Hardware Roku 2 XS Review

Has this dinky box of tricks got what it takes to compete with its more fully specced competition?

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2012/04/12/roku-2-xs-review/1

 

Will just get a Rasberry Pie with a wireless dongle running XMBC cheaper by far, and small enough to make a little case for and stick it via velcro to the back of my tv.

 

Thanks for the tip on the Raspberry Pi, very exciting little box! http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs

 

That's pretty much what I have planned with my Raspberry Pi. I'm really excited about it. Although I will be mucking around with it before I put it to use with XBMC. I'm keen to compile some of my university projects on it and see how they go.

OT: This Roku 2 XS looks pretty nice though. I like the rounded case.

 

Err - why no info on the network streaming capabilities of the box once it is set up?

So often an issue when they say HD streamed is fine but cannot deal with 1080p etc etc.

How fast is the menu? Loading times for network media? How hot does it get?

etc etc etc

 

Meh, I think we'll be sticking with our Western Digital box for the foreseeable future. It finds everything that we have shared on the network on both PCs, server and dumb NAS drives.

 

I guess the reason it cant see media on a NAS is that it's actually a true uPnP device, hence requires the NAS to deliver via a media server application?

Poor article which belies a woeful understanding of uPnP and DLNA.

 

Great for people who dont know how to open windows explorer with the keyboard.

Pretty much pointless for everyone else.

 

My thoughts exactly.

 

Why are the reviews so small and lacking in ability to give us the option of making informed choices about purchasing products these days? Often these four or five paragraph reviews are little better than looking at the blurb on the back of the box.