By Dennis D. McDonald

General observations

• I’ve been using the Roku box for over a month now.

• I like this product a lot.

Where it’s used

• Primary connection is in the living room with the 36” TV. This TV no longer has a digital cable tuner and is used only for occasional DVD’s and Roku streaming.

• Secondary connection is in the kitchen. (I like watching TWiT netcasts while washing dishes. Go Gina!)

Likes

• Easy to move around and connect to different devices.

• Easy-to-navigate interface takes advantage of straightforward categorization, for the most part.

• Navigation is significantly simpler and more convenient than various Comcast Cable menuing systems.

• When available for a channel, text search works nicely.

• Amazing variety of programming.

• Access to YouTube, CNN spots, Al Jazeera English daily reports.

• Synchronization between web and Roku program configuration — e.g., YouTube and Pandora channels.

• Still amazed at variety of programming available via Netflix.

Dislikes

• Wish there were a display panel on the front of the device so I could use it to tune radio or audio only channels without having to turn on a TV.

• Individual channels have widely variable program descriptions.

• Can’t search across all programs from top level.

• Having to “subscribe” by typing a code into a web site on some channels.

• Variable performance streaming — e.g., YouTube often stutters when I move the box to the kitchen.

• Amazing how awful some of the amateur series are (“Mommy XXX”? “Space Hospital”?)

Next steps

• Check out Hulu Plus programming; haven’t tried so far since I have little interest in series.

• Keep trying out different subcategories of obscure channels.

• Check out DIY programs (woodworking, knitting, building, etc.)

• Investigate Amazon services.

• Figure out why ANYONE cares what Penn thinks.

Copyright (c) 2011 by Dennis D. McDonald