The Best Streaming Media Player

DeviceGuru writes "It's looking like 2012 will be a watershed year for cord-cutters wanting 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. The smackdown compares Roku, Google TV, Apple TV, the Boxee Box, and Netgear's NeoTV, tabulating their key features, functions, specs, supported multimedia formats, and other characteristics, and listing the main advantages and disadvantages of each device. Then, it provides a summary chart that attempts to quantify the whole thing, so you (theoretically) can pick the best one based on what characteristics are most important to you. Of course, the market's evolving so quickly that the entire process will need to be redone in 6 months, but what else is new."

I like my Boxee

[hey]

Apps are written in Python. There are currently about 250 now.
I was shocked when I saw a friend's AppleTV... there was no web browser - stay in the garden children.

Re:I like my Boxee

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been smoken in my Mystical Garden for many years.

www.mythtv.org/

This will save money for how long?

[StoutFiles]

In most areas, the cable and internet come from the same provider who has a monopoly. If enough people cut cable, they will just raise internet prices to keep the same profits. Hell, they're going to raise internet prices for everyone regardless because we all use too much bandwidth in their opinion.

US centric ?

[dargaud]

I want the same question asked worldwide, otherwise the Pirate Bay stays the only option for many.

Re:Or you could just use a normal computer

[MankyD]

Because reading a normal desktop's output from 15 feet away on the couch is hard. The nice thing about these is that the UI is designed for easy reading and navigation with a remote.

my Roku experience for the hackers out there

[netsavior]

One thing the reviews leave out is scriptability/hackability.

Roku actually has a pretty easy and open-ish api.
Roku channels can be written in a scripting language called Brightscript (feels mostly like VBScript). The SDK also comes with C header files if you'd rather write something low level. I wrote a basic channel that takes reads an XML manifest file from my webserver and lets you pick from any of my home videos (or backups of my DVDs or infringed video) and streams it on the TV. I did this in about 15 minutes of coding on the roku side, including a "cover flow" style menu. (Of course, you aren't going to escape the need to transcode your video files, unless you are doing it hot on the webserver)

later when they upgraded the OS (without breaking any compatibility) I was able to write a page to run on my webserver that allows me to go to a browser from any of the computers on my network and select any movie (accessible by http) and directly launch it on the roku from the browser (which is very helpful for when I want to watch a horror/pr0n movie with the wife after the kids go to bed, but I don't want the kids to have access to it during the day)
I wrote an HTML/AJAX remote control app to run on our tablets/iphone/laptops to control the roku if we misplace the remote, which was also really simple, due to the easy/open API
I have tried many set top solutions, and THIS is the one my 3 year-old and my grandmother can use, but that I can still force it to do what I want.

Re:I like my Boxee

[rikkards]

Why? Boxee is based off of XBMC. If you are not using their Box, you are better off using XBMC, Boxee is always playing catchup.

Put up or shut up

[Anonymous Coward]

So what did that all cost? And how long did it take to set it all up?

Was it more than $99? And was it more than 15 minutes?

Not being a dick, but if it's all so easy to do what you say, you would be in business competing against Apple I would have bought your box instead.
If it IS that easy and you CAN give me a near $100 box and a near 15 minute setup time with hardware and SOFTWARE that beats these other devices then quit your day job and get cracking. I want to buy your system.

BUT: If it's more like $300 and as elegant as a volvo chassis with a Hemi engine and an airconditioner duct taped to the window, then I'll keep my Apple TV. Which I have not had to touch since installing a year ago.

People who prefer to buy rather than build

[tepples]

So I don't see why you'd want one of these things when HTPCs have frankly never been cheaper.

Because people expect to walk into Best Buy and walk out with something. If you have to buy it as separate parts and install them all into a case, it's already a non-starter except for dedicated geeks [pineight.com].