Magic Box
 

After a lot of consideration, I decided to get one of those Roku players that Netflix offers. It's a device that will suck in signal, either by wireless or an ethernet cable that allows you to watch the "watch instantly" content offered by Netflix.

I had actually ordered it to keep momwolf entertained, since when you have digital cable you have hundreds of channels of nothing really interesting to choose from. Well, Magic Box didn't come in the mail until yesterday. It was, however, a resounding success with siswolf and I.

I love Magic Box. But now I don't want to leave the house.

But... if you're using it at home, why can't you just watch the same instant content on your computer monitor? Is the main feature of the Roku that it's portable, or that it hooks up to your real TV?

It's that it hooks up to a real TV. Watching movies while lying in bed with a laptop balanced on my belly is okay, but not actually comfortable.

I don't have a desktop set up here, and besides, I never saw the attraction of watching anything from the most uncomfortable chair in the house on a 12 inch diagonal screen. With crappy sound.

Awesome. I've been thinking about buying the magic box too. It would be really cool.

But I want a different magic box. I want a magic box that's a DVR and a Netflix streamer. I bet that as soon as I buy this magic box, somebody comes out with my dream box. Oh, and I'd like a Blu-ray player too.

Seems like somebody could and should put together a box with the hard drive and tv tuner for DVR, a Blu-ray drive, and networking with Netflix capability with an HDMI output for a TV. It should be possible to do all that for under $500. Why hasn't this device been manufactured yet? It's so obvious. It must be licensing problems.

It's called a computer ... you can get a fanless small box with HDMI outputs to stream content for around $500 or less, and also store all of your own video and audio files on it. We built one about 3 years ago, canceled our TV service, and have never looked back.

I thought "magic box" was going to be a lot more NSFW. I'm very disappointed.

It's absolutely licensing problems. We've had a homemade box running those things for years. (Okay, actually it doesn't have a Blu-Ray drive, but that's only because we're not interested; it certainly could.)

I was considering getting one of these before we upgraded our Tivo in the Great Verizon Switch. I'm liking the Netflix service itself a lot.