How'd you do it Rick?

My brother-in-law and I installed a Roku at our in-law's house last moth and they are loving it!

We work with Roku here at work and I like them a lot... however it does not have the audio out for 5.1 surround :(

Apple TV does... just worried I will get sucked into the iTunes vortex. ;)

So what is the difference between Netflix (streaming) and Apple TV?

Netflix is an content streaming service. Apple TV is a hardware device.

We went back to cable. Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon on a Roku were awesome for a while, but the networks dug in their claws and they started getting worse and worse. Hulu is especially bad, and as time went on they got fewer and fewer headline shows, less and less made it to Hulu Plus, and the commercials got worse and worse.

At the same time, the cable companies (well, at least Comcast) got wise and got competitive. We were paying around $80 a month for Comcast cable internet alone, and now we're paying $120 for internet and TV with all the HD channels and a DVR. Pretty good for $40. We still have our Hulu subscription, but we're probably going to drop Netflix.

I really want an AppleTV, by the way. I use Mac, and the ability to stream my screen to the AppleTV would be really cool for stuff that isn't available through the streaming services or on TV, like watching live racing that doesn't get broadcast on the networks or whatever.

That is a little disturbing... so the big boys are cutting back content on the streaming boxes?

My friends (and many here) are preaching "oh you can stream everything now... no need for cable or DVD's"... (been hearing that for years).

But will the big money let us have the content?

As I look at the online reviews of Roku and Apple TV I hear things like "pretty good" and "not so bad"... kinda why I'm dragging my feet.

Thought I'd revive this.

Tried the Apple TV, and like most of the Apple products it reminded me of scoring a date with the hot cheeleader the night after she commited to becoming a nun. Unsatisying.

Same as everything Apple, the UI is cludgy, service was spotty, had to stop and start home sharing every time to connect it to the laptop. No Amazon Prime. Bunch of other annoynances that combined to make it not worth the effort. But wow, it's such a good representation of design prowess...

Pfffft.

Hulu is lacking, not worth the money. Bought a Roku, much nicer interface and a lot more intuitive, has Amazon Prime and a few more with free content. Much better fit to my needs.

We've been back and forth on all these things for a while. We're a bit more restricted here in Canada because we can't get hulu (legitimately, at least) and netflix canada has significantly less content that the service in the states. All the boxes (roku, boxcee, appletv) seem decent, but none cover the full spectrum of what we want (get tv shows, watch online content/youtube/etc, rent/download movies, stream from computers in the house, control by iphone, etc). Currently our DVD player has DLNA so we can watch anything on any of the computers in the house through a software server called Twonky. Works great for anything we've downloaded.

My take is that this is all in a massive state of confusion and flux right now, and that in another couple years this will be the way viewing content is delivered and consumed, and thus much more robust and complete devices will be available. I think we're just going to wait it out and redo our entire system in a few years. None of us watch a lot of tv, and with 2 young kids, the last thing I want to do is encourage more tv.

I thought Roku had 5.1 surround sound. They show it on the specs for all of their current boxes.

Looking at the pictures of their (tiny) box all I see is what looks like a 1/8" audio out, like the stereo out of a computer sound card. My home theater system takes a fiber optic cable (Like the output I see on the apple TV box) to receive the digital surround signal.

that's the combined dongle for composit A/V.

5.1 is done as bypass signal on the hdmi out