As an avid Mac user I have always been a little bit aggravated by the blatant lack of support for OS X with Netflix' Play Now feature. They of course blame Apple for not releasing the secrets to their FairPlay DRM, or at least that was the attitude of the gentleman answering one of their support lines. I of course blame Microsoft for not bringing their DRM to Apple whatsoever at all, but he didn't like that suggestion very much.
As it were, I had been hearing the rumors of a Netflix set-top box for almost a year now and as a Netflix customer spent all that time feeling a little cheated that others were getting more value out of their service because of their choice of OS. When I heard that Roku had a box on the market, I purchased it immediately for $99. Then a week of agonizing wait to play with this new gadget (Thanks Memorial day. {sigh}).
Finally it has arrived, and I give you, my unboxing of the Roku's Netflix set-top box.
Strider seemed almost more curious then I was, but he lost interest when I told him about the Play Now selection. I kid. I kid.
I was surprised and a little relieved to see that it wasn't shipped as a box within a box, especially in the face of AT&T's shipping practices of late.
The first thing on the menu is the quick start guide, but the set up is pretty straight forward and the box itself walks you through the set up once you have it all plugged in and running.
There are a few other things in the box but the bulk is simply the Roku box and the remote. The box is about the size of a thick sandwich, quite small but oddly enough the remote is much bulkier than you might expect. My only guess is that this is a deliberate choice to make it seem more significant to the other remotes it will be hanging with around the TV.
It comes with a set of RCA cables and some batteries for the remote. The website gives you an option to send an HDMI cable with the box for a modest but not great price of $19. I opted to buy one at Fry's for $7 instead. The ports are more than ample with Composite, HDMI, Component, S-Video, Ethernet, Optical, and built in wi-fi connectivity options, there isn't a TV that can't find happiness somewhere on the back of this thing.
This is the front!
The size of the box allowed it to find a place quite nicely in my existing set up on top of the better of the HD technologies.
I am watching my first show on the box, an older Dr. Who, and I have to say that while there are a few quirks, overall I am impressed.
Any questions?
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