Roku Player to Stream HD Netflix Movies by End of Year?

Not to be outdone by Microsoft's Xbox 360 HD Netflix streaming, Roku quietly announced on the Roku Forum that they will offer HD streaming on the Netflix Player by the end of the year. Here's the full post from the Roku Forums by "RokuTim" (is this Tim Twerdahl, VP of Consumer Products for Roku?):

First, let me apologize for our delay in responding to this thread. Typically we don’t comment on unannounced products and features, but clearly this is an important topic to you, our most loyal and involved fans. So, I’m pulling back the curtain a bit earlier than usual. Here’s the scoop…

- 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

All of us at Roku truly appreciate your interest and support. We build these products for you and it’s hugely gratifying to get your feedback – even when you’re unhappy with us. We will continue to do everything we can to deliver the best content at the best value in the most consumer-friendly manner possible.

Thanks for your support,
Tim

Thanks to Matthew for sending this in.

Comments

[Ibrahim]

Wait, isn't that 2nd bullet point a definite negative? Don't we want higher bit-rates/better quality? Or is he saying that you won't need an uber-connection to get HD?

~Ibrahim~

[willmw]

Yeah, I think he's saying that they will being doing the same with less bandwidth. Better compression...I suppose.

[dAVe]

One word: Sweet!

[Bill]

Please let the other feature be Hulu or even better, access to any website with streaming video content...

[Gir]

I hope that whatever other changes they make, they fix (or at least vastly improve) FF/RW.

[Quiet Desperation]

I'd like to have an option where I manually step through the images in FF/RW. 98% of the time I'm only going a little ways.

[NBradN]

Within the same thread... RokuTim: "A quick follow-up to address the "lower bit-rate" questions. Using a more advanced codec, we can deliver equal or better quality at lower bit-rates."

[Gir]

I don't see any reason we can't have an analog of normal FF/RW, without making huge bandwidth sacrifices.

Certainly within video that's already been buffered, there's no reason. They could even set aside a small (configurable?) percentage of back buffer to support RW. Re-buffering shouldn't be necessary at all unless you get close to the end of the buffer.

Even outside the buffer they should be able to do a close analog of normal FF/RW (re-buffering aside) with minimal bandwidth needs . Have FF/RW transition to low quality, lower resolution stop motion (a frame every ½ second or so) once you go beyond the buffer.

That would be vastly better than the film reel style browsing - browsing that works very poorly without a mouse.

[jon]

HULU!! GIVE US HULU!!! PLEASE!!!

[CJ]

I could care less about FF or RW - but if Roku can deliver true 720p with decent picture quality, that'll work for me...

[CJ]

Advanced Profile encodes is a Microsoft WMV9 codec that been around for a few months now - supposedly is just an awesome low bit rate encoder. Not sure why Xbox 360 wouldn't be using it...

[Josh]

Does anybody know if the HD movies will be encoded at 720p or 1080i?

[Bron]

Personally, I think the FF/REW works pretty well. I was impressed that they even offer this feature with *streaming* video content.

All in all, a very impressive box and an incredible value, in my opinion.

[dAVe]

This is just Comcastic. I had been getting 4-dot (2.2Mbps) speed on my Roku movies/tvshows solid for 4 months straight and now the news of HD streams coming to Roku comes out I'm getting 2-dot sometimes 3. I guess I will have to trust my postman to deliver the HD content to me.

[Bob]

Are they updating existing Roku's or offering a newer, pricier Roku that you have to buy if you want HD?

[Gir]

I don't know if they made the end of the year, but my player firmware updated on January 3rd (release 1.5, build 910 if memory serves):
- quality is improved (I've been getting four dots consistently)
- buffering is faster, even with the increased dots
- the player supports hi def TVs
- the player up-converts SD content to 720p (fairly well too)

I assume it will stream hi def titles, though I neither have any hi def titles in my movie list nor do I have a fast enough connection to confirm this.

There are UI improvements as well. The front page has changed, opening room for additional "channels". The font and image quality in the movie list are much improved at 720p. The buffer bar is much more responsive (initial acknowledgment (ACK) in a tenth second or so - no more waiting 10 or 20 seconds to see if it'll connect). And the front panel LED goes out when the player is idle (probably when the screen saver kicks in).