It was inevitable, but via Roku, Netflix has released a set-top box that streams a chunk of its library over the internets to your teletube. It’s cheap, rolling in at $99 and does not require any other subscription fees as long as your regular Netflix subscription is at least $9 a month. When it comes to the interface, it does things a little differently than all the other set-top-video-on-demand-box hyphenates out there: the Netflix library is not listed through the box, rather you use your browser to put selections into the Netflix Queue in your account. Advantageous in that the box does not rely on clunky on-screen keyboards, loading long lists of potential choices, but perhaps irking when you’re too drunk to go fetch your laptop in the other room. At the end of the day, the price point and the sheer simplicity (think of all the less savvy users who have come to master Netflix in recent years - they won’t have to learn a new interface) makes this a formidable entry in this over-saturated and underselling market. Step it up, AppleTV.
Technorati Tags: appletv, netflix, queue, roku, set top box, video on demand
