Apple TV vs Google TV vs Roku vs Boxee vs…
Mar 7, 2012
It’s looking like 2012 will be a watershed for “cord-cutters” seeking to replace expensive cable TV services with low-cost gadgets that stream movies and TV shows from the Internet via free, subscription, and pay-per-view services. Accordingly, this DeviceGuru “smackdown” pits five popular streaming media player devices against each other, based on their features, functions, specs, and quality of implementation.
Introduction
This smackdown among five prominent streaming media players is structured in three sections. We begin with brief overviews of all five devices, and make note of the most noteworthy advantages and disadvantages of each. Next, come a pair of tables comparing the key features, functions, and specifications of all five devices. After that, we’ll finish up with some general comments and an attempt at a bottom-line rating of each device.
Throughout this smackdown, there are links to DeviceGuru’s in-depth reviews of all five devices. The reviews provide lots more detail on each device’s unique capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses, and also include comprehensive screenshot tours that demonstrate the device’s user interface and operation.
 (click image for review) |
Although the Roku 2 series media players are smaller and cost less than their predecessors, they’re jam-packed with multimedia apps, offer multiple A/V outputs along with microSD and USB expansion, and are significantly less power-thirsty.
Roku 2′s homescreen
Pros and cons…
- Pros:
- Over 300 content channels and growing.
- Extremely easy to setup and use.
- Rock-solid stability.
- Ultra-low power consumption, fanless, and silent.
- Extremely compact.
- The presence of composite video lets this device support older TVs.
- Top-end model includes “casual gaming” capabilities.
- Cons:
- Lacks support for playing media from Windows (samba) and UPnP shares; the third-party apps tend to require proprietary servers (or in one case a webserver) to be installed on the PC or Mac side.
- Roku’s 1D menu system can’t provide quick-and-easy access to more than a handful of the 300+ available channels; Netgear’s NTV200 approach, though still simple, works far better.
- Really could use AirPlay streams rendering.
- Could use a web browser function, enabling users to stream from a specific URL or view a web page.
For lots more information about the Roku 2 streaming media player, refer to the tables of features and specs below and read our in-depth review of the device.
 (click image for review) |
Although it’s exceptionally well constructed and excels at doing what Apple wants it to do, Apple’s third-generation Apple TV streaming media player still trails the competition in several significant respects. We had hoped gen 3 would provide more default multimedia channels and add functionality for installing third-party channels through Apple’s App Store — but the main enhancement gen 3 is the increased video output resolution of 1080p. On the other hand, future firmware updates certainly could provide the missing capabilities.
Apple TV’s homescreen
Pros and cons…
- Pros:
- iTunes integration is, as you’d expect, as good as it gets; plus, it has excellent apps for Netflix, YouTube, Vimeo, and major league sports.
- AirPlay music and video rendering from iDevices or iTunes on a PC or Mac enables endless possibilities; plus, it works beautifully!
- Rock-solid stability.
- Ultra-low power consumption, fanless, and silent.
- Extremely compact.
- Awesome quality.
- Internal 8GB of flash memory for media caching ensures silky-smooth streaming.
- Cons:
- Too few Internet content channels; many desirable sources are sorely lacking — see Roku’s extensive list.
- Lacks a third-party apps and channels ecosystem — you know, like the Apple App Store…?
- Playing files from iTunes shared media on a PC or Mac is too restrictive; Apple TV needs to allow access to Windows (samba) and UPnP shares, too.
- Could use a web browser function, enabling users stream from a specific URL or view a web page.
- Lacks ability to play from USB, despite the presence of an available microUSB port.
- The needlessly sleek remote control encourages button-pressing errors; also, would prefer an RF remote to eliminate need to point the remote at the player.
For lots more information about the third-generation Apple TV streaming media player, refer to the tables of features and specs below and read our in-depth review.
 (click image for review) |
Powered by Boxee’s popular media streaming software platform, D-Link’s DSM-380 Boxee Box delivers movies, show episodes, and other A/V content in numerous formats from Internet sites, LAN shares, and attached media to TVs and audio systems.
Boxee Box’s homescreen (v1.5 firmware)
Pros and cons…
- Pros:
- Over 250 content channels available, with new ones added on a continual basis; these include excellent Netflix, Vudu, and YouTube channels, plus numerous sources of free and ad-supported TV episodes and movies.
- “Watch later” function lets you queue up videos on the Boxee Box from your PC, Mac, or mobile device using a browser bookmarklet
- Can play AirPlay streams, though doesn’t support AirPlay screen mirroring feature.
- Includes a browser, so you can navigate to arbitrary URLs to either view or stream content (although the ability to stream content that way can be a hit or miss affair).
- Plays multimedia from devices plugged into its SD and USB ports.
- Extensive of support for playing media from several.
- Built-in samba server provides access to files on its attached media.
- The RF remote is reliable and easy to use, although the tiny qwerty keys on the back side are difficult to decipher in dim light.
- Many users will appreciate the social networking aspects of the Boxee Box’s user interface.
- Optional “Boxee Live TV” adapter enables watching basic cable or broadcast TV though the Boxee Box.
- Cons:
- Due to its wide range of capabilities, the Boxee Box is more complex — and hence less user friendly — than that of simpler devices such as the Roku players.
- The device continues to have unresolved functional issues, most likely due to an overly-optimistic set of target features.
- Boxee’s down-rev Flash plugin has become incapable of playing videos from sites that have switched to the latest Adobe Flash revision (e.g Comedy Central); unfortunately, it’s unclear whether Boxee can solve this problem other than waiting for the coming transition to HTML5 (see this post on Boxee’s user forum).
For lots more information about the Boxee Box streaming media player, refer to the tables of features and specs below and read our in-depth review.
 (click image for review) |
Google recently rebooted Google TV with the release of Google TV 2.0 based on Android 3.1 (Honeycomb). Unlike Apple TV, Google TV is software that resides on devices made by consumer electronics manufacturers. The first two makers of Google TV products were Logitech and Sony, and Google recently announced several other newcomers to its platform. Our review of Google TV 2.0 was based on its operation on the Logitech Revue, a discontinued product that hopefully will continue to be supported for some time to come.
Google TV 2.0′s homescreen (following customization)
Pros and cons…
- Pros:
- Powerful and flexible Android software platform allows installing third-party apps from the Android Market.
- Full-featured Chrome web browser works quite well for reading web pages and accessing streamable content, with the result that dedicated apps are not always required.
- The Home screen can easily customized to organize apps and browser bookmarks in folders, as discussed extensively in our in-depth review, resulting in quick-and-easy navigation and operation tailored to the user’s preferences and priorities.
- The Logitech Revue’s full-sized qwerty RF keyboard/remote works extremely well.
- Cons:
- Not many Google TV-compatible apps have shown up in the Android App Market thus far.
- The Logitech Revue’s Flash plugin is unreliable and keeps crashing; at this point, it’s not clear whether or how soon Google plans to fix this via a firmware update (see this post on Logitech’s user forum).
- Lack of a deep-sleep mode or even a power switch means the Revue sucks approximately 11 Watts of power 24×7 — for shame!
Based on the Flash player crash problem noted above, fun to play with as it is, DeviceGuru really can’t recommend the Logitech Revue to any but our most adventurous readers at this time. However, we’d also like to make it clear that this is not inherently a Google TV 2.0 problem; rather, it’s the result of Adobe’s decision not to release future Flash updates for Intel hardware, combined with the ongoing transition to HTML5 for universal video compatibility.
For lots more information about Google TV 2.0, refer to the tables of features and specs below and read our in-depth review.
 (click image for review) |
Netgear recently introduced the NeoTV NTV200, a compact, low power, highly integrated, streaming media player that’s quite similar to Roku’s latest devices. The product is clearly an attempt to capture a slice of the rapidly growing streaming media player market, currently dominated by Apple and Roku. While the device currently only has a third to half the number of content apps as Roku provides, it does implement a more user-friendly menu system and also undercuts Roku’s pricing.
NTV200′s homescreen
(click image to enlarge)
Pros and cons…
- Pros:
- Over 150 content channels and more on the way; device provides one of the most complete sets of VOD movie and TV show services: Netflix, HuluPlus, Vudu, and YouTube, with only Amazon VOD absent.
- Extremely easy to setup and use
- The NTV200′s menu system is better suited than Roku’s for browsing a large library of channels and customizing the homescreen with favorite channels.
- Rock-solid stability.
- Low power operation with ultra-low power deep-sleep mode; fanless and silent.
- Extremely compact.
- Ethernet and 1080p are standard, despite competing price-wise with Roku’s low-end models.
- Cons:
- Really could use AirPlay streams rendering, this is an another area where Netgear could leapfrog Roku’s devices.
- We wish the remote control used RF wireless, especially since the device’s IR remote seems more directionally sensitive than Roku’s.
- Lacks support for playing media from Windows (samba) and UPnP shares.
- Lacks a USB port and support for playing media from devices plugged into it.
- Could use a web browser function, enabling users to stream from a specific URL or view a web page.
For lots more information about the Netgear NTV200 streaming media player, refer to the tables of features and specs below and read our in-depth review.
Key features and specs of each of the five streaming media players are summarized in the table below. Google TV is represented by the Logitech Revue.
Key Features and Specifications
| Roku 2 series | Netgear NTV200 | Apple TV | Boxee Box | Google TV 2.0 | |
| Netflix | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Amazon VOD | yes | – | – | – | yes |
| Vudu | – | yes | – | yes | – |
| Hulu Plus | yes | yes | – | – | – |
| Other major source of movie & TV show rentals | – | – | iTunes Store | – | Android Market |
| YouTube | – | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Pandora | yes | yes | – | yes | yes |
| TV-formatted channels | > 300 | > 180 | 17 | > 250 | > 50 |
| Web access | no | no | no | Boxee browser | Chrome |
| Plays from USB | yes (top model) | no | no | yes | yes |
| Plays from LAN shares | iTunes, other (via 3rd-party apps) | no | iTunes | SMB, UPnP, NFS, AFP, BMM | SMB, UPnP |
| Media rendering svcs | none | none | AirPlay | AirPlay | AirPlay, DLNA |
| Max resolution | 1080p (top models) | 1080p | 1080p | 1080p | 1080p |
| A/V outputs | HDMI, composite video, stereo audio | HDMI, S/PDIF | HDMI, S/PDIF | HDMI, S/PDIF, stereo audio | HDMI, S/PDIF |
| WiFi | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Ethernet | yes (top model) | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Remote interface | IR or RF (top model) | IR | IR | RF | RF |
| Text entry | pick from list | pick from list | pick from list | mini qwerty | full qwerty |
| Active power | 1W | 4W | 1-2W (*) | 12W | 11W |
| Standby power | 1W | < 1W | < 1W | < 1W | 11W |
| Price: | $50 – $100 | $60 | $100 | $180 | $100 |
(* Note: The third-generation Apple TV’s active power consumption is an estimate based on our measurement of the second-generation Apple TV’s active power, which was approx. 1W)
Supported multimedia formats
A major constraint on how many content sources can be supported by a streaming media player is the range of multimedia formats it can render. The table below details the formats currently supported by each of the devices we’re looking at in this smackdown. The data comes from each device or software platform vendor’s published documentation.
Comparison of Supported Multimedia Formats
| Video | Audio | Images | |
| Roku 2 series | MP4/M4V (H.264); MKV | AAC; MP3 | JPEG; PNG |
| Netgear NTV200 | unspecified | unspecified | unspecified |
| Apple TV | H.264 and MPEG-4 with AAC-LC audio (M4V, MP4, MOV); Motion-JPEG (AVI) | HE-AAC, AAC, Protected AAC; Audible; Apple Lossless; AIFF; MP3, MP3 VBR; WAV | JPEG; GIF; TIFF |
| Boxee Box | Flash 10.1; FLV/On2 VP6 (FLV, FV4, M4V); H.264 (AVC, TS, AVI, MKV, MOV, M2TS, MP4); VC-1 (TS, AVI, MKV, WMV); MPEG1/2/4; DivX 3/4/5/6; Xvid (AVI, MKV) | MP3; WAV/PCM/LPCM; WMA; AIF/AIFF; AC3/AAC; OGG; FLAC; DTS | JPEG; PNG; GIF; BMP; TIFF |
| Google TV 2.0 | H.264 (MP4, MKV, MOV, AVCHD, 3GP); MPEG4 part 2 (MP4, DIVX, AVI, 3GP); WMV (ASF, AVI) | MP3; AAC; OGG; MIDI; PCM/WAV; WMA; FLAC | JPEG; GIF; PNG; BMP |
(Note: For further details on each device’s A/V specs, refer to each of our in-depth reviews of each device, listed below.)
Well, that depends on what you want it to do, and a few other factors.
In general there are three kinds of activity that matter most, once you start hooking your TV up to your a local network and the Internet:
- Accessing Internet-based content via “canned” channels
- Playing your own multimedia files from USB or SD cards, or by accessing local network shares
- Using a browser to visit to check email, see what’s new on Facebook or Twitter, read the news, shop, or stream audio or video content from sites that aren’t supported by canned channels.
Other important considerations are ease of use (“Can the babysitter use this gadget?”); quality and reliability (smoothness of streaming and freedom from bugs and crashes); physical characteristics like size, power consumption, and fan noise; and cost.
Taking all these factors into consideration, the table below attempts to provide a bottom-line assessment all five media streaming players that we’re covering in this smackdown. You’ll probably want to adjust our ratings according to your personal preferences and priorities.
Note: the value in rightmost column of each line of the table (labeled “max.” at the column’s top) indicates the maximum score we’ve allowed for that particular line. We add up all the values in each column, and normalize the totals to a maximum of 5 — have a look; you’ll figure it out!
Summary Analysis & Ratings
| Roku 2 | Netgear NTV200 | Apple TV | Boxee Box | Google TV | max. | |
| Basic Features… | ||||||
| Top-tier VOD vendors | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Numerous content channels | 5 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 5 |
| User friendly operation | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 5 |
| Free of bugs & crashes | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| Compact | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Quiet operation | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Low power sleep | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Basic subtotal | 23 | 22 | 19 | 17 | 13 | 25 |
| Basic rating | 4.6 | 4.4 | 3.8 | 3.4 | 2.6 | |
| Advanced Features… | ||||||
| Playing from attached media | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 3 |
| Playing from network shares | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 |
| Media renderer services | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Web browsing | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Advanced subtotal | 2 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 12 |
| Advanced rating | 0.8 | 0 | 1.7 | 3.3 | 3.3 | |
| Aggregate Features… | ||||||
| Aggregate points | 25 | 22 | 23 | 25 | 21 | 37 |
| Aggregate rating | 3.4 | 3.0 | 3.1 | 3.4 | 2.8 | |
So there you have it. If you don’t care about playing multimedia from network shares or attached media or rendering content to your TV from some other device (e.g. via AirPlay, DLNA, etc.), then you should pay attention to the “Basic rating” line. If, on the other hand, you want those advanced features, you’ll care more about the “Aggregate rating” line at the bottom of the chart.
Further information
For further details on the devices covered by this smackdown, read our in-depth review on each:
Thanks for the article, it’s great to have all of this information and comparisons in one place.
The question I have is how much would the comparison charts change if you added in jailbreaking and external addons such as XBMC? I know that for a few of the devices, the homebrew community is fairly active and adds considerable value to the base streamers. I’m ready to cut the cord, but I’m still not sure that any box meets my needs yet. (Netflix, Hulu Plus, Youtube, LAN Shares, DVR capabilities)
good question! I guess that’s a good topic for my next mega-review, but I’ll need to rest up from this one, which has taken a few months to assemble (counting the five in-depth individual device reviews that went into assembling the smackdown comparisons). I agree with your point, though.
Of the five devices, the google tv and boxee box are already fairly open, so I think the issue would be what could be done on the roku or apple tv boxes. In particular, that second-generation Apple TV box is one sweet piece of hardware (other than its lack of 1080p, which I don’t care about so much), so that’s the one I’m most eager to crack into.
There’s already a jailbreak for the AppleTV 3, apparently, and when you get XBMC on there it’s one hell of a device. I’m looking forward to giving that a shot, considering the Boxee box is 50% more expensive.
Little supprised you left off the current leader of streaming devices.
WDTV Live SMP
I’d love to hear what you think it’s short comings are after reading what you think of these 5 devices.
I agree, I have owned several of those devices and the WDTV Live hands down beats them all, I would definitely love to see your opinion on and where it ranks.
I would love to hear your thoughts since you have owned these other devices. I am looking at the WDTV but have never owned any of these devices (just use my PS3 right now). Why is WDTV so much better?
Indeed. The WD TV Live and the WD TV Live Hub have taken over all streaming duties in my house. My Roku, Logitech Revue and Sony SMP-N100 boxes have essentially been mothballed at this point.
My only complaint is that the WD boxes don’t have support for Amazon On Demand.
This is the version I speak of.
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Streaming-Media-Player/dp/B005KOZNBW/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1330140685&sr=8-4
I have to take issue with your rating of the Roku as “rock solid”. Mine is a piece of junk. It hangs, freezes, and self-reboots spontaneously every other day. I hate it SO MUCH. I only keep it around because my first gen appletv doesn’t do amazon or hulu, and the Wii doesn’t output HD. I’m on a 12mbps DSL connection with the device attached over a wifi/G home network. Plugged in via HDMI to a 52″ Aquos.
Freezing issues: Reboot the Roku (power off/on). Launch the Netflix channel. I have 301 videos in my instant watch queue. This is the first menu item. Hit the right arrow to scroll through them at a good pace. After you’ve made it through about 20 of them, it stutters while it tries to buffer the new cover images. Keep scrolling right. Before you even get to video 50 the whole thing is locked up. It never catches up and just hangs. It is unresponsive to button presses. Have to unplug it/replug it. to work around this issue, I have to go online and reorder my instant queue to get movies I want to watch to show up near the front so I don’t get stuck in scrolling.
Audio Hiss: When the unit is first turned on, the TV will report that an incompatible audio signal is being received. Eventually, after a few more seconds the error will go away and the system will auto negotiate on the audio. The problem is that on all the menu screen, in any Roku channel, there is an audible white noise hiss emitted. None of my other devices do this. Not the Wii, not the BluRay player, not the AppleTv, not the Mini-HDMI camera I plug in. Only the Roku hisses at you while browsing channels.
Spontaneous Rebooting: Often – but not always, when in Amazon Prime on demand, the unit will spontaneously self reboot if you watch two consecutive streams. If you watch an episode or movie after a fresh reboot it works fine. However, if you immeadiately start a second film or episode, after about 3 minutes of streamming it will start to stutter, freeze up, and reboot itself. It’s the goofiest thing. If you exit back to the home screen after the first film, fire up a different channel, go back home and launch Amazon again you can successfully watch a video without a reboot. It happens roughly every 5 or 6 viewing sessions.
I don’t know what Roku’s overall failure rates are like, but my experience, based on using multiple Roku players starting from mid-2008, is that I’ve had no problems at all. No crashes, reboots, or equipment failures. Perhaps you can talk them into swapping yours for a refurbished one?
I have a Panasonic Vieracast-enabled blu-ray, a old Tivo, a Boxee Box and Roku XD/S (the high-end model of Roku 1) . After 1 year of ownership, I use the Roku almost daily and use the other devices only rarely.
The Roku has been rock-solid for me, used mostly for Netflix and Pandora streaming. The Roku’s Netflix interface is the best I have used.
I wish Roku had a qwerty keyboard on the back of the remote like Boxee does. Other than that it is about perfect!
Also, the Roku streams Al Jazeera English for free, which is awesome and not otherwise available in my area. It can also even view LinkTV’s Mosaic program, which is cool.
6 months ago, I did have a problem with the device being overheated leading to audio glitches when i had it located directly on top of my cable box. I added 4 rubber feet to the bottom of the Roku box (elevating it about a half inch) and that solved the problem 100%.
-wg
By the way, one thing the Boxee box does have that the others don’t is porn.
You are mistaken. Roku has about 4 or 5 pr0n channels, but all of them are private and not available in the regular channel store (look up independent lists of roku channels). Most of them are free, and at least one is an aggregation of free youtube-type pr0n websites. Just about all the pr0n anyone could need.
Few issues with some of the claims made here.
I’ll admit I’ve not read the full in-depth reviews only the comparison table, but still…
- BoxeeBox only supports Wi-Fi via a USB dongle which is NOT shipped with the device. So, Wi-Fi support will cost you extra $ & deprive you of one of the two USB slots on the box. Maybe that’s made clear elsewhere in the article, or maybe things have changed since I bought my box (in which case I stand corrected) but I didn’t think it was clear enough from this page.
- You refer to “unresolved functional issues, most likely due to an overly-optimistic set of target features” by which I assume you are referring to the inability to support HD audio(?) I would not class that as an “overly optimistic” feature expectation for a device such as this. Especially in 2012, and on a device costing almost 2 x the price of its closest rival. Symptomatic of Boxee I’m afraid. the focus being clearly on including “cool” features to shift product which, in reality, are supported very badly if at all.
- The RF remote certainly is NOT reliable. I am in the process of sorting out a replacement for mine which has broken (rendering the whole device entirely useless) after less than 2 years of light/normal use. The remote looks “cool” but unfortunately like this Boxee package itself it’s flimsy and not really fit for purpose.
- Your scoring is mis-representative. The Boxee Box comes out on top in this review, thanks only to scoring full marks on playing attached media & from network shares (two categories where the others happen to score particularly badly). Those things are supported, sure, but are not without widespread & well reported problems. Certainly 5/5 in those categories is undeserved. Doubly so when you consider that those 2 scores elevate the Boxee Box from 4th out of 5 to 1st overall in this comparison.
- There is no category in your review system for manufacturer support & aftercare of these products. I feel this is a bad oversight. Support of the Boxee Box (specifically the software) has been nothing short of catastrophic, with patient & enthusiastic early adopters now jumping ship to competitor products in droves. Every time a new software version is released users are FORCED to upgrade the Boxee Box, and to date each new version has been flaky and unreliable, causing many more problems than it has fixed. It’s clear Boxee’s focus is entirely on cosmetics, and adding worthless gimmicks and bells & whistles to the product, at the expense of fixing long standing & well documented problems and improving the reliability and core functionality of the product. The overriding perception of users is that Boxee has managed to score a spectacular own goal with the box. On paper it’s a great product with truly exciting potential, but a lack of rigour with software QA and poor support to the user community generally makes using the product a frustrating and annoying experience overall.
I’m not saying the other products here are any better than the Boxee Box, I don’t know, but certainly anyone thinking of purchasing one should carefully read through some posts at the support forum. In particularly those relating to the release of new software versions. “New release” forum threads are typically about 30 pages long, 99% of which is posts from users complaining about features which once worked but are now broken, or have been removed without prior notice.
In conclusion, I will only say that despite my probably sounding like an overly demanding and unrealistic customer, all of the points made above are well known and documented by the Boxee user community in the support forums. I don’t make a habit of reviewing products unfavourably online, or even reading reviews of products which I already own. Suffice, I hope, to say that owning a Boxee Box has been such a frustrating and disappointing experience (a view I know is shared by many others) that I feel moved to write of my experiences here as a warning to others. Caveat emptor!
I tend to agree with many of your points. I’ve had a Boxee Box since it came out, and my satisfaction has varied. The remote is ok at best, and the keyboard being unlit and grey on black, impossible to use in anything other than a brightly lit room.
However, wifi is enabled out of the box, with no dongle required. Mine lives untethered in the bedroom and happily connects to my wifi network..
Finally, where is the popcorn hour series in this review?
I just checked and Boxee Box does indeed have built-in WiFi. I normally use Ethernet, but I unplugged the cable and managed to connect with one of my WiFi routers (but not another one, due to a security protocol incompatibility that I hadn’t known existed).
Regarding Popcorn Hour, I’m not aware that they ever got Netflix running on their stuff. I have both their A110 NMT (network media tank) and their highly disappointing “Pop Box.”
Thanks for the clarification with regard to Wi-Fi. It was not my intention to mislead anyone. I suspect one of two things:
- I have an early box and the spec has now changed
- I am based in Europe, maybe boxes sold here are differently spec’d?
Apologies for any confusion I may have caused.
Hi
The first versions that shipped had also built in Wirless N, even in Europe.
Crispin, thanks for your comments on the Boxee Box. I had a lot of that in mind when I stated that “The device continues to have unresolved functional issues, most likely due to an overly-optimistic set of target features,” but you’ve added some clarity to my vague reference to problems that haven’t been fixed.
You will note that I penalized the Boxee Box on the “user friendly operation” and “free of bugs and crashes” lines, but possibly not as strongly as some would want.
Those interested in learning more about bugs and unfinished features on the Boxee Box might want to read the comments section at the bottom of DeviceGuru’s in-depth review of the latest Boxee Box with v1.5 firmware.
Also, I decided to reduce the fraction of total score associated with the advanced features section of the ratings table somewhat, based on the premise that the primary role of the devices compared in this smackdown is the streaming of movies and TV shows from the web; in that context, playing multimedia from network shares and USB are desirable — but not essential — features. Following that edit to the ratings table, two-thirds of the aggegate points result from basic features and one-third are from advanced features. Obviously, everyone’s preferences and priorities will differ to one degree or another.
I too have been sorely disappointed with Boxee’s complete silence on the embedded Flash issue, which now prevents virtually all on-line streaming from content providers’ web sites from functioning. The Boxee Box now has less functionality than my hacked iTV rev1 device. Frankly, this issue has its roots in poor product management. Why would Boxee have embedded a client-side player without an ability to upgrade it, as surely they would know Adobe makes multiple “point”, “minor”, and “major” releases which regularly break the experience? I’ll be off to research the other devices, plus the WD TV Live.
Great article, I’ve been looking at all of these for awhile. But I am also wondering how all of these compare to the xbox 360′s capabilities. The xbox has hulu plus, netflix, crackle and also allows streaming of media from a PC (with windows media center). It’s supposed to be getting hbo go and MLB live apps soon, which would be great. What do you guys think?
I own an Xbox 360 but have never used their movie streaming services associated with the live gold membership. I just can’t wrap my head around paying Xbox for the the opportunity to pay for services like Netflix or hulu plus,it just doesn’t make sense to me.
I total agree with the XBOX 360 comment. I have owned all 3 consoles since their launch, and 99% of the time my 360 collects dust because of LIVE. I can do majority of the things 360 does on my PS3 without paying for LIVE. Another thing i hate about LIVE is that one year I activated my 12 months of live, and i only ended up using it for a few weeks, the rest of the year was wasted. Can we get some credits or something? I’ll never pay for LIVE again. I get that the money from LIVE goes to fund their network security, servers, etc. blah blah. (as if M$ isn’t already a billion times richer than Sony) But PSN is free and is equivalent. What the heck if M$ is charging each LIVE member $5 a month, and there are let’s be generous and say 5 million LIVE members, that are making $25,000,000 a month from LIVE alone. Why isn’t their network like uber, and why do wireless adapters cost $80, etc. $25,000,000 a month, why don’t i have a virtual xbox built into my eyeglasses with 4G LTE yet.
BTW someone asked what is so different about PS3/XBOX and WDTV.
Well WDTV doesn’t support DLNA streaming, which may or may not be a pro.
WDTV does home networking to read files from a network drive, and it has the codecs built into to support a wide range of files. This means that you don’t need a Media Server running an the PC to serve the file via DLNA. Then again with DLNA you can have the PC do the transcoding and serve it to the PS3/Xbox/Sony SMP-N200.
Also WDTV can read files from a network drive that isn’t on a computer at all, again not requiring a PC to run a media server.
However some new routers can do both, share a network drive via it’s USB port and act as a media server. My E3000 for example does both, and that thing is like $50 now.
Also WDTV, Roku, Sony SMP, NeoTV, etc. I think are aimed at consumers who don’t game and don’t want or need a gaming console.
I have many slide shows on my computer that I’d like to stream to the HDTV. I can’t tell from the words you use whether these devices do that, and if so, which ones?
Media players shown in the tables as being able to play from USB or network (LAN) shares can display slideshows on the TV. For the group of players covered in this smackdown, that includes all but the Netgear NTV200; although in the Roku player’s case, you would need to install a third-party app (not hard to do). If you use iTunes on your PC or Mac, you probably will find the Apple TV works well. Also, if you have an iPad or one of the recent iPhones and the Apple TV box, you can show sideshows on your TV using AirPlay screen mirroring.
I thank you SO MUCH! Finally I get a clear answer to my question. I will buy a Roku.
Nile
Anyone ever played with one of these? How do they stack up?
WD TV Live Plus:
http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=320
There is some discussion of WDTV Live in a previous comment. See this thread.
AppleTV + FireCore (and Plex) works for me
For those unfamiliar with FireCore, it’s a $30 app and installing it requires jailbreaking the Apple TV first, which is not hard to do but is likely to intimidate many users.
Hopefully future firmware Apple TV firmware updates will eliminate the need for jailbreaking. Desired features would include: ability to install ATV-specific apps from the iTunes App Store; ability to play and view media from smb and DLNA/UPnP network shares (could be from third-party apps from App Store); ability to play and view files from USB; and maybe some innovations like Siri on your TV. Heck, it’s only software!
Yep. Same here. Can’t see ANY reason to switch from that setup. Seems it covers everything all the others do, and more, and I can use my iPhone or iPad as the remote!
It’s definitely a sweet setup and I’m glad I forked out the $30 for aTV Black.
Mind you… you don’t even need to do that if you like to fiddle around a bit more… I was just lazy. lol.
Once you have XBMC installed the apps and possibilities are mind boggling.. Depends on how deep you want to go into that rabbit-hole.
Greg M
What a great comparison – nice work!
Someone mentioned using a keyboard with their Roku…I have a small workaround. I use the Roku Wifi Remote Android app and it actually allows you to input text from your phone and send it to the Roku. I have noticed that it doesn’t work in every channel but it’s much easier than having to navigate with your remote. Not sure if there is a similar functionality with Roku remote iOS apps but it would be worth the look.
Roku just updated their WiFi remote app for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. It’s much improved over the earlier version, with many new capabilities including text input. Info and screenshots are on Roku’s website, here and here, and its listing in iTunes App Store is here.
Love the article, but like many already mentioned I think it could have been expanded to include other devices such as the Western Digital Live TV and the Sony SMP-N200.
I can’t afford to try them all as many others have been able to.
However reading about the Sony SMP-N200 sounds like it would be pretty competitive. It has a great price, wifi, 36 Bravia Channels, most of the popular apps, and local file playback.
Haven’t done much research on the WDTV but it sounds great too, but from what i did glance I thought it lacked many Internet Video apps. Maybe I need to see the WD website for a better presentation of it though.
I was very confused by the Netgear Roku NTV250. Because of the model number i thought Netgear and Roku were teaming up, when in fact it was the opposite. I assume after the NTV250, Netgear decided they could make their own box without the need to partner with Roku and now they are competeing instead.
Personally I do okay with the PS3 and Media Server. Since PS3 has Hulu Plus and Netflix, but a friend of mine was interested in the “smart tvs” which got us looking at different media recievers.
AppleTV isn’t really appealing to me, i only use iTunes for my wifes iPhone. Personally i am not a fan of anything Apple.
Boxee’s pricing pretty much turned me away immediately. The others beat it by a longshot.
Considering GoogleTV is a supplement to your current cable or sattelite that doesn’t it make it a viable or appealing replacement for those services, also taking it out of the competition for me.
Odd that GoogleTV was on Sony TVs and BluRay players, but on the Logitech Revue instead of the Sony SMP-N200? Granted that the Revue has been discontinued as stated in this article.
Also as mentioned by one comment, there was no comparison of support. Understandable, but a big factor for many consumers.
For example, as someone mentioned above Viear Cast.
I have a Viera Cast TV that i bought in late 2009. It has Amazon Video, Youtube, Picasa, Weather, Pandora, and some other apps i don’t pay attention to, however, even though that is a pretty good selection i believe Viera Cast has been discontinued so i don’t expect to see any apps like Netflix or Hulu Plus.
Though Panasonic has a new line of Smart TVs that replaced Viera Cast with Viera Connect, which does have Netflix.
For me it would be NeoTV vs Roku 2 vs SMP-N200 vs WDTV Live
And the only reason Roku is still a contender in my book is that it sounds like it offers more content apps than NeoTV
Thank you for this review. Some people take reviews way too seriously. This is this person’s opinion. YMMV in almost all situations.
I am very interested in the WDTV however, and would like to see what people have to say about this.
I am waiting for the Apple product announcement next week to see if there will be an ATV updated version with USB port. Can just jailbreak it to open it up to other options.
Just here to say thanks very much for the reviews!
I also would like to see your in depth analysis of the WDTV. I have had one for about a year so pretty familiar with functions and features.
If you don’t want to be wired in by LAN you can use 1 of the 2 USB ports for WIFI.
I have an external hard drive that I keep all my music and downloaded shows and movies on. It will list all my music but will not play anything that is not mp3 format. Also, I have had issues with closed captioning on movies I have downloaded. May be my own user error with the CC files.
My question is what are the options for live sports? That is the only reason I have not given up cable or satellite cold turkey. MLB offers something, right? What about NFL? College Football? NASCAR? Subscriptions paid or free? Does ESPN and its family of networks offer live streaming capabilities that can be watched by any of these devices?
I would also like to know of more options for live sports. This year I got a cable subscription JUST for football season then cut it off. Are there currently any options outside of cable for viewing NFL games?
We have had the WDTV upstairs connected to my wife’s HDTV. She mainly wanted to be able to stream shows to it, watch Netflix and Hulu Plus. I bought it on the recommendation of a friend and because it appeared to be simple and wife-friendly, which was incredibly important. Overall it works well. The lack of support for a more common variety of file formats has led to some frustration, as converting video files is a PIA.
But the biggest complaint is that the WDTV “forgets” her Netflix and Hulu Plus login information about once a week. The lack of qwerty keyboard makes inputing this information incredibly frustrating for her, especially since one tiny error with the remote can mean reinputing all the information from scratch. I don’t know why the device is losing this login information so often. It is also plugged in to a hot port on the surge protector.
I use a PS3 with the PS3 Media Server as my streaming option. I don’t love it, mainly because getting the PS3 to recognize the software can be painful. I would prefer a media player connected directly to my receiver that could link via WiFi to my Mac and play back a wide variety of file types from a share, either via USB or WiFi. The Boxee sounds like it has the best media support, but it also sounds like it lacks reliable functionality or decent tech support. It’s frustrating that is 2012 and the devices available are *still* all over the map based on functionality and capabilities. If it’s price, I’d gladly pay $100-200 for a device that does the majority of the things this article lists as features, but it has to be reliable and functional. I don’t need more frustration in my life.
You might want to consider getting a Roku player and adding PlayOn (lifetime license is currently on sale for $50). That combo still doesn’t give you a web browser, but it does cover a lot of the TV-formated content that’s available for streaming. And one good thing about Roku is that you’ll get firmware updates indefinitely, so new channels will continue be added. On the downside, media streaming support from local shares is more limited, but there are several plugins to choose from (including PlayOn’s capabilties). Also, using PlayOn requires having your PC or Mac turned on while you’re watching PlayOn-served media on the TV. But the Roku on its own has a wide range of content channels available.
Thank you- this was a lot of work and is much appreciated!!!
I live in dubai and TV here sucks, we only get showtime and few other channels. torrent a lot of movies ( mkv etc) abt 2 teras worth. i am not really interested in the netflix etc as its not required. but yes id like to browse the internet with my Tv and watch the movies that are stored on my computer’s external HDD. i cant make up my mind which one should i get from the revies and the minus points i dont see any of them being helpful. i have a xbox 360 although its jail broken and cant be connected to live nor do i want to. any suggestions ? and please no moral mumbo jumbo abt torrents etc .
Choosing a device for web-based multimedia streaming is a hard choice at this point in time. If it’s between the Boxee Box and the GTV box, based on last year’s models (D-Link Boxee Box; Logitech Revue Google TV box), they both had lots of potential but they both have lots of issues. Overall, I’d have to say the Boxee Box currently has much more going for it — but, and this is a big caveat — Boxee has not kept up with the latest flash player requirements, so sites requiring current flash compatibility no longer stream on it (e.g. Comedy Central videos). The Logitech GTV box, on the other hand, has a far superior keyboard and browser, and has an up-to-date flash player, but last time I tested it (a couple of months ago) its flash player was prone to crashes after a few minutes of playing a flash-based video, making it very frustrating to use. But for web browsing in general, the GTV box is the best device I’ve run across, other than my DIY Boxee Box / HTPC, which currently runs Windows 7.
cheers for the reply .. mate suggested.. AC RYAN veolo …. is that any good ?
Hadn’t heard of the Veolo previously, but it certainly looks interesting. I’ve had great success streaming most web-based video sources on DeviceGuru’s Galaxy Tab 10.1, and the Google TV-based Logitech Revue would be an top choice if it had a few bugs ironed out, so an Android-based box with HDMI outputs should work well — especially given a decent hardware remote control for convenient TV watching control.
well i saw the weeby for the veolo .. the remote looks awesome and the USB has .. HUB support rest the usualls like boxee .. so maybe this could be better… you are the expert .. let us know ..
This is a fantastic page that helped me decide on the boxee box for my TVs.
Thank you for the work you put into this and publishing it.
Thanks
Mike Harris
Well Apple TV with Firecore and aTV Black is my choice for many reasons.
Simple to install, and endless features. Can stream easily from any PC or Mac in my house wirelessly.
I use XBMC evry day to watch TV and movies all for free. I can mirror my iPhone or iPad to the TV screen, use my iPhone or iPad as a Remote Control for the aTV.
I have one of these in the lounge room, and one in the bedroom. Works flawlessly, and has more features than most could ever hope for or utilise.
Greg M
(looking forward to the aTV2 non-tethered jailbreak)
oh… one of the most used things on the aTV is a thing called Icefilms… almost every TV show ever made available to stream anytime.
and literally thousands of on-demand movies. Some of you guys guys might also like another free ad-on called VideoDevil..The list of free add-ons seems endless, and anyone familiar with an iPhone Jailbreak will likely want to go this way.. I’m still using aTV2 and haven’t yet found the need to upgrade top the next generation. Could not think of anything lacking in this device once it is jailbroken (aside from 1080p which is in the aTV3 anyway).
Greg M
Dear device guru,
Please help. I have a upnp server which also serves the music directory over DAAP (running Linux). Works great to all my android devices. I want a set of hidden speakers which I control from one of the apps on my android phone (2play, andromote). What I think I want is a upnp renderer and a powered set of speakers. Problem is I hav enot found such a device. Most are for TV and none appear to be upnp capable. The closest solution appears to be to use an Apple Airport Express and configure it as a pulse audio roak device. I have not yet tried this, but it appears to be the only solution that fits. Please point me in the correct direction.
Regards,
Keith
I believe there are Android apps that let you remotely use an Android smartphone as an AirPlay, DLNA, or UPnP media renderer. Perhaps you could get hold of someone’s old Android smartphone discard and turn it into the required device? Actually, I think I have an app installed on my Galaxy Tab 101 that can be used as a remote media renderer, but I can’t recall which one it is — see this screenshot showing the contents of my Galaxy Tab 10.1′s media-streaming apps folder.
Here are two apps that can be used for playing audio-only streams from AirPlay sources (iOS and iTunes) on “remote” Android and iOS smartphones and tablets, under control of the source device.
* AirBubble — Android app — available from Google’s Android apps market
* Airfoil Speakers Touch — iOS app — available from Apple’s iOS apps market
It strikes me that Amazon could produce their own Box, along the lines of the Boxee, using the software infrastructure that powers the Kindle Fire. It would not only allow viewing streaming content, but it would also enable the user to pause a stream, browse and buy from Amazon, and then return to their show. From an advertiser’s perspective – this would be a dream.