Roku launches Channel Store; Pandora, Flickr, Facebook photos included

Already one of the best buys in home video, the bargain-priced Roku player—which already delivers streaming Netflix, Major League Baseball, and on-demand Amazon videos—now offers content "channels" from the likes of Pandora, Flickr, and Facebook.

Roku's new "Channel Store" went live today for users of the Roku box ($99 for the mid-line HD model, $79 for the SD-only version, and $129 for the USB-enabled HD-XR model), complete with 10 channels of free streaming content; more are on the way, say Roku reps.

Among the new channels are three sure-fire winners: Pandora, the popular (and free) streaming music "discovery" service, Flickr (Yahoo!'s photo-sharing site), and Facebook Photos (which lets you view the latest snapshots from your Facebook pals).

The Roku store also includes some lesser-known but nevertheless interesting channels, including MediaFly (good for access to thousands of audio and video podcasts), Revision3 (a portal for podcasts from the Revision3 network), Twit.tv (even more tech-oriented podcasts, including the flagship "This Week in Tech"), FrameChannel (for access to various photo-sharing sites), and MotionBox (a site for uploading personal videos).

Roku has also released an SDK for developers who want to build their own Roku channels, so we can expect more content channels to appear on the device "as they become available."

Noticeably absent from the Roku Channel Store (for now, anyway): YouTube, as well as the Holy Grail of streaming video content, Hulu. The Roku reps I spoke with last week said they've had some preliminary discussions with Hulu execs, but there's no word on when—or even if—a Hulu channel would appear on the Channel Store.

Roku lent me a box to try the new channels for myself, and setup is pretty simple. Once you link your Roku device to the Roku.com Web site (if you haven't already), you can browse the channels on the standard Roku interface and select the ones you'd like added to the main menu.

As with the streaming Netflix and Amazon apps, you'll need to activate some of the new Roku channels (like Pandora) over the Web using an on-screen code, although a few of the channels (like the MediaFly podcast channel) worked right away.

The channels themselves look reasonably polished, although I was disappointed that the Pandora channel doesn't display full-screen video slideshows of artists during playback (a la the Last.fm app on the Xbox 360). That said, the music sounds just fine, and you can create new "stations" over the Roku itself or give individual songs a thumbs up/down.

Overall, the new Channel Store makes for a welcome addition to what's already a very impressive—and affordable—streaming media set-top box. Apple and its $229 Apple TV had better keep its eyes on this scrappy little bargain.