Roku HD1000 High-Definition Digital Media Player – Customer Reviews
Good product for the bleeding edge adopter
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The Photobridge is a nice product if you are looking for a bridge device between your PC and your HDTV.The product is of the most use with the 2.x "beta" version of the software and a couple of third party applications called Mplay and SlimRoku.It takes a healthy understanding of computers to get this device working, and with the above software and a 100Mb network connection there is little this device wont do.If you really want good information I would recommend looking at the forums on www.rokulabs.com and look under the Third Party applications topic for the Photobridge.
3/23/2006 12:00 AM | Rating:
It's so not what it could be :-(
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I had high hopes for this unit and quicky discoverd it ain't what I'm loking for. For starters, the company openly states their goal as being to use their consumer electronics products as simple proof-of-concept products to highlight what the hardware and softare can do. They're not their to provide end-solutions - they're an OEM manufacturerer. That justifies the beta software, which I installed and ended up frying my machine, so it's going back tomorrow. Also keep in mind that it's a shell with bare-bones functionality, and you're expected to downlaod and run a thrird party app to actually mke it run, There are 2 or 3 available, but that's a lot less palatable than having the functiomality built it.
Good Luck!'9/1/2005 12:00 AM | Rating:
Not what I expected
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Purchased the HD1000 for audio streaming and photograph display. The high definition digital display of photographs is great. Easy to set up and use. The audio capability is much more limited and not at all easy to use. I believe Roku is somewhat misleading in their claims about the audio capability of this unit. Many popular formats are not supported although Roku suggests using third part software. This is very limited and I am not a fan of having to use third part software to upgrade a product to meet its marketing claims. If audio is important to you, look elsewhere. I am disappointed with the device.
3/13/2005 12:00 AM | Rating:
Great for photos! For other media choose something else.
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I bought the Roku HD1000 so that I could display digital photos in HD on my TV.I was not disappointed.In fact, the results were outstanding!If you use a memory stick, SD card, or compact flash disk, the setup couldn't be easier.
If you want to get files from your PC over a network things get more complicated.Not complicated in a technology sense, but in a user interface sense.You need to do a bunch of clicking to get things set up.
If you want to play music from your computer, the interface becomes a hassle.You end up browsing through a hierarchy of folders to find the song you want, and it's basically not worth the trouble.
I already own an Audiotron, which does for music what the Roku does for photos, and it's so much easier to use that the Roku will be a photo-only device for me. The Audiotron saves you the endless folder browsing by automatically searching the entire network for music, and then organizing it for you.It allows you to very quickly choose music by artist, album name, song title, or genre.The Roku could do with a lot of improvement in this area.
The irony is that if the Roku had been billed as being for photos only, I'd have given it 5 stars.It's really the only game in town if you want high definition photo display on a TV, and it's terrific!For trying to be a video and music solution as well, and being poor to fair in those categories, I deduct a star.If you want a solution for music or video, buy something else.3/4/2005 12:00 AM | Rating:
Do Not Buy This if planning Wireless
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The Roku HD player was nothing but problems.I'm not a pro at things like this but my friend is and we spent over 3 hrs trying to get this thing to work and only then got it to work halfway.Judging from other people on Roku's message boards I wasn't the only one.It has serious networking issues.I sent mine back I was so disappointed.The idea was great but not the product.
2/21/2005 12:00 AM | Rating: