More reasons to love Roku

Especially now that I've forced it to always stream at 2.2mbps! During my struggle to keep up with my google reader today, I found this gem, a mortal combat-esque button combo that opens a debugging menu! The only options that are available relate to streaming and a debugging mode, but you can set your default streaming speed. This is great because my internet connection can usually always deliver the full 2.2mbps (thats 4 netflix quality dots / 480p 4:3 and 16:9), which is consistently better than my comcast cable, and having this as a default option is great.

I can't say enough how satisfied I've been with the netflix roku player. Now that they've announced that a SDK and plans to open the player up to other streaming services, there's lots of hope for not only HD quality streaming, but also potential for making it a front end for a home streaming-media server (sort of like the one living in my home office).

Opening this device up would really be a big move for Roku, and I hope they stick to the language in their press release, that "everyone" could develop streaming for this thing. I knew that there was good reason to invest in this, because its more and more becoming the center of my television consumption.

On the note of streaming media servers, my linux box is coming along quite nicely. Now I've got all my interface tweaks up, a reliable smb.conf file and firefly streaming my backup'ed itunes library. The only real drag is making my macbook act as the frontend when I want to connect my tv to the sever.

My ugly, ugly setup for watching everything:


Also, the time has come to properly wall mount my tv and condense my tangled mess of cables and components into a proper shelving unit. Although it doesn't really bother me that my setup is messy, which it is, because it all works beautifully. The next addition is a ps3 or xbox 360, obviously.