Roku, you sly little box. I’m intrigued by you, I’ll admit it. Like everyone on the planet, I have a Netflix subscription. And I love the ‘Netflix Instant Watch’ feature. So then I hear about this Roku thing. And at first I’m like ‘Uh, Roku you, jerk!’ because I had no idea what it was and wanted to seem tough. But I did a little googling and found that Roku is simply a little black box you use to stream movies to your TV via Netflix. Well, that sounds nice enough.

As we love to do on ShesSmart.com, I went to see what the Amazon.com reviews for Roku were. As of the date I’m writing this, there are 254 five star reviews out of 374 reviews total. That’s a lot of people being pleased with this product.

Roku boasts these features:

• Start watching movies on your TV in seconds using your high-speed Internet connection
• Instantly plays the entire Netflix Instant Watch library with your Netflix membership – no additional subscription required, viewing is unlimited
• Instantly plays over 45,000 movies and shows from Amazon Video On Demand
• Built-in wireless (Wi-Fi) and wired internet connectivity
• Plays High Definition as well as DVD-quality video; works with any TV

The problem I have with this is that even if it’s a pretty good deal for what it is, my wireless connection is not amazing at night when it’s windy. Which means that when I try to watch something on Netflix Instant-Watch it just keeps buffering and I get annoyed and go to bed unfulfilled. So this would be great, except for the times it wouldn’t work at all? I’m not sure. If it depends on your wireless connection, then it really isn’t up to the product, just …the wind. Damn you, wind.

On the plus side: It’s a lotta bang for your buck because there are tons of things you can watch for free on Netflix.

On the minus side: The reviews say there is no closed-caption feature, and that’s important for some people.

Overall: It’s probably worth buying, and I’ll eventually cave and get it. This seems to be the most highly-rated product like this, and also the least expensive. Guess we’ll Roku!

Buy it already, you little monkies: Roku on Amazon $99.99

Products Similar to Roku

WD TV Live HD Media Player $119.99
Vudu BX100 $192.98
Netgear Digital Entertainer Live $106.98

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