The Evolution Of Roku Media Streamers - A trip down memory lane.
Roku has been building media streamers for the past 10 years, and it's not uncommon for them to come out with newer hardware every year.
These are some of the Roku models from days gone by. Some of these Roku media streamers you may have once owned or may still own today.
With each year Roku would up their game and offer faster hardware and more memory to keep up with technology. Some years more so than others and often great new features were implemented like private listening remote controls, voice search and other things that have made the Roku media streamer platform evolve over time to become what it is today.
Spring 2008: Roku DVP - This was Roku's first model which was basically a way to play Netflix content and at first was even called the Netflix Player. DVP was the acronym for Digital Video Player. Eventually, it became known as the Roku Streaming Player. It ran a form of Linux OS and was the Great, Great Grandfather of what would soon be known as the number one media streamer on the planet.
Fall 2009: Roku SD, Roku HD (N1100), Roku HD-XR This was a nice update and the SD model did not support HD content. The HD only supported 720p and the Roku HD supported both 720p and 1020p HD. Only their top of the line model sported a USB port and this was a trend they continued to follow until this day.
Fall 2010: Roku HD (2000), Roku XD, Roku XDS This is when things became interesting when new models were released. They looked a little sleeker and were still built like little tanks. Especially the Roku XDS which was our first Roku model which we bought refurbished from Roku at the time. Roku introduced HDMI ports, and 1080p to the XD, the top of the line XDS received component video and Optical audio outputs, dual-band wireless N, and a USB port to work with the Roku media player channel for playing your own video files, playlists music photos and more.
Summer 2011: Second Generation, Roku 2 HD, Roku 2 XD, Roku 2 XS - With this model Roku once again offered faster hardware, a new enhanced gaming remote for the top of the line Roku 2 XS along with an Ethernet port which offers a superior hard wire to a WiFi connection for the best streaming experience.
Fall 2011: Roku LT - This model came along in October and it offered an even lower price point to entice more people into the Roku family. It couldn't play games and the highest HD resolution was 720p HD but it became a hit and a lot of people at the time bought them.
2012: Roku Stick (MHL) (3400, 3420) - This was Roku's first attempts at build streaming sticks and this particular model was short lived. It was made to take advantage of an alternative port to HDMI on some TVs at the time. MHL really never caught on and HDMI quickly became the standard. These Roku sticks were a little underwhelming in performance and faded away rather quickly.
2013: Third Generation, Roku 1, Roku 2 (2720), Roku 3 (4200) - This is when Roku upped their game and began offering faster processors especially in the Roku. The Roku 3 model introduced a new private listening feature in the remote with a jack and an included set of headphones. The CPU was also the fastest of any media streamer they had built to date. The Roku 2 and 3 now received dual-band WiFi and included both a WiFi Direct remote and also an IR remote sensor. The Roku 1 remained IR only.
2014: Roku Streaming Stick (3500) - This was Roku's HDMI version of a Streaming Stick and it was quite a bit sleeker looking than their first MHL model. The color also changed from purple to black to match the rest of their product line.
2015: Roku 2 (4210), Roku 3 (4230), Roku 4 - Instead of renaming their product line they kept the same names for the Roku 2 and 3 which seemed to be a bit confusing. All three models supported Ethernet, and now both the Roku 2 and 3 and the prior model Roku 3 all shared the same 900 Mhz processor and still supported 1080p HD.
The new Roku 4 was their first and only model to support 4K and for the first time included a fan to cool the CPU. This had some customers complaining about fan nose which Roku quickly addressed.
2016: Roku Express (3700), Roku Express+ (3710), Roku Streaming Stick (3600), Roku Premiere (4620), Roku Premiere+ (4630), Roku Ultra (4640) - Many changes came about this year as Roku once again revamped their entire product line.
A new smaller form factor Roku Express replaced their entry model the LT. The Express + model offered component RCA HD in addition to HDMI.
The Roku Streaming Stick received a speed boost and now was equivalent in performance to last year's Roku 3 as was the Roku Express. The Roku Premiere, and Premiere Plus both received faster A53 quad core1.2 GHz processors and were capable of 4K UHD resolution and they no longer contained a fan like their previous fan noise problematic Roku 4 model had. The Roku Ultra was their flagship model and was the only model to support USB and a gaming remote. Memory on the Express and Express + was only 512 MB.
The Ultra, Premiere and Premier+ all came with 1GB. Only the Premiere+ and Ultra supported Ethernet.
2017: Roku Express (3900), Roku Express+ (3910), Roku Streaming Stick (3800), Roku Streaming Stick+ (3810), Roku Ultra (4660) - This is Roku's current line of stand-alone media streamers and they now all support the same A53 quad core1.2 GHz processors across the entire line. Only the Streaming Stick+ and Roku Ultra are capable of 4K UHD though.
Their Express models continue to only support an IR remote and only the Roku Ultra supports Ethernet and a USB port. All models except the Roku Express include a Voice Search remote. The Ultra remained virtually unchanged except it dropped the optical Audio out.
2018: To Be Determined
Here are the full specs on all Roku models to date.
Roku Fans, check out this Top 100 Roku Channels List
Or this A-Z List of Roku Channels!
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Use of third-party trademarks on this site is not intended to imply endorsement nor affiliation with respective trademark owners.
We are Not Affiliated with or Endorsed by Roku®, Apple, Google or Other Companies we may write about.
