Review Horizon

A new year, a new top 10 list that tries to offer a comprehensive view of the top 10 best media streamers for 2012.

If 2011 was a year in which the media streamer boxes sales experienced a consolidation and media streamers like WD TV Live, Boxee Box or Apple TV exploded in sales, 2012 is a year when beside commoditization of the boxes at prices under $100, the manufacturers will fight quite hard to ensure access to content. From new technologies designed to put a media streamer in every TV sold in 2012 – see the Roku streamer USB stick that should add streaming content to every HDMI-MHL compatible TV on the market to new Google TV boxes from new manufacturers, everything is gearing up toward a complete online experience from your big screen TV. We are here to help you make an informed decision, whether you are trying to stream local / networked content or you just need to access as many web services as possible.

As in 2011, In terms of pure streaming, Roku deserves to be again on the first place due to its excellent implementation of web clients and the support for all important premium clients such as Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Video on Demand, etc. HBO GO and many other additional channels fond their way to Roku Boxes and their prices are Read More…

Yesterday I had the pleasant surprise to find a package in front of my door – the new Roku 2 3100X has arrived. I unpacked it immediately so I can put it to the test – here is the Roku 2 XS review summing my impressions. I also own the previous Roku (review here)  box for more than a year, so I knew what to expect. I knew the software would be similar, so I was mainly interested in the new box responsivity and of course, the new gaming platform Roku just launched.
A bit of history on the side – Roku was the first company to release a dedicated streaming box and they are now at the 3rd generation. While weak for local content, they have arguably the lagest selection of streaming choices with content from Netflix to Vimeo and UFC to FoxNews. Private channels can be added as well to support Plex, YouTube, PlayOn, etc.

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If you haven’t heard of Roku up to this point, they hold the title for the first dedicated Netflix capable media streamer in the world. As weird as it might sound, back in the day not every media streamer was Netflix capable . Now, of course we live in different times, and Netflix is the largest movie streaming company in the world so Netflix streaming clients can be found everywhere, from stand-alone media streamer boxes to connected Blu-ray players and connected TVs, smartphones, tablets, you name it.

Roku obviously didn’t stop with Netflix, their boxes have the most streaming channels available in any media streamer box (see here our Roku review). The new version of this loaded box found its way to FCC and is currently in beta testing, so that means you’ll soon be able to find it in stores. FCC website lists three new models - 3000X, 3050X, and 3100X. Hardware wise, the new boxes are even smaller than the current version (44.65mm x 44.65mm) and built around a Broadcom 2835 SOC. The good news, they now feature a MicroSD Read More…

Introduction

Since I cut the cable cord a while ago, I am constantly looking for solutions to improve my TV watching experience. At this point, I am using a PS3 in living room and ROKU / WD TV Live Plus boxes in every room I have TVs. Recently Sony released a new media streamer box that offers streaming functionality similar (but improved in several ways) to their flagship entertainment product – Playstation 3.  The box is rather cheap at only $89  so I decided to give it a try. It got shipped fast enough and the results are described in this review.
The box includes the main media streamer box, the external power brick adapter, the remote, user manual and the good old red white yellow analog audio video cable. Why Sony did not include a HDMI cable in the year 2011 is beyond me.

Tech Specs

Codecs, Inputs, Outputs: Read More…

Note: there is a newer Best Media Players / Streamers list for 2012 that will be maintained from now on.

A new year, a new top 10 list that tries to offer a comprehensive view of the top 10 best media streamers for 2011.

If 2010 was a year in which the media streamer boxes sales experienced a big grow and many new web clients launched, in my opinion 2011 is a year of consolidation, partnerships and jump from technologically inclined users to wide adoption. Apple TV is one box that helped the transition due to its simplicity and customer friendlies. Although Apple TV was one of the boxes that took streaming to mainstream, I decided not to include ti in my list due to lack of support for local content and low number of web clients supported.

In terms of pure streaming, Roku deserves to be on the first place due to its excellent implementation of web clients and the support for all important premium clients such as Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Video on Demand, etc.

Local files support continues to be critical and Boxee Box and Western Digital boxes are among the best in this category (even with their inherent bugs), without stepping into the pro-sumer category like the Dune BD Prime 3.0 media player for example which is in my opinion the best in terms of codec support.

As usual, I’ll update the list as new devices come on the market and I would also appreciate your input / votes as well. Considering that some will prefer a stronger codec support for local media and some will only care about web streaming, this top 10 will obviously not make everybody happy. However, I tried to add as many technical specs as I could so you can perform a side by side comparison.

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Xtreamer is famous for making media streamer boxes compatible with many popular codecs and attractive user interfaces. (XTreamerPro is one such box). Their latest addition to the market is a media streamer box that beside playing the content stored on your home network it performs the same trick with the media located on your iDevice (iPad, iPhone and iPod) with a dedicated dock, as well as a 3.5″ hard disk drive dock (eSATA) and two USB ports so you can add as much content as possible. (supports up to 3 TB drives on eSATA and each of the USB ports. The player also supports MKV (1080p, latest codecs), Blue-ray ISO playback and up to 7.1 surround, Dolby TrueHD , DTS HD-MA,  and a bunch of web clients like YouTube, Picasa, Yahoo Video, CNN, yahoo Weather, Yahoo News, Live365 Radio, iPodcast ,etc.

Check after the break for image gallery,  full specs and codec compatibility and a video. Read More…

1. Introduction

Boxee Box is without question one of the most awaited media streamers for this year. The reason? The way things look right now, it might well be the only box that actually can successfully replace a home theater PC in both CODEC support and extensibility. Promising a full range of audio/video codecs, media library with automatic artwork downloading and also web clients for popular services as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pandora, VUDU and even Netflix, combined with an open development platform supporting Adobe Flash 10.1, a Webkit based browser and QWERTY remote control, many feel that boxee Box is currently the media streamer to beat, not Google TV or Apple TV. For a long time, there has been an uncertainty about the capability to stream Netflix but yesterday the people from D-Link confirmed Netflix support to come sometime by the end of the year, so I won’t touch this issue until the next firmware release.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge gadget lover and I actually own and use every piece of equipment that I reviewed on this website, however I don’t  like the idea of turning my PS3 to watch Netflix, XBOX 360 for a nice Twitter of Facebook client, my HTPC for some exotic codec that nobody else supports, etc. I think everybody keeps waiting for the mystical ”do it all” box (aside from a beefy HTPC that needs its own power plant) and the open nature of Boxee Box might help it become that box.

2. Boxee Box Unpacking Read More…

Good news ladies and gentleman, the long awaited boxy media streamer code name Boxee Box manufactured by D-Link is currently shipping. Long awaited because is one of a very few media streaming boxes to support a browser (and a good one, nonetheless, WebKit based with HTML 5 support), Adobe Flash 10.1, a QWERTY remote control and compatibility with every codec under the sun including MKV, XVID, DIVX, h264, etc.

This is not all, as everybody probably wondered, the box will support both Netflix and Hulu Plus before the end of the year, it is confirmed!!!! (see Boxee blog)

The supported resolutions include 1080p and the box has a DLNA client and can also access your network shares (really cool if you have a home server). Compatibility with Adobe flash ensures easy development and the box will ship at launch with over 400 software applications and web clients including popular ones as Twitter, Pandora, Last.FM, Amazon Video on Demand, Digg, Revision 3, CNN, YouTube, etc. Mine just shipped today and will post a review as soon as I get it.
One more thing, if you used Boxee software or Windows Media Center with some kind of audio / video library software like Media browser, you will be glad to know that Boxee Box supports the same features, displaying the artwork, movie covers, etc via automatic downloads.

Full codec support list:

• FLV/On2 VP6 (FLV/FV4/M4V)
• H.264 AVC (TS/AVI/MKV/MOV/M2TS/MP4)
• MPEG-1 (DAT/MPG/MPEG)
• MPEG-2 (MPG/MPEG/VOB/TS/TP/ISO/IFO)
• VC-1 (TS/AVI/MKV/WMV)
• MPEG-4 (MP4/AVI/MOV)
• Xvid (AVI/MKV)
• WMV9 (WMV/ASF/DVR-MS)
• DivX 3/4/5/6 (AVI/MKV)

This ($99)  is probably the lowest price I have ever seen on the very popular Western Digital WD TV Live Plus HD Media Player / Streamer (WDBABX0000NBK-NESN ). The Amazon cannot advertise directly such a low price so you’ll have to click and see the discounted price.

I got one myself (full review here) and it works extremely well. The interface could use some tweaks because is rather simple, but no other players beat WD TV Live Plus HD (a mouthful) in terms of video CODEC compatibility. It supports both DLNA client and PC network shares access, a complete codec support including MKV, DIVX, XVID, MPEG 2 and 4, DBD ISO images, it even supports DVD menus from ISO images and folder rips. Everything up to 1080p.

WD TV Live Plus HD also supports a variety of popular web clients including Netflix (the new interface with categories), Pandora, YouTube, Flickr, etc.

Video Codecs – AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4), MPG/MPEG, VOB, MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1), TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1), MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264), M2TS, WMV9

Subtitles - SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SMI

Audio Codecs – MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS Read More…

1. Introduction

Without a doubt, Samsung BD-C7500 looks really nice. Described as the world’s slimmest Blu-ray player BD-C7500 brings not only good looks in the equation but also a large set of media streaming features, a fast boot time and a plethora of web clients thanks to Samsung Apps store, the first store by my knowledge to offer applications to run on both TV and media streaming boxes / Blu-ray players. Let’s not forget that Apple TV doesn’t support applications and Google TV’s Android Marketplace compatibility will only arrive next year.

While Blu-ray capabilities of today’s players are fairly good and I doubt many of us could perceive differences in the output quality, especially on a HDMI connection, the media streaming and web clients implementation differ wildly, and this is what makes the subject of today’s review. The screenshot and observations should apply to all Samsung 2010 Blu-ray players and connected TVs implementing Samsung Apps. Most of the Samsung TVs released in 2010 support Samsung Apps and all of Samsung’s new Blu-ray players including BD-C8000, BD-C7900, BD-C6900, BD-C6800,  BD-C5900, BD-C7500, BD-C6500 and BD-C5500.

2. Samsung BD-C7500 Unpacking and Design

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