Roku streaming player for Netflix - user experience

[twilyth]

This thread will cover the new Roku player for Netflix. Some time ago Netflix put part of their library online. You can view 10 hours of online content for every disk in your rental plan. So if you have the 5 disk-at-a-time plan, you can view 50 hours of content - in addition to the disks that are mailed to you. However this was only useful if you had an HTPC or intended to view the content on a computer. The Roku player is a set-top solution to this problem.

Roku box
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x206/twilyth/DSC08875.jpg
Roku box inside
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x206/twilyth/DSC08876.jpg
remote and Roku
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x206/twilyth/DSC08878.jpg
Roku rear panel
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x206/twilyth/DSC08882smudge.jpg
These are the cables that come with the unit
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x206/twilyth/DSC08883.jpg
This is a set of composite, component and HDMI cables that can be purchased for an additional $20 when you order the unit online from Roku
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x206/twilyth/DSC08884.jpg

[twilyth]

Well, setup was pretty simple.

You have a wired and wireless option. I selected wired since that's how the rest of the network is set up and I already had a 100baseT ethernet switch on the rack where the rest of the a/v equipment is.

I used the component outputs since HDMI ports were in use - only have 2.

At first I was getting blue/green/red lines dancing across the screen - which is what I normally see when the tv is expecting composite input but I'm feeding it component inputs. A quick reboot solved the problem.

At first it asks you what kind of connection you're using (wired/wireless), then it connects and download software updates. It then reboots and asks you the same question. A little annoying but not a big deal.

You then get a screen with a 5 character activation code. On your computer, you log in to your Netflix account and go to the /activate subdirectory where you enter the code. Once activated, it will show you what movies in your queue are available for instant viewing.

I selected the Dave Chapelle show he did in San Francisco. Buffering took less than 30 seconds.

Image quality is excellent although my HDTV reports that resolution is only 480p. Can't remember if this is standard def for DVD's on MPEG2.

The remote let's you pause, fast forward, etc. Not sure if multiple speeds yet.

When paused, will show you your location on a timeline including time elapsed and time remaining

[twilyth]

Well, I've watched a couple of movies with this and have the following observations.

1. 480p turns out to be one of the DVD standards so I will have to wait to find something available for "instant viewing" that is hi-def.

2. there are 3 FF and RW speeds. The fastest seems to advance about an hour in about 12 seconds.

3. going forward or back at any speed requires re-buffering which takes about 10 seconds. Annoying, but unless you're looking to watch the beaver/commando scene in basic instinct over and over, it shouldn't be a problem. And anyway, there's nothing to stop you from recording something as you watch it - not that you should of course. ;)

4. there are no options for subtitles that I could find. I assume that at least the Ghost-in-the-shell movie had subtitles but there didn't appear to be any way to access them.

5. you cannot add or delete items from the home (top button on remote) menu. You have to do this online.

6. if you stop one movie and start another then return, it will remember where you were and give you the option to start from the beginning or to resume - but it will still have to re-buffer.

Here are some screen shots of the menu system. It's easy to use but a little quirky. You have to use the up arrow from the home screen - this grays out the screen. Then you use the right arrow to go to settings - which is also grayed out. Then the down arrow to activate the settings menu.

Home menu - movie selection
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x206/twilyth/DSC08885.jpg

Settings menu
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x206/twilyth/DSC08887.jpg

settings - menu 2
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x206/twilyth/DSC08893.jpg

settings - network
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x206/twilyth/DSC08888.jpg

settings - screen ratio
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x206/twilyth/DSC08889.jpg

settings - sound effects
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x206/twilyth/DSC08890.jpg

settings - screen saver
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x206/twilyth/DSC08891.jpg

settings - player info
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x206/twilyth/DSC08892smudge.jpg

[twilyth]

reserved 3

[twilyth]

reserved 4

[twilyth]

update - pix of menu system, performance, observations.

[twilyth]

Warning!

I'm at home most days so when I originally tested this unit, it was probably in the afternoon and at that time, the picture looked perfect. However I went back to it tonight around 9PM EST, and tried to watch something in the queue. The quality was awful. On a 50" screen, even 480p looks pretty nice, but when you start getting into resolutions approaching or going below standard def., it tough to watch. It's sort of like watching a movie screener - you can do it if you have to, but it's not much fun.

At first I thought the problem was that my network was at capacity due to some usenet downloads running on the HTPC, so I paused the downloads and tried again. Even stopped and restarted the movie from the being and tried another movie. The tv was telling me that it was at 480p but there was just no way.

I did notice that when a movie was buffering, there are 4 dots to the right of the progress bar that are labeled 'quality'. Not sure if they're always there. And I noticed that only one of the dots lit up before the movie started playing. I guess I should have read the manual, but that just goes so against the grain.

I'm assuming that the problem is with Netflix's network since my downloads were coming in at 5.5mbps. This is prime viewing time on the east coast and I guess their network isn't up to it. If I'm right about my observations and if this is in fact the problem, it's not something that really affects me since I can just watch something another time. But it doesn't seem that Roku has the storage capacity to buffer an entire movie at 480p - at least not as far as I've been able to tell. If it could, I'm sure some of the functions would be smoother. And there also doesn't seem to be any way to specify a minimum quality - which makes sense when you are solely dependent on the speed of the network.

I can't be sure what is causing the problem, but I wanted to put this up just in case.

Update:

Previously I said that there was a delay for even short jumps forward and backward. If the jumps are very short - can't say how long precisely since I would guess it depends on how much memory the unit has - there basically no delay.

[twilyth]

Ok, called the ISP about the 5.5mbps dl speeds. They used to be around 12mbps, but not for several weeks IIRC, so I don't know why I got such good results the first time and such poor ones a few days later.

Anyway, the ISP said I should be able to get 15mbps max, so we did some trouble shooting and it seems that the router I was using was flaky. Tried a dLink router I hadn't used in a while and that one wouldn't work at all, even after a reset. Go I pulled out an old Linksys whose bios is fried and it works perfectly. I can't change any of the default settings, but it works. I'm never getting another Belkin or DLink networking product. That's the second router of both brands that have either died or malfunctioned.

I just tried the Netflix service again and got all 4 'quality' dots with very little delay for loading - 15-20 secs maybe - and that was, like yesterday, at 9PM EST.

Before doing all of that, I should note that even at 5mbps I was, today, getting 2 of the 4 quality dots. So it looks like the unit is working as advertised but needs more bandwidth than I would have guessed. I'll try loading some movies while choking the dl speed on my news reader at various levels and try to give a more detailed report of what minimum speed you need for each of the quality levels. I probably won't be able to nail it down precisely, but I should be able to provide some guidance.

[twilyth]

I can't see a consistent association between network activity and what quality level the stream will default to. I've seen it go to 2 dots with no dl activity on my part and to 4 dots with dl's running at 12mbps.

I have several computers and all are connected, but it's rare for more than one or 2 of them to be in active use. The only exception would be if one of the machines has up/download some data to WCG, but I can't see that chewing up a lot of bandwidth.

I also tried running Roku with and without dl's. I then ran speed test. I got a higher score with dl activity than without.

The bottom line is, I won't be able to tell if I will get consistently high quality streams until I've used this for several weeks. Right now, it seems you have about a 50% chance of getting 2 dots and 50% of getting 4. As far as I'm concerned, 2 is not acceptable, so if this continues to happen consistently, I would recommend staying away from this unit and using an HTPC that can buffer the download to a hard disk and get maximum quality. However I don't know if there is any way to view the stream full screen when watching it in IE7. What I mean is, my card is set up to show all video full screen on the secondary (HDTV). I could drag the IE7 window over to the secondary, but I don't know enough about video in IE7 to say how that might work out.

Anyway, if you're coming home and looking forward to watching something only to find out that you can't or have to settle for poor to mediocre quality, you're going to be very annoyed.

I should also mention that even if you start a stream with 4 dots, if you fast forward and have to rebuffer, the quality can drop. It's only happened a few times, but again - very annoying.

[NaeKuh]

awesome twilyth!

I was interested in one, however i dont like how they limit your monthly.

Personally id love to stream then wait in the mail.

But very interesting review you got coming :up:

[twilyth]

Thanks Naekuh. I forgot about my last post.

I haven't used it much since then, but the couple of times I did, it seemed to work perfectly - got 4 quality dots every time.

[twilyth]

I have been using the Roku unit more recently and have a few more observations.

1. It seems that if you pause a show, the amount of time on pause is counted toward your monthly total. I can't be sure of this since some of the viewing times seem to be simply wrong. But when they have you down as having watched a 109 minute movie for 217 minutes - in one sitting - something is obviously wrong.

2. It turns out you can jump by several seconds by just hitting the left or right arrows during playback. It will still pause to download but it seems to be faster.