Thumbdrive-Sized Streaming Media Players Coming Soon

DeviceGuru writes "Roku is building its streaming media player technology into a thumbdrive-style device that will plug directly into a TV's HDMI port. The Roku Streaming Stick, to be priced in the $50-$100 range, will convert ordinary TVs into smart TVs, according to CEO Anthony Wood. One catch is that it will depend on the TV having at least one Mobile High-Definition Link (MHDL) compliant HDMI port. The new standard is not widely supported yet, with only Nokia, Samsung, Silicon Image, Sony, and Toshiba listed as members on the MHDL Consortium's web page."

Comments

And the point is...?

[adolf]

So you get this super-nifty thing which can only be attached to the most super-nifty of the HDMI ports, which will only be equipped to begin with on devices which were already super-nifty.

So, I guess the choices are as thus (since keeping an old TV and buying a new Roku isn't an option):

1. Keep old TV, buy old Roku.

2. Buy new TV, keep old Roku.

3. Buy new super-nifty TV, don't bother with super-nifty Roku because the super-nifty is already built into the TV.

(4. Oh, yeah: At no point is there any functional merit to a new super-nifty Roku. Neat!)

Re:And the point is...?

[v(*_*)vvvv]

My New Years Eve.

I was playing around with a digital antenna to get a sub channel. One reason why I quit cable was because they weren't required to support them... I wanted to watch Kohaku on UTB 18.2 Hollywood. I am forced to use this piece of trash since it was all they had at bestbuy. It literally has 1.5 out of 5 stars. As I ask myself why I am moving this box around the room having to scan for channels in this day and age, I give up because the digital channel in MY NEIGHBORHOOD isn't picked up by the scanner no matter how hard I try, given the limitations imposed by the length of the power cord and the random antenna I chose.

I'm thinking, good thing I picked up a Roku box while I was at bestbuy for plan B... I heard about it, and just assumed it was a smart device that would magically find content given it is online. Felt like there were a few unnecessary steps, but I get it to work, only to find that it just has a bunch of youtube-like channels, but no youtube!? No access to any of the upload sites. WTF? If I wanted Angry Bird I'd just get the app, thank you. So what is the hooplah? The channels suck.

I hop online to lookup Roku alternatives, thinking I must have been thinking of something else... Find Boxee, and figure that must have been the magic box. I find I don't even need to buy one. I can just install it on my computer. Brilliant!

90MB download, installed, I try to run it, "dll not found". Silence. It turns out you need to install DirectX manually, but at this point if my Windows 7 doesn't support it, and no one cared to mention it during the install, I figure Boxee doesn't deserve any more attention.

So I end up just hooking up my PC as is to the TV... Shit, it works. I can watch anything. Brilliant!!!

What are all these boxes really about!?!? ...my last WTF and OMG moment of 2011.

Re:And the point is...?

[StripedCow]

The point is, with this device, there is no DRM involved, and your TV won't be able to report the file names of the movies you watch to the MPAA.

Re:And the point is...?

[Sockatume]

Of course everyone is you, and therefore everyone already owns an HDTV. And a Roku box.

Re:And the point is...?

[hairyfeet]

Best bet IMHO is the new AMD E-350 mini boards. you are talking about a unit that uses 18w for the chip and around 35w all told full load, has a Radeon chip built into the APU that has support for just about every format, many of them even have a PCIe so if you decide you need even more GPU you can add it easily but since they do 1080p over HDMI I really don't see the point but its nice to have the option, and you can pick up one for $70 after rebate if you don't mind using a DVI to HDMI adapter or $100 if you want an HDMI built in. Oh and they hold 8Gb of RAM which is nice as Win 7 superfetch will load all your apps into RAM to make it VERY snappy. Great little unit and easy peasy to make a whisper quiet HTPC with one, I've built a couple for customers and they are happy as can be with it. And Netflix works just fine in WMC friend, it shows up under Internet TV along with about 2 dozen free channels.

As for TFA the point of this is.....what exactly? any TV new and fancy enough to have that port will already have streaming built in and the ones old enough they could use this won't have the port. Sounds like a solution in search of a problem to me. For those customers that didn't have the money to go HTPC I recommend the WD TV Live which is small and looks nice in an entertainment center and whether they choose HTPC or WDTV for the kiddies i recommend the Nbox Media Player as its simple enough for young ones to use and with a 200Gb drive you can load all their favorite shows and movies on them no problem and no have to worry about little Suzy crying because her sister scratched their favorite Dora disc. Oh and for those that have clueless family/friends that want to be able to rip DVDs? Tipard DVD ripper, best $30 they'll ever spend as its literally "push button to rip movie" and its default setting is to a bog standard DivX 5 which will play on anything and it has built in Streams and CUDA to help speed ripping.

That is one really nice thing about today, when i started with HTPCs they cost an arm and a leg to build and now you can build a really nice unit with frankly insane amounts of power for cheap, hell you shop around you can build one nice enough to even game on for less than $600. And when I started out pretty much the only software you had was this buggy shit that came with whatever cap card you got, now their is WMC and XBMC and MediaPortal and MythTV, man its never been easier to have a nice HTPC!

Re:And the point is...?

[dreamchaser]

You certainly can use Netflix on a DIY media box. You just can't have it with Linux. Linux is not the only OS out there. Windows Media Center actually holds up well vs. Myth or other solutions.

MDHL compliant HDMI port?

[93 Escort Wagon]

I'm guessing this sort of port will only be found on a smart TV - so, really, where's the market for a device designed to "convert ordinary TVs into smart TVs" that requires that port?

Really, the fundamental issue is the market for devices like the Roku box or AppleTV is drying up as more and more televisions come with the same functionality built in. They're still iterating on what's rapidly becoming an obsolete product segment - sort of like how Palm kept releasing new takes on the PDA long after stand-alone PDAs became irrelevant.

Re:MDHL compliant HDMI port?

[delinear]

I'm guessing this sort of port will only be found on a smart TV - so, really, where's the market for a device designed to "convert ordinary TVs into smart TVs" that requires that port?

I guess it's possible that someone could come up with a converter for MHDL to HDMI. Perhaps they already exist and they just didn't include it in the Roku for price considerations. Even so it's going to be an increasingly shrinking market of people who already have a TV that's good enough quality they don't want to replace it, not so good that it doesn't already have any of these features, and don't mind spending $100 for the Roku plus whatever the converter might cost to keep an old set functional.

It's already next to impossible to buy a reasonably good TV now that doesn't have some kind of smart streaming facility - I know, having just had to go through the pain of replacing my old set. Mind you, I also got a "smart" BluRay player thrown in for free so I assume these are also available cheap enough to effectively price the Roku out of the market before it's even started.

Re:MDHL compliant HDMI port?

[sincewhen]

But this is what worries me with "smart TVs". They won't be smart enough for long. When a new site comes out e.g. FaceTwit, will the TV be updated to support it?
Well, it wouldn't be in the manufacturer's interests, as they will want you to buy a new TV. So unless it can be rooted and runs an open source OS like Android, so you can take charge of updates yourself, your shiny new smart TV will quickly become out-of-date.

Re:MDHL compliant HDMI port?

[jtownatpunk.net]

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess it'll be as simple as a power injector like current MHL to HDMI adapters use to connect some cell phones to TVs. Slip it between your MHDL dongle and the HDMI port on your TV and you're set. Or they'll just put a power port on the dongle that can tap a USB port for juice. Many TVs have USB ports. Limiting their customer base to a small percentage of flat panel owners would be ridonkulous.

Re:MDHL compliant HDMI port?

[Sockatume]

Most "smart TVs" are extensible (they're marketed as having "apps" for various services), and many of them support third party plugins developed to a published spec. TV manufacturers understand that people aren't going to go out and buy a new TV just because it lets them watch YouTube.

I'll have the raspberry pi instead

[Anonymous Coward]

So.. rolling my own from a raspberry pi will still be the best option this year? That comes with a bog standard hdmi port.
http://www.raspberrypi.org/

Re:or buy this?

[Rockoon]

But then you will have to buy a separate $1095.99 HDMI cable.

HDMI is ok,

[klingens]

but what other connectors does it have? USB? Ethernet? WLAN? SD Card? If so, it's another Raspberry Pi, just a lot smaller. And if we are lucky it has an A8 and maybe more memory.
Root it and you have a nice little cheap home Linux server. I can dream, right?

Re:or buy this?

[jtownatpunk.net]

Not everybody wants to roll their own. Some people (yes, even geeks) like it when Shit Just Works. Open the box, plug it in, use it. We're not talking about something that costs thousands of dollars. To me, saving $25-75 isn't worth the hours it would take to make a general purpose device do the same thing. I've got other stuff I could be doing with my time that would either be more fun or bring in more money than I'd just "saved".

Re:Televisions

[ksemlerK]

Why do televisions still even exist? What can you do with a television that you can't do with a computer?

Have an entertainment medium that I can control with 5 buttons. After a 11 hour day at work, I don't want to browse the net to find what I want, bother loading it in youtube, and then max screening it, and sending it over to my larger monitor.

All this takes work I DON"T SIMPLY WANT TO DO EVERY TIME I DECIDE TO WATCH SOMETHING FOR SIMPLE ENTERTAINMENT on the computer. However, on the TV, I only need 5 buttons minimum to get at what I want if I'm lazy and don't want to use the programming guide, (and even then, it's only 8 buttons to do anything I want on the TV).

These buttons are: VolUP / VolDN / ChanUP/ ChanDN/ PWR/ MENU/ SCROLLUP/ SCROLLDN.

Sometimes I just want to veg out and NOT use my brain to be entertained.

Re:Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba?

[Penguinshit]

I have an LG "dumb" TV and love it. I have a 4-year old laptop hooked to the SVGA port for internet video, controlled from my primary system via tightVNC. Works great and I can use my choice of browser.

Better than a "smart TV"

[GameboyRMH]

Keeping the "smart" separate from the "TV" is the right thing to do. If you think an '80s car with a clunky old tape deck is funny, wait until your TV has an 8-year-old HTPC permanently embedded in it...

BTW this sounds like that "popcorn hour" thing. I haven't paid much attention to it since it's a closed toy, but sounds like just a smaller version of the same thing.