The Secret of Signals

A favorite game with Roku owners is to guess which service will be added to the box, first. The game is now over, because evidently, Amazon's Video On Demand is going to be the next video entry for the Roku boxes.

This puts the box on par with AppleTV in offerings. Well, actually a little beyond AppleTV, with Netflix streaming. Add Hulu and Roku is a video killer.

Roku started its rollout of HD content to Netflix Box owners beginning today. I've been a latecomer beta tester, and am generally happy with the quality of the stream I'm getting.

Only about 100 movies are HD at this time. Many of the shows provided by CBS, including Star Trek the first season, are being rolled out as HD quality. The Star Trek shows are exceptionally nice—crisp, campy, and colorful.

I have a 720p television, connected via HDMI. The stream sizes I'm seeing are 2.6 for HD, and 1.5mpbs for SD quality. The SD quality shows are actually using less bandwidth with the new profile.

There are some hiccups, including shows that end abruptly, some audio/video sync issues, but these are issues that Netflix is aware of, and working to resolve.

No new content for Roku box owners, at least not until 2009. There is now a screen option in the Roku box that will provide access to the new content when it does release. No hints, either, about what the new content will be. Most folks are still hoping for Hulu.

All in all, after a few bumps along the way, the Roku box, with a subscription to Netflix, has turned out to be the best video value this year. Costwise, the combination costs a fraction of what cable costs.

update

Roku has come out with a note on the Roku user forum about Netflix and HD quality:

• Roku will be delivering Netflix in HD by the end of the year
• Roku will be using Advanced Profile encodes which will deliver HD at substantially lower bit-rates than what Xbox is offering
• The number of titles is up to Netflix but the library will be the same as or larger than the Xbox library
• The UI will be updated to run in 720p and more covers will be visible on the screen at a time
• And the release will include another major new feature that you’ll have to wait a bit longer to learn about

Though I was happy to hear that Netflix is finally rolling out HD content, I was astonished to read Netflix's decision to roll it out for the brand new XBox, rather than the existing Roku users. Evidently, Netflix considers the early Netflix box users to be second class citizens, and would rather put its focus on the newer, shinier customer—the XBox user.

I had been recommending Roku boxes as a Christmas gift idea, but I can't recommend the box any longer. Roku promised extra content, outside of Netflix, earlier thia summer, and has not delivered, yet. Roku also promised an SDK earlier this summer, and has not delivered it yet, either. Lastly, the company had promised that as soon as Netflix started streaming HD content, Roku would stream the HD content. As we can see, another promise undelivered, though this one does not seem to be Roku's fault.

Considering that Netflix is an investor in Roku, one has to wonder what the heck is going on between these companies. In the meantime, promises are going undelivered. Until we're given assurances that all of the earlier promises will be met, and that Netflix is still as committed to Roku users, as it is to every other box user, I can't recommend the Roku.

Now, CNET is saying that everyone will get HD quality, but that the requirements are 8-10GB download speeds! (I'm assuming the author meant 8-10Mbps, not GB, but who knows...)

Netflix is calling this a "soft launch" since it is only rolling out such a small number of videos for HD streaming. The move mostly serves to stake a claim in the HD streaming market as opposed to being a full offering. Contrary to what others are reporting, HD streaming will be available on all streaming devices when it premieres with the New Xbox Experience. That means that the Roku, LG, and Samsung boxes will all be able to stream these HD movies, in addition to the Xbox 360. The PC and Mac based versions of Netflix, will not, however, be able to stream HD immediately. In addition, streaming in HD will require a large amount of bandwidth. Netflix estimates the requirement being in the 8-10 Gbps range.

Considering that 8-10Mbps exceeds the download speeds for a majority of broadband users, in addition to exceeding requirements for every other HD streaming server online, I have to wonder if this isn't an error.

This whole thing has been badly managed. Press release by rumor rarely works well.

Now that's the ticket...Apple has released its anticipated AppleTV update. I'm installing now, as I write this.

Among the changes are support for HD TV shows, of course, but also Genius playlists, as well as being able to put the machine into Standby mode using Settings, rather than having to hold and press the Play button. This is comparable with being able to put an iPod into Standby via a menu option rather than esoteric button/time combination.

Apple also added support for music videos. I have a couple, which I'll have to move over to the machine, see how they do.

Other than that, no, Steve Jobs did not have a heart attack. I can't believe how gullible the online world is, to accept the word of some anonymous commenter in a CNN any-hack-can-post site. Is "fact check" old fashioned? CNN's any-hack-can-post site states with pride that the material is Unedited. Unfilterd. News. I guess two our three is good enough for CNN.

Interesting, though, how tightly Apple shares are tied into Jobs. He needs to take a lesson from Bill Gates and work to ensure that the company does survive his death. Well, unless Jobs wants Apple to be like the Viking Queen and immolate itself on his funeral pyre.

In a game altering play, Netflix has contracted with Starz to add the entertainment channel's movies to the Watch Now instant watching options AND to provide a live stream of Starz to the Netflix web site.

This means that highly rated first run movies such as Ratatouille and No Country for Old Men, in addition to older classics, TV shows, and other material, are now filling out the Watch Now queue. I spent a happy 20 minutes this morning filling up my queue with shows, and I've not even scratched the surface of what's available.

What makes this deal particularly intelligent on the part of Netflix is that it doesn't have to try to strike deals with every movie studio— it can just strike a deal with channel providers, instead. In addition, in an interesting move, Netflix also provides a live Starz stream you can subscribe to directly— allowing you to bypass the DVD queue, completely. This moves us closer to the Netflix dream of streaming content, only.

The hottest little digital device on the market has just become the inexpensive Roku box, with its ease of use and setup, and inexpensive price tag; especially when you consider that you can get a Roku box for about the same amount you'd pay for a month of cable service.

The Starz deal follows other breaking stories recently about Netflix making a deal with CBS and Disney, Roku providing an open SDK for others to build channels, in addition to Netflix releasing its API today. With the API, we'll now be able to integrate Netflix queues with other applications.

Of course, today's also the day that Comcast starts its bandwidth capping. How soon before this capping comes up against the new internet video capabilities is a toss up—but with Christmas looming, and Netflix streaming available in an attractively priced Roku box, in addition to being included in new blu-ray and game players, I expect a bandwidth show-down beginning next year.

In the meantime, I feel quite smug for having made my Roku purchase, before the rush.