On-Demand TV Gets Closer and Closer with Launch of Netflix Roku

Filed in archive Buying Stuff on May 20, 2008

I'm not going to turn this into a gadgets blog, but this is an interesting development:

The Netflix Player by Roku is the first in what portends to be a long line of devices designed to download and stream movies from Netflix...

How does it work? You buy the box for $99 and connect it to your TV via HDMI, composite, or component. You connect the stereo outs to your receiver or run out digital optical.

You must have a Netflix account to make it work, but then you simply connect the box to the Internet via Wi-Fi or Ethernet, send a request to Netflix, and then type in a code in your Netflix account. The box is paired and you're ready to add digital movies to the box.

When you add movies in Netflix - you can only add movies that you can play using Netflix streaming - the movies appear immediately on the box. You use a small remote to pick movies and control playback.

The number of movies available from this new set-top box is still limited, but you know that eventually everything Netflix has will be available digitally, and you won't have to do the DVD sending back and forth.

I was a Netflix customer for a while but quit them for two reasons:

(1) Many times the DVDs were horrible picture and sound quality, likely from being sent around the country so often

(2) It seemed to be very difficult to get the movies I wanted the most. If I had my movies ranked, I'd get the 9th ranked movie, never the first.

With a set-top box, you have to imagine that eventually you'll be able to get just about anything sent digitally to your TV, and the picture quality won't suffer because it's not a physical product that can be damaged. Plus, it won't matter how many people want the same movie at the same time, so you won't have to wait around to get the movie you want most.

One of the commenters on CrunchGear makes a good point:

What really gets me is that the line between NetFlix and your cable provider is getting all the more blurred. In my opinion, this is bad for NetFlix. If they prove this model works, what's to stop a cable company from simply offering a service add-on which is unlimited in demand movies? No need for another box, and NetFlix no longer has a product? (I mean seriously, who need ANOTHER box in their living room with MORE HDMI cables running around? Not me...)

Is there some limitation to this? Is there something I'm missing?

I just don't see the innovation here. Unlimited DVDs in the mail? Ground breaking. Delivering on demand movies to my TV via a set top box? Uh, 10 years ago?

The commenter is definitely right that Netflix's problem is that eventually cable companies will offer the exact same service, but that Netflix's problem, your gain, as prices will likely go down. As for the technology itself, yes, on-demand movies already exist, but on-demand has never meant unlimited selection, and that definitely is the route we're going.

Here's what I've always wondered about an on-demand TV/movie world, though: If you could watch any TV show or any movie you wanted at any time for $20 per month (or whatever price), and if this then meant that you never watched broadcast TV live, how would you know what you wanted to watch? Where would you learn about new stuff that you wanted to see. Billboards? Newspapers? Internet? The Internet seems the most logical way, with influential entertainment Web sites being the new way to learn about shows and movies.

Will the Internet eventually be the last media standing?