With the proliferation of cheap broadband Internet, there are now some truly remarkable things you can do to your television. As another demonstration of the Kwanzoo personality quizzes, we set up a widget to find out which one is right for you.
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Streaming Netflix
In 1999, Netflix debuted its plan to stomp all over brick-and-mortar movie rental stores. You order DVDs through their website, get them in the mail, keep them as long as you want, and mail them back to recieve more. All it costs is one low monthly fee, and the only limit to your movie-getting is how fast you can watch them.
Recently, Netflix decided it would be pretty cool if they could just get rid of the mail part altogether and let you stream movies right over the Internet.
Assuming you already have a Netflix subscription, you can do this with a whole bunch of devices, notably the dedicated Roku player or the Xbox 360. We’ve been doing it for a few months now, and it would be hard to go back.
The catch is that the streaming selection is severely lacking, at least compared to the enormous catalog of stuff you can get by mail. If you hit up the Netflix site and go looking, chances are the title you want won’t have the coveted blue “Play” button underneath it that would let you stream it. Still, there’s some pretty good stuff on there. We wouldn’t have wanted to use up a valuable queue slot for a cantopop starlet vehicle, but we watched it streaming without hesitation.
I should also mention that, as in the Engadget test linked above, we’ve had a lot of problems with the Xbox 360 downgrading our stream to non-HD, even during off-peak hours. Hopefully this will improve in the future.
AppleTV
Probably most people by now are familiar with iTunes and the iTunes Store. Unlike Netflix and other subscription services, Apple has taken the approach that people really like owning things, even if those things are only digital. That extends to their movie and TV selection as well as their music library.
On the theory that people might want to watch those shows and movies on something besides their iPods or computers, Apple introduced the AppleTV.
The AppleTV is pretty much a hard drive with video output. You hook it up to your TV, connect it to the house network, wireless or otherwise, sync it to your iTunes, and you’re good to go. It’ll stream from your computer, but you can also buy directly from the iTunes store and keep your purchases on the device.
It’s Apple, so it’s as easy to use as an iPod. Plus, the device supports surround sound, unlike streaming Netflix that’s limited to stereo.
The bad news is it requires an HD TV… at least officially. It’ll work with standard TVs that have component input, which is sort of like a biplane with a jet engine.
Not everyone likes the buy-to-own model, and it remains to be seen how much Apple will continue to support the device.
Do-it-yourself DVR
Digital video recording devices like TiVo are old hat by now, having finally put the nail in the coffin of the videocassette. You can record anything from a menu of shows, or even pause and rewind live TV. What’s not to love?
Well, the price, for one thing. Maybe you don’t want to shell out hundreds for a box, and maybe the idea of paying a monthly fee for a VCR replacement chafes at you.
What you might not know is that there are ways to configure a PC to act as a DVR, with no fee required. You’ll need a TV tuner card for the PC, often cheaper than a standalone box.
Let’s be up front, though: This is a project for the gearheads. If the thought of dealing with Linux makes you break out in hives, you’re not going to be running MythTV anytime soon.
There’s all sorts of twists to complicate things, like encrypted HD signals that providers often use for premium content which can’t be captured by any approved Linux device. Getting all this working is far beyond the purview of this article, but it’s good to know that the option is out there.
Slingbox
Slingbox is the odd man out in this article. Instead of bringing more things to your TV, it’s purpose in life is to send what’s on your TV out to more things.
The Slingbox sits on your TV and sends your programming out over the Internet. There’s a wide selection of stuff you can then watch it on, but the basic selling pitch is “Watch your cable or satellite on your iPhone while you’re out.” (The iPhone version is coming early this year, but you get the idea.)
You can only connect to your Slingbox with one thing at a time, so as to prevent you sharing your cable subscription with the whole world. Unlike the other choices in this article, the content doesn’t go beyond what you already have, it just makes it available on more platforms. It’s for people whose only problem is that they’re not going to be home to catch the premiere of 24.
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