Amazon Video on Demand HD on Roku Video Player hands-on
Roku hooked us up with an early preview of Amazon Video on Demand in HD for its Video Player, and while we didn't have much time to poke around, but what we saw was mostly impressive. Video took a little longer to buffer in than Amazon SD or Netflix's HD streams on our 10Mbps cable connection, picture quality was noticeably better, although still not at Blu-ray levels. Apart from the HD content, the experience on the Roku box is essentially same as always: there's still no search in the interface, so be prepared to hunt around for what you want -- anything other than popular or blockbuster titles requires a little digging. Selection and pricing seem to be about on par with Apple TV / iTunes, but you're getting a little less for your money, since audio is stereo-only compared to Apple's 5.1 encoding. That's a potential dealbreaker for us, but it might not matter to you, and Roku's $99 Video Player is now an undeniably appealing way to beef up your HD content options. Short hands-on video after the break.
























Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ultiman @ Apr 21st 2009 10:06PM
The audio seems to be the dealbreaker on this one. I am a big fan of the Roku box, and it works really good on our bedroom TV, but I don't think it's quite ready for the big screen.
Wes @ Apr 22nd 2009 1:17AM
"compared to Apple's 5.1 encoding".
I thought AppleTV did 2.0 stero on mostly everything? or am I horribly mistaken? If so, what's the situation then? Is it tv-shows are 2.0 stereo and movies are 5.1? or is all content available in 5.1?
Or is that you can get a movie encoded in 5.1 via iTunes playable on a pc but AppleTV hardware still only supports stereo?
Randall Lind @ Apr 22nd 2009 8:53AM
This doesn't see right. You can rent it or buy the movie in SD (Standard def) but, preview in HD? That sucks you should be able to rent and buy in HD if the preview is in HD.
eric f. @ Apr 22nd 2009 9:20AM
Buy movie in SD for $14.99? You've gotta be freaking kidding me.
York @ Apr 22nd 2009 3:44PM
VUDU has been doing this better for longer. From the looks of the movies I still think I will prefer HDX to this version of HD.
Highdefjunkies @ Apr 28th 2009 2:46PM
Not to bad. I have AMAZON VOD on my Panny TV, however the interface is much different.
chris
www.highdefjunkies.com