Anyone have a Roku?

[Faulconbridge]

With the increasingly dismal selection at our local video rental store, the Mrs. and I have begun looking at alternatives. I've been looking at the Roku and was wondering if anyone has one and what they think about it. My main questions concern image quality, ease of use and basic options (can you pause, restart, fast forward, etc). We're not looking for a ton of features, just something that would let us watch streaming video on our TV.

Thanks in advance.

Todd

[Robzula]

Roku controlled all the elements, not tv dude.

[vynsane]

Generally speaking, I feel like stand-alone boxes that connect to streaming video servers aren't that great a deal - because that's ALL they do. You also need to subscribe to all these services (except for the ones with the 'FREE' flag in the upper right-hand corner) in order to get the most value out of it.

In my estimation, if you already have a current-gen video game console (Wii, Xbox 360, PS3) then you're best off just adding Netflix On-Demand to that... ESPECIALLY if you already have Netflix. There are also Blu-Ray players that come Netflix ready, so if you were thinking of upgrading your player, you could go that way.

[Faulconbridge]

I know there are game decks with that feature, but we're not in the market for a game deck. I know that's all it does and that's all I'm looking for it to do. My question is more about how well the Roku works for streaming video. Is the image quality good or does it skip, lag, pixelate, etc (which can also be affected by your connection, but I'm assuming a good connection).

Thanks

[onions]

have you considered apple tv? you can rent the tvs you want to watch, or buy them through itunes on a computer and then stream it from your computer to the tv.

[HoboBob1138]

If you have a laptop and the right connections you could stream Netflix for 8 bucks a month. I've had Netflix for a while and love it.

[Faulconbridge]

We've been looking at Apple TV too. My wife sometimes takes the lap top with her when she's working so I'd like something that always there. And we don't need a game deck or Blu Ray.

I can find articles on ease of set up and program options but I'm having a hard time find information on image quality and performance and that's my basic question. Do these devices provide an image that's comparable to DVD or digital TV? Or do the images show signs of being downloaded (skips, lags, pixelation, etc)?

Thanks again.