Roku Box Adds HD, Grows Beyond Netflix

DeviceGuru writes "Roku has announced two free updates to its Internet-enabled Netflix movie-streaming set-top box. The initial update adds advanced compression capable of streaming HD video over average consumer broadband connections, while the second (expected during the first quarter of 2009) will add A/V streaming from sources other than Netflix (e.g. YouTube, Hulu, Comedy Central, MSNBC, etc.). Roku faces growing competition from other providers of Internet-based video-on-demand STBs, such as Blockbuster's STB, Syabas's Popcorn Hour (aka NMT), AppleTV, and others. Roku hasn't said anything specific, but perhaps it'll partner with Boxee, which already provides a popular AppleTV hack."

Comments

Maybe I'm just not aware of it...

[Corpuscavernosa]

... but seriously when is porn going to get into the streaming scene? (insert joke)

Re:Maybe I'm just not aware of it...

[thedonger]

but seriously when is porn going to get into the streaming scene? (insert joke)

When R. Kelly starts filming again.

XBMC

[0100010001010011]

Someone just needs to build a nice small XBMC replacement. Something the size of Popcorn or Apple TV. Donate some engineers / money to the XBMC guys to get it to work with your chipset. Maybe some 1080p hardware decoding.

My XBOX is starting to show its age, but XBMC hands down beats every single one of those players hands down.

Re:XBMC

[SoapBoxRants]

Have you seen an AppleTV running Boxee? With the exception of Netflix capabilities (which they are working on adding)...it basically is XBMC with a much better interface.

Re:XBMC

[Shrubbman]

FYI the aforementioned Boxee hack for AppleTV is actually an XBMC fork.

Mythbackend !

[0x4a6f6e43]

Just add the ability to talk to a Mythbackend and output HD at 1080p and I'll get two!

Re:Mythbackend !

[TubeSteak]

Maybe I'm missing something, but doesn't "advanced compression" defeat the purpose of HD video?

Re:Mythbackend !

[Duradin]

What's to miss about better picture quality for the same bit rate?

Compare h.264 to mpeg-2.

Re:PC's and Media Center?

[kannibal_klown]

Isn't HD Netflix OnDemand available already? I see a section under their OnDemand feature labeled HD with a small selection of content.

I love Roku

[WiiVault]

As an AppleTV I must say I really admire Roku. They seem to understand hardware and software in a way few manufacturers do. They work really hard on compatibility with so many formats and products, its really great. I love my AppleTV as well, and it does some things better, but to get the openess of Roku it must be seriously hacked. Roku is the one pushing this segment forward.

Re:I love Roku

[LodCrappo]

At the moment there is no evidence of openness that I can find.

you either didn't look very hard or don't have much in the way of researching skills.

http://www.roku.com/community/gpl_nfp.php

http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=2932

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/30/1645200&from=rss

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10050649-93.html

http://hackaday.com/2008/07/02/netflix-player-source-code-released/

http://forums.rokulabs.com/viewtopic.php?t=17046&highlight=&sid=1bea026fdae6ddaace484e70273f2d0d

I'm not saying much has become of it, but Roku has already released all GPL code and is hosting forums for their users where they allow talk about hacking it at least. They publicly state their intentions to allow any content provider to use their box to distribute content, and mention the release of a software development kit to help people do that.

I don't know if you are claiming there is no evidence of "open" as in FOSS or "open" as in allowing other companies to use the platform, but there seems to be plenty of evidence of both.

     

"Presumably" Hulu

[MrDelSarto]

The article says

"Presumably this will include sources such as YouTube, Hulu, Comedy Central, MSNBC, etc."

I'm pretty sure this would be a licensing issue, not at technical issue about streaming formats.

It's one thing to have to sit at your computer, or faff about with a media PC to watch content. But I imagine the networks would be very scared of a simple, cheap, no subscription, plug-in box. I'd be (pleasantly) surprised if they let Roku get to that content.

Once Hulu comes to my Tivo (I hate having a million boxes for different things), I'd reconsider why I even pay for even the cheapest tier cable.

If anyone wonders what the Comcast 250G caps are about, they have nothing to do with bandwidth contention and everything to do with them realising soon they will loose half (more?) of their business when cable TV dies.

Re:"Presumably" Hulu

[exhilaration]

I don't see any licensing issues as long as Roku doesn't try to block commercials. After all, it's just another web client, relegated to a niche audience.

Re:"Presumably" Hulu

[powerlord]

Hulu is on the PS3 now - the Roku isn't that big a step away. But I'd like to see one box that can do hulu, netflix hd, and local upnp/DLNA streaming with hdmi output.

Exactly. Between my PS3 and TiVo I've got almost all the bases covered (since TiVo added the Netflix streaming in addition to the Amazon Video support).

Likewise a PS3 and an XBox360 would also cover most of the streaming video options, or a 360 and an AppleTV, or lots of other combinations.

Lets count the media sources together:
Sony's Video store on the PS3
MS's Video store on the 360
Apple's iTunes
Amazon's Video store (formerly unBox)
Netflix
Hulu

Once people have access to "enough" media sources, their usually set, and each Set Top Box seems to be getting more and more access to more and more sources.

Re:"Presumably" Hulu

[powerlord]

Once Hulu comes to my Tivo (I hate having a million boxes for different things), I'd reconsider why I even pay for even the cheapest tier cable.

Cable is in for lots of rude awakenings in the coming year or two.

Once digital TV goes live, and signal strength increases on the digital signals, a lot of people in formerly "I can get a usable signal" areas will suddenly get crystal clear reception.

I live in the canyons of concrete and steel in NYC and went from missing a couple of channels and lots of snow (on analog signals) to crystal clear reception on all channels plus sub channels, plus some I didn't expect (on digital). That, plus some supplemental downloading Amazon, Sony, iTunes to fill in a "first run cable" series or two (or even just waiting for syndication), and cutting the cable back to just an ISP seems much more promising.

If only FiOS was here over DSL I'd ditch cable as an ISP also.

AppleTV running Boxee

[Tumbleweed]

Have you seen an AppleTV running Boxee?

The problem with that setup is all the frakkin' daggits. I hate daggits.

Re:Pity download caps will kills this idea for now

[dschuetz]

I think it might go the other way. It's one thing for a few geeks with home-brewed media center PCs to start streaming lots of movies and run up huge bandwidth totals.

It's a totally different thing for "Interweb" users with a cable modem and a single PC they use for online banking, when they get something like AppleTV or Roku and can start watching lots of stuff that way.

That is, once this starts to go mainstream, when average home internet users can start using these devices, there'll be a lot more pressure for ISPs to NOT impose those bandwidth caps.

At least, that's how I'm hoping it goes.