Netflix HD streaming to hit Roku before 2009
While we sincerely doubt this to be the push Roku needs to become more, how should we put this, significant – Roku owners and potential buyers alike just got some great news. The Roku Netflix player, a $99 set top box packing that allows you stream Netflix downloads to your TV, has three announcements of varied interest coming down the pipe in the near future. First and foremost, HD. Roku will gain access to the entirety of Netflix’s HD library by the end of the year, though it is unclear exactly what kind of speeds we’ll see in terms of downloads. Next up, a sexy new 720p user interface that will obviously be capable of displaying more titles at a time. Lastly, a bit of a mystery to keep things exciting. Roku has stated the upcoming new release will also “include another major new feature that you’ll have to wait a bit longer to learn about.” Roku’s Netflix box already has optical and HDMI connections ready and waiting to feed Netflix’s HD content to your flat panel, so this news shouldn’t be much of a surprise. Let’s just hope the updates come sooner rather than later so Roku’s Netflix Player might make it to a few tech savvy holiday shopping lists.
[Via Giz]
This is going on the holiday “to cop” list, right after the Rovio, and fresh Gucci sheets. Owwwww
I’ve been using mine for about 6 months now and love it. I really had no interest in even signing up for NetFlix until I saw this gadget. Eexcited about the new features!
Roku rocks. Now I need to get my HDTV.
Will the HD download work with the existing hardware or will these be new units? Bottom line, do I need to wait for a new hardware unit to come out before I buy or should I get it now?
Chad,
The Roku box receives updates over the air. You can buy a box right now and it will have HD before year-end. That was the point of the article.
“Roku’s Netflix box already has optical and HDMI connections ready”
hth
been a roku user for about 6 months. for the most part it works well.
needs hd, more and newer titles for it to be a better product.
for now i use it to watch tv programs from by childhood.
I just got a ROKU and the quality is good. With a little know how and a few downloads from here and there including Microsoft you can also watch netflix, Hulu , NBC ,youtube and a lot of your media content stored on your computer with MS media server or Twonky Media Server or Media player 11 or Nero and a few others , but the quality is just acceptable.
forgot to add that PPstream from China is a great Web TV player and if anyone makes a player to play it on a TV let me know.