The Roku Netflix player has been around for a while now and was the first device to offer streaming of Netflix's online movie catalog direct to your TV. The player received all sorts of praise for its ease of use and performance.

One of the only caveats with the little player was the fact that it wasn't capable of streaming HD films from Netflix, something that competing products like the Apple TV could do. Roku announced today that it has added HD capability to the Roku Netflix player through the addition of advanced compression technology.

Roku says that Netflix is the first content partner to add HD content to the Roku player and that more partners will be coming with HD content soon. Perhaps the best news is that the addition of HD content adds nothing to the price of the Netflix player. You can still get the Roku player for $99. Those who already own the player will get the update free sometime in the next few weeks.

Via Roku