[distortedloop]

wardoggie said:

There's a tab on the Netflix home page called "Watch Instantly" for that. Lots of ways to browse, plus you can create a queue just for stuff you want to watch instantly.

Nope, that's not what I was talking about.

NetFlix claims to have 10,000 titles available for Watch Instantly viewing. Yes, you can browse a few titles at a time, but there's no easy way to find out just how many of those 10,000 titles are things you'd actually want to watch.

I'd love a way to be able to make a statement along the lines of:

Of the 10,000 titles online, 10% are current blockbuster movies, 35% are 60's TV shows, 40% are classic movies from the 80s, etc, etc.

If you can find a way to do that without paging through hundreds of pages of genres, sub-genres and sub-sub-genres, let me know. ;-)

[mistergsf]

Yesterday I received an email from Netflix saying they would be eliminating the "Profiles" feature that allowed you to set up separate DVD queues under one account effective September 1, 2008. The email went on to say "While it is disappointing to see Profiles go away, this change will help us continue to improve the Netflix website for all our customers."
What???!!!
I called customer service to ask why they were doing this and all I got was a repeat of what the email said and that the feature was not very popular anyway. What a load of BS.
I'm mentioning this because I'm wondering if it has any connection to the way their website will communicate with the Roku box.

[DocMacPS]

Exactly WHERE can you get a Netflix Player? Have they swung a deal with any of the major Big-Box or Online electronics retailers at this point - or - are we just reading the first whispers from evaluation units???

[cpoff]

Roku's homepage is a good place to start.

[Jason Snell]

Right now Roku is selling them direct.

[scpt]

strange...I have VMware fusion with Windows XP installed. I just had to upgrade my Windows Media Player and after that I never had any problem watching netflix streaming movies.

[whitedog]

{quote}Not kidding. I had to download software and spend quite a bit of time in Netflix's support forum, and even when I got it working, each viewing session required the manual download of an authentication certificate before playing. It was ridiculous, and at some point it stopped working, after which any attempts to use Instant Watching resulted in Parallels crashing.{quote}

I had better luck than that, but the process wasn't seamless. I started using Netflix Instant Viewing in Parallels and Windows XP. When Parallels got buggy a while back I got VMWare Fusion (at a discount); I found that it runs Instant Viewing movies in XP more smoothly than Parallels. After several upgrades to both programs this is still the case - perhaps because Fusion supports multiple processors. I have occasionally had a problem figuring out what was going on when Netflix informed me that Windows Media player needed an update, but this is the usual Windows BS.

I installed XP in Boot Camp a while back in order to get my Vista upgrade to work (turns out Vista only installs on an NTFS file system - FAT 32 is no longer supported. This has implications for file sharing on the Mac in virtualization environments, but that's another topic). I thought running Windows native might get better reception for Instant Viewing. Not. I couldn't get the Windows Media Player to update properly. After talking with Netflix customer service we concluded the Windows drivers didn't like my old 22" Apple Cinema Display - which uses a DVI/ADC adaptor to connect to my Mac Pro. So back I went to XP in Fusion. Interestingly, when I used my Boot Camp partition to set up a virtual machine for Vista in Fusion, Instant Viewing works, though the connection speed is worse than XP - naturally!

After reading about Jason's difficulties I suspect the primary source of trouble with Instant Viewing on the Mac is Windows, DRM issues aside. All of which adds to the potential value of the Roku Netflix Player solution. It's certainly cheaper than buying a copy of Windows, if you don't need one otherwise. Of course it won't really take off until the number of people who have WiFi networks in their homes reaches critical mass. But with the popularity of laptop computers these days it's only a matter of time. I'd say Rocu's timing could hardly be better, riding the wave created by the Apple TV. And it gives Netflix a foot in the door of direct to TV video downloads and a means of competing with on-demand cable service - and the iTunes store. I'd say it's a very shrewd move on their part, setting them up to weather the transition from DVDs to Internet streaming content.

[kfstudio]

Near the end of the video, you can see "The Shining" as one of the reviewer's possible movies. I have the Roku with Netflix, but when I look up 'The Shining' on Netflix's site, I am not given the blue tab to choose it as an instant movie download. What gives?

[whalt]

I agree with the first commenter that I never had any difficulty watching the Netflix movies online via VMWare. Not saying that the reviewer or others didn't really have problems but just saying it's not the universal experience. Considering that the difficulties seem to be about authenticating I wonder if it had anything to do with connecting behind proxies or the like?
I agree that the content is really the bigger problem although I will say that those with more eclectic tastes will probably have a better time finding something to watch since the big blockbusters are mostly absent but a lot of indie movies and esoteric content is available.

[dingosatemybaby]

I don't know what you guys are complaining about with regards to content.
With instant watch titles like "Ferocious Female Freedom Fighters", "Teenage Catgirls in Heat" and "Ultrachrist!", this watch instantly service is a winner in my book.

[michaelalan24]

Just got one yesterday and will be sending it back on Monday. Took about 30 tries to connect. Never changed any settings, it just finally connected. I have a good wi-fi signal. The device sits right next to my computer with an 8 year old wireless card. My computer shows a full signal, but Roku cannot stay connected.
The idea is great, but let’s get this thing working properly before we start selling it.
Piece of junk. It is not worth the $15 dollars in shipping you lose to try it out.
AND THE TECH SUPPORT is only available Mon-Fri, 8am-6pm. How the hell are they supposed to help me when I am at work? The internet support is also a waste of time.
Netflix needs to get with Apple. The product may be more expensive, but at least it will work as described.

[Coglio]

I got the Player a few days ago and have been using it. And, I've got to say, I love it! I had a little trouble setting it up, but that had more to do with me trying to figure out the security parameters on my wireless base station than the player itself. It took me 30 minutes as opposed to 3. Once that was solved, the Player was pretty much plug and play.
My biggest concern was over quality, and I'm happy to say I'm very satisfied with the video and sound. I'm using DSL over a wireless network, and the quality is very near DVD quality. I watched an episode of Heroes Season 2 last night and the streaming version was just as good as the DVD version (and without an danger of the very annoying "dirty disc" syndrome).
I have about 40 selections in my instant viewing queue, which is nowhere near the 500 selections in my regular queue but is certainly more viewing than I am going to do in many months (especially considering that some of the selections are TV series). I view the Player as a great way to complement my regular DVDs that ship, and at no additional monthly cost. The cost of the player will pay for itself over time since I won't have to run to Blockbuster to get a movie when my Netflix DVD heap runs out.
The Player is a great product for me. I never considered watching movies on my computer for the same reason I don't have an ipod to watch movies ... I'd like to actually enjoy them and not just see them. This allows me to access shows directly on my nice, big TV from my comfortable couch and do the whole experience.
Bottom line: great product, great deal, all promises as advertised delivered.