[opendtv] Roku experience
- From: Albert Manfredi <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 24 May 2014 19:13:41 -0400
Today we installed a Roku on the upstairs TV system, the one my wife uses
mostly, the one sans PC.
If you think of the box as greatly expanding what TV you can watch, compared
with just OTA, it's very good. If you think of the box as giving your TV
Internet access, then it feels like browsing the Internet with a straightjacket.
The setup is very straightforward, easily doable without following any
instructions. It felt very much like when I set up my new WiFi radio tuner,
last Christmas. Piece of cake.
The browsing experience is very nice, but I have a really, really hard time
believing that users don't wonder why they can't just have a keyboard, every so
often. I mean, entering text with the remote, pointing to individual letters
and numbers on the screen, is painful enough for the initial setup. To be
forced to use that method always seems, to me, your know, a little absurd.
Like, to search for a particular movie, for instance. How much easier would it
be to just have a keyboard? Again, it makes me wonder what happens to people's
brains when they think "now I watch TV."
The sites one can browse are, as anyone in a straightjacket would expect, very
limited. But the experience is very much tuned to TV watching. So for example,
we set it up for our Amazon Prime account. The generic PC interface for Amazon
is really nice too, and I am perfectly happy to use it on my downstairs TV.
However with the Roku, you get to see only the TV content, not all the rest. It
takes a couple more clicks of the mouse, with the PC interface, to get to the
TV and movies.
So for example, *if* you have in your head that this box is only for "TV,"
because you just can't make the connection that TV can be on the real Internet,
then it's great not to have other stuff ever displayed. On the other hand, *if*
you have gotten over this evidently gigantic mental hurdle, then you wonder how
come you can't order something on Amazon, other than a movie, while you're on
their site. Why you have to get up and go to your TV, or perhaps tablet, when
you're already at Amazon.
Anyway, I'm pleased to have finally connected the upstairs TV also to the
Internet, albeit wearing a straightjacket. It does indeed provide a huge
increase in what content is available to the TV.
Bert
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