TheBigDave

Amazon's Gold Box Deal of the Day is the Roku 2XS for $79.99 (normally $99.99).

This is the top of the line Roku box with 1080p, Wi-Fi & Ethernet port, USB port, Angry Birds game with motion control remote, and MicroSD slot. I've got one of these and it's great.

http://www.amazon.com/Roku-XS-1080p-...dp/B005CLPP84/

TheBigDave

Here's a couple video reviews:

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/teW3AeasTos" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/5fOOZXxxSdQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/NzV4OatJEtU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Ranger

Looks nice. But it doesn't play FLV files saved from Youtube?

And you know how some videos on Youtube have the ads at the start - the Roku can play those? My LG blu-ray player only displays the Youtube videos that don't have ads.

TheBigDave

The Roku doesn't do either of those things well.

Roku doesn't have an official Youtube channel. There are a couple channels that play Youtube videos like RateRix and 1080p Showcase. Or you can use a 3rd-party app like PlayOn. Personally, I haven't noticed any problems with Youtube ads. But overall, the Youtube experience is pretty lousy on the Roku.

There are two ways to play saved files on the Roku. You can connect a USB drive (only works on the 2XS model). That works with MKV (H.264), MP4 (H.264), MOV (H.264), WMV/ASF (WMV9/VC-1), AAC, MP3, JPG, and PNG files. The other way is using 3rd-party software like Plex to transcode the file using your PC and stream it to the Roku through your home network.

When saving Youtube videos, I use the Easy YouTube Video Downloader app (aka Best Video Downloader). It saves the videos in MP4 format which is more compatible than FLV.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir...o-downl-10137/
http://www.bestvideodownloader.com/

Ranger

Ah, thanks for the tip about the Easy Youtube Downloader. It saved the youtube vids to mp4 like I wanted. I was using the DownloadHelper in Firefox and it only gets the flv from youtube.