Roku Joins The People of Walmart

Without any fanfare, Roku landed on Walmart’s virtual shelves last month. Specifically the Roku XD ($78) and Roku XDS ($98) models. Given the forum chatter, associated retail brick & mortar placement appears imminent. And, speaking of that forum, I share the same suspicious as TheEndless… that Netgear-branded Roku devices, and their associated retail exposure, are no … Read more

Angry Birds Landing On Roku

Sometime this summer, Roku intends to refresh their digital streamer hardware lineup… while simultaneously expanding the platform to support casual gaming. And their first partner is Rovio, a heavyweight in the space and creator of the immensely popular Angry Birds franchise. From the joint press release:

Roku will offer Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Rio video games; launch an Angry Birds video channel featuring Angry Birds animated shorts; and sell Angry Birds merchandise-all via the Roku Channel Store. The announcement today also marks Roku’s expansion of its successful Internet TV platform to include casual games.

Roku goes on to say they’re lining up additional gaming partners. Yet I wonder if anyone cares? For adults, I see casual gaming as a possibly nice-to-have enhancement (assuming Roku releases a quality remote control)… rather than a selling point that actually moves units. For example, it’s not clear to me that TiVo or Verizon have seen much success with similar television-based casual gaming initiatives. And while I loved Peggle on my iPhone, it just didn’t translate to the big screen via my Xbox 360. Perhaps there’s a market here for the younger crowd. Unless they all have iPhone Touches or pocketable Nintendo units.

Read more

Verizon FiOS TV Headed To Roku & PS3?

The GigaOm crew attended a FiOS TV briefing… where they received a demo of Verizon’s FlexView video-on-demand service running on a Roku streamer. I can’t say I’m surprised, as Verizon made their intentions to break free of the set-top box clear back at CES. In fact, they demo-ed live television on an iPad and Samsung … Read more

Why Is Amazon Crediting Customers For HD VOD?


It looks as though at least some of us are being credited by Amazon for high definition video on demand rentals or purchases that may not have actually achieved sustained HD streaming. A friend and I both received this email within in the last 24 hours:

As someone who has purchased digital movies or TV shows in high-definition (HD) from Amazon Instant Video, we wanted to provide you more information about how we deliver HD content. It is our goal to provide you an uninterrupted viewing experience without any video reloading or “buffering.” To provide you uninterrupted viewing we may lower the resolution of HD videos to standard definition during streaming playback. We do this if we detect that your Internet connection to our service may not be fast enough to support HD playback. For more information on viewing HD videos from Amazon Instant Video, please visit our Help page here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200256920

Because you may not have been able to playback one of your rentals or purchases in HD quality, we have issued you a one-time Amazon Instant Video credit of $1 for each of the HD movies and TV episodes you have purchased from us for a total amount of $23. In order to apply the credit to your Amazon Instant Video account, please click here,
http://www.amazon.com/instantvideo/hdcredit

Read more

The State of Boxee, Roku and Tivo

Light Reading TV interviews Roku Anthony Wood Boxee Avner Ronen

One of the best things about this week’s Light Reading Cable event was Avner Ronen’s unfailingly humorous commentary. That guy could be a stand-up comedian. And in an industry where much is taken far too seriously, a little levity is appreciated.

That said, just because Avner was funny doesn’t mean he didn’t also have some status updates and pearls of wisdom to dispense. Here’s what I got from the Boxee CEO, along with Roku CEO Anthony Wood, and TiVo exec Tara Maitra. For more, check out Light Reading’s own coverage including interviews on Light Reading TV.

Boxeewants to own the user experience
Avner Ronen still insists Boxee doesn’t want to be a cable killer. Instead, the company wants to own the user experience – not the delivery, the content, or the box. To date, the company has 1.7 million users worldwide, and it plans to use its recent funding round of 16.5 million dollars to license more content, get distribution on more TVs, and most importantly, continue focusing on product development. Avner says that Boxee still doesn’t meet the babysitter test – i.e. the babysitter wouldn’t necessarily be able to watch TV upon encountering the Boxee Box for the first time. However, the company is aggressively working on moving from being a geek-only product to one that’s appealing to mainstream early-adopters.

Rokuwants to be a next-generation video network
I don’t know that I could have articulated Roku’s goal of becoming a next-gen video network before CEO Anthony Wood did yesterday. (Ah, so that’s what the little box that could wants to be when it grows up!) But it’s a noble aim, and certainly one that Roku’s made a good start on achieving. According to Wood, Roku has already shipped more than a million boxes through direct Internet sales, and that number could explode when the company hits the retail big box stores this year. Meanwhile, Wood also noted that customer surveys suggest that new Roku owners are cutting back on cable services at a more rapid rate. Last year 30% of new owners said they downgraded cable service or cut it altogether. This year that number’s already at 40%.

Other Roku notes: Wood says the company will probably have more than 1,000 channels by the end of the year, and it will launch its first international product in 2011.

Read more

Digital Media Bytes

A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our other blogs: New Tablet Hardware: Specs and Speculation And the mobile market rolls on. Two tablets launched last week are worth a look – for consumers and content publishers alike. RIM’s Blackberry Playbook and LG’s Android G-Slate. Imavex Does Live Streaming to Roku and iOS If you’ve … Read more

Roku iPad Remote App Now Ready For Download

The unofficial Roku DVPRemote iOS app has been updated to version 2.2. While it’s always allowed us to control our Roku media streamers via iPhone and iPod Touch, this refresh launches as an universal binary with brand spanking new iPad interface. In addition to the replicating the physical Roku remote(s), what’s so useful about DVPRemote is … Read more

Apple TV Brings Live Sports, Updates Netflix

Without any PR fanfare, Apple TV was updated yesterday to include live MLB and NBA video streaming (to subscribers of those respective services). Additionally, Apple TV now joins the PS3 in offering 5.1 surround sound for select Netflix titles. Interestingly, Apple continues down the path of offering curated aTV channels versus launching a full fledged … Read more