Official Roku HD/XD/XDS Owners Thread - Page 10

I did play an mkv 720P 25FPS w/AC3(not sure of the channels) Audio last night with no problems, I also played an mkv with 23.97FPS w/5.1 384Kbps AC3 audio without any problems.

I tried several and the results are mixed. Some played fine, some played video but no audio, some had audio but no video, some gave an error that the file was corrupted or unsupported and some had both audio and video but constantly had go reload.

Slightly disappointed but I'm not complaining. I have more today than I could play yesterday and Roku is making an attempt to open up the file formats that can be played via USB. If they went this far I'm sure that they will refine.

P.S. I should note these were all mkv files that played on my older media player (WDTV).

Roku has posted some encoding tips on their forum here: http://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=36754

With them currently adding Netflix to almost every product they release is there a reason to get the roku for netflix support anymore? I understand the roku does have some unique programming but a lot of the blu-ray players / streamers seen to cover the basis (Amazon VOD, Pandora, VUDU, Ect...). I would think roku's implementation of netflix woudl be the best since its the oldest but i'm not sure. Not to worried about "search" functionality but i want it to support the latest greatest video/audio standards that come to netflix (HD) and 5.1 (i think netflix now can stream in 5.1 right?)

the only system that currently streams 5.1 is the PS3

Oh ok thanks Scott. So pretty much everything is equal other than the PS3 which streams in 5.1? Like everything streams in HD for the most part?

On a site tangent do you know if 5.1 is supposed to be coming soon to most of the "other" devices?

thanks....

Hello guys-

Since Amazon is offering free VOD for their prime member, I'm interesting in the Roku XDS. I never own Roku media player. How is the Amazon VOD video on Roku compare to Playon on PS3 and on the PC within the same house network?

If it is no different, I might go with Playon on PS3 instead. I'm trying to avoid another HD media player. It is kind of crowded in my entertainment center now.

Thank you for your feedback.

I'm getting higher bitrates on the Roku on Amazon than I am on the PC, even the ones not listed HD are coming in on the Roku at 2.5Mbps and the PC is streaming at 1.3 or 1.5 Mbps. I watched a few minutes of Contact and I was definitely getting higher rates on the Roku, I always get much smoother playback on the Roku vs the PC and that also applies to Netflix. That's just me, but a lot of people seem to have the same experience with the set top boxes vs the PC. It does appear to be on purpose.

That is what I expected. It shows that the signal strength on my PC is high, but I'm only getting 480P version. The movie is rated for HD. Are you getting higher than 480P on your Roku XDS or Playon on PS3?

Has anyone get any chance to compare Amazon VOD on their PC and PS3 using Playon? If the Amazon VOD HD video on Roku XDS and PS3 get higher resolution than PC, I might consider getting Roku XDS or Playon for PS3. Can anyone confirm it?

Thanks.

Haven't really played with AmazonVOD at all, so I can't say if you need to do anything. But if your options are between getting a Roku and getting Play On, don't even bother looking at Play On. Just get the Roku.

-Suntan

It seems that everyone like their Roku than PlayOn. I have another HD Media player. It can play almost any video and music formats and it has network capability, but it cannot play Netflix, Amazon and YouTube. Can Roku XDS play blu-ray file from flash drive or network local hard drive? If it does, I can eliminate my other HD media player. I want to avoid having too many players in my entertainment center.

I wish that Sony PS3 can play blu-ray file for external drive and can play Amazon VOD. I'll be their happiest customer. Everything they included in their PS3 so far, the video and sound are superb.

None of the Roku boxes can play native blu-ray files or ISO's.

There are a lot of brains at PS3 and Roku factories. Why can somebody at PS3 and Roku make their HD media player to play HD from external drive and can play Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, etc too?

It seems that both players have the hardware to support it. It shouldn't be too hard implementing these options!

Roku did recently implement a USB player, but the restriction on the video format is a bit stringent, they don't come close to supporting the bitrate needed for a real blu-ray rip and the containers are rather limited also, but it's a start and might work better in time.

I thought they allowed MKV now? that's pretty decent.

The PS3 has all the capability needed to play local network BR rips. In fact, you can even fool it into thinking a USB drive is an AVCHD based disc and get it to play BR rips with all the fixin's (24p playback, HD Audio) so it isn't a matter of making it work. It is a matter of them not wanting it to work.

As for an AmazonVOD app, I'm kinda surprised it isn't already available. Unless they have some deal cooked up with Vudu which prevents it.

-Suntan

I do this with mts files from my video camera

I converted most of my blu-ray movie m2ts files to AVI to maximize disc space. If PS3 can play blu-ray m2ts file, that would be great. Do you have any procedure on how to setup PS3 to play m2ts file from USB flash drive?

If Amazon can implement their VOD in PS3 very soon, I'll not have to buy Roku after all.

I enjoy using PS3 for everything because I can surf the net and it allow me to use my Bluetooth keyboard/mouse. It makes typing a lot easier than trying to mangle with the remote controller!

The Roku boxes can play HD content (up to 1080p) from an external drive. It's just that the HD content has to be in a compatible format, which is generally h.264 inside the mp4 or mkv container. You asked if it could play blu-ray files, which is why I said it can not.

Also, Roku does not support the AVI container.

I understood that the current Roku XDS cannot play M2TS and AVI files. I'm simply said that Roku hardware is capable of supporting these files. I'm not sure why Roku didn't include these options.

Somebody in here said that they can play M2TS file with their PS3. If they don't mind, please share their setup procedure with us. I'm sure hundred of PS3 owners will thank them for it.

It's not elegant, but if you have the 4GB files back to back in a folder, it will play them seamlessly. You just have to make sure you hit triangle (i think) and then "show all" instead of just going straight to a "video" folder

Jesus...I have to split my M2TS file into eight 4 GB files because most of my blu-ray M2TS files are 30+GB. It is too tricky tack. Sony, please make PS3 play M2TS and AVI files the proper way, and while at it please include Amazon VOD option too. I'm willing to pay for the software update. Thanks.

I'm leaning toward Roku XDS now. I'm a little hesitating to go this route because I'm running out of room and network port.

not possible - PS3 only reads FAT32, not NTFS, and FAT32 has a 4GB file size limit...

Sony has the brains...if they want to make it work, anything is possible. I bet they will include it in their new PS3.

By chance, have you try the AVI file on PS3? It is the compressed version of M2TS file, which is mostly around 4 GB per movie.

Good grief people. You talk as if you're the first people to want this functionality... We've been asking for these things for years. Sony isn't adding it because they don't want to give you that.

Anyway, it's pretty easy to get your cam videos to play on the PS3, you just need to maes sure you're fies are sub 4gb.

As for playing BRs from a usb drive, run the rip through "Clown BD" and select the "PS3 AVCHD" format selection. Then put the resulting folder structure in the root of the usb drive (only thing on the drive.) The PS3 will run it ike a disc.

Can't really give more as I haven't used the PS3 for videos in quite a while because it is such an intentionally gimped video player.

In any case, this is the Roku thread. Ask the PS3 questions in another thread. Or go to the PS3 gamer forum where they all love the ability to use PS3MS to stream their BT downloads.

-Suntan

Not at all I'm in any grief. I am not the first person to bring it up in AVS forum, but I might be the first person to bring it up in this thread. Just in case Sony is lurking in Roku thread, they might want to consider my request. I am not the first person to ask, but I asked these questions in another site since I bought the PS3 when it first comes out. It is good enough for me, and I hope that Sony see it.

If Sony includes Amazon VOD and ability to play M2TS, AVI, MKV, etc in their PS3, it might be the best game console ever made. In term of Video and Audio quality, Netflix and everything that Sony included in the PS3 so far is superb.
Since the current Roku XDS included Amazon VOD and capable of playing MKV file from external drive; I might give it a try. I might have to dispose my other HD media player in the entertainment center to make room for the new Roku XDS. The only draw back is that, I have to convert the HD movies from M2TS and AVI files to MKV file. Hopefully Roku will include other formats soon..!

I just got the ROKU XD, and the setup with my wireless router was a no-brainer; very quick and easy. The picture quality of the Netflix movies is excellent on my 60-inch Mitsubishi HDTV (which has a really great picture, by the way...as good as any plasma I have seen for half the money and weighs only 60 pounds).

It certainly is tiny; about 5 inches square and an inch or so high.

I am certainly glad I got it; excellent product.

Ditto here, I got my XD a few days ago and I'm really enjoying it. I do think the PQ on Netflix is slightly better with my PS3 but that's probably because it's a better display (1080p plasma vs. 720p plasma). I do like the user interface on the PS3 better though the Roku seems to connect a little faster. The Roku also has a lot more streaming content available, I love this tiny box.

I'm ordering the Roku XDS from Amazon with free 2 days shipping. I should receive it tomorrow or Monday.

I notice that too about the PS3. Everything on it seems to be better than my HD Media player. After I received the XDS, I'll compare it to PS3 on the same HDTV. I hope that it has the same video and audio quality of PS3. We'll see!

We had our roku player setup for amazon and netflix working fine. Anyway we wanted to link it to my prime account and couldn't find the option to do it so we reset the thing. Now its requiring us to give a cc # to roku to use it. No way they are getting mine. Unless my gf decides to register this thing is nothing more than a paperweight.

I have no interest in any of the "free" channels. If there was anything of use we would be paying roku the monthly fee instead of netflix. I need to write up a amazon review as this is bogus. They have no business with my cc as I intend to give them no business. What if you were out shopping and a store required your cc # for entry even if you were just browsing around. I would not shop there.