![]() What matter is the most popular are available, Netflix, HuluPlus, YouTube, Amazon Instant Video, Crackle, Popconrflix, ESPNWatch, Pandora, iHeartRadio, History Channel for a starter. Roku claims 1,500+channels, that’s a lot, how many are relevant is still to be determined. I also noticed that the Samsung Note 3 battery took a beating while messing with Twonky.įinally, the Roku receiver supports IR, which means it would work with the Harmony One for instance. I beamed a few movies, all MP4 files, few did played on the Roku, but a couple crashed with the message “Media is not supported or invalid”. It “worked”, it found all the media servers on my network but felt buggy. “Twonky” supports videos, as well as music and photos. Not as slick as the AirPlay, “PlayOnRoku” will let you stream photos and music directly from your smartphone local storage. While it is functional, it is not really a Wii experience. Horizontally, the remote control morphs into a gamepad and support motion detection. The headphone volume is independent from the TV’s. The provided purple earbuds are decent and the range is about 25 ft. I found the feature very innovative to contain the TV noise pollution to…nothing. One of the direct application for WiFi Direct is the headphone port built in the remote. Well, that is cool, but the real benefit with WiFi Direct is a larger bandwidth, up to 250 Mbps compared 25 Mbps with Bluetooth technology. No need to point at the device and press the buttons. Obvious advantage, there is no more line-of-sight requirement. Communication with the Roku device is through WiFi Direct instead of Infra-Red. Operating as a remote control, I found it has the right amount of buttons and the layout is intuitive. The Roku remote control is an interesting piece of hardware. Loading applications, playing videos and music are very fast. It translates to a very snappy response when navigating through the menus and all the channels. ![]() Still, it is not as fast as the Amazon Fire TV, with a 1.7 GHz quad core humming under the hood but it is fast enough. The Roku 3 is powered by a dual core BCM11130 clocking at 900MHz (five time faster than the Roku 2). It does not matter how attractive or well thought the UI is, if the user inputs and data processing are not responsive. This is area where Roku 3 scores a lot of points. I am not sure what to think about that behavior.įive different skins are available if you wish to personalize the UI. But in this case, the menu keeps cycling through. When the last item in the menu is reached, I do not expect to be able to keep scrolling down. One oddity is how the menu on the left side, “My channels, Channel Store, etc” and the channels images loops indefinitely. Which probably helped with the size reduction. On the side is a single USB port for playback media. The back side is compact and crowded with, a DC-IN, a reset slot, a 10/100 ethernet port, an HDMI and a Micro SD slot. A temperature check was performed after about one hour of streaming showed 94F on the top, the room temperature was 77F. I do check for heat and adjust the placement for a better airflow if needed. Personally, I am not concerned about the size, the device would be half hidden somewhere within the TV cabinet/stand area anyway. Which should help with placement because of the dangling cords. The device is barely smaller than the Roku XS 2 (3.7 x 3.7 x 1.2 inches) although a bit heavier, 5 vs 3.5 oz. ![]() "THE ROKU 3 MAKES A (DUMB) TV LOOKS SMART" Design Less than 3.5W (typical) when streaming HD video Streaming player includes IR receiver (compatible with various universal remotes)Ĩ02.11 dual-band (a/b/g/n compatible) with WEP, WPA, and WPA2 support 10/100 Base-T Ethernet MicroSD card slot for additional game and channel storageīuilt in headphone jack and motion-control (uses Wi-Fi Direct). Roku 3 Specificationsĭigital Over HDMI (7.1 and 5.1 surround pass through) The Roku 3 makes a (dumb) TV looks smart, the content is easy to get to and a lag free navigation system. The latest Roku generation (Gen 3), the Roku 3, has seen a major hardware upgrade and a complete UI redesigned and it paid off. Roku has also opted for the “open source” format, like Boxee, allowing 3rd parties to provide “Private Channels”, another source of content for the Roku devices. Unlike Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV, Roku does not have any content to push for. That would explain why every streaming content player, except for iTunes, supports the Roku brand. Roku devices have been streaming Internet content since 2008.
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