Roku as a media player!

I like the Roku as it does so many things well.  However, one thing it does not do well is play music, pictures, and videos off a network drive or local storage.  This is where the xbox360 or WD Live TV Plus flex their muscles.   But wait, Roku has a “USB Media Player Channel” that now allows playback of personal videos, music, and photos.  So how does it work?

Easy, an updated Roku player has the channel added with the latest software.  On mine, it was located near the end of the channel lineup all the way to the right.  If you have a USB hard drive or thumb drive simply load it with:

Video (MKV, MP4, MOV, WMV, ASF, or WMV9)

Music (AAC or MP3)

Photo (JPG or PNG)

Then, plug the usb drive into the side port.  It will sort the files into one of the three file types.  Simply choose the file and it will play as long as it streams at 12mbps or less.  It doesn’t play the variety of files that a Western Digital box will play nor does it have network streaming capabilities.  But, it does have basic media center capabilities which will satisfy many users.  No need for iTunes.  Nice job Roku.