The Internet Set-Top Box Scorecard
Set-top boxes have been poppin’ up all over the place this past year. You can’t swing a dead LOLcat without hitting some newfangled device being built or upgraded to bridge oldteevee with the newteevee. To help you keep up with the growing number of options, we put together this Set-Top Scorecard. It rounds up the major STBs we’ve covered over the past few months, and gives you a quick overview on each product.
Apple TV
Gist: Rent or buy movies direct from Apple, or wirelessly beam content from your iTunes library to your TV.
Partners/Titles: All major movie studios, most TV networks (except NBC). Over 800 TV shows, 1,500 movies
Web Video: YouTube / Podcasts
Price: $229 - 40GB / $329 - 160GB
Availability: Now
HP MediaSmart Connect
Gist: Stream video content downloaded to your PC to your TV. Works with UPnP formats, but not DRM’d Apple formats.
Partners/Titles: CinemaNow for downloadable movies and TV shows.
Web Video: YouTube / Microsoft Internet TV Beta
Price: $349
Availability: Pre-order now
Netflix LG
Gist: TBA
Partners/Titles: TBA
Web Video: TBA
Price: TBA
Availability: Summer 2008
Netflix Roku
Gist: Streams movies that Netflix offers as “Play Now” to your TV.
Partners/Titles: 10,000 movies and TV shows
Web Video: No
Price: $99
Availability: Now
Netflix’s 2 Other Boxes
Gist: TBA
Partners/Titles: TBA
Web Video: TBA
Price: TBA
Availability: TBA
Sezmi
Gist: Wants to be a replacement for your cable. Uses over-the-air broadcast for major networks, pipes in the rest over broadband. Will be sold as an add-on to broadband service.
Partners/Titles: TBA
Web Video: Yes
Price: TBA
Availability: Trials start later this year
TiVo
Gist: Primarily a DVR, but offering content through Amazon Unbox, Jaman and CinemaNow.
Partners/Titles: Movies and TV shows through Amazon Unbox, Disney movies through CinemaNow, indie movies through Jaman.
Web Video: YouTube (coming), and select partners
Price: $99.99 - $599.99
Availability: Now
Verismo
Gist: Watch web video on your TV, no PC required.
Partners/Titles: YouTube, BitTorrent, vTap to search anything else. Can play Windows DRM (Amazon, CinemaNow).
Web Video: Yes
Price: $99
Availability: Late Summer 2008
Vudu
Gist: Dedicated box for downloading movie content.
Partners/Titles: All the major Hollywood studios, has 6,000 titles to choose from.
Web Video: No
Price: $299
Availability: Now
Xbox
Gist: Game console’s Marketplace offers movie and TV show downloads.
Partners/Titles: “3,500 hundred hours” of entertainment from 35 studios.
Web Video: Some select partners.
Price: $349 + $50/year Live subscription
Availability: Now
ZeeVee
Gist: Connects your PC to your TV through existing home wiring and plays content on an unused channel.
Partners/Titles: Anything on the Web.
Web Video: Yes
Price: $499
Availability: 31-Jul-08
Before your fire off comments, this list doesn’t include everything — there are dedicated Windows Media Center Extenders out there, companies like Boxee are creating open source solutions, consumer electronics firms like Sony and Panasonic are putting set-top functionality directly into their products, and even Time Warners Cable is mulling a PC-to-TV box.
This list will evolve and we’ll update accordingly. We already had to remove SanDisk’s TakeTV from the run-down, and we know that won’t be the last one to bite the digital dust.
Are you using any of these devices? Leave us a comment and tell us whether you love it or loathe it.
Sponsor Gallery
Recent
GigaOM Network
- FCC To Rule on Nationwide Porn-Free Wireless Web [GigaOM]
- “Mapple” Lampoons the Cupertino Faithful on The Simpsons [TheAppleBlog]
- Blockbuster VOD Going to Blu-ray Players [NewTeeVee]
- CyberMonday deal: VMware Fusion at $39.99... or perhaps $9.99? [jkOnTheRun]
- Arrington: Mobile tech is very personal [jkOnTheRun]
© 2008 The GigaOM Network. Powered by WordPress.com. Marketing consulting by ACS.
You know what would make a roundup like this much more useful? Information about the HD capabilities of each device. You’d need to break Tivo out into its various incarnations to do that, though.
Jeffrey on June 17th, 2008 at 9:46 pm - Permalink
Just got my Apple TV last week. I’m loving it. It’s opened my eyes to IPTV. Whoever can bridge the gap from oldteevee to newteevee will make a killing. As much as I love the ATV it still lacks in features, I hope will change in the near future.
Joel Price on June 17th, 2008 at 9:52 pm - Permalink
I just got the Apple TV on impulse because I thought that it doubled as an 802.11n router. But oh no. It’s merely an 802.11n receiver. Other than that major bummer, I dig the machine. Rented a few films - they are crisper than my DVD player and played seamlessly. Only one other gripe - the damn thing doesn’t stream from yr computer! It only ’syncs’ with iTunes (basically copying all your content down to it’s hard drive). That seems like a waste to me…
Mark Schoneveld on June 18th, 2008 at 7:16 am - Permalink
[...] Chris Albrecht has put together a giant list of all Internet set-top boxes that would let you play movies and other videos when connected to your TV. Wow… didn’t [...]
June 18: What’s Interesting This Morning - GigaOM on June 18th, 2008 at 7:39 am - Permalink
You forgot Quartics.com’s PC2TV. I’m going to hold off from buying an expensive box. For now I’ll just watch free internet tv at http://zipityzap.com . I predict that we’ll soon see a built-in ability for PCs and TVs to connect wirelessly. When that happens you’ll be able to buy or rent movies direct from Netflix, Cinema Now, etc. No markup from TiVo, Apple, etc required.
geraldz on June 18th, 2008 at 8:11 am - Permalink
Any reason that XBMC for Xbox wasn’t mentioned above? Are there minimum requirements for making the list that XBMC doesn’t meet?
plooger on June 18th, 2008 at 9:49 am - Permalink
@plooger,
I mention Boxee at the end of the article, which is based on XBMC. I was trying to keep this initial list simple.
Chris Albrecht on June 18th, 2008 at 10:22 am - Permalink
If do not know if you will agree with this one, But I would include the mac mini on this list… much more features than any of these boxes …
Yuvamani on June 18th, 2008 at 12:28 pm - Permalink
your details about Xbox are not correct. you do not need a $50/yr subscription to Xbox LIVE Gold in order to watch video. with a free Xbox LIVE Silver account you have access to all the content in the Video Store.
Toddro on July 3rd, 2008 at 7:30 am - Permalink
[...] box VOD service has emerged as a clear leader yet (most haven’t launched), the field is packed with big-name brands like Apple, HP and Netflix. All of these will have time to get entrenched in [...]
MovieBeam Back From the Dead? « NewTeeVee on July 11th, 2008 at 7:49 am - Permalink
A new entrant joined this space:
WhereverTV - watch live TV from around the world. No subscription fee. Boxes are powered by Neuros. Looks like first units ship July 15.
Jason on July 11th, 2008 at 11:48 am - Permalink
[...] up your PC to your TV can be a pain. Here is another article I found about internet set top boxes. One that looks promising that I didn’t mention before is the “vunow“. The vunow [...]
Adam Loving’s Blog » Blog Archive » Watching Hulu on TV (how to watch internet video on your TV) on July 27th, 2008 at 9:24 am - Permalink
[...] 2008 at 2:07 PM PT Comments (0) This may not come as a surprise to anyone who owns an iPhone or tests set-top boxes, but wireless and consumer technologies are driving the growth of many of the largest chip vendors. [...]
Chip Growth Proves Wireless and Consumers Rule - GigaOM on August 4th, 2008 at 2:07 pm - Permalink
[...] Layoffs a Sign of Doom? The Internet set-top box herd may be thinning, as Vudu laid off roughly 15 percent of its staff on Friday, including co-founder [...]
Vudu Layoffs a Sign of Doom? « NewTeeVee on August 24th, 2008 at 9:28 pm - Permalink
[...] (mobiShow)–I know there are a million devices attempting to bridge the web and the PC, but Awind’s home entertainment box connects my PC to the TV via a Wi-Fi connection and [...]
My DEMO Rant and 5 Cool Products - GigaOM on September 9th, 2008 at 9:03 pm - Permalink
Question:
I want to surf the web on my television what device
allows me to do this? I have a 2006 Mintek 26″ LCD HDTV Model DTV-263-D, with built in hdtv tuner.
your response appreciated.
Michele on October 29th, 2008 at 9:29 pm - Permalink
[...] get you to switch to the high-definition format? Or are you ditching DVDs altogether to buy a set-top box from the likes of Apple, Netflix or Blockbuster? Tell us what you’re buying and give us your [...]
Are You Buying on Black Friday? « NewTeeVee on November 26th, 2008 at 8:20 am - Permalink