Roku Finally Gets a 2D Menu System

DeviceGuru writes "Many of us have griped for years about Roku's retro one-dimensional user interface. Finally, in conjunction with the release of the new Roku 3 model, the Linux-based media streaming player is getting a two-dimensional facelift, making it quicker and easier to access favorite channels and find new ones. Current Roku users, who will now begin suffering from UI-envy, will be glad to learn that Roku plans to push out a firmware update next month to many earlier models, including the Roku LT, Roku HD (model 2500R), Roku 2 HD, Roku 2 XD, Roku 2 XS, and Roku Streaming Stick. A short demo of the new 2D Roku menu system is available in this YouTube video."

Comments

Roku 3

[fyngyrz]

Sadly, although the new Roku has the new interface and a fast CPU, it's lost a lot of the connectivity that made the original Roku such a great device; the optical audio is gone, and so is the component video. The 3 is composite video + analog audio, or HDMI+audio, or nothing. I made great use of that connectivity with a high end, but older, Denon receiver for one unit, and a toshiba flatscreen 720p CRT display. Both still work perfectly, but will have to stay with the original roku, which is very slow. So no new interface for me, sigh.

I'm thinking there's still a lot of similar hardware out there, too.

One-dimensional Interface?

[degeneratemonkey]

Did it look like this? ---

Re:One-dimensional Interface?

[Jarik C-Bol]

It took me a while, but I finally figured out what the hell he meant by '2 Dimensional' It seems that the original Roku interface was a lot like the 'Photo Stream' or 'Album Stream' in apple products. Scroll left or right, and it pages through 200 channels. Now, its more like the Xbox home screen, with several channels displayed per page, in a block, and you can navigate up down left and right in that page.

Its still a retarded way to describe the problem.

One-dimensional user interface

[Sesostris III]

I use one all the time. It's called the command line. I have no problems with it!

If you can only move in one dimension, like LCD

[raymorris]

If you can only scroll up and down, through a long list, that's one dimension. Think single line LCD display. Compare to a standard desktop, where you can move the mouse up and down, or left and right (2D). Tbe display is 2D obviously, but if the navihation is just up-arrow and down-arrow, that's one dimensional navigation.

It's no wonder geeks get shit all the time

[Overzeetop]

Yes, actually it did look like this - - - - -

And now, it looks like this:
- - - - -
- - - - -

Where each - represents an icon. Notice how the icons may be addressed by a single value, or a single dimension. Now, they are addressed by two values - sometimes known as 2 dimensions.

I'm guessing that you're the guy who, when he walks into a lab with lots of critical equipment and the lab manager says "don't touch anything," you are the one who asks "Can I touch the air? Can I touch the floor?" Grow the fuck up.

Re:Menu 'dimensioniality' aside

[omnichad]

Is that where you set two IDE hard drives both to Master and see which one wins?

Re:I believe we already crashed linuxgizmos.com

[Tarlus]

It's running off of a Roku.

TOSLink is only 2 channels

[bigtrike]

You'd be better off with high quality analog outputs. TOSLink is limited 2 channels, so any conversion with more channels (assuming the Roku even supports that) requires some sort of encoding scheme and a loss of quality.