ddruker wrote:I myself sure didn't think we still would be in what is really an Alpha release (not feature complete) going into 2006 with really nothing new since spring 2005.
Out of curiousity, what features do you think are missing (that you think were promised for 2.0)? In another post I gave a list of things I'd like to see, I don't expect everyone to agree with it, but it would certainly make me happy, but some may not be achievable etc.
http://www.rokulabs.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=36946#36946ddruker wrote:From a hardware perspective - is the hardware in the unit still reasonably current - or is ATI several generations ahead now ? Seems to me that Roku hasn't updated the hardware except to add more memory in what must be getting close to three years now - this would appear to be an eternity given current product cycles... I would guess things like hdmi / hdcp support in hardware are getting more and more important for HD media players as we move into 2006, and I expect other technologies have marched forward a bit as well.
The main competitor (chip wise) currently is the Sigma Designs EM8620L, which supports DivX, WMV, WMV HD etc. This year Sigma Designs be releasing the EM8622L which will add H.264 support (and have a few other features, memory support increase, clock speed etc.).
The ATI chipset has obviously much less support for these video codecs, but what it does support (MPEG2) it seems a very capable chip. ATI are obviously capable of adding extra video codec support to their chips, theres lots of talk on the net about how their graphics chips already have in-built H.264 support for example. We are starting to see devices coming out with HDMI support, so I agree we're going to see more of that.
I'm quite happy with my PhotoBridges, but there is a new hardware box coming out in a couple of months that I plan on getting. Its definitely not perfect (some things the PhotoBridge will do better), but it should make an excellent addition. And it has both VGA and HDMI outputs
ddruker wrote:Any other thoughts for 2006 ? I still hope they can get 2.0 feature complete and out the door someone soon.
I want to see the Radio shipped! Hopefully then we'll know where we stand. I'd like to see my wish-list developed and released.