The Netflix Player by Roku, and why I don't want it!!
Netflix now has a set-top box named "Netflix Player" with the coveted "Watch Now" in collaboration with Roku. The idea is good, the price, at 99$, is right, but the problem is, the home entertainment real estate is very limited, and it's just not feasible to add one box for each specialized application. Let's look at it. A normal home theater setup will have a DVD/B-Ray player, a Cable/Sat settop-box, a Game console, an Audio receiver and possibly a DVR like Tivo.That's four to five boxes already. Who wants to add another box to the mix, especially if it looks so ugly:
The best thing for Netflix would be to get in collaboration with one or more of the set top boxes/game consoles. I'd love if they provide a "Watch Now" client for XBOX 360, and use it more often.
There is, however, a flip side to Roku's player. This player runs a variant of Linux. However, the "Watch Now" feature of Netflix is completely unavailable for Linux based PCs. I wonder how long before someone will reverse engineer Roku to write a client for Linux. Especially, because of GPL, it'd be perfectly legal to ask Roku to give out the source code for its player. I'd love to see that happen too.
There is, however, a flip side to Roku's player. This player runs a variant of Linux. However, the "Watch Now" feature of Netflix is completely unavailable for Linux based PCs. I wonder how long before someone will reverse engineer Roku to write a client for Linux. Especially, because of GPL, it'd be perfectly legal to ask Roku to give out the source code for its player. I'd love to see that happen too.
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