Editor’s note: As the capital markets heat up and the economy continues to rebound, the deal flow is starting to open up again. We’ve already given you our top ten IPO candidates for 2010. In this guest post, Kelly Porter, an M&A expert at Woodside Capital Partners, proposes ten digital media deals he’d like to see. None of the companies mentioned in this editorial are clients of Woodside… → Read More
We told you previously that Roku might be adding some hidden porn to their service, but we didn’t expect it to be this soon. Adult entertainment company EroticVision.TV just announced that they are teaming up with Roku to bring lots of nasty, nasty, girls (and boys) to your living room. → Read More
Standalone set-top boxes like the Boxee Box and the Roku Player are good because they add Internet content to heretofore unconnected TVs. That’s a good thing. However, analysts at the Diffusion Group believe that the devices will eventually peter out to be replaced by Blu-Ray devices. → Read More
Stop! Turn that car around! Roku is selling the HD-XR for half-off. There’s no reason to go to the store! The Roku is one of my favorite living room devices and it just got better. Now it’s $64.99 plus shipping and lets you watch Netflix, Amazon, and MLB content along with Facebook and Blip.tv videos. Good, good stuff. Click through to figure out how to get the deal. → Read More
Your Roku box just got a whole lot more interesting. Roku, if you remember, makes the Roku player, a small device that sits next to your TV and plays Netflix, Amazon Video, and MLB selections. Roku has just added ten new channels to that line-up and built a fascinating platform for adding more down the line. The current channels will include: blip.tv, Facebook Photos, Flickr, FrameChannel… → Read More
Own a Roku? Are you so much of a baseball fan that you’ve signed up for the MLB.TV premium package? Then we have a surprise for you: Roku just announced that they’ve added MLB.TV’s live, out of market baseball games to their available channels. → Read More
The latest issue of Playboy is stating that Hulu support is coming to Roku. Not that Playboy isn’t a reliable technology source, but we’re still a tad skeptical. Hopefully the support is coming though, not for Roku’s sake, but because that would mean TiVo and Moxi shouldn’t be that far behind. → Read More
People do not want multiple devices hooked up to their TV. They don’t. What they really want is the functionality of all the devices without the physical boxes and it seems that Vudu understands this. The movie streaming company has teamed up with Entone to provide the IPTV company’s set-top boxes with the Vudu software. This is the first time that the service has been available without the actual… → Read More
I did a quick video of Amazon Video on Demand on the Roku box and, as you can see, I really need to lose some weight. Otherwise, it’s a great service that really makes this tiny little box a real contender for a spot next to your TiVo and cable box in the TV shelf. → Read More
Good news for those of you with the well-liked Roku player. As we heard was going to happen, and then we heard was in testing, the little thing can now access the many videos on Amazon’s VOD service. Not too much else to say — I don’t have one, so I can’t test it out. Anybody care to let us know how it works? It should be live as of this posting. → Read More
Roku is adding Amazon VOD to its $99 media streaming device. Currently the service is only in beta but if all goes well, we should see the library within the 2.0 firmware update. (ETA unknown) There still isn’t any word if the update will bring Amazon VOD in high-def though. The higher quality service was hinted by TiVo a few months ago but it still hasn’t shown up on that platform yet. Will Roku… → Read More
Not much else to add but the Roku Netflix box will soon be able to stream 40,000 Amazon titles on demand, “enabling Roku customers for the first time to watch new release movies titles instantly.” The movies cost as much as the do on Amazon and the box will simply connect to your online account and have no movie adding/browsing functionality. The system should be similar to the current Netflix… → Read More
Since the Roku Netflix player was the first streaming Netflix device, it’s only fitting that it gains the latest goodie of HD streaming. The little box definitely has the horsepower to push the HD content, so all that was missing was the software to enable it. That, my friends, should automatically hit the devices over the next few weeks. → Read More
Now that a Samsung Blu-ray player, Xbox 360, and TiVo can stream Netflix, the original device by Roku is trying to make people remember that it’s still around by stating that it will be able to stream HD content by this year’s end. Some have questioned the $99 hardware’s ability to stream Netflix content but according to the companies VP of Consumer Products, it will be… → Read More
In an interesting move by Netflix and Starz, about 2,500 featured movies and concerts are now available for instant streaming over the Internet and using the Roku Netflix box. Because Starz offers first run “premium” content, this move expands the overall streaming offerings from Netflix considerably. My only complaint about Netflix streaming has thus far been movie selection –… → Read More
The Roku Netflix Player is an amazing little set-top box that streams Netflix movies, but Roku is hoping for so much more. The company has gone on record, stating that its going to open the platform for other content providers within the coming months. Does this mean we will finally see a quality Hulu or YouTube living room solution? I sure hope so, because with the Roku Netflix box $99 MSRP and… → Read More
So Comcast is implementing a 250GB monthly bandwidth cap starting next month. While some consumers are up in arms about the true meaning of “unlimited” internet access, others have focused on how these caps will affect the innovation of web-based services, particularly video streaming and downloading. Roku, maker of the Netflix-streaming box (reviewed here), isn’t too concerned, according to… → Read More
Oh hey there, this should be interesting. Remember the Roku Netflix set-top box that came out a little while ago? Well Roku has just released the code under the GPL, which got the MythTV community buzzing about getting its popular open source media center software onto the Roku box. If you think about it, the $99 box would be a nice little option for running MythTV, as there’s HDMI output… → Read More
Netflix made a big splash today with their announcement of a $100 set top box, built by a California startup called Roku, that streams free movies (for Netflix subscribers) to the living room. Good for them. Instead of wading into a losing battle over cheap downloads and rentals (see Vudu, BlockBuster, AppleTV, Google, etc., which charge for each movie), they jump right to free. They know what the… → Read More
What can’t Netflix do? First, they destroyed weekend trips to Blockbuster with their ubiquitous red envelopes and now they promise to destroy the postal service by totally cutting out the middle man. The Netflix Player by Roku is the first in what portends to be a long line of devices designed to download and stream movies from Netflix. While in its current incarnation the device is fairly… → Read More
Here are some actual screenshots of the Netflix Player by Roku. As you see, the set-up is quite simple and icon oriented and the whole box is elegant and suffers no extraneous eye-candy. → Read More
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