We’re big fans of Roku here at ZNF. In fact, the Soundbridge was one of my first streaming devices way back when. (Not to mention Mari and I have both been satisfied ReplayTV owners – a company also founded by Anthony Wood.) Of course, these days, Roku’s all about their small television-connected media player… which comes in three variations: $80 SD, $100 HD, and $130 HD-XR. All units provide access to Roku “channels” including Netflix, Amazon VOD, and Pandora. Sports have also started to make an appearance with the addition of MLB.TV, UFC PPV, and NBA Game Time highlight channels.
We only recommend products that we’d buy; Therefore, the SD Roku model is not appropriate for ZNF readers (and why we rarely mention it even exists). The $100 Roku HD is what we normally discuss and is suitable for most. The $30 HD-XR surcharge bumps you from 80211.g to 802.11n, providing increased wireless range and additional bandwidth. More interestingly, the XR ships with a USB port. And, presumably, at some point Roku will offer local playback capabilities, via that USB connection and hopefully the LAN, to fend off the likes of Western Digital’s HD TV Live.
Through June 20th, Roku is offering $25 off the HD-XR model. So if you’re in the market for a Roku, $5 more for the HD XR over the base HD unit is a no brainer. Here’s how you get it: Click this link, add a Roku HD XR to your cart, click on past the accessories screen, and then apply coupon code ready2roku.
Any current or future Roku owner with an iPhone or iPod Touch, should probably also pick up DVPRemote. It’ll be the best 99 cents you ever spent if you ever search for movies or artists by name.
Don’t see the field to enter a coupon code. Clicked their 10% off link from the home page and was able to then enter your coupon code instead
http://shop.roku.com/Webpage.aspx?webpageid=5&t=partner
Thanks for the tip! While composing the post, I did notice I’d periodically lose the coupon code field during checkout, but thought it was a local cookie thing versus URL. Now we know… and I’ve updated the post to send folks to that specific partner link.
Do these things support DLN so you can stream from server/pc on the lan?
No DLNA at this time. As I mentioned above, I think it’s likely that they’d be working on some sort of LAN streaming. But I don’t know that as fact and I of course don’t know what protocol they’d use.
That’s pretty nasty. You get me all interested in the hd-xr, then tell me that the coupon has expired. Maybe your friendly talk should expire also. Sincerely, Fred
Roku HD-XR $99 today in Amazon Gold Box