Roku TV revealed to tempt you to ditch the smart TV dongle

It may already be a big name in the smart TV market but Roku has decided that CES 2014 is the time to tell the world that it is progressing from dongles and streaming players - by releasing a fully fledged smart television.

Called, unsurprisingly Roku TV, the streaming maestro has revealed that it has teamed up with six TV manufacturers to build television sets that it says will be used to deliver TVs that are "designed to give consumers a simple and powerful entertainment experience in today's connected world."

In a post on the company blog, Roku said that simplicity was key to its television line up, boasting that its remote controls will only have 20 buttons – where many of its rivals have double this – and mobile devices will also play a big part, as you will be able to control its TVs through an app.

As with its dongles, users will get access to the Roku Channel Store, which means 31,000 movies and a whopping 1,200 channels will be available and all of this will be accessible through Roku's easy to use home screen.

Roku's modern life

Roku insists that it won't stop production of its Roku players but this is a big move for the company and, well, a smart one as well.

The price of streaming players will definitely drop in 2014 - the UK has already seen this with the launch of Now TV, a smart TV box that offers Sky content and just so happens to be hardware that's made by Roku - so getting into the TV game should be a decent money spinner for Roku.

Although it hasn't announced the names of all six of the TV set makers, Roku did reveal that TCL and Hisense will be making the initial sets and sizes will range from 32 to 55 inches.

A Roku TV release date hasn't been set, but expect them to be in stores around August time.