When you’re not watching Barkitecture or Weird Al movies on your Roku, the device turns on the familiar scrolling purple cityscape. No longer will you have to settle for a Flintstones-esque backdrop of neoclassical buildings and the occasional PlutoTV sign when your Roku goes into hibernation mode. The TV viewing platform is introducing a new screensaver feature called Backdrops.
The new viewing feature turns your TV or viewing device into an Amazon Echo Show 8 Photo Edition, but Roku isn’t taking away the feature’s sole namesake: Backdrops, which display photos of classic artworks by masters like Claude Monet, as well as beautiful landscape photos that you can choose to display on your Roku device. The new Backdrops feature will start appearing on Roku-branded and third-party Roku TVs in the coming weeks, but customers with a Roku streaming player or Streambar will have to wait until the fall.
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With thousands of artworks and photographs to choose from, complete with descriptions, you can learn a little art history or geography while you laze around in front of the TV (because you’re not doing anything important sitting on the couch in the sweatpants you don’t wear to take out the trash).
Roku Backdrops doesn’t limit your choices to just what they offer. You can also upload your own photos from your computer to your Roku account on their website or connect your Google Photos collection to your Roku. Backdrops can turn a boring wall into a museum, instead of the entire museum moving around you and each piece revolving around you.
