The Netflix Player: The Tivo of Streaming Content?
(This is not a gadget blog, but occasionally a new piece of technology is interesting enough that I want to write about it.)
The Netflix Player is Roku's 5" deep by 5" wide by 2" tall set top device that allows Netflix subscribers to easily watch any "Instant Watch" content on their TV. I mentioned the Instant Watch feature before, and I have been enjoying it, watching shows and movies on my laptop or occasionally hooking my laptop up to my TV.
I was enjoying it so much that I was about to buy a wireless keyboard and mouse to make using the hooked up laptop easier when I saw that the Netflix Player had come out. For $100 that's not all that much more than a decent wireless keyboard and mouse, so I decided to give it a try.
I've only had this device for a few days, but my initial impression of it is that this is a breakthrough device, with the possibility to do what Tivo did for DVRs, but for streaming content.
The initial setup is easy; the Player has built in wireless or you can use a wired connection. The Player has most any audio/video connections you would want; I am using HDMI for the picture and regular old RCA cables for the audio.
Once you've the Player hooked up to your TV and plug it in, it boots up and asks for a 5 digit activation code that you can get from the Netflix web site. Enter the code and the device jumps right into a nice display of the contents of your Instant Watch Queue. Using the small remote I had no trouble moving through what was available and selecting what to play. I had to tweak the display output to be widescreen in the configuration menu (up arrow from the main menu), but beyond that I was up and running in under 10 minutes.
Once something has started playing, you can fast forward and rewind or skip around to different parts of what you're watching. Because it is streaming, Roku came up with an interesting "chapter" system where you can skip around in 5 second intervals, demarcated by a screenshot of the action at that point in time. TV show episodes of the same series are grouped together logically so you can easily watch through a series in sequence (tested officially via season 1 of 30 Rock.) To summarize, navigation is easy and usability is high: it passed the "non-geek user" test with flying colors as my wife needed no help from me at all when she tried it out.
2 limitations of the Player are that it only shows you content that you have placed in your Instant Queue, via the Netflix web site and it currently has no HD content, although that is on its way. The playback quality is not outstanding, but it is definitely better than regular TV and around DVD quality.
These limitations do not detract from the appeal of the Netflix Player. In fact, based on the easy setup, relatively low cost and excellent usability, the Player is in good position to do what Tivo did for DVRs, which is to not be the first to do something (in this case streaming content), but the first to do it in a way that is intuitive and easy for mass consumption. Netflix's millions of subscribers have a real winner on their hands.