A look at the Web TV set-top box choices Nov 17, 2010
By Jefferson Graham USA TODAY http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2010-11-16-web-tv_N.htm Ray Randolph did it. He canceled his satellite service, realizing that with a small set-top box from Roku he could bring Internet entertainment and a great deal of TV content to his TV, without paying those huge monthly bills. "We went from $120 a month to $9 a month and could not be happier," says Randolph of Lakewood, Colo. "We haven't missed not having satellite at all." With his Roku box, which costs around $99, he gets access to Netflix's library of 20,000 movies and mostly older TV series. He also gets first-run movies and TV shows from Amazon Video-on-Demand ($1 for most TV shows, $3.99 and $4.99 for current movies) and Roku Newscaster, which archives current newscasts from CBS, NBC, CNN and MSNBC. There is so much movie and TV programming online now that Clicker.com, a search engine for online media, points to more than 1 million episodes of mostly free TV programming on the Web. Like Randolph, many consumers are either cutting the cord completely — letting go of satellite and cable — or adding boxes such as Roku, the $99 Apple TV, the $299 Logitech Revue for Google TV and others to access the fare. TECH LIVE: Review of WD TV Live Hub The benefit: Watch what you want to, when you want to. And because the Internet is so vast, you can find virtually anything you're interested in online — Spanish guitar performances, cooking demos, silly videos, artsy student films — and enjoy it from the comfort of your bed or couch on a flat-screen TV in high-definition, instead of on a small computer screen. "I have a son age 7, and he finds plenty to watch on Roku," says Joe Voris, a library media specialist at a Bedford, Ind., high school. "Even my 16-month-old daughter loves to watch Barney on Netflix." He says his friends don't get his non-traditional approach to TV watching, but adds: "We're making our own TV experience. It just feels more individualized." You don't have to ditch cable to enjoy one of the Web TV set-top boxes. Instead, you can use the box to complement what you currently get on TV. Missed the latest episode of Fox's Glee and don't want to wait for the rerun in January? Rent it for a buck via Amazon on Roku or iTunes on Apple TV. Already paying monthly for Netflix? Why wait for the discs to arrive? With Apple TV, Roku, Google TV, Boxee and Western Digital's new WD TV Live Hub, you can access Netflix's library on your set. Installation for most of the boxes is simple: Just power them up and plug an HDMI cable from the back of the unit into the TV. Roku The oldest of the offerings is a simple small black device that ranges from $59.99 to $99 for a model with increased Wi-Fi range. You get a choice of more than 75 channels of programming that need to be added to your lineup manually. Highlights: Netflix, Amazon, Hulu Plus (shows from NBC, Fox and ABC for $9.99 monthly, coming later this year), music site Pandora and video-sharing site Vimeo. There are sports subscriptions from Major League Baseball and the NFL, and many networks you may or may not have heard of, including online programmer Revision3, on-demand subscription music from MOG, and Newscaster. You can't currently stream content from your computer to the TV, but Roku says that's coming soon. Apple TV The newly redesigned box is smaller and cheaper than previous models ($99 vs. $229). You can catch current movies and TV shows from iTunes, subscription movies from Netflix, free video from YouTube, photo sharing from Flickr, and your own video, music and photos from your computer, as long as they're stored in iTunes and in one of the Apple video formats. Apple TV won't play, for instance, Windows Media Video files. Google TV The new initiative from search giant Google promises to bring the "complete" Internet to your TV, not just specific channels, via new TVs from Sony that range from $599 to $1,399, and a $299 set-top box from Logitech, the Revue. The Revue comes with a large keyboard that acts as your navigator to websites, as well as Apple TV and Roku-like applications that open up Internet entertainment with one quick click. Apps include movies and TV shows from Amazon and Netflix, video from YouTube and music-subscription service Napster. TV networks Fox, CBS, NBC and ABC have blocked their programming from Google TV, as has Hulu, in a licensing dispute with Google. Boxee The new $199 Boxee Box by D-Link promises the best of both worlds — Google TV's access to the complete Internet with easier installation and a smaller remote control. Via Boxee, you can access Netflix, Hulu Plus (both coming by the end of the year) and Vudu, the Wal-Mart-owned service that offers rentals of current movies. If you're a do-it-yourselfer, Boxee offers tips on how to make your own Boxee on its website by downloading its software and plugging your laptop into the TV. You can use your iPhone or Android phone as the remote. WD TV Hub What if your main interest is beaming video content from your computer to the TV, and making your box double as a massive 1-terabyte hard drive? That's the selling point for Western Digital's $199 WD TV Live Hub, which can access your content, plus add channels from Netflix, Pandora, YouTube and movie rentals from Blockbuster On Demand. Unlike the other boxes, WD TV does not have built-in Wi-Fi. In a major design flaw, you have to plug the WD TV into your Internet router and the TV, so your router had better be nearby. WD's solution is a Wi-Fi dongle, which sells for around $50 and doesn't come with the unit. -- ======================================== George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 Mail: antunes at uh dot edu _______________________________________________ Medianews mailing list [email protected] http://lists.etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews
