"EnTerr" wrote:
I was musing over this MDL Roku dongle and there are two things that seem necessary for it (notice nothing in PR release says it won't have them and Roku seem judicious overall in their designs, so it may happen):
(1) Grow some HDMI cable. Not much, 6" is probably enough to make it easy to plug it in most awkwardly positioned HDMI ports. The concept art shown in the PR blurb shows big docking bay carved in the back of TV to allow HDMI dongles. Tough that, to rely on TV manufacturers wisdom - some put the HDMI ports for straight cable, others seem to think of 90degree angle connectors
(2) Get power port on the other end. The reason being those 99% of TVs that have non-powered HDMI (non MDL) ports. If power can be brought to the dongle, it can work over regular HDMI and still benefit from integrated CEC remote control. Now bringing power does not have to be hard - many TVs have USB ports, so a simple miniUSB cable will suffice. Or you can BYO USB power adapter.
A year and a half later, it's "i told you so" lap time:
Roku Stick did not allow for alternative power source and did not get traction since MHL port is uncommon.
Google on the other hand just announced their "Chromecast" dongle and seems to have taken heed of issues (1) and (2) - they include hdmi extender cable and usb cable/adapter in the package. At this point i have not the slightest idea how things will be on the software side (it may gut the streaming market or it may flop like googletv - yet that firmware can evolve). But hardware/price-wise things seem scary for Roku.
PS. here in pictures, what the streaming stick should('ve) include(d):
https://support.google.com/chromecast/answer/2998341
