Features, settings & updates

[jeremyp1971]

I would buy 3 or 4 of these if they had at least 1GBs ethernet. Everything else I have is 1GBs to 2.5gbs. Many of us, for very technical reasons, including wifi interference with other systems, do not use wifi. We wish you would listen to the enthusiasts who are looking for the best and would easily pay. This lack of upgrade prevents me from seeing any substantial improvement in my current setup.

[atc98092]

@jeremyp1971 while I agree it's time to bump the wired connection to Gigabit, you have to remember Roku devices are designed primarily for streaming media from the Internet. At this time there simply is no online provider that comes close to saturating a Fast Ethernet connection. If your desire is to view media from a home server (as I do) there is no Roku player (including this one) that does everything needed for such viewing. Besides the slow Ethernet (although it does fine on 5 GHz WiFi), there is no support for image based captions (which almost every DVD/BD disc uses), they won't bitstream the lossless audio codecs to an AVR, and the processor in even the fastest Roku is at its limit when playing uncompressed 4K ripped Blu Ray content. For that, you need a better player. I still use the Nvidia Shield for my "serious" home media playback, although there are a few other Android based players that can do the things I described above. 

I still use Roku players for casual viewing of my local media, as well as online sources. For that purpose, they are fine as equipped. 

[Dfresh567]

@jeremyp1971 @trentv11182 

While I totally respect being an enthusiast with anyone having a passion for something. I would put myself in the Roku enthusiast category. I spend a whole lot of time compared to the average roku owner on here and own just about every Roku product available.

From a business perspective if we want Roku to exists they cannot carter to the Roku user who are looking for all the specs, getting knee deep into the number and super technical while also appealing to the masses and being affordable. I love Roku but I wouldn't expect 1G or higher in whatever it was you were mentioning.

The make awesome products (in my opinion for the price point and quality and ease of use) that I'm looking for. GIve it a year or two and it'll have the 1 G whatever. Roku isn't an early adopter company as they say in the business world.

It is nice to learn about the newest and fast stuff out there so I'm not saying it isn't cool or that I would even want it one one in my streaming player

[jeremyp1971]

Hi Ddresh,

I understand where you're cming from, and I'm not bashing Roky products, but I don't think you're familiar with this long standing issue. I'm not talking early adoption or frankly anything that would likely increase the cost of the unit to produce. I'm talking about the ethernet port speed. 1gbps (1 gigabyte per second) is the standard from about 10 years ago. Now many new routers support ethernet speeds of 2.5gbps or higher. 100mbps is about 20 year old tech. It is very hard to find anything new on the market in the past 5 years that still has 100mbps in it, except the Roku Ultra. 

I also have had Roku's since they first started and am an enthusiast s well. I currently own around 10 Roku devices and have given that many away on top of that. There is technically a valid reason to want the hardwired (not wireless) speed to be a faster and support technology that is at least somewhat obsolete, as opposed to just slow. WiFi tends to interfere with some of my equipment, and hardwire is exponentially more stable and virtually eliminates interference, congested channels and lost packets. Roku has focused on updating WiFi only on the Ultra for at least 10 years, as well as remotes. Those all cost substantially more than maybe 5 center per unit to move from 100mbps to 1000mbps, if there is any cost difference at all.

I do not believe I am alone in waiting for many years for them to update it to at least the low end of the current ethernet tech for this specific product.

[atc98092]

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@jeremyp1971 wrote:

I'm talking about the ethernet port speed. 1gbps (1 gigabyte per second) is the standard from about 10 years ago.

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But it's not a "standard". Virtually any TV or BD player with an Ethernet port is still Fast Ethernet. And the reason is the devices simply don't need a faster connection, and WiFi can usually provide a bit faster connection if the user feels they need something faster. Remember, any current Internet service that provides video streaming maxes out around 20-25 Mbps, so even with peak rates Gigabit simply isn't necessary. They only place GIgabit Ethernet would be beneficial on a streaming player is for people with home media servers and have 4K disc rips that can exceed the available speed. But again, WiFi will work for those users. I've tested the Roku hardware via USB, so no network limitations. The Roku hardware maxes out around 180 Mbps, and any faster media will still end up unwatchable due to buffering. 

Some time in the future there may be higher bitrate media available for streaming over the Internet, and that's when the streaming player will need a faster connection. But that also means different internal hardware that can play that higher bitrate without buffering.