HD Beat Review: Roku's PhotoBridge HD and Art Packs
We prepped you early in the week: check us out on weekends for extended features and reviews that we just can't fit into a weekday post! Our first "hands-on" review covers the Roku PhotoBridge HD1000 and Art Packs.
Roku's HD1000 and Art Packs on Compact Flash
There are plenty of streaming media devices on the market, but not too many that cater to an HD set. In fact, Roku Labs may have the only unit that currently supports high-definition output all the way up to 1080i resolution. The Roku PhotoBridge HD1000 connects to your high-definition set allowing you to:
View your personal digital photos in high definition
Stream digital audio files from your from a computer on your home network
Create HD slideshows with your own audio and video files
Utilize your high-def display as a virtual art display with optional Art Packs
So, how did the HD1000 work for us and did it do everything Roku claims it is capable of? We'll answer that question after the jump and take you through everything beginning to end. Read on for our full, hands on review!
So, what's in the box?
Along with the HD1000 itself, Roku includes a nice ergonomic IR remote control, a component video cable, a standard Left/Right audio cable for RCA jacks and the power cable. Batteries for the remote (two AAA) are included, which is one less thing to worry about. Also included in our review box was a Compact Flash media card where the six optional Art Packs are stored.
What does the device look like?
The HD1000 is thin and aesthetically pleasing. The size of the unit is smaller than I would have expected at less than 9-inches deep, just over 1.5-inches high and 17-inches wide. The front is a clean silver color, while the rest of the unit is a charcoal gray which should complement most other gear you might have. On the front left is a single "StandBy" button. In the middle of the unit are various card readers for any digital media you have. Supported media cards include:
Compact Flash
SD/MMC
Memory Stick / Memory Stick PRO
SmartMedia
To the right of the card reader slots are three buttons: Menu, Exit and Select. Next to these is a four-way navigation button:
Front right of the HD1000
The back of the unit handles all of the inputs and outputs; a good choice as there is no need to have front inputs on a device like this. There are plenty of options here as well, both for inputs and outputs. From an input standpoint, the HD1000 accepts standard stereo RCA input for audio and either S-Video or component video for your picture. These inputs can also allow the HD1000 to act as a "pass-through" for either audio or video as well. Noticeably missing are a DVI or an HDMI output, although this device has been on the market before either of these outputs were considered standards. Utilizing the component video cables in my tests worked more than satisfactory for me.
Back of the HD1000
Additional connections are available as well. The HD1000 has a VGA output, a USB port that supports 802.11b wireless adapters, an Ethernet port for a wired 10 or 100 Mbps network and a Digital Audio Out jack.
How difficult is it to connect and set-up?
The device is extremely simple to connect to your HD set. In my case, I used the included composite video cable to patch the HD1000 to the back of my high-def set. Next, I used the audio out connections on the unit to pipe the sound to my HD set. A quick plug in of the power cord to the Roku followed by press of the "Input Source" button on my television and I was in business.
I did have one minor issue upon my first power up. All of the menus, screens and pictures were very pixelated and were in black and white. At first, I thought that there was an issue with either the cables or the unit itself, but a quick look at the Troubleshooting section of the manual indicated the issue. In the Setup screens, there is an option for "Video Format Setup." There are 10 different display modes supported among the various output types and resolutions which range from 480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i. Since my set displays 1080i natively, I had to modify this setting and the picture immediately became crystal clear.
Input Setup screen
What are Art Packs?
The first action I took once the unit was connected was to insert the 256MB Compact Flash Art Pack. The Roku immediately recognized the new card; no shut-down or restart was required, which is nice. Using the IR remote, I selected "Compact Flash" from the main menu and was immediately given 8 choices to view.
8 Art Pack options
During my testing, I used all 8 at various times. The themed Art Packs come in handy when you're entertaining but don't want a movie or sporting event on. The soft background music and fantastic high-resolution slideshows of the Art Pack elicit some subtle "oohs" and "ahhs" without taking away from any conversation you might be having. Each of the themes has plenty of pictures and you can easily customize the time each picture is shown on the screen. The photos are generally very well composed and are truly worthy of a high-def display.
Of particular note is the "virtual" aquarium. The kids just loved this screen saver like aquarium that features several fish swimming in seemingly random patterns around coral and bubbles. There's a real 3-D effect and at first glance, you would think your television actually became an aquarium:
It is a TV or is it an aquarium?
Streaming audio and video
Audio and video streaming is done via either wired or wireless Ethernet. Since I don't have Cat-5 cable long enough to connect the ROKU to my router, I used a USB wireless adapter that Roku included for my review. I figured if the unit works well on a slower wireless connection, performance could only improve on a faster, wired network.
The wireless setup can be a little "clunky", but this really isn't Roku's fault. If you use any type of wireless encryption on your network, you need to configure the Roku for access. I use 128-bit encryption, so there are 26 characters to enter via the IR remote and the on-screen keyboard. One major downside also: the on-screen keyboard only contains alphanumeric characters. For added security, I have some special characters in the SSID or wireless network name I use. As a result, I had to change my network's name in order to connect the Roku to my network. Hopefully, this is something that Roku will modify in the future.
After connecting to my WiFi network, the Roku allowed me to mount whatever shares I had enabled. The mounted shares on my desktop PC immediately became available and I was able to browse for audio and video content without any issues. My first attempts to stream some audio failed however. I browsed to some of the podcasts I've done, since I archive them on my desktop PC. The Roku found then, but was unable to play the .mp3 files as they were recorded in mono, which is unsupported. This is not a major issue, but many podcasters (such as myself) sometimes record in mono, so this would be a "nice-to-have."
I was able to stream some podcasts that were recorded in stereo, so the audio streaming does work. iTunes playlists are not currently supported; only .m3u and .pls formatted playlists can be played. Additionally, neither .wma nor .ogg audio files are supported. The Roku supports .mp3, .wav, and .aif audio files only. Again, not a major issue, but support for additional files would be nice in the future.
One other minor snafu is that some of my podcast recordings have sample rates of 22.050kHz. The HD1000 manual indicates that this sample rate is supported, but I did get an error from the HD1000 indicating the rate is unsupported. Perhaps with a software upgrade, these files will play.
Wirelessly browsing and streaming a podcast
What about streaming video?
I had also hoped I could stream a DVD since they're encoded in the supported MPEG-2 format. Unfortunately, I couldn't for two reasons. First off, streaming video is only supported by a wired Ethernet connection on the Roku. Video can be extremely bandwidth intensive, so I can understand the limitation. With 802.11g and 802.11n, however, I hope that Roku considers wireless video streaming in future product offerings. Even if I was able to string a long Cat-5 cable, however, the DVD wouldn't be streamed. The HD1000 currently supports MPEG-2 Transport Stream files only. DVDs are Program Stream files and therefore are not currently supported.
Overall Impressions and final score
There are numerous little features and functions that we didn't have room to cover here. Display formating, picture rotation and zooming, detailed information on video content and more are all present on the HD1000.
At a $299 list price, the Roku does some things that no other streaming media device does and yet it doesn't do some other basics. It does provide you with high-definition capability, which to me personally makes it worth the price. For an additional $100, the Art Packs may seem a bit much, but I see big "reusable" factor there. If you are an avid digital photographer, your own high-resolution photos could be used to create slideshows with music of your choice.
There are a few minor updates I'd love to see on a next-gen HD1000. If the ones I mentioned in the review could be added in the future, this would be a perfect device for any HDTV owner. If there were just one update that could be made, I'd like to be the ability to wirelessly stream video. There are other wireless media players on the market that do this as their core competency, so this functionality really needs to be added.
Overall HD Beat review score: 7.5 out of 10
Don't hesitate to ask any questions about the HD1000 in our comments section. We'll hang on to the device for a few days in case of questions and then back it goes to the good folks over at Roku Labs!
Link to Roku HD1000
