Roku legacy products

[rogersdan]

Do newer Roku devices provide better picture quality.  I have a very old (1s or 2nd gen) device that uses O.S. 11.0.0,  Will a newer 4k device provide better picture quality?  Thanks

[makaiguy]

@rogersdan-

This probably depends more on your TV than the Roku.  If you have to connect to the TV via yellow, red, and white RCA cables, you'll never see anything better than standard definition, because that's all that connection can support.

All current Roku products connect only to HDMI ports.  If you have a TV with an HDMI port to which you can connect a video device you can get HD, or even 4K video, depending on what Roku model you get, and the capabilities of your TV.  If you have a 4K device, but an HD TV, you'll only get HD.

See this page to see and compare the capabilities of all Rokus in the current product line

[rogersdan]

Thanks for the reply.  I have a new TV Samsung 4K UHD etc, and a very old Roku device - was wondering if the newer Roku devices (4K) would deliver a better picture.

[makaiguy]

First and second generation Rokus are considered by Roku to be Legacy models and are no longer supported or receiving updates from Roku.  Also, many channel service providers have opted to drop support for these much older and less capable models.

All Roku products in the current line will provide a 4K (2160p) picture and support HDR (High Dynamic Range) for those TVs that have it, with the exception of the Express (3930) model which only goes up to HD (1080p) and doesn't have HDR.  The amount of programming available in 4K is still limited but increasing.  Most is still HD and some is still SD.  The amount of programming with HDR is even more limited, and may require a higher tier of service.

All far as comparison with your old 1st or 2nd generation Rokus goes...

From the beginning all Rokus supported some HD.  Most were only 720p but several 1st and 2nd generation models supported 1080p.  No HDR on any of them back then.  If you have one of the 720p models a newer one would give you a higher resolution signal for most of the stuff you stream.  If your TV supports HDR you would get an even further enhancement over the old Roku but only on programming encoded with it. 

The TV can only display images in the set's native resolution, so it will take whatever signal it is fed and up- or down-convert it to that resolution.  Most sets do a good job of this, but some are better than others.  So that could also slightly affect what level of picture improvement you would get.

But even if you got zero picture improvement, the newer units have more capable processors and more internal memory which makes them much faster and more responsive.  Also, all available channel apps will run on them.  Personally, I wouldn't consider trying to use your old Roku.