Some quick thoughts after 1 day's use of the Roku Netflix Player

As I’d read, the device is very simple — just a tiny and light black box, a power supply and a remote. Setup was easy, once I’d fixed a stuck button on the remote. I’d wondered how the Player linked itself to a specific Netflix account — would I have to laboriously type in my username & password via the remote? Instead, the player displays an activation code. You then go to your computer, sign into Netflix and enter the code there, linking your account to the Player. Pretty easy.

Initially I connected the Player to my network via WiFi, despite some misgivings about signal strength in my house. Regardless, the WiFi worked fine and the picture quality didn’t stutter or degrade. I noticed no change when I switched the player from WiFi to ethernet.

So far I’ve mostly watched TV shows, which I think is the Player’s sweet spot. They are short, and the picture quality isn’t of primary importance. Even under the best of conditions, the Player’s picture is not DVD quality. It’s certainly better than watching shows via YouTube, but it’s not quite good enough for watching anything with stellar cinematography.

Speaking of picture quality, I can’t quite figure out how it’s determined. When the Player starts to load a show, it displays a quality rating: 1 to 4. I first thought that the quality had something to do with network speed, but now I’m not so sure. For example, if I start playing National Treasure 2 I get a quality rating of 2. And the picture is quite blurry. It’s still watchable, but it’s noticeably poor. However, if I switch right over to an episode of Red Dwarf, I get a quality of 3 or 4, and it looks great. If I go back to the movie, the quality goes back to 2. So how is quality determined? I suspect that the content provider has some control. Hopefully this improves when Netflix is able to add 480p playback.

I have a few more small quibbles with the Player so far. As with any streaming media player, fast-forward & reverse are a problem. Skimming through a show, or just skipping a short bit of time isn’t really feasible, as the player has to re-buffer the show every time you skip forward or backward. On the plus side, if you start watching a show, take a break and come back to it later, you’ll start back up at the spot where you left off.

Lastly, the selection of shows available for the Player isn’t quite 4-star. Take a good look at the inventory before investing in the Roku Player. If you look right now, you’ll see a decent variety of BBC shows, and you might think “Yay, I can watch a lot of Dr. Who and Red Dwarf!” And this is true…for now. As far as I can tell, all of the BBC shows will be removed from streaming on December 1st, 2008. Will the removal be permanent or is it just a temporary thing while the Beeb and Netflix sign a new agreement? I have no idea. That’s why I’m in the middle of a Red Dwarf marathon, watching all 52 episodes over the course of a week.

Beyond British television, the next-best represented genre is probably documentary films, including many made for PBS. There are theatrical films available, of course, but with a few exceptions (Superbad, Ratatouille, No Country For Old Men), most of them are either terrible (Wild Hogs) or particularly terrible (Species 4: The Awakening). There are films available that I want to watch, but if the picture quality continues to be poor, then I’d prefer to just rent the DVD.

That said, I expect the breadth of Netflix’s selection to improve. Internet distribution makes a certain amount of sense, and the idea seems to be catching on. After some time, and maybe a change or two to the revenue model (I wouldn’t be surprised by pre-show ads, a la Hulu), the quantity and quality of content available should be much better.

November 13th, 2008 / Trackback

Ride Journal: 9/27/2008

The Route

This week’s long ride was a leisurely, social affair. Recently, I ended up as the DM of a new a D&D group. I, along with a couple other players, needed to pick up miniatures so we biked to The Source and tried to find female minis with non-gigantic boobs (a very difficult task).

While in the Roseville area, we also swung by Erik’s Bikes, a local chain of cycling stores. I’m not going to be all bitter about people buying bikes from Erik’s — the more bikers the better. But I was profoundly bored by the place. Racks and racks of cheapish pre-fab bikes, few of which would actually provide a quality, long-term ride. I try not to be a bike snob, I really do. But bikes like the Specialized Langster San Francisco test my resolve. It’s hard to get the full effect of that bike’s kitschy ugliness via a simple photo; you really have to see it in person.

But who knows, maybe a $800 fixie is exactly what some lucky guy or gal needs to open their eyes to the world of bicycles. I hope so.

The staff at Erik’s seemed pretty nice, though. At least one of them stopped to drool over D’s Boston Roadster. He has an eye for quality!

While D & his girlfriend looked at bikes, I stopped at McDonalds of all places. Trying avoid the hunger crash that I could see on the horizon, I got a McFlurry. Basically McDonald’s ice cream with some candy mixed in. Nothing special. However, the blender they use to make the McFlurrys is awesome! Instead of having a blender attachment that the staff would have to wash between each use, the spoon that comes with your McFlurry attaches to the blender’s motor and is used to mix your shake. I thought it was very clever, although I wish that I could have recycled the spoon.

From The Source and Erik’s, we headed back home. Stopping only to get my weekly CSA delivery. A pretty chill ride, all in all. A good way to ride into fall.

September 27th, 2008 / Trackback

Ride Journal: 9/20/2008

The Route

Day to day my rides are best described as errand runs. Looking through my ride journal I see lots of 3 to 5 mile rides to get groceries, visit the library, meet friends at a restaurant, etc. This is great, and it’s certainly the kind of riding at which cycling excels.

But it’s not the only kind of riding I want to do. So for the last two weekends I’ve hopped on the bike and taking it out for longer rides.

Last weekend was the Tour De Pastry — a 28-mile loop through Minneapolis and Richfield that stopped at 4 tasty bakeries. About 7 of us made the trip and although the rain was unpleasant, the pastries and company made it a great ride. It was also a pretty slow ride. I tried to keep the pace around 12 mph, and we spent a lot of time lounging at the bakeries.

This weekend I went out solo, which meant that I could set whatever pace I want and I happily pedaled along at about 15 mph. Since I didn’t want to think too much about destination, I just headed up to the Greenway and kept going west. When the Greenway ends, it joins up with Cedar Lake LRT trail which eventually splits into two trails that are both called Southwest LRT Trail. I stuck to the southern Southwest LRT, which runs for about 12 miles before dead-ending in Chaska.

The ride from Hopkins to Chaska was deceptively easy, I later realized that it’s almost entirely downhill. The grade is rarely enough to notice, but I certainly noticed it while biking back, already exhausted after over 24 miles of riding.

I made a lot of mistakes that made this ride a lot harder than it needed to be. I started too late, leaving the house a little after noon. And I left without having lunch, as I’d had a very late breakfast. Since I didn’t bring any snacks with me, I wasn’t able to eat until 37 miles into my ride. And by that point I was so hungry and exhausted that I ate too much too quickly, leaving me in worse shape than before.

Thus, rule #1 for long rides: Bring some food. Or plan a route that includes places to eat.

Although I was smart enough to bring a water bottle with me, I wasn’t smart enough to refill it. This led to me camping out by a water fountain during my return trip and drinking 2 or 3 pins of water. I also tried to look pitiful enough that the picnickers near me would offer me a burger. That ploy didn’t work. Bastards.

Rule #2: Stop for water whenever you can.

While I was exhausted beyond belief last night, I’m actually feeling pretty decent today, leading me to think that I can do more 50-mile rides in the future, provided that I follow the rules above. Next time I might try the other branch of the Southwest LRT trail.

September 21st, 2008 / Trackback

Ride Journal: 8/3/2008

There are probably as many reasons for biking as there are reasons for bikes. Just off the top of my head, you can use your bike for:

Exercise
Commuting
Work
Cruising with friends
Touring
Racing
Everyday transportation

I’m sure there are more. But that’s a good starting list. When I first decided to build myself a bike, I really had no idea what kind of biking I was going to do. I knew that I liked to bike around to local shops, and I figured that I could use the bike for some exercise, but I didn’t really have a concrete idea of what kind of biker I would be.

After about 3 weeks of semi-regular riding, I’m starting to find my ‘biking persona’ — what a terrible phrase. I’m not very excited about biking without a purpose; I rarely go out on directionless rides. I like riding as part of doing. So rides to the grocery store, as my wife and I did today, are perfect. Biking to a restaurant to meet up with friends is another great idea. Basically if I have a place that I need to go, or an errand that I need to run, I’d like to bike it if feasible.

Looking into the future, I can see myself getting into bicycle touring. I’m especially intrigued by sub-24-hour overnight rides (more at Rivendell Bikes). It seems like an awesome way to combine a long bike ride with a relaxing weekend. But until I invest a lot of money in camping equipment, any of my rides would have to be to towns with a nice bed & breakfast. Red Wing seems like a good option. Only 50-ish miles each way, and Red Wing is a great town to spend a weekend in.

Any serious touring, however, would probably require that I get a different bike. It’s hard to tour with only one gear, no fenders and limited storage options. Maybe that will be my project next summer, building myself a sweet touring bike.

August 3rd, 2008 / Tags: bike, ride journal / Trackback

Ride Journal: 8/3/2008

Route

I spent five days after the bike in order to give a pulled muscle some time to heal. By today I was itching for a ride, and it just happened to be time to pick up our weekly CSA delivery. Perfect.

I biked up the same hill I mentioned earlier and had a much easier — although not easy — time of it. I attribute this to three factors.

• Practice
• A higher saddle position
• Just sucking it up and pedaling

The saddle change is thanks to the excellent articles over at Rivendell Bicycle Works. Their unabashed Tolkein fanboy-ism aside, they look like an awesome crew of people.

August 2nd, 2008 / Tags: bike, ride journal / Trackback