Edward C. Baig

USA TODAY





Roku is known for popular streaming set-top boxes that these days allow you to access as many as 1,700 channels. But during the Consumer Electronics Show in January, Roku announced that it would integrate the Roku experience into Roku branded televisions, initially with two global TV partners, Hisense and TCL, both based in China.

Now that the TVs are poised to hit the U.S. market, Roku executive Lloyd Klarke provided a demonstration of the new TVs, which provide a familiar looking Roku interface with all the abilities to search for titles, actors and the content you might choose to watch.

And the TVs come with simplified remote controls that have fewer buttons than standard remotes. Among the buttons you won't find is one for "input," since there's no requirement to keep pressing such a button to choose different sources for your TV (e.g., the Blu-ray player, DVR, cable box or Roku itself, etc.). Those sources are all found as icons on the home screen.

Hisense hasn't announced pricing for its TVs, which will be available in 40-, 48-, 50- and 55-inch screen sizes beginning in late September. It is leaving the price up to the retailer.

TCL will be charging just $229 for a 32-inch TV, $329 for 40-inch, $499 for 48-inches and $649 for 55-inches. You can preorder on Amazon. TCL says its sets will arrive "in coming weeks."