Roku is a feisty and fleet-footed Silicon Valley company that has been running ahead of a flood of internet-connected devices threatening to engulf its tiny set-top box.
With its new lineup just launched, Roku stays out in front on price and content and gets in just ahead of its biggest challenger to date – Apple TV, which is due to go on sale by the end of the month.
Roku was the first company to bring movie streaming from the Netflix DVD rental service to the TV when it launched a $100 box for the purpose in May 2008.
Many others now offer the same functionality – games consoles, media players from Seagate and Western Digital, TiVo, networked Blu-ray players and integrated TV sets.
Roku has continued to differentiate itself by improving the Netflix interface, adding other content and adjusting its prices with variations on the original box.
It opened a Channel Store in November last year allowing users to link to Amazon video-on-demand, MLB baseball, Pandora radio, Flickr photos, Facebook and other content streams.
The three new boxes launched on Wednesday are the HD, XD and XDS priced at $60, $80 and $100. The HD has HDMI and red-white-yellow composite outputs, Wi-Fi and ethernet connections and plays 720p HD video. The XD adds 1080p HD capabilities, extended-range Wireless N and an enhanced remote with instant-replay that skips back a few seconds and a button offering more information.
The XDS, which I tried, adds dual-band Wireless N and component and optical audio outputs as well as a USB port for sideloading streaming video.
At $100, it is the same price as the forthcoming Apple TV but Apple’s device lacks dual-band N, the USB option, 1080p and composite and component connections.
Apple TV offers Netflix, YouTube, Flickr and MobileMe content, plus streaming movie rentals through its iTunes store as well as easy access to content on your PC.
Roku lacks YouTube and iTunes and offers limited access to your computer’s content through third-party channels. But it has many more sources of content – more than 85 channels to date and more being added all the time.
One I particularly liked that has just been added is MOG, my favourite music streaming service. There are more than 8m songs available and you can search by album, artist, song, most popular and other categories.
Music loaded and played almost instantly with cover art. Songs and albums could be added to a favourites carousel and “radio stations” of particular artists or artists like them chosen.
The new Roku box is slimmer and shinier than its ugly predecessor and has a cute jeans-style tag on it. But it would still not win any design awards.
Apple wins hands down on that with its palm-of-your-hand Apple TV and sleek remote, yet Roku has the upper hand when it comes to value for money.
