Roku 3 Streaming Player Review And Best Price

Roku’s strength has always been in its extensive content offerings. Roku’s streaming boxes support nearly every online channel out there in nearly every category available – somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 total – many, many more than most smart TVs or Blu-ray players offer. From premium sports channels like MLB TV and NBA Game Time to streaming video channels like Crackle and Netflix to Pay per View channels like Vudu to internet radio channels like Pandora and Spotify, Roku has the most comprehensive channel selection of any streaming box, period. Simply put, if you can’t get it on Roku, you probably can’t get it.

I’m very happy with the Roku 3. It’s so nice to have access to my cable programming in my bedroom now, without the expense of having a new cable outlet installed and paying rental fees for another cable box. The video is sharp and the sound is clear. I’ve had almost no pauses for buffering using the WiFi connection, and I can always wire it up if I decide I need to do that. It will pay for itself in no time because I didn’t have to pay Time Warner an installation fee for a new outlet or monthly rental fees.

The updated search function is great and something other services do not offer. It lets users avoid having to go into multiple channels on the Roku to see if each one offers the program they are searching for. With other streaming devices like Apple TV, users have to go into each service individually to see if Hulu Plus, Vudu, iTunes, or Netflix has the show or movie they want to watch, rent, or buy. It’s especially useful considering the vast amount of channels offered by Roku, and users won’t be disappointed after paying for something that could have been watched through one of their subscription services.

As far as downsides are concerned, nearly every reviewer continues to focus on the glaring omission of native YouTube. Granted, there are channels like VideoBuzz that provide a round-about way of streaming it. You can also do it through Plex, but many users say the experience isn’t all that great For a box that now includes access to more than 700 streaming channels –by far the most of any dedicated streamer–this does seem like a pretty big oversight. In the grand scheme of things, however, we’re not convinced YouTube ranks up there with other premium services. We certainly wouldn’t give it the same deference as HBO GO and Amazon Instant.

My initial rating was 4 stars due to the lack of YouTube. After a few days with [http://aaron827168cole.livejournal.com/101800.html roku 3 review] I upgraded it to a 5-star. I still wish Roku supported YouTube natively but the lack of it is mitigated by the major improvements this new Roku has over its predecessors. Amazon's reviewing guideline suggests that 5 stars means "I love it" and I absolutely do love Roku 3. Indeed, I can easily switch to my PS3 or Blu-ray player if I wanted to watch YouTube but there's no other device with such a great selection of channels and the better, faster user interface alone is worth one extra star.

While the Roku 2 certainly had a leg up over Apple TV with channels, it easily had way more channels and services integrated, it turns out that was about the only thing that I liked about it. I found the Roku 2 box to be a unfriendly mix of bad interface design, unstable software and awkward channel adding. First the software design looked like a web page from the early 90’s, complete with tacky banner ads. The mix of bare bones software and bland presentation did not give me confidence. If the company put this little work into their interface, how is the actual box going to perform?