Roku has finally launched official support for accessing USB-housed media via the current XD|S model and discontinued HD-XR. The “Roku USB Media Player” builds upon what was essentially a public beta by slightly broadening file support and reworking the interface. Unfortunately, release notes are slim and it’s not clear what the exact file encoding requirements or limitations might be. However, here’s what we do know thus far:
Plug in your USB drive to your Roku player and enjoy your digital movies, music and photos on your TV. Currently supports MKV (H.264), MP4 (H.264), MOV (H.264), WMV/ASF (WMV9/VC-1), MP3, AAC, JPG, and PNG files.
This channel requires firmware version 2.9 build 1529 which began rolling out last week. More detailed information on the latest firmware release and USB channel will be available soon.
As it’s 7 in the morning, I haven’t actually hooked up a drive and taken the new functionality for a spin – other than snapping these pics. Mari covered the pre-release channel, so perhaps we’ll go ahead and delegate an upcoming hands-on to her.
(Thanks for the tip, Chad!)