This is clearly the time for the little magic boxes that let you watch Internet videos on your TV to enter your home. The question is: what to choose? So far, we’ve got Apple TV and Amazon-TiVo, now we’ve got Netflix’s Roku, and somewhere in the near future, possibly, we might even get a Blockbuster box, which is reportedly in the making.

If we look at Apple TV, Netflix seems to be the winner in terms of pricing: the set-top box should leave all competition behind with its $99 price tag, with a $9 monthly subscription, and an improved sound and image quality. And that’s not all, if we consider the installation issue is in fact not an issue, but a very simple process.

The future looks bright for Netflix…possibly, but they still need to work on the content problem: for starters, users will be able to choose from 10,000 titles, most of them pretty old, which might turn consumers away from the cheap set – old movies combo.

On the other hand, Netflix relies on just that: simplicity and low cost, and they believe these to be key elements in Roku’s future. We should add a good internet connection: anything under 1.5 megabits could ruin all the fun, since streaming videos in slow connections would lack a good image quality.

Netflix Roku sounds tempting, but other temptations will keep on coming. Rumors have it that Hewlett – Packard will come up with a similar device in the near future, while an LG hybrid device that adds streaming capabilities to a Blu-ray DVD player is reportedly in the making. And what about Blockbuster’s secret creation?... Competition gets tough, will simplicity and low cost due the trick?