Whatever you set the output to is what the movie/show will be displayed in, at all times..

If you set up a HD TV and have the output being a 16:9 HD output, it will always be 720P no matter what shows or movies you see, unless you go back and change your display type in the options.

Yep, yet another unhappy 1080i customer. This isn't being made clear on the Roku Player advertising. Looks like it will go back and I'll buy one of the Blu-Ray players with Netflix capability. Too bad about that since there's a reason 720P isn't currently dominant (sorry, 720P People of Good Streaming Taste...).

You would think they would do 1080 first then 720 since 720 is the next level of high definition.

ROKU HELP US OUT!!!!

Another bump from someone that wants 1080i support.

Yet another check in with Roku to see if they are ever going to respond to this thread with an actual answer.

Sadly this event has kinda soured me with roku. I mean the product works fine and all, but the fact that this happened, knowing it was going to happen and still 5 months later nothing has been said by the roku staff, somehow I just feel like we were dumped on and ignored.

Way too many posts in this thread to see if this has been posted already, but if your TV has a DVI input you can go this way-
http://www.amazon.com/Gefen-GTV-HIDEFS-Gefentv-High-definition-Scaler/dp/B0013LYMT0/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1241753129&sr=8-6

philsoft wrote:

Way too many posts in this thread to see if this has been posted already, but if your TV has a DVI input you can go this way-
http://www.amazon.com/Gefen-GTV-HIDEFS-Gefentv-High-definition-Scaler/dp/B0013LYMT0/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1241753129&sr=8-6

At that cost, you might as well buy a Blu-Ray player with the Netflix/Amazon functionality built-in. I love my Roku Player, but if you want HD and you have a 1080i-only TV, there are far to many other options to jump through hoops like this to get HD.

I think I can speak for most of us on this thread...

CAN ROKU PLEASE COMMENT ON THIS?

Are they working on 1080i? Is it coming? Should we wait?

WE NEED TO KNOW SOMETHING

ahintz wrote:

At that cost, you might as well buy a Blu-Ray player with the Netflix/Amazon functionality built-in. I love my Roku Player, but if you want HD and you have a 1080i-only TV, there are far to many other options to jump through hoops like this to get HD.

Are there 1080i streams available from Netflix if you are using the Blu-Ray player? If so, then it seems like Roku could probably rip the code to add this functionality in just a few minutes, and if the streams are already available I can't imagine why they wouldn't add that.

If the streams are not available, then it wouldn't help to switch to a Blu-ray anyway, unless you are saying the signal is upconverted to 1080i through the BR player. But then it is not a true 1080 image anyway, and I have found Blu-Ray players to be fairly poor upconverters generally, especially when you add interlacing to the upconversion process.

In either case, the fact that a TV can not display 720p is a shortcoming of the TV, not the Roku player.

philsoft wrote:

ahintz wrote:

At that cost, you might as well buy a Blu-Ray player with the Netflix/Amazon functionality built-in. I love my Roku Player, but if you want HD and you have a 1080i-only TV, there are far to many other options to jump through hoops like this to get HD.

Are there 1080i streams available from Netflix if you are using the Blu-Ray player? If so, then it seems like Roku could probably rip the code to add this functionality in just a few minutes, and if the streams are already available I can't imagine why they wouldn't add that.

If the streams are not available, then it wouldn't help to switch to a Blu-ray anyway, unless you are saying the signal is upconverted to 1080i through the BR player. But then it is not a true 1080 image anyway, and I have found Blu-Ray players to be fairly poor upconverters generally, especially when you add interlacing to the upconversion process.

In either case, the fact that a TV can not display 720p is a shortcoming of the TV, not the Roku player.

Yes it is obvious that you didnt read any of the thread or you would have seen both, that device has been posted before, and also the fact that we are well aware of the shortcomings of our television sets.
As has been said before, we are looking at them fixing their box to allow those of us (and there are a lot of us) that dont have 720p support on our tvs. Even if it was to upscale the pic to 1080i we would at least get to SEE the movie in HD. Currently we can not watch any HD becuase it is in 720p mode only. We also know they were well aware of this problem before the release of HD and they chose to ignore a big portion of their owners and future owners. So instead of rehashing the same old argument, We are wanting roku to step in and tell us if/when they are going to fix the rest of us that was promised HD and can't view it.

Sadly for roku, I have already directed a few of my friends to stay clear of the product and purchase something else because of this problem. Sure the Roku box is good for what it does, but to ignore a major problem as this and not speak to us about it, well, that is where I draw the line. If they want to ignore us, they can lose sales. simple as that.

So I take it that there are no 1080i streams available on either the Netflix site or the Amazon site? If the streams are not available, then Roku could write the code and add it to the firmware, but you still wouldn't be able to view any HD content right?

My guess (and this is only a guess) is if Netflix or Amazon either one, wanted to supply 1080i streams, Roku would add the ability to play them. Since those streams do not currently exist though, it doesn't matter if the player can play them or not.

The ones that want 1080i would need the Roku to upconvert to 1080i, then they could watch the 720p stuff at 1080i. I don't know if the player has the capability to upconvert though.

billc124 wrote:

The ones that want 1080i would need the Roku to upconvert to 1080i, then they could watch the 720p stuff at 1080i. I don't know if the player has the capability to upconvert though.

yes we have not been told if it would upconvert. however, it doesnt even have to do that. I can watch movies on my dvr that are 720p and they show in their native format. meaning the screen is in 1080i but the 720p show is playing with a box all around it. Its not being upconverted at all. While it wouldn't be the best solution, at least we could watch the 720p streams.

I have an older HD tv with 1080i on component only (no hdmi) and I'm still very happy with my Roku box. It is not as good as a conventional (no upconvert) dvd player, but still highly viewable and the convenience is hard to beat.

tom

Atom wrote:

I have an older HD tv with 1080i on component only (no hdmi) and I'm still very happy with my Roku box. It is not as good as a conventional (no upconvert) dvd player, but still highly viewable and the convenience is hard to beat.

tom

I'm glad to hear you're enjoying your Roku, but if you're able to see HD on it, your TV can handle a native 720p signal.

The rest of us on this thread are unfortunate to own 1080i TVs that can't handle 720p, and were foolish enough to think Roku might actually communicate with its users on whether or not they can ever expect an update that will convert to 1080i.

I'm not sure why they have made a decision to not give us an answer either way, but it is very frustrating as someone who paid for this product.