Roku HD-XR

Roku HD-XR Review

As we found out in our Roku HD-XR review, the new Draft-N-enabled box still excels at streaming online media like Netflix, but still can’t access locally stored content.Here’s a spot of good news for multimedia enthusiasts: What Roku's HD-XR streaming media server ($129.99) does, it does exceedingly well. Specifically, the device delivers a wealth of high-definition content, where available, from a variety of Internet sources (including Netflix) straight to your HDTV. And the sources from which this content flows are growing; Roku's Channel Store currently lists 13 channels, but the company is actively pursuing additional content partners. The problem here, however, is what the gizmo doesn't do – namely, supply a bridge from content already on your home PC (at least not yet). Plus, a growing number of HDTVs and Blu-ray players offer similar capabilities sans an extra set-top box.Like many streaming media bridges and extenders, the Roku HD-XR is a boring black box, about the size of a thick paperback book. On the rear is a complete analog/digital jack pack – HDMI, composite video, component video, S-Video and optical audio jacks for TV and AVR connectivity are all included, as is an Ethernet jack for network connectivity.