Just in time for this year’s CES, Roku is launching its Streaming Stick, a small dongle about the size of a standard USB flash drive that will simply plug into a TV to transform it into a Smart TV.
The stick includes everything in a Roku player, such as built-in Wi-Fi, processor, memory and software, and will deliver all the channels found on the Roku platform. It will also benefit from regular software updates and channel enhancements.
The Roku Streaming Stick will plug into MHL-enabled HDMI ports on TVs. MHL is a new standard that uses the HDMI connector on TVs to deliver power and other critical elements for the streaming experience. There are already TVs with MHL from Samsung and Toshiba, and more will be announced at CES.
The new sticks will be available in retail later this year alongside the streaming players, and at prices comparable to today’s Roku players ($50 to $100, or between €39 and €78).
The Roku platform, currently only available in the US, launched 250 new channels in 2011, including HBO Go, Disney, XFactor, FoxNews.com, and NBC News, bringing the Roku channel store to just over 400 channels.
Broadband TV Views. In theory, the new Roku stick will turn dumb TVs in smart, connected TVs. That should solve a problem of the many TV sets out there which do not have broadband connectivity.
With such a stick, that problem is solved, especially for people who do not want yet another set-top in the house. However, if we understand the specs right, you need a modern MHL-enabled HDMI-port, which is a new standard just coming on the market.
This means that the current installed base of dumb flat screen sets will not be able to benefit from the stick – while most new TVs out there will already have built-in connectivity.