After a series of rumours, Roku has now announced a complete line of four new boxes, along with a special version for Walmart. The Roku Express is a FullHD box replaces the Roku 1 and is said to be twice as fast as the previous version, but in a much smaller box. It will sell for just $30 in the US and a version to be sold with analogue cables, through Walmart, is called the Express Plus and will cost $40.
Moving up, The Roku Premiere and Premiere Plus support UltraHD at up to 60fps and with HDMI2.0a. The Plus has support for HDR and enhanced remote control (wireless rather than infrared) that allows the connection of headphones for private viewing and has an ethernet port. They will sell for $80 and $100, respectively.
At the top of the range is the Roku Ultra which adds a USB for external storage and optical audio and will cost $130. It has an microSD card slot for channel storage. The boxes all have a mode that compresses audio to reduce peak sounds while maintaining volume for speech. The boxes are available for pre-order and will ship from 7th October. The existing stick remains current.
The Roku Express is very small – Image:Roku
Analyst Comment
Roku confirmed that when it talks about HDR support, it means HDR10 and the HDMI outputs support HDCP 2.2 on the UltraHD versions. (BR)
