netflix roku- you know what, I like this...

I have started once again to keep myself up-to-date with the tech news etc. and while browsing the google tech news I came upon an article about the new Netflix Roku. For some reason I never got into the Apple TV idea, I guess because I'm not a big fan of the apple store in general. My main gripe with it is the damn DRM stuff. I feel like downloading music legally from the itunes store is so pointless- you can't do anything with the songs once you get them For instance, I was making a youtube video the other day and I really wanted to use this particular song. Instead of sifting through all the bittorrent websites (yeah, I use bittorrent- what about it?) I decided to use the itunes store. I found the song and downloaded it and then quickly realized that I couldn't use the damn thing because of the DRM certificate. I digress..

I dove further into the hub-bub over the new roku player and I think it's a pretty good idea. A simple, stripped down media player that allows users to rent and stream movies and tv shows right from the internet. Netflix is doing a good job bridging the gap between on-demand video and traditional DVD rentals- I dig it. Critics have mixed reviews but there is still a lot of support for the new product saying that it is definitely a cheaper rival to the apple TV. I said not too long ago that I was excited about amazon.com "renting" movies and TV through the internet and could easily make it into this same streaming idea- this roku player is doing the exact same thing just making it a bit easier. I'm not sure about it but I also think that netflix may have a better selection than amazon, but who knows. Bottom line, I'm into this roku idea.. I'm not sure I would get it for myself (right now anyway) but I think it's worth investing in if you have the time and money to watch a lot of movies. Update on my life: I haven't been using netflix anymore because I found it to be a bit expensive for my college taste and the time I spend watching movies is the time I'm not sleeping, so that's that.

Digital downloads Vs. movie rentals

Businessweek brought up the idea that services like netflix may be threatened by movie downloading services. A quick trip to Amazon.com's unboxed site shows that you can rent movies via download for .99 and the file will expire in 30 days and once started will expire after 24 hours. Very interesting. Now I had netflix last semester and I LOVED it. I paid $15 a month for the two-at-a-time unlimited plan. On top of that plan I had 15 hours of online movie viewing a month, pretty sweet I thought. On average I probably watched about 2 movies every 5 days or so ~12 movies/month. It looks like I could save money as well as having the convenience of not waiting for snail mail if I took advantage of amazon's rentals.

I'm sure I'm not alone. About 5 years ago movie rental businesses noticed that digital services like comcast's OnDemand and netflix were cutting into their physical store/disc profits. Now online movie rental sites like netflix are noticing a similar change for consumers to download movies rather than waiting for the mail to arrive. It makes sense I think, the way the internet is these days. The service amazon has is a good one, and young people I'm sure are into the DRM free files, as I've said before. Bottom line- with a few cables, next semester I'll turn my computer into a TiVo using Amazon's movie and TV downloads :)