Roku 2 XS Review: C-

[Pardus]

Roku claims itself to be "The flagship Roku 2 XS delivers hands-down the best experience in 1080p HD streaming to your TV—plus motion-based gaming for an extra dose of great entertainment. With over 450 entertainment channels, including Netflix, Hulu Plus, HBO GO, and Amazon Instant Video."

For the most part this is true, Amazon, Netflix, Hulu Plus, HBO Go, Games, Sports and other channels are on a pay per monthly subscription.

The free movie selection comes from Crackle, Epix and a few others. The movies offered are old, pre-1990 movies and really bad ones too.

The device has no web browser, so forget about youtube or anything the Roku doesn't offer. You can add private channels to the Roku, most listed here do not work.

The only live streaming comes from Fox News only from 9am to 3pm. Most of the content offered is useless junk... that i can get on a pc already.

Here is a complete list of channels Roku offers and sorted list here

The streaming of any video content is painfully slow, trying to watch a movie times out of takes up to 10 mins to start, you will lost interest before any content is played. The Roku takes a long time to even display the list/categories of movies or tv shows available.

Music channels like Pandora and Tune-In play with no issues, but again, I can run a simple HDMI cable from p.c to tv and do this without the Roku.

Fast forwarding or rewinding anything is another nightmare, the unit always takes a few minutes (5-10) to catch up when doing this. Remote control is very basic, does not offer any options to adjust aspect ratio, zoom that any decent media player would offer.

The Roku comes with a usb port for viewing video/music/pictures from a usb device, however, it does not support Divx, AVI or WMP and there are no plans to support this.

All the content is web based and its so much easier to view it on a laptop then have to deal with the Roku.

The warranty is only 90-days which leads me to believe the company doesn't expect the unit to last. After 90-days, the support will be either $19.99 to extend the warranty to 2-years or $9.99 per call, if you need to call them.

Have not tried WD Live TV, Apple TV, Boxee so i can't compare. However, watching the same movie from Crackle on my laptop wireless streams perfectly, watching in on the Roku makes me want to smash it.

For example streaming Iron Man 2 via Netflix was terrible on the Roku and nearly perfect on a laptop via a 20mb connection.

Overall, if your looking to get a Smart TV without buying a new HDTV, this will do it for under $100.00. If you have a laptop with an HDMI port, then there is no reason to purchase the Roku.

Perhaps, the Roku 3 will fix these issues.

 

[poofyhairguy]

The XS is ridiculous. The best Roku is the purple one- it is my go-to way to help people with non-HD TVs deal with a world without Blockbusters.

 

[tyanni]

I disagree with most of that...I have an XS. Works fine. No streaming issues (it is wired...) Amazon Prime Video's start almost immediately, as does Netflix. Not sure what is wrong with your box.

 

[ImpulsE69]

We already had a thread reviewing the new Rokus.

I have none of the issues you state with my Roku 2 XS, and I'm using it wirelessly. I don't use netflix or any of the pay channels, but I do use the free channels and Plex quite a bit on it. For the price (around $50), it's a great addition if you don't want to hassle with other things. I do agree, that if you already have another media player/streamer and or a blu-ray that will do it, why spend more money, but I use it primarily to stream my own content.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Just wanted to bump this thread with an update.

The latest firmware updates + the newest Plex server has really improved the usability of the Roku 2. It works almost flawlessly now, and will direct stream most all content w/o having to transcode. Also, Plex added YouTube streaming as well as many other web streaming channels (fox, comedy central, nbc etc) that are searchable. Much much more usable than it use to be.

 

[mmntech]

I thought about the Roku but went with a Zotac Zbox Nano instead. I made the right choice, even though it cost twice as much. Glad to hear you got the problem sorted.

 

[Edge1]

I give the Roku a solid A+. Pretty much a game-changer for me.

 

[Muadib]

I give the Roku a solid A+. Pretty much a game-changer for me.

I'll give my Roku 2 XS a B. I mostly use it to watch Leo Laport's radio show. No issues with playback here.

I've been meaning to play with some of the other channels that Yazoo posted. Didn't know there were so many.

 

[johnfer]

And I'm happy as a kid with my Roku 2 XS! Best quality as for me. Just read this review and you will see.

http://mydigitaldevice.com/2012/08/roku-2-xs-review/

 

[jhansman]

Depends on what you want to use it for. I occasionally stream Netflix (blame them for their crappy streaming content) and Amazon, but principally I used my Roku for Plex streaming, which it excels at. These two were made for each other. If I could wire my Roku, I'd be all set. It has proven to be a far more versatile media device than my "connected" Sony BD player, which cost three times a much and with every firmware update (not optional, BTW) becomes less useful.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Depends on what you want to use it for. I occasionally stream Netflix (blame them for their crappy streaming content) and Amazon, but principally I used my Roku for Plex streaming, which it excels at. These two were made for each other. If I could wire my Roku, I'd be all set. It has proven to be a far more versatile media device than my "connected" Sony BD player, which cost three times a much and with every firmware update (not optional, BTW) becomes less useful.

I've yet to have my BD player hooked up to the internet. No need.

I can't speak enough for Roku now. Plex is the game changer here, let's hope it doesn't get blocked for some reason.

 

[Edge1]

Yep, Plex just puts this device over the top.