If you have been watching the streaming video news lately, then you should be aware of at least on option you have on the market called Roku. The Roku box basically is a digital media setup box like the AppleTV and others that are on the market that work as a middle man between the content and your HDTV. Most of the new Roku boxes comes with built-in Wi-Fi and can be connected to your television with an HDMI cable for the best picture.
The box offers consumers plenty of “channels” to choose from and many of the bigger names include PBS, YouTube, BBC iPlayer, Google Play Movies HBO Go and even Netflix and Hulu Plus. Starting back in 2011, the Roku box started to offer games for consumers and according to the company, the Roku has more than fifteen million channel downloads and more than one million viewers. Currently, consumers are able to purchase the third generation Roku player, which was released back in April of this year.
The newest model only features HDMI connections, but does come with the same built-in Wi-Fi, Ethernet connections, but the remote has been upgraded to IR, Wi-Fi or direct options. With the third generation you will get 720p and 1080p resolutions. The upgraded processor allows you to skim through the channels at a faster pace when looking for something to watch. It does come with 256MB of channel storage, but also a microSD card slot for those that want to store more.
The new lately has shifted to the release of the Roku 4. That is expected to happen at some point this fall. Since that is not that far away, there has been an increase in talk about the rumors and speculation for the new device. The new device is expected to bring a few fixes along with it, as well as new features. Because AppleTV already have 4k resolution, it has been rumored that the Roku 4 is going to offer the same. Right now, Roku 4 does not have to come with 4k resolution since most of the high definition televisions on the market are not affordable.
On the flip side of things, the new Roku 4 could also be coming with support for more games. If that is the case, speculation leans more towards the new Roku 4 coming with a better processor, more RAM and support for better video processing. As of right now, Roku is reportedly not too worried about the video games that can be played through the device. The biggest thing for Roku 4 users is going to be whether the company fixed the freezing and hang ups that they experienced while using it. Roku 3 users had to unplugged the device in order to reset it.
Roku 4 so far is a lovely device AND it HAS a reset button
1. Apple TV does not have 4k. There are just rumored to be coming out with it.
2. The Roku 3 does not have to be unplugged to re-start. The re-start can be done from the remote control.
I just can’t believe how stupid the makers of Roku are! They are having such a hard time figuring out why their devices are freezing or malfunctioning, when the problem is so friggin obvious, it’s overheating!! This has also been the problem which causes my remote to stop working as well. I would restart it by unplugging it, and many times the remote still wouldn’t work, only because my Roku 2 & 3 was so hot that it literally burned the hell out of my hand. After I let both my Roku’s cool off, everything worked fine until they heated up again. To remedy this, somewhat, I cracked open the front corner of my Roku 3 in order to vent it, and whala, it made a huge difference, but not permanently. Eventually the heat becomes overwhelming and is too much for the device. My next step will be to drill holes in the top, but not too deep as to drill into the components, then buy a 4×4 inch fan, get a USB cord, cut it, tap the wires from the fan into the cord, then plug it into the USB port on the Roku to it becomes self sustained. The makers of Roku don’t seem to want to remedy this problem because people would keep their current model much longer, and the company’s sales would go down because their customers would no longer have to keep buying another one every time their current device would burn out. Very sad way to do business on a product like this!