Roku Bows 4 New Streaming Media Players, Led by $29 1080p Starter Model

Roku bowed a new lineup of streaming media players in a Monday announcement, dropping the entry price point of video streaming to $29. Amazon's Fire TV stick was selling Monday for $39. The barebones Roku Express offers 1080p streaming in what Roku called its tiniest streaming player to date and comes with an HDMI cable. The similarly configured $39 Roku Express+, designed for use with older TVs and shipped with a composite AV cable, will be sold exclusively through Walmart, said Roku. The upscaling Roku Premiere ($79) and Premiere+ ($99) stream 4K Ultra HD at up to 60 frames per second, come with dual-band wireless and have a night listening mode, said the company, while the $99 model adds high-dynamic-range support. The top model in the line is the Roku Ultra ($129), which includes all the features of the Premiere+ and adds Dolby Digital decoding, voice search, a lost remote finder, optical digital audio out connection for an AVR or soundbar and a USB port for local media playback, said the company.