Battling "Feature Creep" with the Roku Netflix Digital Video Player
When I was in high school, a friend of mine got a TV/VCR/stereo combo unit for her birthday. It had a very small footprint, required only one remote control (a very big deal in those pre-universal remote days) and was a pretty cool media center at the time.
Then the VCR got messed up, and instead of just losing her VCR for a few days, she lost her TV and her stereo, too. We all learned an important lesson then, about the wisdom of buying something that tried to pack too much into one unit.
Today, you won’t find as many all-in-one units as you once did, but it’s increasingly difficult to find things that do just one thing, and do it very well. I blame this on something I call “Feature Creep” which I suspect comes from too many meetings, too much input from marketing, and not enough product managers and engineers who are willing to stand up and say, “You know what? I don’t think this coffee maker really needs an MP3 player in it. It’s fine just making coffee.”
Feature Creep is everywhere, bloating our software, lengthening our startup times, cluttering up our menus, and draining our batteries, so when I come across something that has successfully resisted it and stayed focused on doing one simple thing very well, I have a little bit of a pants party.
One of the best examples I’ve come across in the last year is the Netflix player from Roku. It’s a tiny little box that streams anything from Netflix’s on-demand library straight into your television, and that’s all it does.
It’s a wonderfully elegant little device. The user interface is clean, and the menus are super easy to navigate. It has outputs that range from RCA to composite video and HDMI, as well as digital audio. The remote has nine buttons on it - that’s fewer than I have on my cell phone - and they mimic the controls we’re all used to on a DVR or DVD player. It’s so small and simple to set up, my wife and I frequently move it between the two TVs we have in our house, and I’ve tossed it into my backpack and taken it with me to friends’ houses for movie nights.
Set up was incredibly simple, and it took less than ten minutes from the time I opened it until I was watching my first movie. Speaking as a life-long technology geek, the highest praise I can give it is this: I still haven’t opened the manual, and don’t think I’ll ever need to.
So I love it, but is it worth $99 to you? It depends on your movie-watching habits and your network speed. If your ISP throttles your bandwidth, or your download speed is slower than 3Mbps, you won’t get the best quality picture. I didn’t realize how much that really mattered to me, until I was forced to watch a bunch of movies that looked like they were VHS quality on my HDTV. I upgraded my service to a faster bitrate so I could get maximum resolution, though, and the next movie my son and I watched, Vanishing Point, was indistinguishable from DVD.
While the box itself and the technology that power it are awfully close to perfect, the Netflix side of the service could use some improvement. The studios still haven’t figured out how to fully embrace emerging technology, so there are only 12,000 or so movies and television shows available as of this writing, I know that 12,000 sounds like a lot (and it is) but there are some huge gaps in there, especially in the new releases department, and more frequently than I’d like, the movie I really want to watch right now isn’t available. Programs are also taken out of the on-demand service fairly often as licenses expire, which can result in some unhappy moments when you realize that all those Tom Baker episodes of Doctor Who you waited until after Christmas to watch are gone. However, Netflix is adding new movies every day, and in the very near future, the player will also stream about 40,000 movies and television shows from Amazon Video On Demand, costing between 99 cents and 3.99 per rental. I don’t know what the overlap with Netflix’s existing library will be, but I expect the studios would be happy to put more movies out there when they know that they’ll be playable for only 24 hours. (Not because it deters piracy, but because the studios like to pretend that it does.)
I love the Netflix Player not just because it’s simple and elegant in a world that’s filled with unnecessarily complicated devices, but for the future it represents.
In the future, we won’t have to go to the video store, or wait for DVDs to arrive in the mail when we want to rent movies. In the future, we won’t plan our evenings around television shows, because they’ll be on-demand to fit into our schedules. In the future, we won’t have to fill our houses with physical media unless we want to. Thanks to the Netflix Player from Roku, the future is almost here.
--Wil Wheaton
(Actor and professional geek Wil Wheaton is a new guest blogger for End User. His column will appear the last Thursday of each month, where he'll review his favorite gadgets and talk about all things tech. He can regularly be found blogging at wilwheaton.typepad.com.)
Jed on January 30, 2009 at 07:04 AM
Wil,
Sounds really cool. I was watching a movie on a cable channel the other day. It was painful to watch because of all the interuptions from commercials. I understand the idea of this business model and how and why money is spent in this advertising form. But its time has ended and entertainment on my schedule is more important. Hopefully innovations like this will start the process of redefining what TV does and how it delivers its message. Keep up the great work. Still like watching reruns STTNG.
Mike on January 30, 2009 at 07:05 AM
Will, does it stream HD content?
Trey on January 30, 2009 at 07:08 AM
Wil, please deduct one point from your Geek Score for not complaining that the unit does not have composite video out for your HDTV. 8)
Trey
D Palmer on January 30, 2009 at 07:20 AM
Subtract 2 points from my geek score (which is fairly high since I trace my computer days to learning BASIC in 1981 and my best friend's high scholl actually had one of the computers that Matthew Broderick used in War Games) for not understanding why one would require component video outs when the device has an HDMI port.
Yakko Warner on January 30, 2009 at 07:50 AM
@Palmer:
Well, speaking for myself, I have a TV purchased in '01 that has component video inputs but not HDMI, so I'd be one of the complainers. ;)
But then, I'm also on Comcast and subject to their new bandwidth cap. I haven't yet come close to hitting the cap, but just knowing that cap exists makes me uneasy thinking about adding high-bandwidth applications like streaming video to my lifestyle.
I have a suspicion that's just the way Comcast likes it...
Sam on January 30, 2009 at 08:11 AM
Many times, the problem with feature creep comes in the form of poor execution.
Silly examples aside, many times, do-more equipments are quite useful: Corkscrew that opens bottle caps if executed well is quite useful.
If the additional features are derived from an updatable software source and are based off of solid hardware foundation, then we have a winner. For example, the personal computer or in case above the XBox360; which for a bit more money best guarentees future (and expanding) video content delivery due to its high subscription base.
Some might raise an eyebrow at the "solid hardware" and Xbox being mentioned in the same sentence but it's at least the devil we know (and MS has, to a degree, addressed and waranteed against).
Bill on January 30, 2009 at 08:40 AM
The pictures I see on the web show both composite and component outputs (along with HDMI).
Yakko Warner on January 30, 2009 at 09:04 AM
@Bill:
And the OP even mentions it:
"It has outputs that range from RCA to ***composite video*** and HDMI, as well as digital audio."
So what was Trey complaining about again? Trey, shame on you; you have caused confusion and delay. Please deduct one point from your reading comprehension score. ;P
Yakko Warner on January 30, 2009 at 09:05 AM
Gah. Deduct one point from *MY* comprehension score. Composite != component.
I'm leaving now.
Steve Miner on January 30, 2009 at 10:01 AM
"download speed is slower than 3kbps" -- I'm guessing that should be 3Mbps, as in megabits, instead of "k".
{Darkavich} on January 30, 2009 at 10:07 AM
I love mine, I was an early adopter, but I reluctantly gave it to a friend after Tivo now has the same service.
I really thing they did it right with the user interface though. They use something very similar to cover flow that makes it easy to find movies by sight, rather than by name.
Wil on January 30, 2009 at 10:07 AM
@Mike: Yes, Netflix just began supporting HD content for on-demand, and the Roku box either supports it now, or will support it on the next software update.
@Palmer: I have an HDTV with a stupid DVI connector that doesn't support HDCP (my own fault for not fully understanding what all that meant when I bought my HDTV a few years ago) so component inputs are really important to me. They give the same quality as HDMI, and they actually let me see a picture, unlike HDMI which just tells me that I need to upgrade my otherwise-perfectly-functioning set.
@Sam: Very good points.
Thanks for all your comments, everyone.
I could go off on the "DRM and HDCP only hurts paying customers and doesn't deter piracy" rant, but I think that ground has been covered thoroughly by me and others.
Jeremy on January 30, 2009 at 10:08 AM
Will,
3rd paragraph, 3kbps or 3Mbps?
-Jeremy
Paul William Tenny on January 30, 2009 at 10:09 AM
"..or your download speed is slower than 3kbps.."
3mbps, perhaps? Also that seems a little high. A good h264 rip will run about 1300kbps (163KiB/sec) which is still comfortably under 1.5mbps and the quality is exceptional.
FredOzzel on January 30, 2009 at 10:12 AM
Interesting perspective on Feature Creep. Usually most people tout convergence as only a good thing - but looking at how the world is evolving, having some sensible boundaries seems like a good idea.
With virus infected picture frames being able to connect to your "household multimedia center" etc, having some dedicated function devices "off the grid" offers a measure of protection against possible problems.
Still to some extent having some convergence is a good thing since it minimizes clutter but Not everything needs to be a convergent device.
Steven K. Mariner on January 30, 2009 at 10:13 AM
Excellent Review!
There is definitely a balance to be achieved -- having E-Mail, Calendar, and Phone on one device has been priceless for me. Keeping my MP3 player separate has also been priceless.
Single function and do it well is an art form in our spoiled gimme-gimme culture, methinks.
Thanks!
- Steve M.
CalaverX11 on January 30, 2009 at 10:15 AM
Fastest typo fix ever.
Also...I may have to check this out.
rick on January 30, 2009 at 10:51 AM
A nice way to find the movies on Netflix that are available via streaming is Instantwatcher (http://instantwatcher.com/). Simple category based site with a search box. MMMM...
MsJG on January 30, 2009 at 10:55 AM
I've been a long-time Netflix subscriber and after much contemplation (and budget reviews and online searches for sales) I decided to go a step up from the Roku device and recently purchased the LG BD300 Netflix enabled Blu-ray player. It too was super easy to install, set-up and use. Never even cracked the manual. We were watching movies within minutes. My only complaint: The remote. Not well laid out at all and the buttons are small. If the LG adapted/adopted the Roku remote I would be one serious happy camper.
T.U.M. on January 30, 2009 at 11:01 AM
Hi Wil!
So glad to know I'm not the only one frustrated with the ubiquitous feature creep, and also glad to finally have a name for it!
ATTACK OF THE FEATURE CREEP!
Kelly D on January 30, 2009 at 11:18 AM
For $99 it seems like a great investment for a family - like ours -that refuses to live life around a TV schedule. We are already Netflix members, and the fact that Amazon is getting on board as well is simply another selling point, so I think this little device will be making its way into our home in the near future.
I just have to check into the bandwidth speed of our cable TV to make sure that we wont be disappointed in the end reselt.
Thank you for a great review!
EG on January 30, 2009 at 11:19 AM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creeping_featurism
Feature Creep is a pretty well understood peril of product development (the term itself has been around for a while, too). Often, it's over-excited engineers who are the chief sinners due to lack of understanding of what makes a good product, at least in my experience as a software developer.
Bill Woods on January 30, 2009 at 11:21 AM
I looked at the Roku, but it doesn't do enough for me. I want a general online-video player. If it could access Hulu, SciFi.com, etc. I'd unplug the laptop from the TV in a minute.
mimi on January 30, 2009 at 11:31 AM
Well, that's nice, but will it do my laundry? : )
MJ Dulmage on January 30, 2009 at 11:39 AM
I've been waffling on getting one of these for the last month, since I started back with Netflix specifically for the online viewing. My Roku is on the way. I'm a little nervous about the bandwidth issue, as I also have Comcast, but I'll make it work one way or another.