Roku to get HD Netflix streaming by year’s end

In the wake of the Xbox 360 receiving Netflix streaming High Definition, Roku has announced, on their own forums, that they will have HD streaming on Roku boxes before the end of the year. Roku boxes were, in fact, the first devices to offer the Netflix “Watch Now” functionality, straight to your TV.

On the Roku Labs Forums, “RokuTim” (Tim Twerdahl, VP of Consumer Products at Roku) told the masses that “Roku will be delivering Netflix in HD by the end of the year.” This is great news for everybody who hopped on the Roku bandwagon early, however he also mentioned that “Roku will be using Advanced Profile encodes which will deliver HD at substantially lower bit-rates than what Xbox is offering.” Uh oh. Looks like the Xbox 360 has the upper hand here, and that your Roku HD movies may be a tad on the choppy side.

More after the break.