The world of Internet video just got a lot more interesting.

The Netflix Player by Roku is the first product that lets you get Netflix movies and TV shows streamed directly to your TV screen. It also costs $100 and offers about 8 times the movie selection of Apple TV.

Best of all, if you’ve already got an unlimited Netflix plan, you can use the Player to stream as many movies as you like.

CNet has been using the Roku for a couple weeks, they found a lot to like:

Setup is simple, and–if you’ve got a solid broadband connection–picture quality is acceptable and streaming performance was almost entirely lag-free.

That said, the Netflix Player has a major trump card in terms of price: it retails for $100, and delivers unlimited streaming to any Netflix subscriber on the $8.95 plan or above. That’s a major departure from Apple TV, Vudu, Xbox Live Marketplace, and Amazon Unbox, all of which offer only pay-per-view options.

Netflix is working with multiple vendors to offer Players, so we could soon have companies competing to bring you the best, cheapest Netflix Player.

We like the Apple TV interface and the way it makes watching Internet video so easy. For users that are mainly interested in digital movies, though, the Roku offers an interesting alternative.