Announced earlier this year, Roku revealed today that its Pro Series TVs, the lineup of high-end televisions, are now available for purchase in the U.S.
Starting today, Roku Pro Series TVs are being sold at Best Buy stores and online at BestBuy.com, Amazon.com, and Walmart.com.
Compared to the Roku Select and Roku Plus Series TVs, which were the first-ever Roku-branded smart TVs that launched in 2023, the Roku Pro Series has a slimmer design that can be flush mounted to the wall.
Like the Roku Plus TVs, the Pro Series has HDR10+ and Dolby Vision for a cinematic viewing experience, as well as 4K QLED displays and local dimming.
In addition to the Pro Series launch, Roku announced new software updates coming to all Roku TVs that aim to enhance the viewing experience.
Roku users around the country turned on their TVs this week to find an unpleasant surprise: the company required them to consent to an arbitration agreement in order to access their device.
Users (at least, this user) received an email the day before saying that “we have made changes to our Dispute Resolution Terms, which describe how you can resolve disputes with Roku.
We encourage you to read the updated Dispute Resolution Terms.
But there really is something rather despicable about totally disabling a user’s device until they agree, and having basically anything the user does count as agreement.
Don’t delay or, when people sue them over how they held devices hostage in order to coerce them into consumer-hostile dispute resolution terms, you won’t be able to join in on the fun.
But the company will be the first to support Matter Casting, the video- and audio-beaming feature of the Matter smart home standard, on its smart displays and smart TVs, Amazon announced this morning at CES 2024.
Once Matter casting comes to Amazon’s Prime Video app for Android and iOS, users will be able to cast content to supported Amazon devices — starting with the Echo Show 15 — by tapping the new dedicated Matter Casting button.
Beyond the Echo Show 15, Amazon says that Matter Casting support will arrive on Fire TVs including smart TVs from Panasonic with Fire TV built in, and — on the app side — Plex, Pluto TV, Sling TV, Starz and ZDF later this year.
Tellingly, Google announced this week that its casting tech, Chromecast, will be built into all of LG’s new TVs — but gave no mention of Matter Casting.
The Matter Casting spec — which was developed with major input from Amazon — can accomplish more than casting, in theory.
Samsung wants to make the smart home smarter — if your home’s a Samsung home, that is.
Elsewhere, Samsung launched a new “map view” for SmartThings similar to Amazon’s recently launched Map View.
Samsung’s take shows an interactive map of your home complete with the location of any smart home devices (e.g.
In a cute (or creepy, depending on your point of view) touch, the new SmartThings maps show “AI characters” that stand in for family members and pets inside the home.
But once that’s done, they’ll display on supported Samsung TVs, the screen of the Samsung Family Hub smart fridge and Samsung’s M8 monitors.
A year after announcing its own lineup of Roku-branded TVs, the hardware company revealed today a new range of high-end televisions.
Roku also introduced Roku Smart Picture, an AI-powered feature that automatically adjusts picture and audio quality.
The Roku Pro Series TVs feature a thinner design than its Roku Select and Plus Series TVs, with a mount to rest flat against the wall.
Also arriving in the spring of 2024, Roku Smart Picture is a new feature coming to the Roku TV program that is designed to optimize the viewing experience.
The feature will roll out to all Roku TV models.
The launch of the new content pages in Google TV’s U.S. interface gives users quicker access to family-friendly titles, movies, TV shows and Spanish-language entertainment. This makes it easier for…
