This morning, Roku announced two new devices which extend their product line, allowing high-quality streamed video to the living room TV. The Roku SD is a lower-priced ($79.99!) version of their highly successful player, and has essentially the same feature set but without HD. This is great for a second unit for places in your home where you may not have an HD-capable TV, such as the kid’s bedrooms. At the higher end, the Roku HD-XR adds wireless N connectivity. Wireless N (using the 802.11n standard) provides higher bandwidth and range, allowing those HD video streams to travel farther and better through your home. It also adds a USB port.
Roku is also shortly introducing the Channel Store – a game-changer in my view. This allows content partners who are using their SDK to add content to the device.
Roku has already said content from places like Mediafly, blip.tv. Motionbox, Revision3, Pandora radio, and Flickr will be on the Channel Store shortly. Our broadband provider customers are excited at the prospect of adding their own content, for example for local channels or high school sports events.


