There’s been a decent amount of interest in Sony’s new SMP-N200 digital media streamer – at least amongst those in the know as we’ve yet to see much marketing. Like many other players in this space, such as the recently revised WDTV Live and Apple TV, Sony’s latest iteration clocks in at the $100 price point. However, they haven’t kept pace with ever-shrinking form factor and this model is more akin to the original Apple TV than say the Roku 2 – which it could probably contain four of. But it doesn’t look bad and it’s not like it’ll overwhelm your AV cabinet. I had intended to pick a unit up at the local Sony Store for evaluation, but CNET’s beat me to the punch.
Obviously Sony has more name recognition than a startup like Roku, but what makes the SMP-N200 most appealing is by offering possibly the best line up of video apps in this space with Vudu, Amazon Instant, Hulu Plus, and Netflix. On top of that, DLNA is offered to stream your own local media. However, CNET takes issue with the interface. And I can’t say I’ve ever been a fan of Sony’s Xross Media Bar (XMB), found on devices like the PS3 and Bravia HDTVs. But their gripe is more than skip deep, as Sony has extended the look to the third party experiences and the results are less than ideal. I know I prefer a service’s native look – like Netflix on the WDTV or Hulu Plus on TiVo. But is this reason enough to pass on the SMP-N200?
I’m not a huge fan of Sony’s XMB but as noted, the video lineup offered by Sony is pretty impressive. Does any other single device offer what could probably be described as the big four – Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon and Vudu (and Crackle as a weak fifth) – video services?
While the smp-n200 looks interesting, I will probably stick with Roku for now (and spend the $99 on a Harmony Link instead). DLNA and local streaming aren’t that important to me and while I would love to see Vudu come to Roku players (no signs that I have seen indicate it might anytime soon) Roku’s video services lineup (Netflix, Amazon, Hulu Plus, Epix and Crackle) is pretty solid.
Why has Sony not released this amazon app on the ps3?! Come on, my ps3 basically does everything this device does except amazon instant. Dont see why anyone would buy this over a slim ps3, since then you would basically have every type of aux video in one other input
Agreed, Ben. I would love to see Amazon on the PS3 (and Xbox for that matter). Some have opined that Amazon would compete against, or otherwise take away, from the PSN store video offerings. However, the PS3 already offers Vudu, which offers much of the same content, so that doesn’t explain the absence. My guess is the culprit is Amazon. They don’t seem very aggressive in expanding their service to more devices.