I give the new Roku XDS a C. Great for video, but terrible for audio.

I picked up a new Roku XDS for $100 at Amazon. I had pretty high expectations after reading some reviews and checking out the product page. I planned to use it to listen to my MP3 collection and Pandora, as well as to stream video from Netflix and Hulu Plus. That’s all I wanted from it. Sounds simple. I figured I’d be able to get rid of my prior generation Apple TV that is only being used to store and play my music. I was wrong.

Video

The Roku really shines with streaming video. When comparing its Netflix interface to that of my Internet-connected Samsung Blu-ray player, the Roku is great. Not only can I access my instant (streaming) queue, but I can also search for movies – something I can’t do with my Blu-ray player. Also, Netflix loads faster, the videos play at a higher resolution, and the UI just seems speedier. Netflix is great on the Roku.

Hulu Plus is also pretty good, but not perfect. There is some overscanning going on, but it’s not enough to worry about. Also, I have to pay extra for it ($7.99/month) which sucks considering I still have to watch commercials. But it’s still better than plugging my computer into my TV.

I recently downgraded my DirecTV package. The combination of Netflix and Hulu Plus are good enough to allow me to stick with the downgrade.

If I had one wish, it’s that Roku would work something out with ESPN so that I can watch ESPN 3 on my TV. I’d pay extra for that. I get it free on my PC as a Comcast subscriber. Currently ESPN only makes it available via deals they cut with ISPs. I can’t buy it as an individual. I hope this changes.

Overall, the Roku gets an A- for video.

Audio

The Roku seriously disappoints here. First of all it doesn’t have a built-in application to play MP3s connected to it via USB or over my home network. The only way to hear my own music is to first upload it MP3Tunes.com. This comes with an annual fee and it takes forever to complete the upload – multiple days for around 50GB of music. But I was willing to give this a shot since this would solve my offsite backup needs for my music.

The UI for MP3Tunes on Roku is terrible – it’s sluggish, under-featured – i.e. doesn’t support browsing/shuffling by genre – and it’s buggy. What’s worse, the service doesn’t  handle playlists well, especially big ones. This is a known bug confirmed by their tech support. The Web-based UI for MP3Tunes is better, but only slightly. It’s still buggy and slow. I hate it and wish I hadn’t wasted my time and money on it.

Pandora works decently well on the Roku, but not appreciably better than on my Blu-ray player.

Overall, the Roku gets and F for audio.

Recommendation

If you don’t care about audio, then by all means get the Roku. You’ll love it. If you want to listen to your own music, this isn’t the device for you. You will be very disappointed. Get an Apple TV instead.

Regarding which model to get, the XDS is great because it has more connections and it has a replay button that is missing on the entry-level model. Spend the extra money for the XDS.

Technology I used in 2001:

- Nokia cellphone for mobile and long-distance calls

- landline for local calls and Internet access

- dial-up Internet access

- company provided laptop with Windows NT 4 for work and for getting online at home

- basic cable

- standard definition 20″ TV

- cheap battery-powered alarm clock

Technology I’m using in 2010:

- iPhone 3GS for all calls, MP3 player, Pandora, yellow pages, maps, mobile web access, gaming, e-mail (personal and work), controlling my Apple TV, alarm clock, calendar, and contacts.

- NOTE: no landline

- cable Internet access with wireless router

- Apple TV

- Mac mini

- 17″ HP laptop with Windows 7 (personal)

- 10″ Dell laptop with Windows XP (work)

- Samsung Internet-connected Blu-Ray player

- 65″ Panasonic Plasma HDTV

- DirecTV with dual tuner HD DVR, NFL Sunday Ticket, and ESPN Game Plan (no premium channels)

- Hulu for catching up on shows that I may have missed

- Netflix for DVDs and streaming video (but I’m unimpressed with their streaming content, so I’ll probably cancel when football season resumes in Fall 2010)

- PS2 used primarily for Karaoke games

- Harmony remote that controls my Sony receiver, Samsung Blu-Ray player, DirecTV DVR, Apple TV, and Panasonic HDTV

Next up was installing Boxee. Not quite as easy as the instructions made it out to be, but I still got it installed and working. There was some overscan on the video but the software has a really easy way to adjust the overscan, so no problem.

Hulu worked, though it listed videos that weren’t available anymore. That was annoying. ABC.com didn’t work, nor did Fox. That’s makes Boxee a lot less useful. Didn’t try You Tube.

I like the Apple TV’s implementation of Front Row for music much better than I like Boxee. I see Boxee as my avenue to Internet video. For that it works well. I had an episode of 24 running from Hulu. It looked great.

The Apple TV and Boxee are definitely worth it.

This note, however, is not about the fact that episodes of ’’It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’’ were taken down. Rather, this note is to communicate to our users that we screwed up royally with regards to how we handled this specific content removal and to apologize for our lack of strong execution. We gave effectively no notice to our users that these ’’Sunny’’ episodes would be coming off the service. We handled this in precisely the opposite way that we should have. We believe that our users deserve the decency of a reasonable warning before content is taken down from the Hulu service. Please accept our apologies.

Given the very reasonable user feedback that we have received on this topic (we read every twitter, email and post), we have just re-posted all of the episodes that we had previously removed. I’d like to point out to our users that the content owner in this case – FX Networks – was very quick to say yes to our request to give users reasonable advance notice here, despite the fact that it was the Hulu team that dropped the ball…

Well done.