Roku 2 XD Streaming Player 1080p (Old Version)

I love Roku and the whole Roku experience. It allowed me to "cut the cable" and save a good bit of money each month. It gives me plenty of programming, most of it free. It's also adding new channels all the time, about 360 or so at the moment.I current own the previous Roku XD 2050x and love it. It's not a perfect product, but it's a darn good one.This review is on my current purchase, the Roku 2 XD. It's not a perfect product either and it's just been released. It's also not quite ready for prime-time, but almost...There are some differences between the XD and the Roku 2 XD. Most are good, but I do have two gripes. The original XD had both a wired connection and wireless available. I use wireless, but wired can be handy. When I first received my original XD, it wouldn't properly connect with my router. So, I hooked it up with an ethernet cable, which allowed it to receive a quick update. This update fixed the problem and I haven't had any problems since. The wireless worked great.Now, the new Roku 2 XD only has a wireless connection. If you want a Roku 2 with an available wired connection, then you have to spend 100.00 to go up to the XS. I think this was a bad move on Roku's part. I have no desire to play games on my Roku and I especially don't like "Angry Birds" which is the main selling point of the XS.My other gripe is that the new Roku 2 XD no longer has the "rewind/replay" button. This neat little button will give you an instant replay of the past several seconds, allowing you to take a look at a movie scene you might have missed or a sports call you might want to replay.The original Roku XD had this button, but the new Roku 2 XD doesn't have it. Again, if you want this button, then you have to move up to the higher priced XS. Again, another bad call on the part of Roku in my opinion.As I mentioned previously, I think they might have rushed this product to market a bit too quickly. The main reason is that there are a few common channels (and popular private channels) that won't run on the new XD, while they run fine on the previous generation. Roku is working on the problem and releasing updates, but still, this shouldn't have happened on the scale that it did. For example, currently, Food Network Nighttime won't play at all and all of the NASA programming will actually crash the Roku and cause it to reboot. When the Roku 2 was first released the problems were worse, but the company has been working to correct it. However, with so many glitches at release, they really should have waited to refine the software before releasing it to the public.Now, I'll move on to a quick list of Pros and Cons for the Roku 2 XDPros: 1. Overall faster performance especially in menus 2. Wireless range and signal seems better than the previous models 3. Better looking menus and color schemes 4. Smaller Roku footprint.Cons: 1. No wired ethernet port on XD and HD, only on the XS 2. No rewind/recall button on remote of XD and HD, only on the XS 3. Seems to run a little warmer than previous models 4. Too much common content (and some private channels) won't work and can possibly crash/reboot the RokuOverall, it seems as if it'll be a great product, like the previous models, once they work out the glitches.I do wish they'd have kept the wired ethernet port on the XD at least, as well as the rewind/recall button.If you have a previous generation Roku XD, stick with it for at least the next couple of months. Hopefully they'll have corrected the video/streaming problems that are plaguing it currently.Also, if you need a wired ethernet connection, then either stick with or track down a previous generation XD. Otherwise, if you're willing to spend the extra money on the XS, then do it.

15 months ago I bought my first Roku 2, a Roku 2 HD. Can't say enough good about it. When I upgraded to a 1080p HDTV in the living room I moved that 720p Roku 2 HD to the bedroom and added a Sony "Smart" Blu-Ray player that had Netflix, Amazon, Crackle and a few other channels for the new 1080p HDTV figuring to completely bypass adding a 1080p Roku. Even though I mainly watch the channels that were on the Sony Wi-Fi Blu Ray player I still wanted a 1080p Roku so I bought an XD last week.The reasons I prefer the Roku to the "Smart" Wi-Fi Blu Ray player are that the Roku is much faster to get watching since the Blu-Ray has to boot up from a cold start and the Roku of course has far more channel selection including the ability to add private channels. Adding private channels is something the Blu Ray player will not do. The Roku draws very little power, less than a nightlight and is always at the ready. Each time I started up the wi-fi enabled Blu Ray player I muttered that I needed a Roku.I was planning all along to buy the new Roku 3 but the Roku 2 XD went on sale Mother's Day week and I figured I'd be just as happy with it for less money, so I made a snap decision on an impulse buy which turns out to have been a good one. I was not needing the Roku 3's wireless headphones in the living room and I suspect that feature eats batteries in the remote faster. I don't play video games, I watch TV so I don't need the video game function of the Roku 3 either.With my first Roku 2, the HD model, setup went by the book with no issues so I never had any contact with Roku support. However with the XD I kept getting a "011" error. First I went online with Roku chat support, waited about 10 mins in que and was connected to a CSR. After explaining the issue and sending the IP CONFIG data the CSR requested I was instantly disconnected from chat. I pushed button to reconnect to chat and started calling the support phone number on the ROKU support page. The support phone number posted leads to a phone tree which instructs you to "Push 3" for player support. I pushed 3 and instantly heard a dial tone meaning I was disconnected. That's right Roku hung up on me.I tried phoning 3 more times with the same result each time. After about 15 minutes in chat que I got connected to a different CSR. While waiting in chat que I rebooted the player and it connected fine and I've not seen the error again since. I didn't change anything on my end at all! It has worked perfectly since. I don't know whether or not the CSR changed something in my network remotely that enabled it to connect and will probably never know. I've rebooted the XD unit several times to verify it reconnects with no errors. After this support experience it is easy to see why so many people get frustrated with Roku support and just give up returning the player. There is no excuse whatsoever for posting a non-working support phone number on your support webpage.While I'm not exactly thrilled with Roku's tech support I love the product itself. Both of mine are working great and I use both of them daily. I recommend them for expanding the variety of programming available in a fast, convenient, compact and economical package.With about 4 million players to support I can understand why Roku support isn't more personalized, but if they aren't actually doing phone support they should take the phone number off their support webpage because the "click-dial tone" after pressing 3 as instructed just increases customer frustration and makes Roku support look inept.A note about 720p vs 1080p on Roku's. There is practically no 1080p programming available! Even premium services like Netflix, Amazon, etc go 720p tops. Netflix did a 1080 HD experiment for a while however isn't currently pushing any 1080p at the moment, but this could change by the time you read this. You can get 1080p on Vudu at this moment though.Also the Wi Fi and internet bandwidth requirement for 1080p is much higher than 720p. This really became evident when watching 1080p movies on Vudu. I've ordered an upgrade on my DSL internet from 3mbs to 5 and going to a higher class of wi fi router. That will speed it up enough to make it workable without waiting as long for the streaming to start on 1080p video files and eliminate buffering pauses after streaming starts. Before going to a 1080p player like a Roku XD make sure your existing network can handle 1080p streaming or be willing and able to upgrade it. Upgrading may be a non-issue for cable modem fed wi-fi internet. In fact a 720p player like the HD model is fine for 99.5% of the programming available on Roku at this time. The only real 1080p stuff I've found is on Vudu and that is for movies you've bought the 1080p version of.I knocked off one full star for the support issues I had with this product. The product itself is a 5 star item and working great but I can't explain why it is working now when it wasn't initially. If you have connection issues out of the box as I did with this XD unit, then what good is a 5 star item that won't work with a support system that is somewhat frustrating? Some people just won't have the patience to stick with it. It took about 35 minutes to get the player to connect.