Seagate Central comes to Roku -- pirates rejoice!
In the olden days, people used to collect CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays (some still do). Buying physical media loaded with content was commonplace. However, the spread of legal streaming caused many to abandon their collecting and instead opt for services like Netflix, Hulu and Beats Music to name a few. Devices such as Fire TV and Roku have made the process far easier.
Of course, some people still download media illegally rather than pay for a subscription or rental. These people fill large hard drives with files from The Pirate Bay and other nefarious sites. Some pirates also like the convenience of streaming to their living room, though. Today, Seagate announces an option that may appease both pirates and honest home users alike -- a channel for Roku.
"The Seagate Media Channel on Roku allows visual browsing of content on the drive with cover art for movies, albums, song titles for music and thumbnails for photos. Millions of people use Roku players every day to watch their favorite entertainment on demand. Now Seagate has made it easy to enjoy a personal library of music, movies, photos, and more on the big screen", says Roku.
In other words, if you own a Seagate networked hard drive such as the Central or Wireless Plus, you can stream media from it to your Roku. This includes music, pictures and videos. While some people will legitimately use this Roku channel for viewing home videos of family trips and weddings, let's be honest -- this solution will more likely be used for illegally downloaded content. Game of Thrones anyone?
It makes me think back to a Christmas shopping trip I took years ago, where I saw the 60GB iPod Photo flying off shelves. No one was going to fill these large devices with legally downloaded files from iTunes -- that would have cost a fortune. However, at the same time, no one was willing to address that the device was mostly used with pirated content. It was an open secret.
Do you think this Roku Channel will be used more by pirates or honest people? Tell me in the comments.
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