last100 reports that Roku is offering a $99 book-sized movie playing device called the Netflix Player. This device allows you to easily play films ordered on the online streaming service from Netflix on your television set.
Dubbed "The Netflix Player by Roku", the $99.99 box plugs into a television via a range of ports including HDMI, Component and S-Video, along with analog or digital optical for sound. To connect to Netflix's streaming servers over the Internet, both Ethernet and WiFi are offered. No hard drive is included, however, since Netflix uses streaming rather than downloads to deliver online video. Configuring the player sounds simple enough: just log-in to your wireless network (if required) and then enter your Netflix account details.
Next is where it gets interesting. For the most part, movie selection doesn’t take place via the television. Instead, users browse the Netflix website on their PC to cue up movies ready for streaming, as they already do when ordering DVDs through the mail. Any cued movies available on 'Watch Now' then automatically show up on the Netflix Player ready to be enjoyed on the television. The theory is that a "10 foot User Interface" (TV) isn't the best for browsing and discovering content from thousands of offerings, compared with the "2 foot UI" of the PC.
last100 also says that the movies that can be watched with the Rotu Netflix Player are limited to what is available on the Netflix "Watch Now" service which has about 10,000 movies. There are 100,000 films available from Netflix by DVD.
If the inventory is large enough there will be demand for a device like the Roku Netflix Player. Blockbuster is also planning to offer a movie playing set-top box in the near future. Some cable services also offer on-demand movies although the number of films available is often limited.
last100 
