Roku or new BDP?

[Go Blue]

I posted this in the BDP thread, but figured this would be another good place for this...

I currently have a Pioneer BDP320 paired with my Pio Elite plasma and Pio SC1222 AVR. The BDP is fine, except for the slow start up and loading time. I'd like to start streaming HD movies from Amazon with my Prime membership. I'm trying to decide if I should keep my current BDP and by a Roku or just buy a new BDP like the Panny 220. It will be about the same cost either way. Any opinions?

[ruinit]

If you can hold out a few weeks I would wait there is a new model Roku coming out that may have more power and better features.

[arcadeforest]

Originally Posted by ruinit

If you can hold out a few weeks I would wait there is a new model Roku coming out that may have more power and better features.

+1 on this, buying a second unit when it comes out - I just recently got a Roku player (little over a month ago) and really do love the thing for what it does. The amount of channels is a great selling point, besides the standard NetFlix, Hulu+, Amazon, there are hundreds of other options / channels to add. Ease of use is great as well, especially if you have kids in the house.

[ruinit]

Originally Posted by arcadeforest

+1 on this, buying a second unit when it comes out - I just recently got a Roku player (little over a month ago) and really do love the thing for what it does. The amount of channels is a great selling point, besides the standard NetFlix, Hulu+, Amazon, there are hundreds of other options / channels to add. Ease of use is great as well, especially if you have kids in the house.

Yea I love the remote! You only have a handful of buttons so children and old people don't have to figure much out. I hope they add some move channels soon like Redbox, Cinemanow and Mgo. More movie services are always better!

[Go Blue]

Does anyone hdmi it to a avr instead of tv? I'd like to do this to get sound through my speakers but am not sure if I can.

[ruinit]

This link says March 6th release date but seems odd there has been no official announcement with a ship date that soon.

http://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=54764

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by Schultzy

Does anyone hdmi it to a avr instead of tv? I'd like to do this to get sound through my speakers but am not sure if I can.

I do just that and get sound through my receiver; make sure your receiver supports HDMI 1.3 or newer and DD Plus. Note, if you have your Roku set to output 5.1 surround your receiver must be capable of decoding DD 5.1+ or 7.1+ in order to get DD 5.1/7.1 sound out of the titles that offer DD+. If your receiver does not have that capability then you'd have to change the setting on the Roku to output DD 2.0 to get sound out of those titles. The current Rokus don't have the capability to internally decode DD+ so it just passes it through to the receiving equipment.

[Go Blue]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

I do just that and get sound through my receiver; make sure your receiver supports HDMI 1.3 or newer and DD Plus. Note, if you have your Roku set to output 5.1 surround your receiver must be capable of decoding DD 5.1+ or 7.1+ in order to get DD 5.1/7.1 sound out of the titles that offer DD+. If your receiver does not have that capability then you'd have to change the setting on the Roku to output DD 2.0 to get sound out of those titles. The current Rokus don't have the capability to internally decode DD+ so it just passes it through to the receiving equipment.

Thanks for the response. That may be enough for me to keep my current bdp and upgrade to a Roku.

Now I just have to decide which one. I'm thinking the XD to do ethernet. I won't have it connected directly with my router, but I would have it ethernet cabeled to my wifi bridge/access point. Is there a benefit to this for me?

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by Schultzy

Thanks for the response. That may be enough for me to keep my current bdp and upgrade to a Roku.

Now I just have to decide which one. I'm thinking the XD to do ethernet. I won't have it connected directly with my router, but I would have it ethernet cabeled to my wifi bridge/access point. Is there a benefit to this for me?

The Roku 3 is rumored (according to Roku CS) to be released on March 6. It's also rumored to have a faster processor (obvious) and a new UI. Might want to wait and see what they announce next week.

I have my Roku 2 XS connected via Ethernet to my WiFi bridge. The main benefit I see to using the Ethernet port rather than the built in WiFi (even though methods are using WiFi) is that my bridge gets a stronger WiFi signal compared to the Roku's WiFi capability

I'm waiting to see what they offer and might just pick up a new Roku 3 to replace my Roku 2 in the main living area.

[wzz]

[Sorry to hijack this thread.]

I just want to know, what do you all actually do with a Roku?
Any cool stuff to share?

[arcadeforest]

Originally Posted by wzz

[Sorry to hijack this thread.]

I just want to know, what do you all actually do with a Roku?
Any cool stuff to share?

Standard TV watching for me - dropped Directv so outside of OTA broadcasts, media pc, my DVD and Bluray collections I watch the Roku. Nothing cool or outside the ordinary. Not sure if there is a hacking community out there with the Roku but would not be surprised - plenty of private channels being made so. . .

[bsweetness]

Originally Posted by wzz

[Sorry to hijack this thread.]

I just want to know, what do you all actually do with a Roku?
Any cool stuff to share?

Take a look at this thread - Is Roku worth it?

It goes over a lot of the reasons why people like them.

[DGates01]

If you didn't already have a Blu-ray player, this decision would be a no-brainer. You'd get the BD player with streaming capabilities. That would be getting 2 things in 1, where as the Roku only does the 1 thing.