Tuesday, May 27, 2008

It Really Depends What You Compare It To

So every review I read of the Roku box to stream Netflix movies directly to the home laments that only 10.000 of Netflix' 100.000+ video titles are available to stream down. Well, for reasons I can't really specify I have been exploring the Video On Demand offerings in Europe and the USA, and let me tell you, a good catalog of VOD items in Germany or France is 4000 titles.

Now those 4k titles include the latest movies, but a lousy back-catalog of stuff that isn't a Hollywood extravaganza. I am sure that Netflix will get the rights to stream the latest releases as well too, if they haven't already, but at least I can get something else than Will Smith battling zombies*. There are things to not like about the Netflix / Roku box at all, like its picture quality and the fact that most broadband is probably not up to it, but compared to its actual VOD competitors, Netflix has made a catalog available that in sheer numbers is twice as large as anything I have found from any cable or IPTV provider.

*I Am Legend banners and trailers are all over every IPTV portal I am hitting to explore. I am just a little tired of it.