Roku Ultra (2017) Review: More of a Great Thing

[Marshall Honorof]

The Roku Ultra (2017) is an excellent value, especially if you can live with run-of-the-mill audio, but it's similar to last year's model.

Roku Ultra (2017) Review: More of a Great Thing : Read more

 

[art0cohen]

Thanks for the excellent review. I returned my 2016 model Roku Ultra in anticipation of purchasing the 2017 model. Your review is very helpful.

It seems to me that the removal of the optical audio port on the Ultra is not a significant loss if the TV has an optical audio port. In fact, it makes more sense to take the audio from the TV than the Roku player, since the TV may have multiple sources of programming, such as an antenna and a DVD player. Otherwise, the audio would have to be taken from each source of programming, and the audio receiver or amplifier may have only a single optical audio input.

Pre-release reports indicated that the new Roku players would be able to manage and search over-the-air broadcasts as well programs streamed from the Internet. However, the new players do not appear to have coaxial inputs. Does that functionality exist, or is it necessary to connect a separate RF (radio frequency) tuner connected via the USB port?

Art