This year’s holiday gadget season looks like it’s going to be a bit of a mixed bag. I’m not as excited as I’d like to be about the new stuff available, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of gadgety toys to add to your holiday shopping list. Here’s a quick round-up of the video boxes on the market. Click on the links for more detailed information. What are you planning to buy?
Video Boxes
If DVD and BluRay players were the CE gifts to give in the past, 2010 is shaping up to be the year of the over-the-top video box. The long-awaited Boxee Box is scheduled to make its debut on November 10th, with retail arrival on the 17th. It’s boasting access to “tens of thousands of movies, TV shows, and apps,” but retails towards the higher end of the current price spectrum at $199.99.
Meanwhile, the Logitech Revue with Google TV tops out at $299.99, and is one of the more pricey mainstream OTT boxes available now. Reviews are decidedly mixed on the Google box, and personally I’m still awaiting Dave’s official verdict. Then there’s the Apple TV, sneaking in at $99, but largely bound to the iTunes ecosystem. And the WDTV Live Plus lists at $149.99 (or less), and brings local 1080p playback to the mix.
For my money, the box to beat is still Roku. The high-end Roku XDS is only $99.99, and it’s got 1080p playback with embedded 802.11n access. It’s easy to set up, plus the channel options continue to expand. Hulu Plus is on its way.
There’s a box for every budget this season. No, we still don’t have the “God Box,” but the choices are far greater than they were even a year ago. Happy shopping.
I am holding out a lot of hope for Boxee. I have had a WDTV Live that I have been pretty pleased with. I need another for a separate room, but have been holding off until the Boxee ships and some real reviews roll in.
The Google TV does not interest me at all at this point.
GoogleTV (Logitech Revue and Sony’s TV + BR player) are a non-starter in current form.
Roku is only good if you don’t have any local media and want to playback videos from the cloud.
WDTV is a good choice provided software works and is stable (that’s kind of always an issue with media players). I can’t speak from experience, although there should be threads on AVS Forum that discuss WDTV.
Boxee’s success will hinge on content partnerships. Addition of VUDU was pretty unexpected, but it pretty much takes care of VOD [pay-per-view] movies. It’s not confirmed but kind of expected that Netflix will work on the box just like it does on the PC & Mac software. Probably, the most interesting announcement will be with regards to Hulu. Personally, I don’t care about Hulu but it seems everyone else does :)
P.S. In interests of full disclosure, I own two Vudu boxes and have Boxee Box on pre-order from Amazon.
Agreed, Dave. The Roku XD|S is currently the device to beat. And contrary to what gets reported over and over again and repeated incorrectly, the Roku DVPs do support the playback of local media via USB ports (HD-XR and XD|S models) and local streaming via channels such as Roksbox, Chaneru and Sunimi. While not the most elegant solutions (Roku really needs a built-in answer for local streaming) and limited odec support, there are options.
So here is what I am looking for (now and in the future):
1. Play back of DVDs ripped via something like DVD Shrink w/o needing to convert/transcode to mks, m4v, etc.
2. Play back of BDs ripped via something like AnyDVD (still don’t own so don’t know what format they rip to, but I wouldn’t compress)
3. Play back of .mpg files downloaded from TivoHD and run through tivodecode. I’ve read that WD Live boxes can’t play audio back from these correctly w/o transcode (or at least demux).
4. Probably Netflix, Pandora
5. Make it portable. BoxeeBox doesn’t look particularly portable. I want to take my DVD collection with me to a friend’s house on a 1 TB 2.5″ drive and hook it up to the media player and have it work — preferably either to a SD TV or HD (via HDMI).
So far, a laptop really seems like the only thing that can do all of that (though my current Dell doesn’t appear to support 5.1 via its HDMI port :( ).
Oh yeah, and I also want DVD menus which I also have read that WD Live doesn’t support.
Let’s approach this another way. I have 3 HDMI ports (I know splitters are an option, but let’s say I just have 3):
– DirecTV
– Roku
– Popcornhour
You’re looking at this and saying, “What? No blu-ray?” That’s right, not enough ports.
Here’s to hoping that Boxee Box lets me combine Roku & PH into one port (with help from a network drive) and I can get a BD player.
Looks like Google TV is foundering based on initial reviews. Sounds like a ‘not recommended for now at least’ recommendation is the standard answer for most people.
Roku looks like the default choice. Lots of content options, cheap enough that you can toss it in a year or two if there is something better. Personally I’d stick with the Roku XD model and save yourself the $20. Only reason not to is if you plan on using sneakernet to move video files on USB thumbdrives. And that doesn’t even work yet.
Apple TV? I’ve bought mine, but too early to say how well AirPlay is going to work. Wait for iOS 4.2 to roll out and read some hands on reviews first.
Boxee? Too early to buy. Its expensive and we don’t know yet what content is going to be available thru it. Wait for hands on reviews.
The people who want to play torrented or ripped stuff have solutions on the market already. Those waiting for a great video streamer are probably best still sitting on their hands.