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The good: The Roku LT is an extremely small Wi-Fi streaming-media box that costs only $50. It offers dozens of streaming video and audio services, including Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, HBO Go, Pandora, MOG, Rdio, and MLB.TV. PC- and Mac-based media can be streamed via the Plex app. It also supports older TVs using an included breakout cable.
The bad: The Roku LT currently lacks Vudu and YouTube channels, which are found on most competing products. There's also no Ethernet port, so you'll need a solid Wi-Fi signal in your home theater.
The bottom line: The Roku LT is a killer streaming-media box, offering tons of streaming video content, including favorites like Netflix, Amazon Instant, Hulu Plus, and Pandora, for just $50.
Editors' note (May 16, 2012): The Roku LT reviewed here is frequently out of stock, so it often appears to be priced higher than its $49.99 list price. If that's the case, check out the nearly identical Roku HD instead, which retails for just $10 more.
Here's how you know the Roku LT is a great product: it's both the cheapest and one of the best streaming-video boxes we've tested. Roku has managed to shave the price all the way down to $50, jettisoning unnecessary features, while keeping all of the streaming content that we love.
The Roku LT supports the same list of channels as Roku's more expensive models, including Netflix, Amazon Instant, Hulu Plus, Pandora, MLB.TV, MOG, Rdio, and HBO Go, along with tons of additional niche content. We even like the remote control better than the one that comes with the Roku 2 XS, with a simpler layout and fingerprint-resistant matte finish.
The Roku LT isn't perfect. It's not the right choice if you want to stream your personal media collection and unlike other Roku boxes it doesn't even make a half-hearted effort at gaming. And there's still an argument to be made for Apple fans to favor the Apple TV, since it works so well with other Apple products. But at $50, the Roku LT deserves a very strong recommendation and is sure to be a hit this holiday season.
Design
Like the more expensive Roku 2 boxes, the LT is a tiny box, even smaller than the Apple TV. There's nothing on the front, save for a small dim light that lets you know it's on. The LT has a distinctive purple color, but we prefer the more muted black cases of Roku's other models.
Like the more expensive Roku 2 boxes, the LT is a tiny box, even smaller than the Apple TV. There's nothing on the front, save for a small dim light that lets you know it's on. The LT has a distinctive purple color, but we prefer the more muted black cases of Roku's other models.
Around back, there's just an HDMI output and a minijack output for the included breakout video cable, so you can use the Roku with older TVs. If you want additional connectivity--like an Ethernet port, SD card slot, or USB port--have a look at the step-up Roku 2 line of players, but we think most of those features aren't needed. (The USB playback of the Roku 2 XS isn't its biggest strength, and we can live without its small collection of casual games as well.)
The LT has built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi for connecting to the Internet, and while it's not dual-band like the old Roku XDS, we didn't run into any performance issues.
The Roku LT remote is even better than the Roku 2 XS' remote.
The remote is delightfully simple. There's a directional pad with an OK button in the center, some basic playback buttons, plus home and back. The asterisk button on the bottom generally brings up more options, although we could never quite be sure what we were going to get when we pressed it.
Overall, as we said, we like the Roku LT's clicker even more than the flagship Roku 2 XS' remote, which has a slightly more cluttered layout and is a magnet for fingerprints. (Note: future Roku models will include an additional button that offers one-click access to Pandora, but our unit came with the older remote.)
Setup is straightforward and relatively easy. The only real annoyance is that you'll need to create a Roku account, which involves entering your credit card information or linking to a PayPal account, so you can purchase premium channels. Virtually every channel we're interested in is free (or billed separately, through the channel provider), so we'd prefer it if the credit card step were optional.
You'll also need to link your Roku box to each individual streaming service, which generally involves entering an activation code on a Web site, so expect to spend some time in front of your TV with a laptop.
Content and user interface
The home screen has a basic interface, with a horizontal row of channels to choose from. The Roku LT comes preloaded with the most important channels: Netflix, Amazon Instant, Hulu Plus, and Pandora. The first three are an outstanding trio for cable-cutters, letting you mix and match subscription and pay-per-view content to catch up on your favorite TV shows.
The home screen has a basic interface, with a horizontal row of channels to choose from. The Roku LT comes preloaded with the most important channels: Netflix, Amazon Instant, Hulu Plus, and Pandora. The first three are an outstanding trio for cable-cutters, letting you mix and match subscription and pay-per-view content to catch up on your favorite TV shows.
The home screen is basic, but simple.
The user interfaces for the major services are good, although we've seen better. Netflix here looks similar to the Sony PlayStation 3's Netflix interface, although fewer titles are visible on a single screen. Unlike on those very first Roku boxes, you can search through Netflix's streaming catalog, as well as browse titles that aren't in your instant queue. The new Rokus also support closed captioning on Netflix.
The Amazon Instant interface is reminiscent of last year's Netflix interface, with cover art laid out horizontally. It works, but it's not nearly as nice a browsing experience as you'll find with Vudu or Apple TV.
The Amazon interface isn't great, but it gets the job done.
If you want more content, you'll go into the Channel Store. Here you'll find lots of excellent mainstream apps like HBO Go, MLB.TV, NHL GameCenter, Epix, Crackle, Picasa, Flicker, MOG, and Rdio, as well as more niche channels like TED Talks, Revision3, TWiT.TV, NASA, and CNET. You can see a full list on Roku's Web site.
The Channel Store can be overwhelming.
The Channel Store itself is as overwhelming as the amount of content in it, presented as a huge grid of channels. The lack of a search function can make it annoying to track a specific app and even though there are filters, like "Most popular" and "Movies and TV," it's still easy to get a little lost as to what you're actually looking at. Luckily, once you add a channel it shows up on the home screen, and you can arrange home channels in whatever order you'd like.
There are also dozens of unofficial "private" channels built by third-party developers using standard Web tools. These include everything from quasilegal re-streams of Web and international video channels to adult content. They're accessible using special codes available online. But parents need not fret: password controls are available to ensure that only the Roku account owner can add channels. And, because you can add and delete channels as you see fit (more on that below), you see only the programming you want.
Check out the Roku Channel Database and Nowhere TV for a full list of Roku channels. Just be aware that some of the private channels are unsupported, so they could be shut off without notice.
We'd be remiss if we didn't point out the one puzzling omission from Roku's lineup: YouTube. That's not a big loss to us, as we find that the YouTube experience generally doesn't translate well in the home theater environment, but it's available on most competing devices. The good news is that a YouTube channel is apparently in development.
Image quality: Is 720p good enough?
No matter how many times we say 1080p doesn't matter, buyers still get worried when they see that the Roku LT "only" does 720p HD video. Again, we didn't find the lack of 1080p video to be noticeable using the Roku LT, even for HD streams from Netflix, Amazon Instant, and Hulu Plus.
No matter how many times we say 1080p doesn't matter, buyers still get worried when they see that the Roku LT "only" does 720p HD video. Again, we didn't find the lack of 1080p video to be noticeable using the Roku LT, even for HD streams from Netflix, Amazon Instant, and Hulu Plus.
Occasionally we'd notice some slight false contouring in the background, but it was minor even to our trained eyes. It's hard to imagine anyone complaining about how the BBC's "Sherlock" on Netflix looks on the Roku LT. Of course, excellent streaming-video image quality is dependent on the quality of your broadband connection as well as on the content itself.
The bottom line is that we don't think buyers should give weight to the lack of 1080p video much, if at all, when choosing a streaming video box.
Conclusion
The Roku LT succeeds because it strips away the features the other Roku 2 boxes don't do well. We never really cared about the gaming features on the Roku 2 XS or the limited digital media playback offered by the USB port. We'd rather save the extra money and still get access to all the great streaming content.
The Roku LT succeeds because it strips away the features the other Roku 2 boxes don't do well. We never really cared about the gaming features on the Roku 2 XS or the limited digital media playback offered by the USB port. We'd rather save the extra money and still get access to all the great streaming content.
The toughest choice will likely be for those who own other Apple devices: is it worth spending double to get the $100 Apple TV? The advantages are AirPlay connectivity, a slightly more refined interface, and being able to stream your music, movies, and photos from a connected PC running iTunes. The disadvantage is that you get considerably fewer content sources, with the most glaring omission being Hulu Plus. For most buyers, the Roku LT is definitely the better value, although we'd feel more strongly about that if Roku added support for say, Amazon's Cloud music service, which would make the lack of local music streaming less important.
Unless you're committed to the Apple family of products, the Roku LT is the best value, and the box we'd recommend from Roku's lineup--and the best overall streaming-media device yet for mainstream viewers.
Original Article can be found HERE
