roku

Podcast: Roku to stream Amazon video

Tim Twerdahl, Roku vice president of consumer products, tells Larry Magid that the Roku set-top box will now allow you to stream movies and TV shows from Amazon.com.

The Roku player already works with about 12,000 movies and TV shows from Netflix. Unlike Netflix, which bundles Roku TV viewing with DVD subscriptions, Amazon movies and TV shows will be on a rental or purchase basis. New movie releases typically cost $3.99, with older movies available for $2.99. TV shows will cost $1.99.

Length: 6:21

Roku adds Amazon Video on Demand

The Roku Digital Video Player has just gotten a whole lot more interesting.

The company announced Tuesday that it is adding more than 40,000 movies and TV shows to its online video service from Amazon Video on Demand.

Roku launched its $99 digital video player in May with Netflix as its first streaming partner. For a monthly fee, consumers can watch any of Netflix's 12,000 movies and TV shows in its library.

The company said it had sold out of the device in the first two weeks after it went on sale. And since then, sales have been strong, said Tim Twerdahl, vice president of consumer products for Roku.

The company won't release specific sales figures, but Twerdahl said the company has sold well over 100,000 devices in the past nine months.

While this is certainly a good start, the Roku box could become even more popular as more content is added to the platform. The Netflix deal has been a good start, but the service only offers a fraction of its overall DVD library for streaming.

The deal with Amazon is key because it not only offers a much larger library of content, but it also offers hot new titles, many of which are released on Amazon's download service when they're made available on DVD.… Read more

Netflix may offer streaming-only pricing in 2010

Netflix is considering offering a streaming-only pricing tier as soon as next year, according to comments made by CEO Reed Hastings in a report by Bloomberg.

The streaming-only membership could be popular among those with Netflix-enabled devices (such as the Roku Netflix Player, Xbox 360, and LG BD300) who want streaming access without the full cost of a Netflix membership. Netflix hasn't said how much the streaming-only tier would cost, but we'd assume it would be less than the current entry-level $9-a-month unlimited plan.

On the other hand, we're still on the lookout for Netflix to start … Read more

Connecting a PC to an HDTV

Like millions of other people, I watched Katie Couric's interview with President Barack Obama from the comfort of my living room couch. But instead of watching it on TV. I was tuned into CBSNews.com. I watched Katie and the president on my 52-inch high-definition TV connected to a Windows PC.

It's long been possible to connect a PC to a TV, but doing it in 2009 is bucking the trend. Unlike previous years, we heard almost nothing about plugging PCs into TVs at last month's Consumer Electronics Show. Instead, companies were talking about a variety of … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 884: Hormonal beef

In today's episode, Natali offers her hormones to help out Steve Jobs, but she doesn't do it on the actual show, so we have to tell you about it now. The actual news is that the mystery behind Steve's absence from the Steve-note has been revealed: a hormonal imbalance that's causing massive weight loss. Also, Viacom goes wingnut crazy. Hear all about it! Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 884

Health concerns force Apple’s Jobs from Macworld http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10130981-37.html

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10787_3-10130961-60.html

Rumor: Unibody 17-inch MacBook Pro … Read more

Daily Tidbits: Beatles songs now available for free

Beatles fans can now download the Fab Four's tracks legally for free. But there's one catch: they can only do it by subscribing to, and downloading, a podcast from Norwegian Broadcasting. According to a deal inked by the organization late last year, Norwegian Broadcasting can offer podcasts containing music as long as no more than 70 percent of the entire duration of the show contains music. Using that to its advantage, the organization has started offering daily podcast episodes that feature a three-minute discussion about an individual Beatles track and the actual recording of that track subsequent to … Read more

Amazon Video On Demand coming to Roku Player

Amazon Video On Demand will be coming to the Roku Netflix Player in early 2009.

Amazon's video service will become the first non-Netflix "channel" to be available on the Roku box. The service, formerly known as Amazon Unbox, offers more than 40,000 movies and TV shows.

While that dwarfs the 12,000 or so streaming titles currently available via Netflix--and includes many newer titles as they're released on DVD--they're available on a pay-per-view basis rather than the flat-fee subscription of the Netflix.

A mid-December firmware update included the promise of "a number of … Read more

Roku's Netflix Player gets HD upgrade--and the promise of additional channels in 2009

The Netflix Player by Roku is the latest Netflix-compatible device to offer HD video support. The free firmware upgrade (version 1.5) adds the ability to access the approximately 300 or so titles in Netflix's streaming library that are currently available in high-definition. The upgrade brings the Roku box up to speed with the Xbox 360, TiVo HD DVRs, and Samsung BD-P2500 and BD-P2550 Blu-ray players, all of which have been upgraded to support Netflix HD streams over the past few weeks. (The remaining device, the LG BD300 Blu-ray player, should be getting its own HD firmware upgrade soon.)

In addition to the HD upgrade, the Roku box is also teasing the eventual availability of new non-Netflix programming. Clicking the "what's new" button on the updated home screen reveals a message that says: … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 866: Harsh the mellow

Important revelations on today's show: cigars smell like dog poop, Facebook Connect is going to win, the NFL looks awesome in 3-D, and Barack Obama uses an iPod, not a Zune. Like I said, important. Listen now: Download today's podcast Episode 866

Listener co-host details: E-mail buzz@cnet.com with your name, phone number, preferred time of day (with time zone). We are shooting for doing the interviews next Monday 3-4 p.m. PST and Wednesday 4-5 PST.

Facebook Connect opens up http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10113604-2.html

So does Google Friend Connect http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10113648-2.html… Read more