Audio Video News

In his latest post, Breaking Up Is Easy to Do, Ken Pohlmann decries Netflix’s recent decision to dust out the cobwebs and render older TVs, Blu-ray players and other streaming devices useless — at least when it comes to watching Netflix. He noted how TVs from Samsung, Panasonic, and Hitachi and Blu-ray players from Samsung and Toshiba are among the casualties, while conceding that the gear in question is old. Really old.

One brand he didn’t mention is Roku, which has 73.5 million active accounts worldwide and commands an amazing 43% share of smart TVs sold in the U.S. Older Roku streaming devices are also on the Netflix kill list and entered into the Museum of Obsolete Electronics last week when owners of aging Roku streamers received the message: “Netflix will no longer be available on this device after October 16.”

The news likely came as shock for those who’ve held onto their old Roku players for who-knows-how-many years — the same folks who, no doubt, kick and scream every time Microsoft moves to a new version of Windows.

While Netflix didn’t publish a list of the devices it’s deep-sixing, the company did provide a list of devices slated to receive the new OS 12.5 update on its Support page when it announced the update a couple weeks ago.

The list of updatable devices includes the following streaming players and Streambar soundbar models: 9102X, 9101X, 9100X, 4802X, 4801X, 4800X, 4670X, 4662X, 4661X, 4660X, 4640X, 4630X, 4620X, 4230X, 4210X, 4200X, 3960X, 3941X, 3941X2, 3940X, 3940X2, 3932X, 3931X, 3930X, 3921X, 3920X, 3910X, 3900X, 3821X, 3821X2, 3820X, 3820X2, 3811X, 3810X, 3800X, 3710X, 3700X, 3600X.

Netflix also maintains a page that lists compatible devices by category: streaming media players, smart TVs, game consoles, and set-top boxes. Click here for that.

A little digging revealed a list of Roku “legacy” models on the Roku developers page that have been either discontinued or cannot run newer Roku OS versions. They are as follows: N1000, N1050, N1100, N1101, N2000C, 2050X, 2050N, 2100X, 2100N, 2400X, 3000X, 3050X, 3100X, 2450X, 2500X, 3400X, 3420X, 2700X, 2710X, 2720X, 3500X, 4400X.

Bottom line: If your own an old Roku device, you may receive a warning message when you open the Netflix app, if you haven’t already received one.