Re:Very strange target market: quality tradeoff (Score 1)

I own a Roku box. The video quality is just fine on my cable connection at about 4 Mb down. I have it connected to the closed circuit loop in my house so that it can be watched on any TV in the house. That requires using the analog RCA outs on the back of the device as opposed to the fancy digital outs that I hear are popular these days. I don't own any digital tvs, so it doesn't matter to me. The quality is better than "Medium" recordings on a series-1 TiVo and about the same as a DVD player on the same closed circuit loop. It's also about the same as a 1.4 GB DiVX movie as played via XBMC on the same loop.

I'm really happy with the Roku. I'm just waiting for them to team up with Hulu so that I have more TV to watch! I've gone through about half the TV offerings from Netflix that interest me in the last 3 months. I joined Netflix on the $9/month plan to buy the device and I'd say it's definitely worth it from a skinflint like me.

-Billy