Some people love them movie trailers and samples. Personally I find they’re more spoilers than anything. But for those that enjoy them, Flixster is a great resource and the video site just launched their own Roku channel. The offering isn’t anything all that special as it’s mostly movie trailers and the like, but it’s the best trailer source currently available on Ruku. Still, it’s not exactly that great of a service.
I can’t be that tough on the service as it just launched minutes ago, but as of writing, the selection is pretty limited to only a few movies in each one of the four sections: Now In Theaters, Coming Soon, New on DVD, and Certified Fresh (From Rotten Tomatoes). EDIT: The selection is actually pretty complete when you use the search tool. There’s a trailer for nearly everything. The four sections are apparently just for quick selections.
The real downfall so far is that the video quality is horrible. The service claims to be high-def, but it’s about half the quality of Netflix’s sub-par HD. Hopefully that will change shortly, though.
But the channel is free to all Roku owners. Find it under the What’s New section.
to TV in Partnership With Roku
The World’s Biggest Online Movie Community
Debuts on Roku’s Streaming Media Players
SAN FRANCISCO (August 3, 2010) – “Coming attractions” can be the best part of a movie experience, and now movie fans can watch trailers for upcoming movies (both theatrical and on DVD/VOD releases) on their home television sets as Flixster, the world’s biggest online movie community, teams with Roku Inc., maker of the popular and award-winning family of Roku streaming media players.
Flixster on Roku will also offer the widely recognized Tomatometer® scores from Rotten Tomatoes, which will help users make their moviegoing and in-home film experiences richer.
Roku players already offer a wide range of entertainment options, and the addition of Flixster trailers means that movie lovers can explore the newest cinematic offerings on their TV in high definition as they decide which movies to see. Better yet, using Flixster, Roku customers can search Flixster’s entire database of movie trailers and then search for those same movies to watch through one of Roku’s partners including Netflix and Amazon Video On Demand.
“Flixster has quickly become one of the most well-known and trusted movie brands among consumers, who associate Flixster with learning about the newest film entertainment,” said Anthony Wood, founder and CEO of Roku, Inc. “We think there is a great fit between discovering movies with Flixster and watching them on-demand on the Roku player.”
Steve Polsky, president and COO of Flixster Inc., added, “Roku brings us a brand-new platform to reach moviegoers, and makes a great addition to our online sites and our fast-growing mobile apps, which have become the leader in their space. We want to be wherever moviegoers are, and Roku helps us reach them in new ways.”
By choosing Roku as its first launch partner in the home entertainment category, Flixster joins major entertainment partners including Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX), Amazon Video on Demand (Nasdaq: AMZN), MLB.TV, the Ultimate Fighting Championship®.
About Flixster Inc.
Flixster Inc. is the creator of the world’s biggest online movie community — as well as the leading mobile movie-information provider. Together, Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes provide the most comprehensive movie information online – including a database of more than 250,000 movies; 2.3 billion user reviews; 500,000 critic reviews; and more than 20,000 trailers and videos. A privately held company, Flixster is based in San Francisco, with offices in New York and representatives in Los Angeles and Seattle. Flixster’s popular online sites can be found at http://www.flixster.com and http://www.rottentomatoes.com.
About Roku, Inc.
The market leader in streaming entertainment devices for the TV, Roku has always believed that anything you want to watch, listen to, and enjoy should simply be there on your TV, whenever you want it. Over half a million happy customers later, Roku streaming players are renowned for their simplicity, variety of entertainment choices, and exceptional value. Roku is privately held and based in Saratoga, Calif. For more information on the company and its products, visit http://www.roku.com.