Roku Netflix player is a no-brainer

FedEx delivered my Roku Netflix player today, and after less than 10 minutes of set-up, I was up and watching THE RED BALLOON.

The box, which in theory is competition to Apple TV, Amazon Unbox, etc, is the easiest-to-use piece of electronics I’ve ever encountered. Even my mom could do it! Apple prides itself on brain-dead ease-of-use, and while this thing isn’t quite as sexy as a piece of Apple hardware, it’s as intuitive as anything that’s ever come out of Cupertino.

Not to mention the fact that it’s a measly $100! That’s a one-time charge—no additional subscription required aside from the Netflix subscription you probably already have. No bullshit “expires after X hours”, no taking up hard disk space on my computer on something I’ll only watch once. The quality is somewhere around non-HD digital cable, which is fine for most people and something I can live with. Like Apple TV, HD-quality content is a promised upgrade somewhere down the line.

The Roku player creates the first viable download service, and in my opinion, may become the killer app for downloadable content. Yes I know you can get the same content without the Roku box, but when I want to watch a movie I want to sit on the couch, relax, and watch it on my TV, not on my computer screen. That’s the thinking behind the Apple TV, but the Roku player does it better, simpler and cheaper. It’s the missing link, and now Apple, Microsoft, Sony and everyone else get to play catch-up.