Streaming Media East Device Review
Christopher Carter
I attended the Streaming Media East Conference and Exhibits this week in NYC and wanted to share some thoughts about the variety of devices I gave the old test run in the Broadband Device Pavilion. Devices were divided into basically four categories - streaming devices, like Apple TV, Boxee, Roku, etc., DVRs, Game Platforms, like PS3 and Xbox 360, and Disk Drives with streaming capability, like Western Digital and Seagate.
My favorite streaming device was the Roku, with the Boxee Box a close second. Roku had an easy to navigate UI and a larger selection of content platforms available than the others. It also had a large number of independent platforms that are web based to peruse, many for free. Boxee supports a larger number of video and audio formats/codecs, comes with an SD Card slot and supports web browsing, which Roku does not. But if you're app crazy and could care less about techie stuff like codecs, Roku is a good selection for the price (under $100). Apple TV is basically presenting the iStore on the TV. You can purchase the same items on the TV via the Apple TV box as you can on your computer. Its also the only platform where you can have access to iTunes and your music library, if that's important to you.
TiVo is the DVR king, by far. The combination of easy UI and functionality as a STB via its cable card slot offer an added benefit.
The Sony PS3 offers more technical features than its game platform competitors in terms of video and audio formats supported. Of the models featured it also had the largest hard drive and the largest collection of the standard content platforms (i.e. Netflix, VUDU and Hulu Plus). The Xbox 360 is the only platform to partner with ESPN, so for sports nuts this may be a better option. Oh, yes, and Sony is dealing with that little network issue and security breach that has exposed >100M subs' personal data to elements not interested in playing MMOGs. Something to think about.
Interesting addition to this line up was the hard disk manufacturers. Seagate and Western Digital diplayed several devices that are basically external hard disk drives with some streaming functionality. And I mean minimal. I'm not sure why a company would offer a hard drive device as a streaming solution when the market is headed the opposite direction. Other major players (Apple, Roku) have removed the hard drive from their current devices.
I also had a chance to explore a cool Samsung TV. The devices was attached to a blue ray disk player, which is where the streaming functionality was resident. The Samsung representative indicated Samsung does offer 6 TV models that have the streaming functionality imbedded into the TV. The UI was clear and displayed as apps would be on one's smartphone. More than 10 users profiles could be stored so any family member, unless you believe in large familes, could set up their own start page that would be displayed after logging into the system. Several other Blue Ray players with streaming functionality and lots of apps were on display as well from Panasonic, Sony and LG, but the Samsung product was the standout, IMHO.
I am sure there are many other products out there that were not in the Broadband Device Pavilion, but this display gave a great overview of the technologies and devices available if one is interested in updating their home entertainment solutions, and perhaps cutting their cable bill dramatically.