Give an Entertainment Gift : Roku Review

Do you have someone on your Christmas list who is hard to buy for? Or do you know someone who loves to watch movies and TV episodes? Then consider giving a Roku as a gift this year.


Have you heard of Roku? Roku is a small box that makes it easy to download TV shows and movies to your TV. With Roku, you can watch Netflix, Amazon on Demand, Pandora, and Hulu Plus on your TV. Did you know that some Amazon on Demand shows are free?


I was super excited to try out the Roku. It is really small so it doesn't take up much room. We subscribe to Netflix so I knew that would be the first feature that I would want to try out. Easy to set up once I found the correct spot on my TV. Seriously who puts the connections on the side of the TV? Once plugged in , it literally took less than 5 minutes to get the Netflix account to sync to the Roku and to start watching a show.

It was great to be able to watch Netflix instant shows on our larger TV. We have watched through our Wii but the Wii is connected to our smaller TV in the basement. Now some people can watch Netflix TV while other people can play the Wii.

The Roku prices range from $59.99 to $99.99 . The model that I tested was the Roku HD which retails for $59.99 . The more expensive models feature 1080p HD video quality and more extended-range wireless. The basic model does have wireless capability or you can hook it up to your internet directly.

So is worth the money? Definitely!! If you have a Netflix subscription then this is a no brainer. You will get so much more out of your subscription. The same thing goes if you have a Hulu Plus membership. If you don't have Hulu Plus or Netflix, then you can still watch some free TV shows from Amazon and some of the other channels. Or you can pay to watch a movie through Amazon and skip the trip to the video store.

** I recieved a Roku HD player from Roku to use for this review. No other compensation was given. The opinions are my own.**