ON SALE: Roku streams to your TV for Netflix and more

Here's one to grab fast -- the Roku HD-XR player, the astonishingly easy gateway to streaming video/audio on your TV from Netflix, Amazon On Demand, NASA, NPR, the BBC World Service, MLB.tv, Revision3, Flickr and three dozen other cool sources.

As Thursday's deal of the day at Amazon.com, it's just $100, down from the usual $130 for the simplest little electronic gadget you will ever use. Guaranteed. This puppy takes less than two minutes to hook up to your TV set -- seriously -- and just a few seconds to link to your Netflix account or other channel set-ups.

We've used an earlier Roku model for 2 years now, and it saved my life after surgery last year when I loaded up my Netflex instant-view queue with hours of HD viewing. I couldn't walk to the DVD player to change discs, but all I had to do with Roku was click a couple of buttons to watch all kinds of on-demand (commercial-free) goodies for hours on end.

Even my tech-averse mother could ace this device. The Roku box itself has no buttons at all, and its compact remote is a basic forward-reverse model with directional buttons and a home base cleverly labeled with a house icon. No numbers, no inputs to choose from, no fancy stuff here.

What you do need, however, is a wireless router with a broadband connection to stream the signal through. (Your video quality depends on connection speed, but we've watched very pretty high-def through our Comcast router.) Roku comes with its own built-in wireless to pick up the signal, and the HD-XR model is the zippier N standard. You also need a computer to register with Roku, Netflix and other channels, and to pay for the ones that cost money. But Netlix has now enabled search through Roku (formerly, queue set-up could be done only by computer), so you can even add to your instant queue directly through the remote.

Once things are set up, you can watch away more easily than even your cable on-demand service with its endless menu stacks. If grandma or grandpa can't cope with that button-laden cable zapper, try setting up Roku for them, then handing over that friendly little remote.

Better yet, grab one for yourself. Even if all you do is watch Netflix, which is what we've been doing the past two years, it's more than worth it. You can downgrade your Netflix subscription to as little as $9 per month, yet watch hundreds of movies/shows online anytime. The instant-watch selection of thousands still isn't as extensive as the DVD library, but it has included things you can't get on disc -- like recent weeks' episodes of TV shows like Heroes, Party Down, Spartacus and NCIS. Even cooler -- entire shows that aren't out on DVD, including short-runs like the ex-WB dramas Hidden Palms and Jack and Bobby, plus unreleased later seasons of shows like Kojak and Maverick.

Besides Netflix, Roku now has more than 40 channels catering to distinct interests. Movie-lovers can add Cowboy Classics ($1.99/month for two-dozen vintage flicks) or Drive-In Theater ($3/year for cheese like The Atomic Brain and cult items like Carnival of Souls). Geeks can watch free NASA content, or learn Photoshop via Revision3's free PixelPerfect (160 lessons!). Roku Newscaster connects you to web content from a couple dozen sources like CNET, ESPN, the BBC World Service and NPR. (Listen to Bianculli on Fresh Air over your TV.) You can get Indian TV and sports like UFC.

Roku's wide-variety Channel Store can in fact be a little too tempting, since it fails to list prices on-screen. You do have to go through your computer to sign up for pay channels like Cowboy Classics, though, so you'll find out eventually. (Have your PayPal account ready.)

Pretty spiffy for a gadget that's smaller than a cigar box. Yeah, I know, who wants another electronic box -- but this one is so tiny and so inexpensive that it's the perfect treat for that bedroom TV set, if not the living room itself.

Click here to buy at Wednesday's special Amazon discount. Truly, Roku is worth it even at the usual price.