Can You Get Animal Planet On Roku

(Pocket-lint) - Roku has refreshed its Roku set-superlative box lineup and with it announced the launch of the Roku 3, a £100 flagship box of tricks that promises to turn your Television set into something considerably smarter.

But does the Roku 3 brand sense given that yous could buy the company'southward rebadged Now TV box for a mere tenner instead, and is information technology as well limited in content terms in the Britain?

Our quick have

The Roku iii is a decent Boob tube set-top box that will offer plenty to most people looking to "cut the cable" as Americans would say. While in that location are some annoyances with the interface layout and a lot of dross in the app shop - do you really want to pay £1.49 for a puppy screensaver? - the main grab-upwards Boob tube services are here.

There are noticeable omissions - 4 On Demand and ITV Actor beingness ii - but the important ones like Netflix, Now, and BBC iPlayer are here. Does that brand it worth the £100 request cost?

We recall so, yes. The Roku three costs £30 more than the Roku XS, only adds the USB socket for localised file back up, Ethernet port for speedy streaming support, and is a smoother, more than securely invested service than before. It might not exist possible to download and store local content, like with Apple TV, but the added microSD menu slot, the motion controller and faster processor brand Roku 3 a worthwhile upgrade that fills in some of the omissions of its predecessor.

If, withal, your programme is to just stream grab-up services then y'all will be more than happy with the Roku XS for less cash. If you don't care about Neflix then salve yourself a lot of money and get for the Now TV box instead - although that'due south express to 720p streaming, not 1080p back up as found here - which might be nowhere nearly every bit powerful, but does deliver a lot for the outlay.

Roku 3

For

• Small
• Piece of cake to setup
• Lots of services supported
• MicroSD and USB back up
• Headphone jack on remote for quiet listening
• 1080p support

Against

• Lots of dross apps in app store
• Can't buy movies or shows
• No 4oD or ITV histrion
• 9 tile limit in interface & not best use of interface space

What is it?

Roku is one of those companies that needs a fleck of introduction. For some it's a household proper name, for others you'll exist scratching your head wondering what the heck it'south all virtually.

Roku 3 is the company'south top-spec prepare-acme box that plugs into your Telly and enables streaming of content. Whether films, Television programmes, music or games, the interface opens y'all up to plenty of content direct from the internet - whether past Wi-Fi or Ethernet. Yous can also handle your ain content via USB or microSD should you have files you want to become to play dorsum on your Television receiver.

But the visitor has American roots and, as such, information technology'south taking a picayune time for Uk support at every given angle. For example you can open up up BBC iPlayer to grab upwardly on services, but in that location's no iv On Demand or ITV Role player just withal. They'll come along at a later on date, we believe, merely for at present it's all about playing the waiting game.

Design & setup

The Roku iii box devices measures in at 89 x 89 10 25 mm in size and weighs just 170g, not that you'll be carrying information technology effectually. That makes for a diddy little box that, from the outside, doesn't actually suggest the power that it contains within. More on that subsequently.

The black box features curved edges giving information technology a somewhat pebble-similar wait and experience and is everything the Apple Telly's black-block pattern isn't. It is finished with a piano gloss blackness paint chore with the only distracting detail beingness a regal textile label saying Roku on information technology.

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The side sports a USB port, while the back hosts an HDMI, a somewhat subconscious microSD slot, and an Ethernet socket. A lot of that hard-wired connectivity is what puts Roku 3 steps alee of its Roku 2 XS predecessor. But it's non all nigh hard-wiring - Wi-Fi b/chiliad/north is available as well for those that desire to stream over the airwaves. The box itself is discreet, and can be easily lost at the back of your TV every bit the included remote doesn't need a direct line of sight to work.

READ: Roku 2 XS review

Setting it up is incredibly easy too. Plug in the Roku three to your Tv via an HMDI cable and go through the setup pages. One time you've connected to your wireless network you are asked to then validate the box via Roku's website on a separate device like your laptop, tablet, or smartphone.

This is to ensure you've got a Roku account, a requirement of getting everything to piece of work. You lot'll as well need to part with your credit carte du jour details even though in that location is no subscription or cost to pay - such ongoing payments will just come into play if y'all want to download certain subscription-based apps.

The remote

One up and running your former-vanilla TV is transformed into a aqueduct-capable hub, complete with included remote control. It's comfortable in the manus, well built, and reminds is of a variant of the Nintendo Wii Remote in a pianoforte gloss blackness finish. It's powered by 2 AA batteries and feels well thought out - this is no afterthought thrown into the box.

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The button configuration includes an array of buttons to help speed upwards your navigation around the Roku's on-screen menu system and that includes a d-pad, home button, back button and play/interruption, fast forward and rewind. At that place is also an A and B for gaming, and the Wii reference adds further credence when you discover out that the remote also offers movement control for games like Angry Birds.

There is no number pad or keyboard, but you don't actually demand channel numbers like a regular Boob tube hither as it'due south based around your own apps. If you lot really want to commencement searching for a lot of shows you can download a dedicated app for Android or iOS to use on your smartphone instead.

Probably something you lot aren't expecting or familiar with on a remote is a 3.5mm headphone jack. You can plug in a pair of headphones to mute the racket coming from the television and listen from afar, with a dedicated volume switch to command just how loud y'all can go. It's an amazingly simple idea, merely ane we love, especially if yous are a regular tardily night TV watcher once the rest of the household has gone to bed.

Interface

Using the remote makes information technology easy to chop through the Roku'southward on-screen interface which, for the Roku 3, has been completely overhauled.

Information technology's now based around two panels that y'all can curl through or across. On the opening screen you lot take My Channels, Channel Store, and Settings on the left. On the correct yous have a grid of nine channel spaces to allow you go directly to your favourite channels. Scrolling to the right gets rid of the first menu and instead of revealing more than channel options a huge advert - either for Roku or Netflix or someone - appears, which is non only a bit naff but a huge waste product of screen real manor.

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You can move channels into the order you want them by pressing the asterisk button on the remote only you tin can't ever become more than ix tiles on the screen at any in one case. To view more than you accept to ringlet down.

There is some customisation, only not to fix the in a higher place nine tile problem. It's more cosmetic stuff: Roku allows yous to change the expect of the menu interface, swapping out the purple colour scheme for various seasonal themes or 1 of five presets that get past names such as "Daydream" - it's got clouds on it - or "Decaf" - it'southward brownish.

The interface, although wasteful in utilise of space on screen, is like shooting fish in a barrel to apply and straightforward - but one thing to bear in mind is that because there is no overriding menu organisation forced on to app developers every app looks and feels different. That's either bang-up or poor depending on how you lot look at these things.

Channel Store

The cadre arroyo to Roku is that you tin can expand it past adding more "channels" via the Channel Store. Dissimilar Apple tree Television set y'all don't have to wait for a system update to add more content or for more content to become available. Simply wait for developers to go on and develop an app for information technology. Here there is plenty of choice and enough being added oft.

READ: Apple TV (2012) review

Big hitters already bachelor include BBC iPlayer, Netflix, Now TV, Demand v, Heaven News, Crackle, Vevo, Plex, Spotify, and TuneIn Radio. There are also games similar Angry Birds and Angry Birds Infinite, merely those two really are the cream of the crop, while other apps like a tertiary-party Dropbox app allow you to share your Dropbox-based photos on your TV. You can also go apps like Flickr, Facebook, and Picasa.

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As with all app stores there are some skilful apps and services and a lot of rubbish, and it's the aforementioned here with Roku. Of the hundreds that are available y'all'll probably simply be interested in the handful nosotros've already mentioned. Still, the good news is that they are present and that if a new hot service launches information technology can very easily be added - none of this waiting for Apple to do add them as is the instance with Apple Television receiver.

What you lot don't get nonetheless is the chance to rent or buy content in the aforementioned manner as the iTunes store, although with Now Goggle box roofing all the latest movies, and Netflix covering a large chunk of TV shows yous should be pretty well covered. There are, as we mentioned earlier, some omissions however: no 4oD and no ITV Thespian might exist a fairly large bargain for you, only one we believe will be "plugged up" in the near future.

READ: Now TV box review

Specs

Roku 3 is more powerful than its Roku XS predecessor; it'due south got a like spec to the iPad 3 when it comes to what's under the hood. And that ways meliorate games support - although we don't conceptualize many volition buy it for that reason.

When it comes to games like Angry Birds Space the Roku 3 work well, but then Angry Birds isn't very demanding. Loading times are kept to a minimum and everything runs smoothly rather than beingness laggy at whatever point.

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Simply information technology'due south format support where the Roku 3 shows off its stuff. There's support for 480p, 720p, and 1080p resolutions along with 7.1 and 5.ane surround sound passed through the HDMI cable. Via the USB - which wasn't bachelor in the Roku XS - y'all can play H.264 MP4 and MKV formats for video and AAC and MP3 for music. The Roku also supports playback of images stored in JPG or PNG formats. That's great if y'all have local files.

In practice, unless you are using some random video streaming codec, you should detect those to embrace the main bases. Failing that you can either side-load your content or stream it from your PC with apps like Plex.

To recap

The Roku 3 is a decent Boob tube gear up-top box with the main catch-up Television set services on manus, such as Netflix, Now and BBC iPlayer, although in that location are some omissions - four On Demand and ITV Role player being two. It'southward worth its £100 cover price though because there's a USB socket for localised file support and Ethernet port for speedy streaming support. It might not be possible to download and store local content, like with Apple TV, simply the added microSD bill of fare slot, the movement controller and faster processor brand Roku 3 a worthwhile upgrade that fills in some of the omissions of its predecessor.

Writing by Stuart Miles.

Source: https://www.pocket-lint.com/tv/reviews/roku/124516-roku-3-review

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