Customer Reviews:
Total 842 reviews. Read More...
Good for what it is. 2010-09-06
I bought a Roku for my sister as an experiment. Would it be enough to replace cable? Unfortunately there is a lot of content that is not available on it such as hulu or live sports. But it does work as advertised quite well. This is really a netflix box with bonus content (although you can watch movies via Amazon if you don't have netflix).
Stuff I liked:
*Easy setup
*Blip.tv independent web content channel is popular with my sister
*TWiT network--Leo's recommendation went a long way towards convincing me to buy.
*Secret YouTube channel.
*Live NASA channel... turn it on and watch the earth go by!
Stuff I disliked:
*Menus are sloooooow. This is very unfortunate because actually getting a video to play requires a lot of clicks on the remote but you have to wait a few seconds between each one for the menu to load. This really hurts the user experience.
*Buffering... This was mostly due to the internet connection and not the fault of Roku. But be warned, if you have a slow connection (this was on 1.5Mbps DSL) you're in for a wait. The good news is that once it buffered at the beginning I didn't notice many problems after that unless somebody started web browsing on the same connection.
*A lot of big name networks have "channels" on Roku but they only have second string content. If NBC, FOX and the others would put their big names on their channel this would be a lot more useful.
Bottom line: This is a good solution for getting Netflix streaming onto your tv. The other content is a nice bonus but isn't enough by itself.
works great--NOT using wireless 2010-09-05
I read through all the previous reviews and went ahead and bought this device--I'm glad I did. We have Netflix, but not cable. It's so much better than cable--there are tons of shows/movies on Netflix that we can watch for free, plus there are other channels available for free (news, music, Pandora!, baseball, etc)
I had to buy an HDMI switcher to hook up the Roku, since our TV only has one HDMI slot. No problem, the switcher works great w/ the Roku. The other device is a DVD player.
The Roku itself works great, and again, following other reviewers comments about problems w/ using it wireless, I hooked this up w/ an ethernet cable to the computer in the office. (went through the house crawlspace) The picture is beautiful and the Roku remote works pretty well--you do really have to make a concious effort to focus right at it--you can hear a faint click when it reads the signal.
It's easy to set up, it walks you through it all. You will need to go to your computer to set up accounts for Roku, and many of the channels you add. We already had a Netflix acct, so when we entered our login info, it took us right to our acct. VERY SLICK--WE LOVE IT!!!
We did notice that when we fastforwarded through a Netflix movie, that we lost sound. But after turning off TV and Roku, and back on, we regained it. May just be a glitch w/ our TV, may have been a one-time thing. We can pause the movies just fine.
We've only had it 24 hrs, so we can't say anthing about it's lifespan, but so far so good--and we used it all day yesterday after getting it hooked up.
Be forewarned: Worst Customer Service 2010-09-05
All the 5 star reviews make you think this is great, but count up how many 1-2 star reviews there are and about 15% of people had bad experiences with this product.
I had problem with set-up and the solution was probably an easy fix, but the customer support is HORRENDOUS. I couldn't find the answer online and after phoning customer service several times (and enduring 20-minute wait periods on hold), I got terrible help from people who have problems both speaking and understanding the English language. I don't care where Customer Service is located, but if they're to service English-speaking consumers with technology equipment and questions, they need to be able to communicate a lot better.
I was really excited about receiving this product, but quickly returned it as help from Customer Service was impossible.
Device great, Support NOT! 2010-09-05
I have had my Roku Box since July 2009. It installed easily and has worked wonderfully until 2 weeks ago. I phoned support...if I had to guess, it is India based support:
so - support from a script with a lot of script based suggestions - I said thank you, hung up and was able to trouble-shoot the problem myself, but I am a technical professional - computer programmer. What do non tech people do? Roku presents itself as a U.S. company marketing primarily to the U.S. In that case, the support people should be understandable by the major market.
My next box will not be a Roku, even given that this box works well and is very reasonably priced.
works great 2010-09-05
Wanted to do Netflix streaming and my existing Panasonic BluRay didn't support netflix. Rather than buying another wifi bluray, the Roku was the perfect answer. WiFi in a distant room is strong. Easy setup. Small enough to be portable and can move it from TV to TV. Only negative is less than robust searching via Roku of the Netflix library. Also have used Pandora for music and that does well. Have not used any of the other channels as yet.
