MIT Engineers

[AlabamAlum]

[hedge]

So I got streaming Netflix thinking we could use the computer and hook it up to the tv, but then I go to Stu's house and he has a D-Link box and tells me about the wonderful world of boxes thru which to route the streaming Netflix, amongst other things. So which one should I get and why? D-Link or Roku? No youtube on Roku, but evidently they have "other" stuff that the D-Link won't get. Again I axe: Which one should I get, Roku, D-link or some other one?

[T Dot O Dot]

Roku definitely has Youtube

[hedge]

Well then what is the difference b/w a $40 D-Link box and a $100 Roku box? Are they both just conduits thru which to stream content? Or is there some advantage to one over the other? I saw a couple of different brands as well. I get it if they're like TV's and one has a better picture (or whatever), I'd spend the extra money if there is an appreciable difference, but if it's just the difference b/w, e.g., a name brand light bulb or snot rag or whatever and a generic, I usually go with the generic...

[Jungle Rat]

Cheap motherfucker

[T Dot O Dot]

I cancelled cable after the march tournament and I'm rolling with 2 roku boxes, functionally for streaming they work just fine, I get my content at a decent resolution with no skipping or lags. It also streams much faster going through a wired connect as opposed to wireless, so i paid an extra $20 per box for the boxes with the ethernet port, so each box was $110 as opposed to $90 (canadian)

As for the content itself, in terms of channels I am pretty sure Roku provides the best range of programming, at least from the reviews I read when I was purchasing. Other than that I can't offer much anything else because the Roku Canada service doesnt offer the same content as US.

I have Youtube & Vevo on my Rokus, I'm 150% sure they are on the US version, especially since they really push an app called PLEX that runs on your PC & syncs with your Roku boxes where I can click on youtube embeds and "plex" them.

The next time I use my roku, those "plexed" videos show up in my viewing queue

[hedge]

I haven't even considered dropping cable (Time/Warner), but I guess that might be an option in the future. For now I'm just looking at this thing as a supplement to the cable and perhaps to watch youtube on the TV. I'm sure more ideas and options will present themselves once we get started, but for now I'm really just looking for something to run the streaming Netflix subscription thru...

[T Dot O Dot]

if it's strictly for streaming netflix then I'd say go with the $40 d-link box, if you want to stay ahead of the game & keep yourself open to newer options/content as they become available then I'd go with Roku as they seem to be pioneering the whole stream box movement

[hedge]

Yeah, but if I buy a $100 Roku box now, are they going to come up with new "options" that require you to by their "new and improved Roku 4.0 (or whatever)", at which point I could've gone out and gotten that and put the $40 D-Link box out on the street, instead of having to put my obsolete $100 Roku 2.0 box out on the street?

[T Dot O Dot]

possibly

but from what I can tell the hardware is right where it needs to be, the licensing & content needs to be brought up to speed on their end if this thing is ever really going to take off

if they pulled a move like that it would be suicide for them

I for one would drop them like a bad habit and move on to whatever else, I don't see them pulling a stunt like that until they have firmly made a place for themselves in the media market.. and they are nowhere close right now

I bought my boxes knowing that, but I think it's the way things are going to eventually go so I figured to dump cable & get in early

for tv programming, I'm mainly downloading all of my content to PC and viewing from the media box because the current shows are still not available

just my opinion though

[hedge]

"if they pulled a move like that it would be suicide for them"

Like Apple going from that iPod where you had to twirl your finger around to get to whatever song you wanted to the iPod Touch? Yeah, those companies would never hang you out to dry with "old" technology...

[Jungle Rat]

My god you are stupid Hedge.

[T Dot O Dot]

iPod was the shyt back then, everybody wanted one & everybody wanted to be the first to get the next version

not so much with Roku

[hedge]

I've still got my Walkman cassette player. If I can't run that thru the Roku, I'm not interested...

[T Dot O Dot]

I think you've talked yourself into buying the D-Link device

[hedge]

I think that's what I'm going to do. What the fuck, the HDML cable that I've got plugged into the laptop cost $40, I might as well spend that much on a box...

[T Dot O Dot]

Either way, good move

I have a dual monitor setup from my video card, with my 21" flat screen on the left and a 37" flat screen on the right, so I can drag windows to either screen or keep surfing the web on the left screen while playing media on the right, but if I had too many tasks running or was trying to photoshop a 5 gig file my PC media would start skipping/lagging or desynching between video/audio

now I can run the roku on the right screen and it's internal media player runs completely independent of whatever PC processing power I'm using on the left, so no more lags/desynchs

[hedge]

" but if I had too many tasks running or was trying to photoshop a 5 gig file my PC media would start skipping/lagging or desynching between video/audio"

That's what I'm worried about!

[Jungle Rat]

you should be

[T Dot O Dot]

most US & Canadian are in mp4 format, which are compressed files that don't make my PC work too much

but the british shows like Luther & Sherlock are all AVI, not only do those files have no compression they seem to hoard all my processing and even refreshing a page on goatpen would make my A/V de-synch

I like my PC just fine, Ive upgraded the RAM & Video memory as far as my motherboard will let me and I dont think I'm upgrading again for a while, so the Roku player frees all that up