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*Official* Roku 2 Media Streamer Thread - Page 19

post #541 of 1038
3/17/12 at 1:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by avf5 View Post

Now, once “5.1 DD+” is selected within Netflix title, it will stay selected (enabled) for all Netflix [5.1] titles – click here.

Very, very cool ! I was trying to figure out what if anything outwardly had changed. This is persistent across reboots.

The reason that I figured that they didn't make 5.1 a default for Netflix in the first place is that it's DD+ and they can only bitstream it; they can't be very confident that the connected AVR or television can deal with it. I guess that if people selected it by mistake for a title they'd have gotten a support call in any case but with this change you can turn it on forever by mistake and really screw yourself over if you don't have DD+ capable equipment .

I bitterly complained in their forums about having to remember to turn 5.1 sound on all the time and they asked me to write it up and send it to them. It's nice to see that they listen . (Though my suggestion was that they check the E-EDID of the downstream HDMI device and see if it indicates that it can handle DD+ and make it the default if it can).

Netflix seems significantly faster. It starts faster and retrieves title information faster. It could be that I was just catching my local Netflix servers during a lull .

This makes me a lot happier with the device. How did you find out about this anyway? You linked to a generic Roku tips thread and not the discussion about the new release. It not in release notes in the blog entry (although the speed improvement is mentioned, so I'm probably not just imagining it ).
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post #542 of 1038
3/17/12 at 5:47am
Quote:
Originally Posted by avf5 View Post

Now, once “5.1 DD+” is selected within Netflix title, it will stay selected (enabled) for all Netflix [5.1] titles – click here.

Quote:
Originally Posted by michaeltscott View Post

Very, very cool ! I was trying to figure out what if anything outwardly had changed. This is persistent across reboots.

The reason that I figured that they didn't make 5.1 a default for Netflix in the first place is that it's DD+ and they can only bitstream it; they can't be very confident that the connected AVR or television can deal with it. I guess that if people selected it by mistake for a title they'd have gotten a support call in any case but with this change you can turn it on forever by mistake and really screw yourself over if you don't have DD+ capable equipment .

I bitterly complained in their forums about having to remember to turn 5.1 sound on all the time and they asked me to write it up and send it to them. It's nice to see that they listen . (Though my suggestion was that they check the E-EDID of the downstream HDMI device and see if it indicates that it can handle DD+ and make it the default if it can).

Netflix seems significantly faster. It starts faster and retrieves title information faster. It could be that I was just catching my local Netflix servers during a lull .

This makes me a lot happier with the device. How did you find out about this anyway? You linked to a generic Roku tips thread and not the discussion about the new release. It not in release notes in the blog entry (although the speed improvement is mentioned, so I'm probably not just imagining it ).

It is cool,

Actually, “Improved subtitle and audio settings in Netflix.” was mentioned in the release notes.


Cheers
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post #543 of 1038
3/17/12 at 8:20am
I didn't do my homework and bought a Roku XS expecting DD with Netflix. I soon however found out that my receiver which is only 3 years old does not support DD+. Can someone explain why Netflix went with DD+ and not the more compatible DD ? Is DD+ better for streaming ?

Thanks,

Ken
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post #544 of 1038
3/17/12 at 8:26am
DD+ can be compressed more.
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post #545 of 1038
3/17/12 at 11:55am
DD+ has twice the encoding efficiency of DD--a soundtrack encoded in DD+ should sound as good as one encoded in basic DD at twice the bit rate. It's designed to be easily and quickly converted into 640 Kbps basic DD and most streaming devices are capable of doing this. For those reasons its hyped by Dolby for use in streaming video. Roku does not license any Dolby tech and just passes the sound through, which was probably to save on per-unit licensing fees.

This prompted me to upgrade to an AVR with DD+ decoding (also TrueHD, DTS-HD HR and DTS-HD MA--I'd been considering it for a couple of years anyway). The 384 Kbps DD+ tracks on some Netflix titles sound great.
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post #546 of 1038
3/18/12 at 7:08am
Thanks for the info, I guess I need to start saving up for a new Receiver !!

-Ken
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post #547 of 1038
3/18/12 at 9:46am
Quote:
Originally Posted by kenvt View Post

Thanks for the info, I guess I need to start saving up for a new Receiver !!

Or you can return your Roku XS and buy a BD player with a Netflix app which can decode DD+ into multi-channel LPCM, which your current receiver can probably handle (the receiver I replaced was 5 y/o and it could). I've been a big fan of the Panasonics--I owned a DMP-BDT110 and bought this year's BDT220, but I may be defecting to Sony and have ordered a BDP-S390. (The BDP-S390 is non-3D, the 3D version being the BDP-S590. Both the Panasonics are 3D BD players). This year's Sony's have full-featured Netflix players (1080p/DD+ 5.1/CC/subtitles), Amazon players with 5.1 sound and VUDU. I've been looking for a device with those capabilities for a while and if it checks out the 220's getting returned and I'm selling my Roku.
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post #548 of 1038
3/18/12 at 7:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by michaeltscott View Post

Or you can return your Roku XS and buy a BD player with a Netflix app which can decode DD+ into multi-channel LPCM, which your current receiver can probably handle (the receiver I replaced was 5 y/o and it could). I've been a big fan of the Panasonics--I owned a DMP-BDT110 and bought this year's BDT220, but I may be defecting to Sony and have ordered a BDP-S390. (The BDP-S390 is non-3D, the 3D version being the BDP-S590. Both the Panasonics are 3D BD players). This year's Sony's have full-featured Netflix players (1080p/DD+ 5.1/CC/subtitles), Amazon players with 5.1 sound and VUDU. I've been looking for a device with those capabilities for a while and if it checks out the 220's getting returned and I'm selling my Roku.

I've been down the blu-ray player route before, I bought an LG-BD570 and once the model was discontinued so where the updates.

I mainly got the Roku for Twit.tv and all the "private
channels available on that format. I find the Roku to be the best for ongoing updates and additional channels. I will be looking to upgrade my receiver.

-Ken
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post #549 of 1038
3/19/12 at 6:50am
Netflix Adaptive Streaming seems now to start at slightly lesser quality then quickly ramp-up to high quality (FWD/REW & “Instant Replay” start w/o change in quality) – click here


Cheers
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post #550 of 1038
3/19/12 at 8:07am
Quote:
Originally Posted by avf5 View Post

Netflix Adaptive Streaming seems now to start at slightly lesser quality then quickly ramp-up to high quality (FWD/REW & “Instant Replay” start w/o change in quality) – click here

It always did, as do all of the adaptive bit rate players. The PS3 used to start very quickly this way, within 1-3 seconds, but not anymore. The Roku 2 may be starting faster now--I clocked it at 8 seconds the other day because everything seems to have gotten somewhat faster. I don't know how fast the start was before then but I'm imagining that it was longer. It's still not ramping up to higher quality encodings very quickly though, at least not for me.
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post #551 of 1038
3/19/12 at 8:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by michaeltscott View Post

It always did, as do all of the adaptive bit rate players. The PS3 used to start very quickly this way, within 1-3 seconds, but not anymore. The Roku 2 may be starting faster now--I clocked it at 8 seconds the other day because everything seems to have gotten somewhat faster. I don't know has fast the start was before then but I'm imagining that it was longer. It's still not ramping up to higher quality encodings very quickly though, at least for me.

I streamed Netflix from my Roku2 last night. It did seems noticeably faster ramping up to HD than is did in the past.
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post #552 of 1038
3/19/12 at 8:22am
Quote:
Originally Posted by aaronwt View Post

I streamed Netflix from my Roku2 last night. It did seems noticeably faster ramping up to HD than is did in the past.

Playing with it right now I think you may be right. It's definitely starting pretty fast now--it came up in as little as 6 seconds. A bit strangely too; it filled the buffering bar a little bit and stopped for the first several seconds then finished filling it in the last second or so.
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post #553 of 1038
3/19/12 at 11:11am
I just signed up for the lifetime PlayOn so I could get the Roku LT. I'll be keeping this one at my GFs house. Now if i could just get her to switch from DSL to FiOS.
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post #554 of 1038
3/20/12 at 6:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by kenvt View Post

I've been down the blu-ray player route before, I bought an LG-BD570 and once the model was discontinued so where the updates..... I find the Roku to be the best for ongoing updates and additional channels. I will be looking to upgrade my receiver.
-Ken

Agreed The same with the LG BD590. A waste of money if you wish to get newer channels or any updates to existing ones and some of their existing ones are badly out of date. Also, same with my year old LG internet connectable TV. ROKU far superior for this.. Buy BlueRay players only for using BR DVDs.
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post #555 of 1038
3/20/12 at 11:38am
I've bought BD players to use principally as streamers because I really don't care much about streaming services outside of the "big 3" as much as having all of the services that I use all of the time on a single device. If Roku 2 offered VUDU it'd be great but it doesn't. I'm receiving a Sony BDP-S390 today and if I like it my Roku 2 XS' going up for sale.
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post #556 of 1038
3/22/12 at 8:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by michaeltscott View Post

I've bought BD players to use principally as streamers because I really don't care much about streaming services outside of the "big 3" as much as having all of the services that I use all of the time on a single device. If Roku 2 offered VUDU it'd be great but it doesn't. I'm receiving a Sony BDP-S390 today and if I like it my Roku 2 XS' going up for sale.

what are the pros and cons of the roku? i might buy it from u if the price is right, i have comcast right now with netflix streaming from my wireless netgear n600 router. im thinking about getting the roku 2 but im on the fence about it
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post #557 of 1038
3/22/12 at 8:31am
^what are your expectations or requirements?
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post #558 of 1038
3/22/12 at 9:27am
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1python1 View Post

what are the pros and cons of the roku? i might buy it from u if the price is right, i have comcast right now with netflix streaming from my wireless netgear n600 router. im thinking about getting the roku 2 but im on the fence about it

There is new roku coming up, if you want to wait...
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post #559 of 1038
3/22/12 at 10:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by csrini1 View Post

There is new roku coming up, if you want to wait...

What changes are there? I have a RokuLT coming from PlayOn and I already have a Roku2 XS.
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post #560 of 1038
3/22/12 at 11:03am
Quote:
Originally Posted by csrini1 View Post

There is new roku coming up, if you want to wait...

The new Roku is the Roku stick, correct? But that will only connect to specific HDMI ports though.
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post #561 of 1038
3/22/12 at 11:09am
There's this Roku coming out too, but looks very similar to current gen2 boxes.
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post #562 of 1038
3/23/12 at 4:38am
Quote:
Originally Posted by LVS View Post

^what are your expectations or requirements?

lots more channels for free of course!
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post #563 of 1038
3/23/12 at 5:50am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brajesh View Post

There's this Roku coming out too, but looks very similar to current gen2 boxes.

Looks like the current Roku2 models except it will have composite outs (instead of using a convert cable, but most of us will use HDMI anyway) and no microSD card slot (since it will have 2GB onboard flash memory). So, really no 'upgrade' features compared to the current models.
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post #564 of 1038
3/23/12 at 5:51am
Has anyone tried the Roku App for Android yet ? Planning on trying out tonight (can load it from the building I'm in at the moment).
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post #565 of 1038
3/23/12 at 7:17am
How has MKV support worked for you guys? It would seem to be that the Roku would become the ultimate player in this forum if that actually worked right...does it?
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post #566 of 1038
3/24/12 at 5:20am
I got an email yesterday from PlayOn saying that they were out of the Roku LT and they gave me a $50 gift card to purchase a Roku LT from the Roku site or from another merchant. They also said that Roku plans to discontinue the Roku LT. So I guess this new box will be replacing the Roku LT soon.
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post #567 of 1038
3/24/12 at 1:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by xcrunner529 View Post

How has MKV support worked for you guys? It would seem to be that the Roku would become the ultimate player in this forum if that actually worked right...does it?

Why not just use Plex? It will Direct Stream h.264 mkv's and it works quite well. You can use the tweaks to increase the profile levels that it will play from say 4.0 to 4.2 for example.

Philip
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post #568 of 1038
3/24/12 at 2:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pmcd View Post

Why not just use Plex? It will Direct Stream h.264 mkv's and it works quite well. You can use the tweaks to increase the profile levels that it will play from say 4.0 to 4.2 for example.

Philip

Does Plex stream music files to Roku? If so, is there a list somewhere of file types and bitrates?
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post #569 of 1038
3/25/12 at 2:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pbarach View Post

Does Plex stream music files to Roku? If so, is there a list somewhere of file types and bitrates?


The latest version does handle music. I guess the place to go would be the Plex forums. They have a dedicated Roku section. I never use the Roku for music so ...

http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/...aming-players/


philip
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post #570 of 1038
3/25/12 at 6:42pm
^^^
Thanks I will check this out.
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