Roku Netflix Player Now Does HD

[Pyrrho]

I just took a look at CSI in HD. It looks really good. But not quite as good as broadcast HD. And, of course, it does not sound as good as DD 5.1 that is broadcast. Still, it is a good way to catch episodes that one missed on TV. And it also has the advantage of having no commercial interruptions, so in that way, it is better than watching the show broadcast.

On the setup menu of the Roku box, it mentions that the HD is 720p. There is no option for any other HD format; the only other options are SD in either 4:3 or 16:9. This, however, does not explain why HD content on it looks not as good as broadcast HD for me, because I have a 720p set. My guess is that they are compressing the picture more than what is done with broadcast TV. Still, the HD programing on it is now more detailed than watching a DVD. But it suffers more from compression artifacts than a well made DVD.

I also took a look at Star Trek in HD. It is amazing to see it so clear, which is the impression I got when I saw some episodes broadcast in HD early last year. It is certainly more clear than the DVDs, though, of course, the HD version has new special effects, not the original ones that look shabby even on DVD. But the original effects, of course, are what we all grew up with, and also fit the show better, not being obvious CGI effects, though most of the new special effects are fairly unobtrusive.

The HD programing is a huge step up in picture quality over what was done with the Roku Netflix box last year. And even SD programs look a bit better now that they have upgraded the software. This is making me very glad I have this little box.

If you have a Netflix account, and you have a great internet connection, this is definitely worth the cost of one of these boxes plus the cost of an inexpensive HDMI cable.

 

[ratso]

one thing to keep an eye on is that roku seems to be having a fairly big problem with encoding the sound on their movies. it seems to be mostly with HD content i think, but several movies i have tried to watch i had to delete without watching. the sound on them wasn't syncing up with the movie, lagging behind by sometimes 2-3 seconds. "Network" was the last movie i had this happen with. it is being followed on the Roku forum, so they are aware of it and working on the problem supposedly.

 

[aberkowitz]

So I got home from vacation last night to find the Roku waiting for me. I plugged it in and immediately upgraded to v1.5 (thanks for the advice!) and proceeded to test out a couple of movies- both SD and HD. Sadly, I was not very impressed with the quality of either movie. I have the Roku hooked up via wired internet to my router and by HDMI to the tv, but I was unable to get higher than 2 out of 4 for quality for any movie that I tried to watch. The picture was not sharp, a lot of blurriness around the edges, and colors were bleeding. Neither my wife nor I could tell the difference between and HD film and an SD film.

I'm not unhappy with the purchase b/c we specifically bought the unit to keep in the bedroom for catching up on TV series that we never got a chance to watch, and to watch movies before going to bed. For $99 it will serve it's purpose, but there's no way I could consider it a replacement for the PS3 or Oppo 981 that I have for watching BD/SD DVDs.

 

[Pyrrho]

So I got home from vacation last night to find the Roku waiting for me. I plugged it in and immediately upgraded to v1.5 (thanks for the advice!) and proceeded to test out a couple of movies- both SD and HD. Sadly, I was not very impressed with the quality of either movie. I have the Roku hooked up via wired internet to my router and by HDMI to the tv, but I was unable to get higher than 2 out of 4 for quality for any movie that I tried to watch. The picture was not sharp, a lot of blurriness around the edges, and colors were bleeding. Neither my wife nor I could tell the difference between and HD film and an SD film.

I'm not unhappy with the purchase b/c we specifically bought the unit to keep in the bedroom for catching up on TV series that we never got a chance to watch, and to watch movies before going to bed. For $99 it will serve it's purpose, but there's no way I could consider it a replacement for the PS3 or Oppo 981 that I have for watching BD/SD DVDs.

If you are only getting 2 circles out of 4, you are not getting the HD quality at all. So there won't be any difference between an HD source and an SD one in your case. You will only be getting HD quality if you get 4 circles and the letters "HD" next to them. What I suggest is making sure you have sufficient bandwidth with your internet connection, which can be tested from a page you should be able to find at both the Roku website and the Netflix website. This is the first thing you should do (or rather, it should be done before ordering, to make sure one can get the full benefit of the service). If you do have the bandwidth necessary, then it could be a server issue with Netflix. If too many people are trying to watch a particular movie at the same time, they probably cannot handle it at full resolution. So, you can try another film to see if you have better luck with it, or the same film at another time.

Unfortunately, the service is not 100% reliable for their best picture quality. And I absolutely agree, this service is not a substitute for a good DVD or Blu-Ray player.

 

[aberkowitz]

If you are only getting 2 circles out of 4, you are not getting the HD quality at all. So there won't be any difference between an HD source and an SD one in your case. You will only be getting HD quality if you get 4 circles and the letters "HD" next to them. What I suggest is making sure you have sufficient bandwidth with your internet connection, which can be tested from a page you should be able to find at both the Roku website and the Netflix website. This is the first thing you should do (or rather, it should be done before ordering, to make sure one can get the full benefit of the service). If you do have the bandwidth necessary, then it could be a server issue with Netflix. If too many people are trying to watch a particular movie at the same time, they probably cannot handle it at full resolution. So, you can try another film to see if you have better luck with it, or the same film at another time.

Unfortunately, the service is not 100% reliable for their best picture quality. And I absolutely agree, this service is not a substitute for a good DVD or Blu-Ray player.

Thanks for the suggestions. I did a couple of bandwidth tests, and I'm getting anywhere from 11-13mb/s consistently using a wireless connection, I figured that would stabilize even further with a wired connection. I'll continue to try it out and see if I can get a better conneciton.

Quick update- we just tried a couple of tv shows, one in HD and not, and both of them came up with 4 circles. I'll try out some more movies later.

 

[westcott]

Thanks for the suggestions. I did a couple of bandwidth tests, and I'm getting anywhere from 11-13mb/s consistently using a wireless connection, I figured that would stabilize even further with a wired connection. I'll continue to try it out and see if I can get a better conneciton.

Quick update- we just tried a couple of tv shows, one in HD and not, and both of them came up with 4 circles. I'll try out some more movies later.

Please keep providing updates, your thoughts on image quality, and the efforts you have to go through with the service. I and, I am sure ,others are very interested in what you have to say.

 

[aberkowitz]

Further update-

We watched 3 episodes of "Weeds" last night (phenominal show, I highly recommend). Downloads were no problem, had 4 quality circles and the image looked really good- I'd say close to DVD quality. Can't really comment on sound b/c it's a bedroom tv w/o speakers or a receiver. The only hiccup was that during the middle of the 3rd episode the unit automatically rebooted itself without prompting. Not sure if this was related to a network issue on my end (lost connection or something), but this only resulted in a 2 minute delay for the unit to restart and then go back to the show.

All in all, I'm very happy with the purchase so far. My only "complaint" is that I wish you could access the catalog from the Roku itself. It'd be nice to browse and add items to the queue without having to log on to the computer.