Comments on: Roku Netflix Box Now Streaming HD (For Some)

By: StephLadder

StephLadder — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:04:26 +0000

Thanks! That worked for me, too (the “try 3 times to upgrade to 1.5).

Looks great! Those that quibble over movie choices and occasional screen ‘dirt’ just don’t get it… this is awesome technology… truly the ‘future’. I’m very impressed. ‘The Thing’ looks as good as you could want!

-sl

By: Patrick

Patrick — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:28:37 +0000

@ Philoneous

Thank you for the tip, that worked for me. I am testing out the new features now. I didn’t know that getting the new update was like calling for Beetleguice.

By: Philoneous

Philoneous — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 00:38:48 +0000

If you manually go into the Roku STB and try to download the update 3 times, you should get the new 1.5 software on the 3rd try. The server stalled on me a couple of times when fetching the update, but eventually I was able to upgrade to 1.5.

By: Webomatica

Webomatica — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 23:24:16 +0000

Awesome – I checked last night, and no update. Fingers crossed for tonight

By: Dan Rayburn

Dan Rayburn — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:10:43 +0000

In addition to the new 720p HD support, the new Roku software upgrade also allows for up scaling of SD titles to 720p and enables Roku’s switch to the new VC-1 AP streams, which previously used to be VC1-MP. The switch to the new encoding gives similar or better quality for lower bit rates. Roku’s HD quality videos are now encoded at 2.7Mbps and 3.8Mbps.

http://blog.streamingmedia.com/the_business_of_online_vi/2008/12/roku-adds-hd-streaming-drives-netflixs-costs-up.html

By: Dave Zatz

Dave Zatz — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:02:06 +0000

Got my update last night: http://twitpic.com/vgvb

CJ, I have read some of the encodes are messed up and that Netflix is working on it. The HD of course will never match Blu-ray, but it should look much better than the SD content.

By: CJ

CJ — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:57:15 +0000

I received the update yesterday and it is certainly welcome and exciting for a little $99 black box.

However, the HD quality from Netflix is certainly poor. Digital artifacts abound in everything from Pan’s Labyrinth to Heroes to 30 Rock. My streaming connection was at the highest quality.

Here’s hoping for a better HD stream in 2009.