Woot has a great deal going on today with a refurb Roku HD Media costing only $59. That’s $40 off the MSRP, kiddies. It’s an amazingly refined product with an interface that most baby boomers should be able to handle. Roku made a name for itself a few years back by being one of the first devices to stream Netflix. While that capability is still there, there are now dozens of channels and apps. The model on Woot today is the HD model, which means it has HDMI, Toslink, and 802.11 b/g. $59? Not a bad deal. → Read More
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. → Read More
Nice. The Roku/Netflix interface update we wrote about a few weeks ago is now rolling out to all users. What do you have to do in order to activate this marvel of modern set-top-boxery? Every Roku customer can now get the new interface for Netflix, featuring browse and search (view the demo here). This free update is rolling out automatically to all of our customers over the next week. Or, get it now: * Go to Settings on your Roku * Select Player info, then Check for update Boom. → Read More
UFC President Dana White believes the Internet is the future of television, so this Roku deal makes all kinds of sense. Beginning with next week’s pay-per-view, UFC 114, Roku owners will be able to stream live UFC events right to their TV. It’s in HD, too. Nothing but the best for you guys! → Read More
Woot! Netflix for Roku’s wee little box will be updated “soon” for Netflix subscribers, adding search functionality that the service badly needed.
As you can see from this jaunty video, the entire UI has been improved and the standard “press left to see all of the other movies” is gone, giving you more movies per page and a considerably more streamlined experience. The best thing? You can now add movies to your queue from the box.
Click through for a video and a bit more info. → Read More
Roku’s HD player is a great deal at $99, but it’s an even better deal if you buy one now from Amazon. In addition to having a great Netflix box, you’ll also be able to use Amazon’s Video of Demand service, and to get you started they’ll throw in $20 worth of credit. → Read More
Yep, Marantz, makers of high end A/V equipment have a deal where if you buy one of their high performance Blu-ray players, they’ll give a free Roku Play via mail-in-rebate. If you want to take advantage of this, you have until March 31st. Details (and press release) after the jump. → Read More
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 Capital Partners.
Digital media M&A activity is expected to pick up in 2010—big acquirers have significant cash on their balance sheets, share prices are up, and many good acquisition candidates are on the landscape. With this in mind, I’ve put together the following list of 10 interesting Digital Media M&A deals for 2010. Some are longshots, some are slam dunks; all would create compelling new opportunities and possibilities. It’s a list that was compiled in recent weeks over coffee with some of the brightest and most connected folks in the valley. Without further ado, here are the deals we envisioned: → 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, Mediafly, MobileTribe, Motionbox, Pandora, Revision3 and TWiT. More channels will be available here shortly. → 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 Vudu box and it’s fantastic news. → 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 beat TiVo to the punch with Amazon VOD HD? Maybe. → 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 system.
Watch new release movies the same day that they are released on DVD. Hit titles such as “The Dark Knight,” “Hancock,” “Pineapple Express”, “Tropic Thunder” and hundreds more that are not currently available on the Roku Player.
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
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