Roku HD1000 Review

Roku's HD1000 is a networked digital media device that plays high quality audio, video and images through your home stereo and can connect to an HDTV display.

Summary

The Roku HD1000 is a product for those that put pictures above audio and video. The HD1000 really shines when it comes to displaying pictures in high-definition resolutions, and still has the basic features most will want when playing back audio files. Those looking for a more advanced digital media receiver may want to stick with the Slim Devices products or even Roku’s SoundBridge product which both are audio-only devices. The Roku HD1000 looks at home in any audio rack and is sure to help you show off that new HDTV television and make it the center of your home theater.

From an all-around perspective, the Roku HD1000 still feels like it’s in a development stage. There are so many possibilities with the HD1000 and we hope that developers take advantage to the open-source operating system. We would like to see more advanced features and audio format compatibility in the future as well as support for Apple iTunes play lists. We are unsure as to what laws and guidelines Roku Labs needs to follow when it comes to playing video content, but we would like to see a stronger presence in this feature as well.

Introduction

With the digital media receiver market still in its infancy, each company in the industry has their own idea of what the form factor, included features, and design of such devices should be. Roku is unique in that the company has two different devices to offer. One offering is their SoundBridge, which is a tubular-shaped home theater component that only plays digital audio. The other is the subject of this review, the HD1000 which supports the playback of digital audio, video, and images and can connect digitally to your stereo and high-definition TV. 

Roku also adds flash storage and wired or wireless network compatibility allowing you to play digital content via flash memory cards or your network.

Priced at $299, the Roku HD1000 is sure to pique the interest of audiophiles and anyone looking to show off the digital capabilities of an HDTV compatible television or monitor.

Roku’s HD1000 is a home theater component-sized networked media player.

Features and Design

The Roku HD1000 is a pretty sophisticated media receiver in that it has similar hardware architecture to many basic computers or game consoles. Powering the device is a 300MHz MIPS CPU (we are unsure of the manufacturer) with 16MB of internal flash memory and 64MB of DDR DRAM. The operating system is an open media platform that uses the Linux kernel and advanced Roku media APIs. There is no fan or hard drive in the HD1000 so it operates completely silently.

We have seen digital media players that look similar to SoHo routers and others that are a little bit bigger and designed to sit on top of your television. The Roku HD1000 is the first digital media receiver we have seen that actually looks like it belongs in a rack with the rest of your home theater components. Measuring 17-inches wide and 1.63-inches tall, the physical design is the same component width as DVD players, receivers and other home theater products on the market. Small plastic feet are located in each corner and provide significant room for airflow between your home theater components.

The front panel of the HD1000 features the navigational controls and flash memory readers. The device has a slot for Compact Flash, SD/MMC, Memory Stick and Smart Media cards. The HD1000 can even play the new xD-Picture Card format, but you will have to purchase an adapter from Roku for about $60 in order to do so. The HD1000 can play back digital media stored on the flash memory slots, and can even execute custom applications designed to work on the Roku platform. As with other networked digital media players we have seen, there is no display on the front panel itself, meaning that even for music, you must use a TV or monitor to navigate through and select music to play.

You can either control the Roku HD1000 by using the controls on the front panel or by using the small remote control included with the media receiver. The small remote control only has a few buttons on it designed for navigating the menu system, but that is all you really need. Some applications require the input of numbers and letters, and the HD1000 provides an easy to use on-screen keyboard for that.

Located on the back of the Roku HD1000 are all the audio and video inputs and outputs you will need to get the media receiver to work with your other components. There are VGA, S-Video and component outputs located here that should work with just about any medium-to-high-end television on the market. For home automation enthusiasts, there is even an RS-232 port so you can integrate the HD1000 with the rest of your setup. There are two options for connecting the media player to your computer network: you can either hard wire it using the Ethernet port on the back or you can use an aftermarket 802.11b/g wireless adapter by plugging it into the HD1000’s USB port. For audio connections, you can set-up the HD1000 to use either traditional analog stereo RCA connections or digital coax (S/PDIF) and optical (Toslink) outputs.

The HD1000 features both analog and digial connections to your video and audio devices.

One very cool feature which we have yet to see on other digital media receivers is the ability to use the Roku HD1000 as a pass-through to your other home theater components. This is great for those that might not have enough connections in their home theater receiver for every component they own. For example, by plugging your home DVD player into the HD1000 and then plugging the HD1000 into your home theater receiver, you only need to utilize the single audio and video inputs on your receiver versus two for each component.

On the media side, the Roku HD1000 can only play a limited amount of file types, but the company says they will soon be adding more supported formats to the device. On the audio side, the it can playback MP3, WAV and AIFF formats but those looking for WMA, Ogg Vorbis or AAC support will have to wait for an upgrade.

Visual quality is where the HD1000 really stands out. What is unique to the device is its ability to display high resolution JPEG pictures back in high-definition resolutions, up to 1080i if your television or monitor can support it. You can choose to show the pictures individually, or you can setup the HD1000 to play back the pictures in a slideshow format. This is perfect for those that want to show off pictures of the family vacations, or those that simply want something decorative displayed while having dinner guests over. Roku also sells what they call "Art Packs"