Web Video Comes to the Living Room

The latest movies. Classic TV. Specialty news and information. Completely stupid, completely irresistible YouTube clips. The Internet is an awesome source of on-demand video. But even though the best screen in your house graces a nice big television set, chances are that you do your consuming of online video scrunched over a laptop or desktop PC.

Enter a bevy of boxes designed to hook a TV up to an Internet-enabled home network via a wired or wireless connection. Put one in your living room, and you can watch Net video on your expansive flat screen from the comfort of your Barcalounger, remote control in hand. Some of these gadgets are primarily devoted to another TV-related task--Blu-ray movies, gaming, or digital video recording--and offer Internet video as a bonus. Others are video boxes first and foremost, and either contain a hard disk for storing downloaded movies or stream them across the Net as you watch.

For this review, I spent time with a dozen such devices, focusing on features that let them connect directly to the Internet. (Consequently I didn't try products that require a PC to serve as middleman, such as Windows Media Center Extenders. Also, I didn't judge the products that I did use on their other features; many include options for enjoying video, photos, and audio that are stored locally on your home network.)

In the end, three boxes that emphasize Internet video above all else impressed me the most: the Apple TV, the Roku Digital Video Player, and the Vudu Box. Among the other contenders, TiVo HD's video-on-demand options make for a pleasing complement to its core DVR features. And though the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 sport relatively modest Net video features, they're good enough to keep you entertained when you want to take a break from gaming.

Sign up for ITworld's Daily newsletter
Follow ITworld on Twitter @IT_world

• Email
• Print
• Share
  • Slashdot
  • Digg
  • Stumble
  • Reddit
  • Newsvine