|  Netflix,
the world's largest online movie rental service is well known for offerings its
customers a convenient way to rent movies without the hassle of driving to the
store or waiting in lines. More recently customers have been able to use their
own PCs to connect to the Netflix servers and watch a select number of movies
online. While completely functional, it requires the user to have a PC connected
to the A/V system or the user must watch the movies on the PC screen. Now Netflix
has teamed up with media player innovator Roku™ to provide its subscribers
with movie-on-demand capability using a set-top box. The Netflix Player by Roku™
is a compact unit (approximately 5"W x 5"D x 2"H) and comes with
a simple and easy to use interface for watching movies. The good news is they
do it for a one-time fee of $100 for the player. The unit supports the simplest
configurations with older analog TVs all the way up to full-blown home theater
systems with digital displays or projectors.
 Interfaces
The
Netflix Media Player is loaded with interfaces and comes complete with wired and
wireless Wi-Fi ethernet, an HDMI output, analog video outputs and a digital optical
(toslink) output. The HDMI connection provides both audio and video to the display
over a single cable giving newer displays simple connectivity. Video is limited
to 480p using the HDMI and component video interface, so there is no upconverting
or scaling done in the player. However, most displays have this feature built-in
anyway. For those users with older conventional televisions, the media player
also includes composite, s-video and component analog video outputs along with
a pair of analog audio outputs.
Remote
The Netflix Media Player comes with a simple, yet fully functional
IR remote for accessing and controlling the video content. The remote has a good
feel with large buttons and runs on a pair of easily replaceable "AAA"
batteries. A Home button on the top of the remote takes the user to the
main menu. Navigation buttons and a Select button are used to control
the menu system. The bottom three buttons (play/pause, forward and backwards)
control the playback of the video being watched. There are three forward speeds
and three backward speeds. The left and right navigation buttons also scan forward
and backwards. When scanning through movies and TV episodes, a special
screen appears with segmented clips of the content being played with a time
bar below it. This is similar to selecting tracks on a DVD and allows the user
to see past and future scenes.
 Setup
The
Settings Menu has several sections for configuring the unit. The sub-menus
are for Network configuration (Wired or Wireless), Display type
(16:9 or 4:3), Sound Effects (Low, Medium, High, Off), Screen Saver
(5 min, 10 min, 30 min, Off), Player Info, and Factory Reset. When
configuring the media player for streaming content, the user can select between
wired or wireless connectivity. Users can select from the Choose
Wireless Network screen. All wireless networks broadcasting an SSID can
be seen here with secure connections shown with a lock symbol. User can enter
their WEP or WPA passphrase for
security. Our tests were run with a wired connection to ensure consistently high
bandwidth. The video quality indicator displayed on the TV screen indicated we
had a high speed connection. Our Display
Type was configured for a 16:9 display. The Sound Effects level
is selectable and provides a sound each time the button is pressed. This helps
provide audible feedback to the user when control the player. The Screen Saver
begins as defined by the user. The user can select Player
Info, which displays the software and hardware versions, MAC address (wired
and wireless), IP address, gateway, and serial number. There is also an option
to upgrade the firmware once a new version is released. The firmware version that
was shipped with the unit was current when we checked the server through the user
interface.
Choosing
Movies
 Selecting
movies and TV episodes to play on the Netflix Media Player requires the user to
select movies online and place them in the Netflix Instant Queue. Once
loaded in the queue, the movies will appear on the TV screen menu almost instantly.
Users can then simply browse through the available items that have been added
to the Instant Queue and select one to watch. The only issue here is the
content must be placed in the Instant Queue before users can watch it on
the media player. This requires a PC connected to the internet to update the user's
queue information.  Once
the movie or TV episode is selected, a description of the program is displayed
along with the user ratings, run time, year, MPAA rating, and genre. The user
can then resume the program from a previous stopping point or play it from the
beginning. There are also options to choose a different episode or remove the
series completely from the queue. There is no hard drive in the Netflix Media
Player, but the unit does take several seconds to load data before the video begins
to stream. Keeping the unit buffered with some data prevents skipping when playing
a movie even with varying data bandwidth. The design works well and we never encountered
any problems while watching a movie or TV episode.
Conclusion
 The
Netflix Media Player by Roku™ allows members to watch over 10,000 movies
and TV episodes instantly over the internet with no change in monthly Netflix
costs. Members can watch as much as they want and as often as they want without
paying more and will receive the same number of DVDs by mail. The advantage is
it completely complements what you already have and enjoy. The Roku player is
solid and connects to virtually any TV. Users can play, pause rewind and forward
just like a regular DVD without the hassle of mechanically placing the disc into
a machine. The large number of audio and video outputs support both analog and
digital displays as well as preamps and receivers with digital audio capability.
Wired and wireless Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) connectivity are supported to stream the
content. This Netflix Media Player is a real winner and it was a smart move to
have Roku provide the hardware/software platform. If you are willing to fork out
$100 for the player, you can get a lot more with no additional monthly cost. It
almost seems silly not to get it if you are already paying for the benefits of
Netflix. -
Kevin Nakano |
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