Holiday Gift Guide: Roku Netflix Player Review

As a child I remember Christmas morning spent unwrapping presents with an afternoon following filled with newly acquired toys.  Probably the best gifts were the game systems.  These were gifts that took some unwrapping, some minor assembly, and offered hours of entertainment.  This is immediately what I think of when I envision giving the gift of the Roku Netflix Player.  It takes a few minutes to setup, and afterwards, if you and your loved ones have an addictive personality like mine, prepare to be entranced the rest of the day.

Setting up the Roku is easy.  I hooked it up to the tv, and despite not knowing my wifi password and the following router reconfiguration, had it up and running in under 15 minutes.  Automatically the 15 or so movies in my queue that were available as instant watchers were available to stream. With the simple on-screen navigation and easy to use remote, I pulled up a movie, let it buffer, and was watching it moments later.

It wasn’t till I started watching TV series that fun really began.  Curios about the show Heroes, I went to my computer and added season 1 to my instant queue.  It took all of 5 seconds for it to appear on my roku as an available option.  I devoured episode after episode till I had burned through the first two seasons and all of the current season up through the most recent episode.

I then moved on to 30 Rock, Dead Like Me, and The Office.  Though, not all the series were as broad or current as Heroes.  Some are tied to DVD release schedules coming in a season behind, some are missing episodes only available on disc, and a lot of series are just not available.  However, you’d be hard pressed not to find something entertaining to watch.

The small box has a price tage of just $99.  The best part is that it makes a great combo present with only one unit needed per household.  If the recipients aren’t netflix members already, not a problem.  Simply couple it with a gift certificate for one month starting as low as $9.

I highly recommend the roku gift this holiday season.  Check out more at Roku.