Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Jealousy

My friend Laurel got a Roku. What's a Roku? It's AWESOME, that's what it is. It's awesome and I WANT ONE.

It allows you to watch Netflix movies immediately, on your tv, while you sit on your ass, on the comfy couch, with the smell of microwave popcorn wafting in from the kitchen. There's no waiting for a new disc to arrive in the mail. I love Netflix, but that's where it always seems to bite me in the ass.

You see, my boyfriend Mike will think of a movie that he wants. to. see. NOW., but by the time it arrives at my house (several days), he's not only not in the mood to watch it, he's pretty much forgotten about wanting to see it in the first place.

The Roku would be IDEAL for us. It would make Mike happy, and it would keep me from watching hours and hours of ESPN.

Of course, it could also backfire. The movies that were both too horrible to see in the theater AND too horrible to get on Netflix? They could easily be at the forefront of the Roku watching. I mean, we make really bad decisions with movies sometimes (see here. And here. And oh my Lord, here).

Perhaps I need to rethink this.

6 comments:

carrie m said...

There's some program you can put on your laptop (I can't remember if it's Mac or both Mac and PC) that allows you to do the same thing.

I know I'm totally helpful by telling you what this thing actually is...

JLR said...

I'm sure you know that you can already stream netflix on your computer, and if you have a laptop that hooks up to your t.v, it's pretty awesome (and cheaper). I'm still thinking that at some point I will actually by the roku.

Jenny said...

I love our Roku, so much easier than hooking the laptop up to the TV and well worth the $100. spring for it. You can also stream your pandora from it.

lem said...

Yes, I love my Roku! Well worth the $80. Plus I now appreciate the humor and wonderfulness of 30 Rock. Not everything is available, but judging by the 100 movies in my instant queue I've found enough. I also have very high hopes that the History Channel, Discovery, etc is going to discover that they could just partner with Roku and stream their shows (for a small subscription fee) thus eliminating the need for the devil...I mean cable companies.

Shane said...

H - I have one as well and it is pretty handy. You can pair it to your Amazon account and watch movies and tv shows you buy/rent through Amazon. In addition to Pandora, you can stream your pics through Flickr (I dont think Picasa yes though). There are also quite a few internet "channels" for exclusive online-only content. With so many tv stations releasing their content via their websites, hulu, etc, I could totally get by with an HD antenna and a Roku.

Heather said...

carrie - Program on laptop? Awesome. Too bad that my poor baby lappy is so loaded down with pictures and illegally downloaded music that I can barely add a program without a complete system meltdown. But thanks!

jlr - Oh, yes. Perhaps I have cords of correct size and type that would allow me to plug that shit to my tv. Good call!

jennifer - Pandora too? That's cool. I dig!

lem - I totally think that History and Discovery and the like should do that! God, we're dorks.

shane - It's an awesome idea, and now that my landlord and I are considering dropping digital cable, I could totally get behind this...