2011 New year lets see how long.

So its a new year so lets see if I can do a better job at actually blogging on a regular basis. This Christmas I got a Roku box which is something I have been wanting for a while but since I have not been working for a while so it just had not been possible to buy. So asking Santa (aka mom) for a Roku for Christmas was the next best thing. I wanted the Roku so that I could watch movies and shows on my television instead of my computer like I had been doing for the last year.

I have to say that the Roku XD works great the wireless connection is fast enough to stream high definition content with no problem and looks great pushing out 720P video to my 32" flatscreen television in our bedroom. The channel selection is great even if most of what would be considered premium content requires a secondary subscription for viewing. The Amazon VOD is great since you can rent new release HD movies for as low as $2.99 and have more than enough time to watch it a couple of times if you want. One great thing about connecting my Roku to my Amazon account was the $5 credit you get and the other $5 credit you could get by tweeting a message offering the same deal to your followers on Twitter. So right off the bat I had $10 credit to use for renting or buying shows off Amazon VOD. The first movie I rented was Predators which did seem to be an interesting continuation of that series much better than the last two Aliens vs Predators flicks. The I rented Scott Pilgrim vs The World in HD and it looked just as good as if it was a local HD copy. But the best thing was when I used the remaining credit to buy the Doctor Who Christmas special that I had missed watching when it was broadcast the week before. I purchased it in HD for only $2,99 and it was beautifully visually and a really good Doctor Who story that I can watch again and again as much as I want. Too cool! This will come in handy when I want to see a new movie but don't want to bother with running to a Redbox for it.

The other surprising thing I have found since getting the Roku is that Hulu Plus is not as useless as I had first thought when they rolled it out. I mean $7.99 a month but you still have commercials? How is that a good deal well it does seem to be one to me when you take how many shows are actually available. The large number of full episodes for shows is pretty good especially when a lot of those episodes are first run episodes usually withing a week after it has broadcast over the air. So I am really considering keeping my account active after my free trial since there are shows available through Hulu Plus available for streaming that are only available on Netflix on DVD. So Hulu Plus looks like it will do a good job of augmenting my Netflix account in that way and it will come in handy for watching shows I miss since we no longer have a DVR.

All in all I am very happy with my Roku box great Christmas gift!

Have a Happy New Year!!!!!