Washington, D.C. (December 22, 2008) -- Roku, the $99 set-top that can deliver Netflix titles streamed from the Internet to your TV screen, says it can now offer about 300 of those programs in 720p HD video.

The company says a software update will automatically be delivered to Roku boxes over the next few weeks to enable the high-def display.

“Netflix is a pioneer in streaming HD content over the Internet and the results are impressive,” Roku CEO Anthony Wood said in a statement. “Adding hundreds of HD titles to their catalog of more than 12,000 streaming titles provides tremendous value to Roku owners.”


The Roku set-top can now offer high-def titles.

While Netflix may be a pioneer in streaming HD content, Roku has been slow to the game. Netflix had already partnered with Samsung to deliver high-def content over two Blu-ray player models, TiVo and the XBox 360.

Additionally, a Roku administrator said last August that Roku's HD content from Netflix movies will play at a lower bit-rate than on the XBox, meaning the picture quality will not be as good.

That's not good news for high-def purists who have already judged the XBox picture quality as sub-par to the Blu-ray high-def disc.

The 5"-by-5" Roku set-top can connect to the TV via an Ethernet port through a variety of connections including HDMI, component video or even S-Video. The box also can be connected wirelessly to the Net using a Wi-Fi feature.

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