{"id":133,"date":"2010-04-19T06:00:45","date_gmt":"2010-04-19T13:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/?p=133"},"modified":"2014-03-14T11:06:14","modified_gmt":"2014-03-14T18:06:14","slug":"the-three-best-netflix-hd-streaming-devices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/the-three-best-netflix-hd-streaming-devices\/","title":{"rendered":"The Three Best Netflix HD Streaming Devices"},"content":{"rendered":"

You\u2019ve got a lot of choices when it comes to devices streaming Netflix, and no matter which option you pick, you\u2019re making a trade off.\u00a0 It might be the price, it might be the look, or it might be the functionality.\u00a0 So what\u2019s the best choice?\u00a0 It depends on you.\u00a0 Here are my three picks for standalone, integrated and gaming solutions.<\/p>\n

<\/h6>\n

Roku HD XR<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/a>If you\u2019re going to get a standalone Netflix player, you can\u2019t do much better than the Roku HD XR.\u00a0 It\u2019s the cheapest option, at $129, and it supports everything Netflix offers, and everything they\u2019ll be offering in the foreseeable future.\u00a0 The Roku HD XR offers 720p video output and it\u2019ll work with the upcoming Netflix 5.1 surround sound update.\u00a0 It offers stereo audio outs, an optical output, and the option to send audio through HDMI.\u00a0 Perhaps best of all, it\u2019s got built in WiFi connectivity that supports 802.11N as well as WEP, WPA, and WPA2 encryption.<\/p>\n

The menu is nice and snappy and there\u2019s very little lag when navigating through your options.\u00a0 Yes, the user interface is starting to feel a bit dated compared to other options, and the video quality could be better, but it remains the best standalone device, and one of the cheapest ways to get Netflix in HD<\/p>\n

In addition to Netflix, the Roku player will give you access to Amazon on Demand, Blip.tv, Revision3, Pandora, and a bevy of other streaming services.<\/p>\n

Samsung BD-P3600 Blu-ray Player<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/a>There are a lot of Blu-ray player options for Netflix streaming, but they generally don\u2019t offer enough of a difference to get too excited about.\u00a0 The Samsung BD-P3600 isn\u2019t an expensive player by any means, but it does offer a great Netflix experience.\u00a0 The downside to the 3600, if it can really be called a downside, is that the HQV chip from the previous year\u2019s BD-P2500 isn\u2019t present in the newer player.\u00a0 This HQV upscaling made standard definition DVDs, and Netflix content look just a bit nicer than on the 3600.<\/p>\n

Where the 3600 really wins out is in speed and connectivity.\u00a0 It\u2019s a faster loading player, which is great from a Blu-ray aspect, and it comes with a WiFi dongle.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t need to go wireless, you can still plug it in, but it\u2019ll connect to your 802.11N network with ease.\u00a0 The BD-P3600 also provides access to Pandora for your music streaming, which is great for parties, or for some nice background tunes.\u00a0 You\u2019ve also got access to YouTube and Blockbuster On Demand.<\/p>\n

Xbox 360<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/a>This is a hands down win.\u00a0 While both the Wii and PS3 offer Netflix as a streaming option, neither matches up to the quality of the Xbox 360.\u00a0 To start with, the 360 has the best Netflix interface there is, aside from using your PC.\u00a0 It\u2019s slick looking, it\u2019s fast and intuitive, and it\u2019s got some basic features that the others don\u2019t.\u00a0 You can play a movie directly from the selection menu, rather than having to go one deeper, for example.<\/p>\n

The 360 also separates itself by showing an indicator of quality before your selection starts.\u00a0 You know whether you\u2019re getting an HD signal or something below.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a huge problem on the other systems, but it\u2019s nice to know whether you should stop your downloads to get a better picture.<\/p>\n

The PS3 at least for now, requires a disc for Netflix viewing, which is inconvenient.\u00a0 Sony says that the PS3 will get disc-free streaming in the near future, which would make it a much better option, if not the best.\u00a0 The biggest downside to using a 360 for Netflix is that in addition to the $8.99 (minimum) you\u2019re shelling out to Netflix every month, you\u2019ve got to be an Xbox Live subscriber, at $5 a month.\u00a0 Add that up and it\u2019s an extra $60 a year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You\u2019ve got a lot of choices when it comes to devices streaming Netflix, and no matter which option you pick, you\u2019re making a trade off.\u00a0 It might be the price, it might be the look, or it might be the functionality.\u00a0 So what\u2019s the best choice?\u00a0 It depends on you.\u00a0 Here are my three picks…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":137,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[143,142],"tags":[67,25,91,213,209,1398],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61177,"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions\/61177"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}