Review Horizon

As the number of mobile devices in our house increased, our reliance on them also increased. Both me and my wife barely touch our PCs anymore (maybe when we do a quick Age of Empires III showdown on our home network, but with two kids, those days are fewer and long in between).

Our family also cut the cable cord quite a while ago, when the Dish Network wanted to increase our bill yet again. While we don’t have a full fledged cable subscription anymore, having Internet service from Time Warner comes with some perks, most notable the free included digital local channels (clear QAM), PBS and a bunch of other free channels as well including NBC sports.As part of my TV watching setup, I am using my Windows Media Center 7 as a local DVR, a number of XBOX 360 consoles as DVR clients to access the live/recorded TV around the house and the only thing missing would be the access of the same channels live and mobile, both from around the house and during my daily 1.5 hours train commute, via my tablet/smartphone over a 3G connections. What to do?

Well, let me tell you I have long searched for a cheap/good software only streaming solution since I already have my MCE server chugging quietly 24/7. I tried ORB and several other solutions that claim to be able to stream Live TV over the internet, but all the solutions found share one major caveat – they don’t work with digital TV tuners. Why? I have no idea, but that’s the way it is. I started to look around and the only reasonable priced solution came from Sling Media (now belonging to Dish Network) and their Slingbox Pro-HD SB300-100, their only model with an embedded ATSC/NTSC/QAM tuner. I built an entire ecosystem around it, streaming to PC, notebooks, iPhone / iPad / Nook Color / HP TouchPad running Android CM7, HTC Vivid and Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket both on my home network and away, and the result of this comprehensive experience is detailed in this review.

1. Slingbox Pro-HD box content

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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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Orb BR is the latest products coming from ORB, a California based company specialized in digital media streaming solution for your home. Initially announced during CES 2011, the Blu-ray disk that will sell for around $20 is designed to transform any Blu-ray player equipped with a network connection into an ORB machine, just better. Among the most important features you’ll get local content (video, audio and photo streaming) plus a variety of online services like Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Video on Demand up to 1080p.

I got Orb BR quite a while ago and followed its progress through a series of beta versions. I was (nicely) asked to postpone my review until the release day, which is today, so here it is!

1. Setup

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Introduction

In our never ending quest for the perfect media player / streamer, we got one of the LG newest products, the LG ST600 Smart TV Upgrader, put it to the tests and produced this review for your reading pleasure. Let’s see what it is about:
Announced at CES 2011, the LG ST600 Smart TV Upgrader was advertised as a cheap solution to transform your TV into a connected set with access to a myriad of web services and applications. During the official press release, services like Netflix, Vudu, Pandora, YouTube, CinemaNow, Hulu Plus, Amazon VOD, NHL GameCenter, NBA Game Live, and MLB.TV were announced as well, also an integrated web browser and the capability to run Apps from the LG App Store (social capabilities include Facebook and Twitter access). The box would be an official competitor to other boxes that we reviewed including Boxee Box, Google TV, Roku or WD TV Live Plus. Does it provide? Read away… 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…

1. Introduction:

We announced a couple of days ago the big news – the Amazon launch of their new streaming service at no cost for their Amazon Prime customers. For those already familiar with Amazon on Demand premium streaming service, the fact that Amazon is serious about the movie streaming business comes as no surprise.
The big surprise however is that Amazon will basically give the service for free to the Amazon Prime subscribers. Why are they doing it? Is it worth subscribing to Amazon Prime just to get the free streaming service? How well it works as both web browser experience and using a dedicated media streamer box? How is the image quality? This review will try to answer to all these questions.

For those of you that don’t know, Amazon Prime is a subscription costing $79 / year that brings a big advantage: Free two days Read More…

1. Introduction

Warpia launched its newest PC to TV 1080p 5.1 surround sound streaming solution just a couple of weeks ago and demoed it for the first time at CES 2011 show. I was looking for a while to find a solution to stream the video output of my laptop to the big screen TV, something that would work well movies but for basic Web browsing as well. As soon as Warpia StreamHD SWP120A went on sale at Amazon for $159, I jumped to buy it and, receiving it two days later I put it to the test. The results are described in the current review.

2. Unpacking

Warpia StreamHD SWP120A comes packed in an attractive box with the internal components arranged in two layers. The upper layer contains the software CD and the actual transmitter / receiver devices. The bottom layer contains the power adapter, the HDMI cable and the optical audio cable in case you need a separate audio connection (when your receiver for example doesn’t have HDMI inputs but your TV does) Read More…

1. Introduction

Roku was the first to release a Netflix dedicated box in industry, the old Roku DVP released in 2008 so they should get a lot of credit for the media streaming revolution across the industry. Since then, the marketplace has drastically changed, although Netflix is still content king. However, many other Internet content providers offering media streamers implementation for set top boxes popped up, like Hulu/Hulu Plus, VUDU, Amazon Video on Demand, Blockbuster, etc.

Roku had to keep up with the innovation if they wanted to be a significant player and obviously succeeded. Most of the top successful are part of the Roku family and low prices combined with a very good selection of web clients kept them on top.

The object of today’s review is Roku XD Media Player, the mid-level player from the current Roku media players generation. Since the review will be oriented toward describing the streaming features, it can be applied equally well to the other models in the family: Roku HD and Roku XDS. Teh main differences between models is: XDS vs XD – the addition of dual channel wireless adapter, USB port and component video / optical audio outputs. Roku HD model lacks the instant replay feature the other more 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…

1. Introduction

2010 is certainly a year where media streaming boxes really flourished. From cheap dedicated media streamers like WD TV Live Plus and Apple TV, going through (although unreleased yet  Boxee Box) and ending with more expensive (for now) Google TV boxes from Sony and Logitech (Revue) there is enough diversity to satisfy everyone. The questions are: Do they succeed in offering a truly enjoyable experience? Which one is better / simpler to use / easier to integrate in your existing Home Theater?

Google TV’s entry in the media streamers market is here and it hopes to bring more than mere streaming. Its main purpose is convergence and the ability to search / reach for your media in a unified manner, while enjoying the comfort of your own couch. Does it succeed? We’ll try to find out in Review’s Horizon ambitious take to review this complex box.

2. Sony Google TV Unpacking Read More…