Roku Tunes In BBC IPlayer For UK Streamers

Roku player is everything that it advertised. When the description says you will be up and running in just a few minutes, you can believe it. I opened the box and plugged in the power cord. I took a gamble and did not directly attach it to my router. (Linksys WR42G) I wanted to see if it saw my network. I turned everything on and immediately saw the set-up screen for the Roku player. This initial set-up and test (including connecting to my wireless network) took no more than 10 minutes. After that, I was ready to start watching.

Roku is general is pretty cool. Not just the technology, but the company and its attitude. You get a sense that Roku is run by some fun-loving folks from the tone of first email you receive as a new user, “Welcome to Roku – your new best friend.” To their credit, Roku allows freedom of expression on their blog comments, even when the commenters are ranting disgruntled customers. I didn’t see a lot of interaction with the commenters, but I can only hope their customer service people are all over the reported problems and issues.

But the true killer app on the Roku 3 is the new unified search. The Roku 3 will search your installed and configured channels for the movie or TV show you want to watch. Then it will give you the options for where you can see it, how much it will cost you, and whether or not it is available in HD at each provider. You can even search by actor, director, etc. We found what appears to be a bug where content that is only available for purchase from Vudu didn’t appear in the search, but everything else came up just fine. And the searches are fast. Lightening fast.

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.

The remote included with the [http://bloggingwithjit.blog.com/2013/10/26/roku-3-streaming-media-player/ roku 3] is an enhanced, Bluetooth model. As you would expect, it has buttons to control the playback of streaming content. It is also used as a gaming controller for games such as Angry Birds, which is included for free with the purchase of the Roku 3. It has “motion-sensing technology” inside that allows you to control game play, like the remotes for the Wii my daughter has. It has an adjustable wrist strap to prevent you from throwing it through the TV screen during a spirited game. The A/B buttons at the bottom are for gaming.

The company also offers a free control app for iOS and Android devices that consists of four pages. The Remote page mimics most of the buttons on the remote (with the OK button more intuitively located in the middle of the navigation arrows, I might add!). You can pull up a virtual QWERTY keyboard to speed up the text-entry process. The My Channels page gives you direct access to (wait for it) your channels, while the Store page lets you browse and add new channels from the remote, without interrupting video playback on the TV screen.