$99 Netflix Player Arrives
As I mentioned yesterday, Netflix makes thousands of DVDs available for online viewing. Today the company announced a $100 set-top-box that lets customers easily stream those movies to a television. The Netflix Player is made and sold by Roku. Featuring standard RCA jacks, S-video, component video, and HDMI, the device will work with almost any TV or home theater system. The included remote control is minimalist, but it offers all the buttons needed to select and control movies, and to even rate them after the credits roll.
Ethernet and WiFi are built in, allowing easy connection to the internet. And an aspect ratio toggle on the Player can be switched from full screen to widescreen, depending on the type of TV the box is connected to.
Netflix offers a growing library of over 10,000 instant movies and TV episodes to choose from, and getting them to the Netflix Player is easy — Netflix members just log into their account on any PC and add movies to their “Instant Queue”, and those selections are available for viewing on the Player. Most of the catalog is older movies and series, but more titles are being added all the time.
There’s no extra monthly charge for the device — unlimited “Watch Now” movies are already included in all Netflix plans costing at least $8.99 a month.
The Netflix Player is an affordable way to get quality content onto your television. It has the potential to be a game changer — the cable companies should be nervous.
On the web:
Visit ZDNet for a more detailed review.
The Netflix Player can be ordered directly from Roku.
Read the press release.
