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Review 2 of 2
Price Paid:
$179.00
from Best Buy Summary:
I've been told that I've been very hard to shop for, because I'm very technology-centric and usually have the latest gizmos and gadgets. And if there is one item anyone could have given me for the holidays, it would be the recently introduced Roku SoundBridge M1000. It's simply an amazing and elegant device and I'm totally impressed with it. It's definitely built in mind of those music enthusiasts who have a lot of MP3's.
Some facts from the web site:
* Large VFD Display - The M1000 features a 280x16 pixel display, for up to two lines of text. Its "big line mode" displays your current selection in a large, 16-pixel sized font.
* Compact Body - 12 inches wide, perfect for a shelf, tabletop or nightstand.
* Available in Stores at: Best Buy (select locations), Fry's, Magnolia, Tweeter and at Rokulabs.com
* List price: $249.99
For years, I've wanted the TurtleBeach Audiotron ($399 and no longer made), but the price point was too high and the software was cumbersome. Then I heard of a better alternative called the SLIMP3 player made by Slim Devices. The SLIMP3 player was a first generation device and I thought it was ugly for the price. Recently, Slim Devices introduced their next generation device, the SqueezeBox ($279 with wireless option, $199 without). The Roku definitely looks the best out of all those products with its cylindrical shape and metal composite finish.
What makes the Roku so much better than the SqueezeBox is that it's compatible with iTunes out of the box (although won't play iTunes songs purchased because of DRM protection), uPNP Audio (Microsoft Windows Media Connect with support for WMA DRM protected files), Apple Rendezvous, Real's Rhapsody, Shoutcast radio streams and even Slim Device's own open source SlimServer (which powers the SLIMP3 & SqueezeBox players and enables playback of Ogg files) out of the box. The Roku was so very easy to setup. It comes with a wireless 802.11b Compact Flash card (made by Socket) so you can connect wirelessly or you can use the built-in ethernet port for wired use, a remote with batteries, an audio cable and a power adapter. It has digital optical and coax outputs that can pass 5.1 surrond sound as well as the standard stereo jacks. Anyways, I plugged it in and entered the key for my wireless network and it obtained an IP address and I was off and ready to go play music. I had the device check for new firmware and it updated itself within about two minutes. I easily navigated my library of music from my Windows XP box because I already had Windows Media Connect installed. My sister has an iTunes library on her laptop and I tested it with that and it also played with no problems. Next I tested the Roku out the SlimServer software. This is some really cool software that runs on PC, Mac or Linux. It even has a virtual SqueezeBox, called SoftSqueeze that lets you use the software to play MP3's from any computer that supports java. The Roku had no problems connecting to the SlimServer software and seeing the MP3's. Using a web browser you can pull up your list of songs through SlimServer via artist, album, genre and control the Roku to play music. If you have multiple Roku's you can also synchronize them to play the same music (useful if you want to play the same music in different rooms). SlimServer allows you to have plugins, so you can have it do different things. For example, you can use it as a caller ID display to broadcast caller info when there's an incoming call or even display RSS news feeds. Even if you don't have any music streaming device, I definitely recommend checking out SlimServer and using SoftSqueeze just to see how it works. I am utterly impressed with the Roku SoundBridge and give it a rating of 5 stars out of 5: *****. I think it's even more impressive than the iPod.
Roku also sells the M2000 which has a much larger VFD display (12 inches wide instead of 8) for $499.99 but is twice the price of the M1000 (you can buy two M1000's for just one M2000). Right now, the Roku M1000 retails at $249.99 on their web site and your regular brick & mortar retailers such as Tweeters, Fry's or Best Buy. I ended up getting the Roku M1000 for $179.99 through a special un-advertised promotion... Best Buy has the Roku for $199.99 through an instant store rebate of $50.00 (good through 12/31/04) and a printable 10% off coupon (good until 01/02/05) which saves another $20.00. For $179.00, it's an excellent deal. The Wireless Compact Flash card that comes with the Roku retails alone anywhere from $65-$90 and is even available at the Roku Store web site for $69.99. Strengths:
Bright display, slick design, metallic body, easy to setup, compatible directly with iTunes / Windows Media Connect / Rhapsody, does not require SlimServer to act as a proxy to these services. Weaknesses:
No support for iTunes purchased songs (because of DRM), cannot decode Apple Lossless directly (must proxy through SlimServer), no buttons on the actual unit (break the remote and you are stuck with a door stop). Similar Products Used:
SoftSqueeze (a virtual Slim Devices' SqueezeBox)
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