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Roku Box Adds HD, Grows Beyond Netflix

Posted by kdawson on Tue Dec 23, 2008 03:29 PM
from the watch-anything-anywhere dept.
Media Television Businesses
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."
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  • Maybe I'm just not aware of it... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Corpuscavernosa (996139) on Tuesday December 23 2008, @03:31PM (#26215719)
    ... but seriously when is porn going to get into the streaming scene? (insert joke)

    • Re:Maybe I'm just not aware of it... (Score:4, Funny)

      by thedonger (1317951) on Tuesday December 23 2008, @04:14PM (#26216171)

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

      When R. Kelly starts filming again.

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

      There are a ton of for-pay webcam services. They seem to be intermediaries between 'independent contractors' in mostly 3rd world countries and customers in the west. They often take the lion's share of the money (usually $1/minute and up), paying the contractors 25% or less, although I've heard of one place advertising for contractors and claiming to pay 50%.

      Sorry, I don't know any URLs off-hand, but you can probably find them easily enough even with a brain-dead google search since that's kind of their

  • XBMC (Score:4, Insightful)

    by 0100010001010011 (652467) on Tuesday December 23 2008, @03:35PM (#26215763)

    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.

    • Can your XBMC stream movies from NetFlix? Does it occupy about 4"x4"x2" of space and is completely silent?

      • Maybe you missed the part where I said "Someone needs to build a nice small XBoxMC replacement".

        XBMC is already ported to Linux, OS X, and Windows. It's a project that's been refined over the last 4.5 years. All it needs is someone to come in and create a 4"x4"x2" device designed just to use it.

        • Did you miss the part where I said "Can your XBMC stream movies from NetFlix"? Will your small XBMC stream movies from NetFlix?

          • Only a few inches larger than what you were requesting, but here it is. Team this device up with XBMC or Boxee and you're good to go.

            http://www.apple.com/macmini/ [apple.com]

            For best results I'd wait till after the MacWorld San Francisco, in January, since it is extremely likely that Apple will update the MacMini hardware (greatly, considering it hasn't been updated since Aug 2007).

            • For best results I'd wait till after the MacWorld San Francisco, in January, since it is extremely likely that Apple will update the MacMini hardware (greatly, considering it hasn't been updated since Aug 2007).

              Or announce the end of the product line and lower the price on the remaining inventory. Both eventualities are worth the wait.

          • Plus Netflix can now be streamed with a Mac.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by SoapBoxRants (1335927)
      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.

      • The AppleTV is woefully underpowered and too expensive.

        And "Interface" is just a matter of what skin you have installed, my XBMC looks gorgeous as is.

        • I think you might want to eat those words... considering the Xbox is the real "woefully underpowered" device.

          The Xbox has an Intel Celeron (coppermine) 733 dating from 1999 or 2001 depending on when it was produced, by comparison the AppleTV has an Intel Crofton 1.0Ghz from the last year or so.

          There's also the RAM, 64MB of DDR SDRAM in the xbox, 256MB of DDR2 SDRAM in the AppleTV.

          As far as it being too expensive, the xbox at release was double what the AppleTV was at release... nuff said.

          • XBMC runs on most OS's and most computers.

            The GP probably was not referring to the original xbox.

          • Unless I'm completely mistaken the Xbox launched at $299. The cheapest AppleTV is $229 at Apple's website right now. It is no longer possible to purchase an Xbox brand new expect off 3rd party channels. However, used consoles can be bought from any Gamestop for $50. A purchase of the original Splinter Cell for $3 and some time will allow you to softmod your Xbox and install XBMC.

            The specs on the Xbox might look extremely underpowered right now and they are for HD playback, but the Xbox doesn't have an O

      • Have you seen an AppleTV running Boxee?

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

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Shrubbman (3807)

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

  • Mythbackend ! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by 0x4a6f6e43 (837256) on Tuesday December 23 2008, @03:39PM (#26215807)
    Just add the ability to talk to a Mythbackend and output HD at 1080p and I'll get two!

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by TubeSteak (669689)

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

      • Re:Mythbackend ! (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Duradin (1261418) on Tuesday December 23 2008, @04:22PM (#26216243)

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

        Compare h.264 to mpeg-2.

          • The quality of OTA channels on cable seems pretty good to me. U-Verse is pretty bad, though.
            I'm pretty sure the Roku player uses WMV/VC-1 like everything else for HD, so the only thing they can do it reduce the quality. Will they offer these lower quality HD streams to the 360 and Tivo? The HD streaming doesn't work very even over a 10mbit connection in my experience.
  • Anyone have any idea when/if....
    *HD* Netlfix will come to PC's (Windows, Linux, MAC) ?
    Official netflix integration into Vista MCE (unofficial exists) ?
    Official or unofficial integration of Hulu in Media Center?

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

        • Where do you see that? I can't find a list of HD titles anywhere.

          Ah, I guess it's for TV only.

          I have the HD option under "Watch Instantly" -> "Genres". But further info shows that it's only for TV.

          I guess it shows up for me since I activated my Tivo to use Netflix.

    • If they do it for the Xbox360 [gizmodo.com], then it might stand to reason that Media Center might follow? Dunno, the whole article is nothing more than speculation at this point. But it's from someone (Shane Kim) [microsoft.com] who, if anyone knew if it were a possibility/in the pipeline, it would be him.
  • Hopefully one of the "additional providers of HD content" will also provide streams with Closed Captioning (or subtitles). My biggest disappointment with Roku/Netflix is no Closed Caption.
    • Doesn't this break the US Government laws [fcc.gov] on requiring closed captioning?
      • I'm sure Netflix can finesse this in a number of ways; for example, per this fcc page [fcc.gov] "Channels producing revenues of under $3,000,000" are exempt from the rule. Instant Watch is "free for Netflix subscribers."

        There are also technical issues; HDMI doesn't have a CC stream so the merge of CC or subtitle and video have to happen in the Roku box or upstream.

      • Netflix may be providing videos but I don't think they count as a video programming provider.

      • FCC rules about close-captioning apply to broadcast TV, period.

  • I love Roku (Score:3, Interesting)

    by WiiVault (1039946) on Tuesday December 23 2008, @04:00PM (#26216031)
    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.

  • "Presumably" Hulu (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MrDelSarto (95771) <<ian> <at> <wienand.org>> on Tuesday December 23 2008, @04:03PM (#26216061) Homepage

    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 (Score:4, Informative)

      by exhilaration (587191) on Tuesday December 23 2008, @04:26PM (#26216263)
      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.

    • I use MediaMall's PlayOn media server to watch Hulu and Netflix on my PS3 and Xbox360. It also streams to my PopcornHour box. It costs $30. I am in no way affiliated with them, I just love the product.

      http://www.themediamall.com/playon [themediamall.com]

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by powerlord (28156)

      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 an

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by powerlord (28156)

        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 st

  • I've been spending the past few weeks enjoying the HD streaming they recently enabled on TiVos. It's great to be able to go just watch any movie in my instant queue, all using the TiVo interface. There are nice little touches like TV series show up as a folder with one "recording" per episode instead.

    It works very well, and I can get full quality (or sometimes one mark under, according to the little display) on my 6 Mb DSL line.

    So far I've watched Meet the Robinsons, King of Kong, and a couple of other th

    • Steaming HD is good, I'll admit, but I prefer baked or pan-fried. It's not as healthy as steamed, but it tastes so much better. Basted with some chipotle sauce, and it's da bomb.

  • While all of this seems to be great, there's one problem nobody really wants to talk about: the imposition of monthy download capacity limits by Internet Service Providers.

    Indeed, even Comcast's 250 GB per month is woefully inadequate to accommodate streaming HD video over a device like Roku or Apple TV if you watch a lot of movies streamed to your device. And many ISP's are talking much smaller monthly download limits, too. The result: either you can't download as many movies and TV shows you really want,

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by dschuetz (10924)

      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 pressu

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