Roku SD: Low-Cost, Low-Res Media Streaming

At launch, the Channel Store lets you add up to ten more channels, but some of them don't offer video at all: Pandora, for example, is an Internet radio site, while Flickr and Facebook Photos let you view still images on those popular sites. The other services are generally less well known: blip.tv, FrameChannel, Mediafly, MobileTribe, Motionbox, Revision3, and TWiT. Roku still doesn't work with such major sites as YouTube, Vudu, and Hulu, but the company doesn't rule out adding more services to the Channel Store.

You must have accounts with services you use, and you must link these accounts to your Roku by typing in a code--either generated by the Roku for entry on the service's Web site, or vice versa (if you must enter a code on the Roku, a primitive software keyboard appears). In my tests, account setup was nearly instantaneous.

The Roku SD, in short, delivers what you'd expect from a standard-definition media streamer. I wouldn't recommend it for use with a Wi-Fi network in a city or other location where competing older 2.4GHz Wi-Fi networks will inevitably make smooth video streaming difficult, but if you can use the ethernet adapter and want to save the $30 to $50 you'd have to pay for a high-def model, it's a respectable alternative.