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- Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 5 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
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3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
3.0 stars
"Why criticize lack of AAC DRM?"
Pros: Simple setup, responsive customer support
Cons: No WPA support
Summary: Why does CNET keep criticizing the entire digital music world for not carrying support for secure AAC? It doesn't exist. Apple does not license their DRM to anyone (hence the recent French law). I don't see the point of criticizing people who make these products for decisions outside their control.
On the other hand, WPA support WAS a conscious decision, and the wrong one in my opinion, given that if you want to integrate this into your existing WiFi network you will have to degrade the security in the entire network to accomodate it.
- 2 replies to this review
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I consider that this review misses the point on the product.
The form factor of this product is to function as a nightstand alarm radio, and is probably the most sophisticated, alarm radio, powered by an embedded OS running on a highly advanced balackfin DSP/CPU.
The lack of (wired) ethernet port is indeed dissapointing for all the geeks with us that have their nightstands wired for ethernet.
The Wi-Fi interface serves the purpose elegantly and it does indeed support WPA. The reviewer probably had an outdated beta version on the Roku firmware.
It does not have a CD reader, and that's the point. It's a digital audio receiver. You can hacve your CD and DVD readers on your media computer or appliance. Getting away without the CD reader makes this unit much smaller and simpler to use. It does however have a SD memory card reader, on which you can store your music if you don't connect it to a network, and this is an important note the reviewer failed to mention.
However, it also lacks analog inputs, which could come in handy.
It does have a headphone and external antenna connectors.
In my oppinion is not perfect. It does not provide RDS or HD Radio, and it doesn't have a battery backup, although the clock synchronizes automatically by NTP Protocol, and has NVRAM.
Regarding protected AAC audio, there is no vendor besides Apple that can play protected AAC Audio. It is an annoyance, but not Roku's fault.
It's Vacuum Fluorescent display can be adjusted from off to very bright, which is a welcome feature, it's high resolution is much more readable than most radios displays and it doesn't need to light up the whole room (LCD Displays sometimes have to be very bright to be readable). -
Cnet points out that DRM AAC files aren't supported simply to inform readers who may not be aware of this fact. While it's true that only Apple devices can play DRM AAC files, some consumers may not know that and we'd hate for them to purchase a digital media receiver to play their DRM AACs and then be disappointed. It's not a criticism of Roku or any other digital media receiver manufacturer. The info is included simply as an FYI.
Where to buy
Roku SoundBridge Radio:
$280.00 - $320.59
| store | price | in stock? | rating |
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$320.59 | Yes |
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$280.00 | Yes |
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