*Official* Roku 2 Media Streamer Thread - Page 9

I never thought about that... That might be one of the reasons it's not available i guess. I'm still hoping that they will eventually get it. I really like VUDU.

It is with Roxsbox - I just have the Picture symlinked to where I normally store my photos so they are all available. The slideshow feature is nice (and I think they added background music from your mp3 folder if you want)...

As for quickly scanning through them with arrow keys, that works as well, though I have had it skip a picture or two when doing that. I think it is user error on my part...

The movie channel is neat - my favorite top 30 movies always available, any family movies I haven't burned to a disc yet are symlinked from their directory, and I even have a small channel of clips, and you can pick endless loop of a directory and shuffle, so that is fun as well.

Where do you see that on the ROKU site?

The spec I can see says

Roku 2 XS Streaming Player Specifications
Networking

802.11n Wi-Fi (b/g/n compatible) with WEP, WPA and WPA2 support
10/100 Base-T Ethernet
Bluetooth version 3.0 (currently enabled for use with Roku game remote only)

Video Outputs

480i (over composite video)
480p (over HDMI)
720p (over HDMI)
1080p (over HDMI)

Video Modes

1080p High Definition (HD)
720p High Definition (HD)
16:9 anamorphic / 4:3 standard

Audio Output

Analog stereo (mini-jack to left/right/composite video RCA)
Digital over HDMI (5.1 surround sound pass-through)

Storage Expansion

microSD card slot for additional game and channel storage

Remote Control

Roku Bluetooth game remote (with motion sensing for playing games)
Streaming player includes IR. Compatible with various universal remotes

Power Consumption

Less than 2W (typical) when streaming HD video

Power Input

5.2V - 1.5A power adapter

USB Media Formats

Video: MP4 (H.264)
Audio: AAC, MP3
Image: JPG, PNG

Size

3.3 x 3.3 x 0.9 inches

Weight

3 ounces

Here for the Roku1.
And here for the Roku2.

Those are the specs for the USB Channel which I read somewhere more or less match the specs of Roku itself.

MKV support is disabled on the Roku 2, because they had some problems with it, they said it should come again in the future.

Of course, using Plex, there are no problems playing h264 MKVs since it transcodes containers to MP4 without messing with the video.

New firmware for Roku 2 released.

DOes it fix the video level issue?

Some say it does.

Recalled ?? - This morning the software update screen wants to "upgrade" to the previous version.

Oh, crap... hopefully it's just a weird behaviour, I was waiting for the black-video-levels fix for a long time.

Yesterday evening mine never even showed that an update was available.

I never saw it. Apparently it was Roku 2 Firmware 4.1 build 2663. It immediately prompted complaints on Roku's own forum. No release notes were posted which makes me think it was a backroom glitch.

Not impressive.

Dana

I'm buying a Roku 2 as soon as the "dark image" firmware update is available and operating properly.

They recalled the update!?

I've been waiting for the black level fix for a while now. My TV can be set to accept PC Level input, but I have to /force/ it to since the Roku doesn't seem to self report that it is putting this out.

(On Auto mode, the TV handles individual inputs with different black level ranges just fine... except for the Roku XS)

The update is now rolling to all boxes... You can get it immediately if you go into Settings -> Software Update.

So what is different now than before. I had the update for a few minute sand I was able to put my DVDO DUO input back to video levels. But the Roku updated to the earlier firmware and I had to put the input back to PC levels.

Thanks Sam. My Roku XS pulled it down, and it appears that the RGB level has been set to standard instead of PC levels.

As posted on the ROKU company forum here:


Dana

Finally the Netflix subtitle issue was fixed as well!
Honestly, I screwed so much my TV Settings trying to compensate the Video Levels issue that I didn't notice any changes in yesterday's update, I'll need to calibrate the settings again to notice anything, I guess.

What kind of movies are on Crackle?

Same as on http://www.crackle.com/.

There's annoying commercial breaks though.

They are from Columibia/TriStar pictures, usually at least a few years old, if not older.

Having said that, some are great! Step Brothers, Das Boot, Real Genius, So I Married an Ax Murderer... have some TV shows as well up there. For free, I don't mind the commercial breaks; however they are put in randomly, not at a natural junction point like hulu, so that is jarring... but again, for free, I can't complain

Also, the first (really short) episode of The Bannen Way was a fun watch for me.

I don't know if Sony is making any more short free content like that, but that's one of the few things I'd be willing to sit through a commercial for.

Got my Roku 2 XS delivered today.

I can do a direct comparison with my Panasonic BD-65.

Content via Amazon, which I have used with the Panny since the beginning of this year.

The Roku 2 XS image is much darker, something is wrong with it (build 2663).

Justified Pilot, Boyd just blew up the church and is ready to put one in the back of the dudes skull in the jeep.

With the Roku 2 XS, their faces are black blobs with 2 glowing eyes, looks terrible but on the Panny it looks great.

HD content is softer on the Roku 2 XS.

Also getting a crackling sound through the speakers when scrolling through the channels.

Browsing is much better on the Roku and the thumbnails when going forward / reverse in titles are a huge help, nothing like that on the Panny.

But PQ counts and it's lacking with the Roku. If I can't get the black levels fixed it's gonna have to go back.

**UPDATE**

Apparently the Roku 2 sends out a Full color space (RGB) signal instead of the more typical Limited color space (YCbCr). There are no settings in the Roku to change this nor is there anything that says it's doing something different.

The 'fix' (if you have crushed blacks, bad saturation, etc. with the Roku) is to change your tv's HDMI settings to Full.

If your tv is already set to Full you are good to go, but if you don't have the option to change to Full your are SOL for the time being.

Of course if you do change your tv to Full you will have to change your other devices to output RGB too. In my case I had to change the digital cable dvr, Panasonic Blu-ray player and X-Box 360.

Once all that was done the PQ on the Roku 2 XS looks the same as when I was using my Panasonic BD-65 for Amazon Prime.

The issue is an HDMI issue with specific displays. The R2 is sending out pc levels instead of video levels which is why it is dark. the Roku outputs the full 0-255 range, rather than the typical range of most playback devices. The latest firmware supposedly fixes this for a variety of displays:

Roku 2: Firmware 4.1 build 2663 Release Notes
by RokuShawnS » Tue Oct 25, 2011 8:10 pm

Release notes for 4.1 b2663:

Support for new Roku LT model player
Support for upcoming channel partners
Fixed behavior of Netflix subtitles
Improved behavior of Netflix context menu
Improved WiFi performance
Fixed HDMI chroma-level range on many TV models
Improved boot performance
Improved Micro-SD card performance

If you are still having this problem (my RoKu 2 PQ has been perfect from the get-go) here is the link for the firmware discussion over at the Roku Forums. Join up and post a question.
http://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=44675

The Roku 2 XS makes a sound when scrolling by default. You can turn this sound down or off in the set up.

Just returned from my local Costco and saw a slew of the Roku 2 XS.
Slightly discounted but the Costco version includes an HDMI cable.

Not interested myself since Internet streaming is not on my agenda.
With a Netgear Neotv550, Dune Smart H1 and Tivo Premiere that option is always available.

Just for your info.

Thx for the info, found out what was going on and updated my post (see above).

btw, it updated to 2663 but is still sending out RGB.

Thx, turned it off and all is good.

Strange that it was a crackle, only in the left speaker and only when I scrolled fast.

If you have updated to the latest software (Firmware 4.1 build 2663) the ROKU 2 should be outputing limited range 16 - 235 RGB (previously it was sending full range 0 - 255 RGB) so there should be no need to change your HDMI settings to full. I had this problem before the 2663 release - but at least for me it is fixed now. My other devices output limited YCbCr and I can leave my HDMI input on limited and everything looks great on the ROKU 2 and my other source devices.

On the ROKU forums there are some people reporting that their TVs assume RGB to be full range so the latest fix is causing loss of deep blacks. ROKU is saying that TVs that do this are not complying with the HDMI standard and are asking for a list of affected TVs. However it doesn't sound like you are seeing this problem.

^ that's what I thought, that 2663 'fixed' the RGB issue.

Not sure why but if my tv is set to limited then blacks are crushed with the Roku 2 XS, full and it looks fine.

The real fix would be for Roku to give folks an option to output Full or Limited.