Roku is the streaming video service being pushed by Netflix. Right now, it only streams in real time, which strikes me as the worst solution. It should work the same way the Netflix queue works: you add movies to the queue and then Netflix trickles the data to a hard disk in the box.

Until a large proportion of the population has consistent, 10 megabit Internet access (fiber to the home), this scheme won't even guarantee ordinary DVD video quality, let alone HD.

Anyway, what caught my attention about it is that somebody at the company must know Japanese, because roku (録) means "to record," as in rokuga (録画), meaning "video recording."

Except that this "Roku" doesn't do that. Yet.

Labels: netflix, streaming, technology, television