I own a Roku PhotoBridge HD Digital Media Player


This will likely be brief as I haven't really found a good use for my new "digital media player". Let me back up...

I stopped by my local consumer electronics store -- or more accurately skidded and performed a tricky 3-point turn in the middle of oncoming traffic - because they were having a "store closing" sale. Eager to get some good deals (but not really needing any more gadgets) I poked my head in and tracked down one of the friendlier sales people.

It wasn't much of a sale (these things rarely are) and my problem is that I already own too many gadgets so I am running out of new things to buy. Still, I snooped and I rummaged and I foraged until I came across the Roku PhotoBridge. I had seen these before of course, but could never see the rationale for owning one. The draw, it seemed, was to be able to display very high-resolution images on your HDTV. Well of course I own a HDTV and I take mega pixel pictures on my digital camera, so I figure they were talking to me.

Well the sales guy was ready to knock off a few bucks on the thing just to get it out of the store, and even threw in a special Art Pack card to sweeten the deal. The Art Pack is a compact flash card pre-loaded with HD-ready images of famous artwork and is intended to really show off the power of the device.

The short story is I got the thing hooked up at home and quickly learned how to navigate the menus. I looked at pictures on the Art Pack CF card, then I tried images on my camera's Memory Stick, and finally the crappy photos on the SD card in my Treo cell phone. This was perhaps the wrong order though, and any positive impressions associated with how the device effortlessly handled the different media cards was overshadowed by the realization that no media player can really make up for bad source material.

I also learned that the Roku is capable of playing music off these cards, perhaps to inspire a musical picture slide show, but I have a nice 20" iMac that already does a great job. Roku's sibling Soundbridge products are much more compelling for music playback - and a lot sexier, too, I might add.

Anyway, the device is mostly idle now. I thought about leaving my HDTV on all the time, cycling through famous paintings but I can't bring myself to waste lamp life on what would end up being a very expensive picture frame. This thing is headed to my gadget museum - in the "Why would anyone buy that?" wing.

 

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