New Roku 3 is damn good...

[Insomniator]

Is there anything the Roku can do that the PS3 can't? Or what about an HDMI android stick?

My dad has a roku 2 and its a cool device, works great for amazon and netflix with zero effort. I just am trying to figure out if I have a use for it over a ps3 for streaming. Or if its substantially better than an android stick that would be cheaper and way more versatile.

 

[pandemonium]

Nah, it's mainly a simple mainstream device for people with little-no knowledge of how stuff works. It doesn't have anything over any other device that streams aside from ease of use and low power consumption (~2.5W).

 

[Mushkins]

Nah, it's mainly a simple mainstream device for people with little-no knowledge of how stuff works. It doesn't have anything over any other device that streams aside from ease of use and low power consumption (~2.5W).

I think the big draw is for people without another device that can do those things. I put mine in my bedroom, since I have an Xbox in there but no Gold subscription (aka no netflix). I also have Plex set up on my server so I can literally just toss the roku in my bag and bring it with me when I travel and stream whatever I want from my media server. It's great for hotels or getting together with friends and watching content from my network.

Where it falls flat, and this is more Plex than the Roku, is that transcoding and subtitles are still an absolute nightmare. I wish I went with the WD Live for local playback specifically for this reason. Really hoping the XBOne and the PS4 support a much wider variety of media types considering how media center oriented they're pushing them. MKV/ASS support is not some foreign thing, its 2013.

 

[007ELmO]

NETFLIX comes with xbox live gold??!? No it doesn't, only 1 month free....

is the roku streaming 1080p with full lossless audio?

 

[Mushkins]

NETFLIX comes with xbox live gold??!? No it doesn't, only 1 month free....

is the roku streaming 1080p with full lossless audio?

No no, even if you *have* a netflix account, you cant *use* it on an Xbox 360 unless you're also a Gold member. It's stupid.

 

[pandemonium]

is the roku streaming 1080p with full lossless audio?

Negative. The quality is pretty poor when streaming Netflix (it looked 480p at most). I thought it was due to the WiFi location and access point but sadly the case wasn't so (I tried with both the Roku's WiFi and a WiFi dongle connected by ethernet to the Roku).

High quality the Roku is not. It wasn't able to play a lot of the .mkv BR movies I have. It lacks support for some of the audio and video codecs and containers. Also, the file browser system for viewing external HDDs is pretty [very] rudamentary.

Another gripe I had with it was that all of the files that the Roku accessed on my external HDD became corrupted when I plugged it back into my PC. Warning to the wise.

I've seen your HT build thread, Elmo, and for you I'd go with no less than an HTPC with a full range stereo system at minimum.

 

[SolMiester]

I'm quite sure I'm streaming @ 1080p on my Dads.....but we only have stereo due to TV output to the amp.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Negative. The quality is pretty poor when streaming Netflix (it looked 480p at most). I thought it was due to the WiFi location and access point but sadly the case wasn't so (I tried with both the Roku's WiFi and a WiFi dongle connected by ethernet to the Roku).

High quality the Roku is not. It wasn't able to play a lot of the .mkv BR movies I have. It lacks support for some of the audio and video codecs and containers. Also, the file browser system for viewing external HDDs is pretty [very] rudamentary.

Another gripe I had with it was that all of the files that the Roku accessed on my external HDD became corrupted when I plugged it back into my PC. Warning to the wise.

I've seen your HT build thread, Elmo, and for you I'd go with no less than an HTPC with a full range stereo system at minimum.

Uh? Are you sure you're not using an older non HD model? Most of what you said is not at all what a HD Roku and newer does... Roku 2 XS and Roku 3 both stream HD up to 1080p (if you have the network bandwidth) and while I think there is some confusion about streaming MKV etc, these thing play every file I've ever thrown at and certainly cannot cause corruption on your NAS since they cannot remotely connect to files w/o a 3rd party program. Maybe you had issues with Plex?

Simply put, these things are awesome if you don't want to deal with a completely outside dedicated system and have other family members using it and in multiple rooms. They aren't perfect, but then no pre-built one is at this time. It's a bit of a trade off, but much less headache than a complete standalone system.

 

[pandemonium]

Yes, it's a Roku 3...4200X

It streams decent quality from some of the exclusive channels on there, but certainly not from Netflix. It was terrible, with several different types of content which I've already watched that I know are 1080p. This is on a 1080p screen and like I said, using both a WiFi dongle 'and' the WiFi built into the Roku, with 95%/100% connection.

I wasn't streaming MKV, it was playing it from my external HDD plugged into the R3. Like I said, it wouldn't recognize some of the audio or video codecs that were used and it would either be black or no audio. If yours plays every file you've ever thrown at it, you have one amazing piece of technology, because not even a computer with egads of codecs can play "everything".

It was a painstaking experience hooking it up, though, I will admit that is due to my room-mate resetting the router and not using WPA2 and just leaving it on WPA (which I've already mentioned as the Roku not being able to connect with). But why would it support WPA2 and not WPA? WPA2 is certainly preferred...I digress.

We messed with it for probably about 5 hours and after that I was left unimpressed.

I'll trade: my poor experience for your awesome one.

 

[Rio Rebel]

I seem to be in a compromise situation - Full on HTPC in my theater room. I doubt this will ever change...I want to be able to play anything and everything at highest resolution with HD audio when it comes to my projector.

But I have other tv's as well, and cost does matter. I set up Plex server on my file server, and I've been quite pleased with streaming to the Raspberry Pi running XBMC. Considerably more setup time, but I can install two Raspberry/XBMC setups for the price of one Roku 3, and have much more control over the interface to make it how I want it. Once you do a little research and understand how to get max performance out of the Raspberry, it's an impressive little board.

 

[Mushkins]

I seem to be in a compromise situation - Full on HTPC in my theater room. I doubt this will ever change...I want to be able to play anything and everything at highest resolution with HD audio when it comes to my projector.

But I have other tv's as well, and cost does matter. I set up Plex server on my file server, and I've been quite pleased with streaming to the Raspberry Pi running XBMC. Considerably more setup time, but I can install two Raspberry/XBMC setups for the price of one Roku 3, and have much more control over the interface to make it how I want it. Once you do a little research and understand how to get max performance out of the Raspberry, it's an impressive little board.

All the reviews seem to indicate that the Raspberry struggles with 1080p content. Seems a little contradictory for media enthusiasts to shoot themselves in the foot like that unless its just a rig for a kids room or something where quality doesnt matter as much. Thoughts?

I dont have any nightmare stories about my new Roku 3, i'm just not really happy with it for what I wanted it for. Debating buying a WD Live or waiting for i3 Desktop Haswell to build a small HTPC.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

All the reviews seem to indicate that the Raspberry struggles with 1080p content. Seems a little contradictory for media enthusiasts to shoot themselves in the foot like that unless its just a rig for a kids room or something where quality doesnt matter as much. Thoughts?

I dont have any nightmare stories about my new Roku 3, i'm just not really happy with it for what I wanted it for. Debating buying a WD Live or waiting for i3 Desktop Haswell to build a small HTPC.

I'd wait for a Haswell version of one of these and then weigh its costs/benefits against an XBMC Ouya.

 

[Mushkins]

I'd wait for a Haswell version of one of these and then weigh its costs/benefits against an XBMC Ouya.

Yeah, definitely excited for the Haswell i3's. It's the only reason i'm not running out and buying parts already

Also very interested what we're gonna hear at E3 this year. I'm already planning on buying a PS4 or XBOne, if they really step up their game and actually support more than .avi with a single audio track and no subtitles for local streaming that might suit my needs even better than either option.

 

[Rio Rebel]

I use the Raspberry Pi for secondary tv. It's right on the edge. A modest overclock of the cpu and memory helps, as does a usb 3.0 drive for updating libraries, and NFS rather than Samba. When you tweak it, it handles a lot more than you'd expect. I can read a blu-ray iso of The Hobbit without stuttering at 1080p. It doesn't like Les Miserables, though...maybe it chokes on Russell Crowe's singing.

 

[ND40oz]

Yes, it's a Roku 3...4200X

It streams decent quality from some of the exclusive channels on there, but certainly not from Netflix. It was terrible, with several different types of content which I've already watched that I know are 1080p. This is on a 1080p screen and like I said, using both a WiFi dongle 'and' the WiFi built into the Roku, with 95%/100% connection.

I wasn't streaming MKV, it was playing it from my external HDD plugged into the R3. Like I said, it wouldn't recognize some of the audio or video codecs that were used and it would either be black or no audio. If yours plays every file you've ever thrown at it, you have one amazing piece of technology, because not even a computer with egads of codecs can play "everything".

It was a painstaking experience hooking it up, though, I will admit that is due to my room-mate resetting the router and not using WPA2 and just leaving it on WPA (which I've already mentioned as the Roku not being able to connect with). But why would it support WPA2 and not WPA? WPA2 is certainly preferred...I digress.

We messed with it for probably about 5 hours and after that I was left unimpressed.

I'll trade: my poor experience for your awesome one.

The Roku is probably a poor choice for playing media directly off of an external disk, where it excels is streaming content. Dump your media on something running plex and you shouldn't have any issues streaming to it. I have two, one wired, one wireless, same experience on both, wired connection is only 100 meg anyway, Roku didn't put a gig port on it.

 

[pandemonium]

I didn't plan on using it to play from an external HDD, I was just saying it didn't work very well. A note to users out there, is all.

 

[gothamhunter]

I have two Roku players, a 3TB external HDD that's networked, and a couple laptops. Could I just install Plex on one of those laptops to stream from and store the content on one of those external networked drives?

 

[ch33zw1z]

In theory, yes. let us know how it goes.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I have two Roku players, a 3TB external HDD that's networked, and a couple laptops. Could I just install Plex on one of those laptops to stream from and store the content on one of those external networked drives?

yes this is exactly how it works.

You just have to share the folders out you want the Roku to access then point it to them.

 

[gorcorps]

because not even a computer with egads of codecs can play "everything".

Huh? Of course it will. That's the whole point of installing codecs. Based on statements like this I'm beginning to think your Roku issues are at least partially user based.

 

[pandemonium]

Huh? Of course it will. That's the whole point of installing codecs. Based on statements like this I'm beginning to think your Roku issues are at least partially user based.

:| Lame. Is that what we're resorting to? Personal attacks?

It wasn't a statement to be taken literally, dude [I mean Brandon]. It was an generalization of how having even a fully customized PC with a lot of work and time invested in it can still be hindered by 1 missing codec. If you do any transcoding and/or video editing you'll understand.

The point I was making was that .mkv - probably the most abundantly used HD container today - was not supported with common video and audio codecs. I'm pretty sure the audio issues I was experiencing was DTS. I also remember some of the .mpg and .avi files I was testing with were not playable as well. I believe h.264 is the only codec that is supported - which is great, because it's my preferred codec of choice. However, I've not taken it upon myself to transcode my entire library to h.264 and I don't believe that should be necessary.

And no, I'm not the only one to have these issues.

http://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?p=372571&sid=7bceb25defa1e94a91b8dd0c83fba717

http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/63851-inconsistent-mkv-playback/

Coincidentally, I found this here, which appears to align with my experiences:

File formats supported by Roku USB channel, the feature that enables you to play movies locally through a USB drive or the micro SD card, are restricted to h.264.

 

[It's Not Lupus]

any solutions to playing video files with DTS audio via USB, other than transcoding the file?

 

[ImpulsE69]

:| Lame. Is that what we're resorting to? Personal attacks?

It wasn't a statement to be taken literally, dude [I mean Brandon]. It was an generalization of how having even a fully customized PC with a lot of work and time invested in it can still be hindered by 1 missing codec. If you do any transcoding and/or video editing you'll understand.

The point I was making was that .mkv - probably the most abundantly used HD container today - was not supported with common video and audio codecs. I'm pretty sure the audio issues I was experiencing was DTS. I also remember some of the .mpg and .avi files I was testing with were not playable as well. I believe h.264 is the only codec that is supported - which is great, because it's my preferred codec of choice. However, I've not taken it upon myself to transcode my entire library to h.264 and I don't believe that should be necessary.

And no, I'm not the only one to have these issues.

http://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?p=372571&sid=7bceb25defa1e94a91b8dd0c83fba717

http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/63851-inconsistent-mkv-playback/

Coincidentally, I found this here, which appears to align with my experiences:

Yea don't use the USB, it is severely limited. Again, really Plex is what makes this thing shine.

 

[RonQuixote]

Trying to decide if I want to add a Roku 3 to my network. I have Plex Media Server running flawlessly and access the content via Plex clients on iPad, iPhone, Windows 8, PS3 (DLNA) and AppleTV (via PlexConnect). I'm putting in a new Onkyo AV network receiver in a couple of days. What will Roku 3 get me that I don't already have? (Aside from the ATV which belongs to my son and isn't always in the house).

The only benefit I can think of is if I want to stream content to a TV with no Plex Client or DLNA, the Roku would be my solution. If I have a Samsung or LG TV, they have built in Plex Clients, so no need for a Roku on those, correct? Any other TV would need a ROKU to play my server content, is this right Thanks to everyone in advance.

Also, if my Onkyo TX-NR616 handles DLNA, it should work just like the ATV and PS3 do now shouldn't it (no Roku)?

 

[Kaido]

Trying to decide if I want to add a Roku 3 to my network. I have Plex Media Server running flawlessly and access the content via Plex clients on iPad, iPhone, Windows 8, PS3 (DLNA) and AppleTV (via PlexConnect). I'm putting in a new Onkyo AV network receiver in a couple of days. What will Roku 3 get me that I don't already have? (Aside from the ATV which belongs to my son and isn't always in the house).

The only benefit I can think of is if I want to stream content to a TV with no Plex Client or DLNA, the Roku would be my solution. If I have a Samsung or LG TV, they have built in Plex Clients, so no need for a Roku on those, correct? Any other TV would need a ROKU to play my server content, is this right Thanks to everyone in advance.

Also, if my Onkyo TX-NR616 handles DLNA, it should work just like the ATV and PS3 do now shouldn't it (no Roku)?

I know this is an older post, but in response: it's pretty much just a simple, inexpensive way to add a Plex client to a TV ($99 for all the bells & whistles). Plus it has a Wi-direct remote (no direct aiming required like with IR remotes) and a wireless headphone jack for private listening (I use this feature on my exercise machine). Also very small & low power consumption, and very fast GUI.