Roku players have literally taken streaming media to a whole new level. They feature 100's of channels of movies, TV, sports and music. The video quality of Roku 2 XS is 1080p HD. The player has wired and wireless-N connectivity. All that's the good part. Does the Roku 2 XS 1080p Streaming Player have any drawbacks that you need to be aware of ? At Cautionista we take a closer look at the lesser known aspects of the player:- Many customers have complained that they get poor quality with Netflix streaming on their Roku 2 XS player. Roku has clarified that this is because Netflix streams start off at a low bitrate, but adapts to your internet connection speed within 30 seconds. This means that your movie stream will switch to high quality HD automatically even before the titles of the movie are done. For details, refer to the Comment by Tom M. in this review at Amazon.
- The Roku 2 XS player only comes with an A/V cable which will enable you to connect to almost any TV. However, in order to get the best 1080p HD picture quality, you need to purchase an HDMI cable separately.
- If you need to hide your Roku player behind your TV to make it look like the TV is streaming 100's of channels by itself, then you need to invest a few bucks in this Roku Universal Mounting Kit.
- Roku 2 XS player streaming froze after a few minutes. Replacement player also froze the same way. It could be due to compatibility issues with the TV or the wireless router. See below for a possible solution.
- Some customers mentioned that their Roku 2 XS player stopped responding during installation.
- Wireless connection was not stable for some customers. See below for a workaround.
- New Roku accounts now need credit card to be provided at the time of initial setup of the Roku player. No big deal as you won't be charged anything unless you really make a purchase.
- Roku 2 XS player doesn't have an optical out for audio. The built-in HDMI port already supports audio, hence this may not be a huge disadvantage, unless you need to connect to an older receiver that doesn't have an HDMI input.
- Does not play Youtube videos.
- Roku player doesn't work well if your internet connection speed is less than around 3.5 Mbps. This may not be an issue with most customers nowadays since the cable and fiber internet speeds are well beyond that. DSL customers would need to upgrade.
- Some customers have complained that their Roku 2 XS players died after the 90 day warranty expired. Cautionista thinks that no consumer equipment is 100% reliable, after all they are just machines. We recommend that customers buy the relatively inexpensive SquareTrade 3-year Home A/V warranty which would protect their Roku players with 100% parts and labor in case of such issues.
What we think, and some solutions
Even with the drawbacks mentioned above, the Roku 2 XS player is one of the best streaming players in the market. Here are some solutions for common problems with the player.
- If your Roku 2 XS player freezes after a few minutes or if the wireless connection is not stable, it maybe due to compatibility issues with your wireless router. Try borrowing your friend's router for a day and see if it works OK. If you have one of the other brands of routers, try any one of the Cisco Linksys brand routers, as these maybe more compatible with the Roku player. Plus they are high performance and ideal for streaming HD video.
- You may also try connecting the Roku player to your router using an ethernet cable.
