I hope my handful of readers had a good Christmas and will have a great new year. This Christmas I got a Roku HD unit for my Christmas gift. This box allow streaming on most any TV. The TV in question can have a HDMI connection. This cord usually runs from a video item like a Blue-Ray player or a better cable box to your modern flat screen TV or monitor. Some computers have an HDMI out too. This allows the Roku HD to put out in 720p resolution. Most of what it streams is well below that. It can hook to an older screen with the old red, white and yellow cords that carry left and right audio and video. (I did not check that option out.) Once hooked up to power and TV, the box will automatically fire up. (No power switch.) The Roku is about the size of a thick sandwich and can sit by your TV. This box may (and I say may) be the future of TV. You do have to have a good high speed internet connection for this wireless device to work. This box displays various “channels” on your TV. Most people will use it to stream Netflix movies to their TVs. It will show films in 720p witch is an upgrade from a WII at 480p. (Best Netflix machine is probably a Sony Playstation 3 at 1080p) It also is easy to listen to the Pandora web based music service on this box too. With that program you just enter a person, band or type of music you like and it does the rest. Its very easy to use, but just music.
“Scott, Scott stop, what does this have to do with radio or faith?” Lots, As I stated the little box is streaming box. Several channel apps have been developed for radio. The Tune In radio app and Shoutcast (grand daddy of internet radio apps) work great on this little box. You pull up the Tune In channel, punch in call letters like my favorite KSBJ, and it will give you that station and its HD2 NGEN. Other search options are available to find Christians stations.
This device also can pull TV stations if the station has been made an available stream on Roku. For people of faith this is really cool. I found all the TBN TV stations and several more stations on offer. If you like those stations and do not want to pay a satellite bill to get them, this box is perfect for internet users. Air One has its own little channel that makes tuning to their fine Christian rock radio station a breeze. You just punch the channel and play. The artist is displayed while it plays. Many large churches and even some smaller ministries have also used the Roku to stream services live and put up clips. I found my own church sermon streaming on Viemo video channel.
I also found seprate channels for the BBC TV and audio, Fox audio and video clips. Like any internet item it can be used for porn and other media you may not want exposure to. You can control who adds channels with a pass code.
If you go out and buy one of these boxes you will find a very limited channel offering on their website (which you will need to set up an account on.) The fun of this thing is finding “private” channels. The Roku must be based on open source programming. Anyone can get the developers pack put up a channel and stream something. The developer is then responsible for promoting the channel and publishing a simple code so it can be activated from the Roku website. Some of the best Roku channels are private. You can find list and sites on the internet with a simple search. Start with picking channels off the Roku site. Those are “public” channels. Then look for “Private” channels and put in some codes.
This box for a one time fifty dollar payment is a must for internet radio fans. There are some services that want you to subscribe. You simply can choose not to load them. I did find a Christian network as a pay channel. The Roku people wil require a credit card number to hold, in case you charge a channel or buy a game. (Yep games too.) You can get the several versions of a Roku box. Most sites say this verson or an older LT box is fine. The better ones come with some neat upgrades including 1080p. Next time we will look at Windows 8. At first look it is making internet radio easier.
