Earlier this year I had to make a decision.  My DVD player was on its last legs and I wanted to start watching Netflix without relying on snail mail.                                                         

I’m not a big fan of network television; I watch sporting events and the occasional movie.  I mainly wanted something to stream Netflix and open up some online viewing options.  My original research pointed to a blu-ray player or a little device called a Roku.  I hadn’t heard of the Roku before and this was just when the Roku 3 was coming out.  I read a number of reviews of the 3 from various sites – everybody loved it.

I looked at various blu-ray players.  They were good, but nothing really stood out.  I also realized that I only needing something connecting me to the internet – I wasn’t going to watch a blu-ray video any other way.

The Roku was the way to go for me.  I checked my two standard purchasing options – Costco and Amazon – but neither would be able to sell the Roku 3 for another month.  Voila, off to the Roku website and a few days later it arrived.

Setup was easy and a short time later I was connected to Netflix.  Investigating the device, I found I actually liked the Amazon Instant Video a lot better than Netflix.  They frequently seemed to have better videos (at least they appealed to me more) than Netflix.  There are also a lot of other channels that you can watch – okay, there are 61 just sports channels.  Even I think that’s nuts.

Anyway, eight months later and I’m a very satisfied Roku fan.  If you want more information, here’s a short video on the device.

Although I have a lot of good things to say about the Roku, I saw a preview of the Xbox one today.  If I was a console gamer, that device looks pretty cool.