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Thread: RokU box--anyone have one?

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    RokU box--anyone have one?

    Is anyone using one of these? My poor old home theater PC just can't do streaming video at anything higher than YouTube quality, which means I have to get out a laptop and hook it to my TV anytime I want to watch my MLB.TV subscription, Hulu, Netflix, etc. But I can't see buying even a cheap $400 PC just for better video playback, when this is available for under $100 (I want the midrange 1080i version.) Just looking for opinions before I order one.

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    August Knights [AK]Beaker's Avatar
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    Buy the PC!
    It's probably going to give you more functionality in the long run.
    Of course I have been known to buy PC's simply because they look good with the shoes I'm wearing.

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    I've thought about that, but my house already has 2 desktops, 3 notebooks, my iPod Touch for tablet-esque needs, and a server in the basement, all for one person. Add in the fact that almost no one who visits for any length of time comes without their own laptop and/or smartphone, and the fact that the old desktop is still fine for everything else I ask it to do, and an extra/replacement PC is just overkill.

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    Lurking Moar Slaughter's Avatar
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    Small upgrades to bring the old home theater pc up to snuff?
    lol, <3

    Retired EQ, WoW Player.

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    I don't have one, but have used one and I think they are a steal for $99. In my opinion, the best streaming box available, not to mention the bargain price. I actually 'suspended' by Netflix subscription because I never used it - so I don't really have a need right now for anything like it, but if I did - the Roku would be my choice. For now, I can always access Netflix again on my 360, or PC, if I decide I want to.
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    Slaughter--I wish! The old PC is a converted OptiPlex GX270 that I've lovingly kept as up-to-date as possible. The old single-core P4 just can't keep up with modern streaming video.

    I think I'm going to stop and pick one up on the way home tonight. What I've been reading has backed Hy up big-time. Special thanks to Squidly, too--he brought up the Apple TV on my Facebook. I don't use enough Apple video content to make that an advantage over the (cheaper) RokU right now, but at least I've read the reviews of both now and can be sure I'm not getting the wrong box for me this year. Another year or two down the road, and who knows? These things are cheap and I can always buy the latest-and-greatest and kick last year's model up to the bedroom or office TV.

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    Lurking Moar Slaughter's Avatar
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    Ewww, sounds like an old Tribes 1 machine.

    Yeah, my oldest Athlon single core processor is sitting on my desk, mostly because that was the first machine a built so long ago.
    lol, <3

    Retired EQ, WoW Player.

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    Epilogue: I bought the RokU box tonight; unfortunately I'll have to wait to try it out with baseball (its principal purpose) because the "channel" doesn't become available until the regular season. I watched some CNet tech news briefs and clips from last night's Red Eye, and that's just scratching the surface. I'm going to add Netflix to it but pass on Hulu (I'm not a huge TV show person and a lot of what they offer is available on FIOS On Demand) and Amazon On Demand (why pay by the rental when Netflix streaming is unlimited?) VERY impressed with the video quality in the limited time I had to play with it tonight. I probably won't use 90% of the content that's available for it, but for $80, I can still get my money's worth just with MLB/Netflix, and from what I've read, they're adding stuff in big chunks a few times a year.

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    August Knights [AK]Ozzred's Avatar
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    A little late to the party, and with no first hand experience to share. BUT.. I know a handful of people that use RokU and have nothing but high praise for it. Enjoy!

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    Senior Knight [AK]Nuts's Avatar
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    I built a boxee box on a laptop connected to my big screen and it works great.

    A friend bought a boxee box and loves it.

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    Accept no substitutes. [AK]Bribo's Avatar
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    I have Boxee installed on my AppleTV and it works great although I mostly use it to stream content from my Mac. The biggest complaint I have heard about the Boxee box is the odd shape that makes it hard to fit into a cabinet.
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    Quote Originally Posted by [AK]Bribo View Post
    The biggest complaint I have heard about the Boxee box is the odd shape that makes it hard to fit into a cabinet.
    That is the first thing I thought of when I looked at it as well Brian. I'd have to set it on top of our little stand instead of in or on one of the shelving units below. But after using both, I think the Roku is not only the best bang for the buck - but the best unit overall IMHO.
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    I'm definitely digging it. I've installed several individual news channels, a news aggregator, CNet news, iTunes podcast feeder--and I feel like I'm just getting started; haven't even tried Netflix or MLB yet (preseason games aren't available on RokU). Now I'm looking for something that can reliably stream an Xvid-encoded AVI file from my desktop--the third-party media server channel isn't ready for primetime yet.

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    Senior Knight [AK]Nuts's Avatar
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    I chose the Boxee (home built on laptop) mainly because I wanted to use TED and uTorrent to download all my episodes automatically in HD. I run an external 250GB firewire drive for storage.

    TED scans the torrent sites for the latest episodes of the shows that I have set up and then triggers uTorrent to do the download. Boxee scans the destination directory every few minutes for new episodes, tags them properly, downloads cover art and episode description and displays them in a nice library.

    I canceled cable and watch all my shows in this manner (SGU, The Office, Top Gear, Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs, Top Shot, etc...)

    I pay zero.

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