Roku’s next media streaming device will almost certainly support 4K video. We were already pretty certain of that, but now information that was posted to the Roku website (and then removed) confirms the specs for the upcoming Roku 4.

Here’s what we can expect from the next-gen Roku box.

roku 4_02

The media streamer has a quad-core ARM-based processor, and 1.5GB of RAM, which is twice as much memory as the Roku 3.

The device supports S/PDIF, and HDMI and features a USB 2.0 port. There’s a microSD card slot, support for voice search thanks to a remote control with a microphone, and gaming with a WiFi Direct game remote.

According to the leaked specs, the Roku 4 supports 802.11n WiFi, but FCC documents suggest it also features 802.11ac WiFi support, which would make sense for a device that can handle Ultra HD video.

Interestingly, the spec sheet says the Roku 4 only supports OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics, much like the last few Roku models. This could limit the device’s gaming chops at a time when competing devices including the Amazon Fire TV and NVIDIA Shield support newer versions of OpenGL.

Finally, the Roku 4 is said to support 2160p Ultra HD video… which for some reason people like to call 4K. Yeah, yeah, I know it’s because 2160p means 4096 x 2160 or 3840 x 2160 and the horizontal numbers are close to 4 thousand… but since when have we used the horizontal number? Up until now we’ve tended to refer to HD video as 720p or 1080p, not 1280p or 1920p.

There’s still no word on the price or release date for the Roku 4, but there’s reason to believe the company will officially launch the device within the next week or two.

via AFTVNews

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8 replies on “Leaked Roku 4 spec sheet confirms support for 4K video”

  1. Marketing has called this 4K because it’s like a 2×2 array of 1080p screens. They probably thought 2160 would be too big a number for most people ?

  2. All I know is Im happy with my 1080p plasma. beats my stupid vesa local bus vga adapter and my adlib sound card.

  3. The 4K moniker represents the triumph of marketing over truthfulness. I hope
    someone files a class action lawsuit, the way litigation forced manufacturers
    to clarify the visible area of CRTs, so we stick with 2160p, which is the way I
    refer to this class of display. Besides, the so-called “4K” is almost always 3840,
    not 4096. Any elementary school kid knows when you round off 3840, you get
    3.8K, not 4K. While we’re at this, I’d like to see a return of computer displays
    to 16:10 format, which gives a little more usable vertical screen real estate,
    instead of the claustrophobic 16:9 format. People spend way more time
    dong productivity tasks than watching videos on computer displays. In fact,
    I wouldn’t mind 4:3 displays.

    1. Hard disk drives capacities have been fudged the same way for decades and nobody’s gone to court over it. Frankly, I don’t think anyone really cares enough to create a fuss. It’s just typical marketing BS.

      I like 16:10 too, and I’m typing this comment on my trusty old 4:3 Dell LCD monitor.

    1. Right… but people who call this resolution “4K” are using the horizontal number.

      Felt like ranting a bit when I wrote this, even though Roku used the correct number in their materials. 🙂

      1. I would prefer that we use the term “2160p” because it is consistent. If we can’t have that, then I prefer “UHD” over “4k”, but manufacturers know that 4k sounds like a ~300% improvement over 1080p, “2160p” sounds like a ~100% improvement, and “UHD” sounds like a ~50% improvement.

        1. Same reason cable company’s use Mb and not MB to sell their speeds because no one would want to buy 25MBytes per seconds but 200Mbits per second sounds ultra fast. Lol

Comments are closed.