This Christmas, I decided to surprise my family with the gift of digital content. My family loves movies and currently uses Netflix to get their DVD fix. As many of you may know, Netflix has this pretty awesome feature that allows you to instantly stream a vast amount of content directly to your computer which is included in your monthly membership. But who wants to stream content to their computer when they have a huge TV in the living room? That’s right, no one does. This is where my awesome gift comes into play.

There are various devices on the market right now that take advantage of Netflix’s instant streaming services. They range from game systems, Blu-Ray players, and even some TVs. I wasn’t going to buy my family an expensive game console because they wouldn’t use it, and they aren’t ready to make the change to Blu-Ray, so I opted for the next best alternative: a Roku box. Never heard of the Roku box? Neither did I, until I did some research. It essentially acts as a hub between the internet and your television. It’s used exclusively to stream content from various streaming services to your television, bypassing a computer, and creating an easy solution for less tech savvy people. Setup was a breeze, we followed the on-screen directions and within 10 minutes of unwrapping the device we were watching movies directly off of the Netflix website for “free”. Keep in mind that the entire catalogue of Netflix is not available for their streaming services. Just because you can rent it doesn’t mean you can stream it.

The box comes in three different flavors and the difference between each is not hard to decipher. The base model does everything the other two options can do except it can only do SD content and does not have the latest Wireless N standard. The middle box is HD capable, leaving the top tier Roku box to have both HD capability and the latest wireless standard. If you plan on buying one, do the research so you don’t spend the extra money on some unnecessary features that you will never use. If you have no clue what any of that means, you probably want to pick up the basic box and save yourself the hassle.

All in all, the Roku box is a very easy and straightforward way for Netflix users to get their streaming content on their televisions without the hassle of a computer. The Roku box also offers different channels you can stream to your TV like Amazon Video on Demand, Pandora Internet Radio, Revison3, and a pleothera of other channels  that you can check out here. If you’re in the market for such a device, I highly recommend giving this product a try.

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