ROKU – Don’t Leave Home Without It
Posted on 24 May 2009, at 6:21 pm, by Dan Cohen
When we first got out lake cabin some 12 years ago we had little more than the basics technology-wise. A single, wired phone line gave us dial-up access to AOL at an outrageous per minute fee. We had no TV and entertained ourselves by reading and playing board games. It was… peaceful… but isolating.
Things have changed and while it is, on one level a mixed blessing, having moved forward technologically there is no going back. We now have cable with multiple premium stations. A cable modem is connected to a WiFi router so we not only get internet access everywhere in the house but all the way down on our dock as well. And since both of us now have Mac notebooks there is no difference computing-wise between home and here. In fact, rather than using the wired (expensive) phone we will likely be moving to Skype and SkyDeck (review upcoming) full time in the near future.
One of the best tech advances here in PA just happened and it involves a little box known as the Roku.
I first got the Roku box back in January. While at home recovering from surgery for the month the little box let me access Netflix streaming service. I watched numerous old movies and a huge number of BBC series… all as part of my monthly Netflix subscription.
When we packed to come up here for the weekend I decided to throw the box into my bag. Upon our arrival I plugged in the Roku, updated the firmware (it has been a while since I used it) and connected it to the router using an ethernet cable. Within seconds the Roku was connected to both my Netflix Watch Instantly account AND to Amazon’s movie download system, a feature that only recently went live.
While I can only view and control what is already in my Netflix live queue (adding new programs requires being online on the computer or iPhone), I was able to do everything with the Amazon service, from looking through available TV and movies, to ordering them to watching and controlling a show or movie, as well. The choices and prices are excellent and I/we have already watched three movies this weekend.
What it means going forward for me is this, if I am traveling and know I will have access to wifi I can now bring my Roku box along, plug it in to any television, jump on the wifi signal and watch all the TV and movies I want. At just 5 x 5 x 1.75 inches small and a weight of just 11 oz it makes a nifty little travel companion. Best of all, the box itself costs just a onetime fee of $99 at such vendors as Amazon.
Who’d have thought the Roku box would make a great little traveling companion?!
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