix.

Dislikes

• Wish there were a display panel on the front of the device so I could use it to tune radio or audio only channels without having to turn on a TV.
• Individual channels have widely variable program descriptions.
• Can’t search across all programs from top level.
• Having to “subscribe” by typing a code into a web site on some channels.
• Variable performance streaming — e.g., YouTube often stutters when I move the box to the kitchen.
• Amazing how awful some of the amateur series are (“Mommy XXX”? “Space Hospital”?)

Next steps

• Check out Hulu Plus programming; haven’t tried so far since I have little interest in series.
• Keep trying out different subcategories of obscure channels.
• Check out DIY programs (woodworking, knitting, building, etc.)
• Investigate Amazon services.
• Figure out why ANYONE cares what Penn thinks.

Copyright (c) 2011 by Dennis D. McDonald

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Comments

[Keke]

Grabbed one today, it seems to be nice. Easy to connect and synchronize, compact and handy. I haven't worked all the features out yet, but I'm sure the best is yet to be discovered. I've noticed some variable performance streaming too. I used free winzip http://freearchiver.net/ to download the full manual, now I'm reading it to get it straight.