Until Apple releases its secret-but-we-all-know-it's-coming, Siri-powered, high-definition television set that will change the face of the industry forever (okay, so we're hoping this is what's coming), we'll have to settle for Cupertino's "hobby" if we want to stream our movies and photos to a screen larger than 27-inches. But while Apple TV has made great strides since it launched alongside the iPhone, it still has a long way to go if it wants to become a major player in the booming set-top box market.
It's not often that Apple can learn from its competitors, but sometimes it seems that Apple is purposefully holding back Apple TV features for something bigger and better. If you're not totally tied down to the iTunes ecosystem, there are worthy third-party alternatives. Here's a few that we've reviewed that are highly worth it in our book.
$129.99; $229.99 with 1TB hard drive hub
It might look a lot like the Apple TV, but WD TV Live can do a whole lot more. Along with streaming your digital files (in an array of formats) from your Mac or PC, it can also grab media from a USB drive (via a handy front port), network drive or camcorder. It also features a host of online services, including the usual Netflix, Hulu and MLB.TV, as well as some unique offerings from Vudu, Flingo and PlayJam Games.
The only set top box in the bunch that positions itself as a legitimate cable TV competitor, Boxee almost seems too good to be true: on-demand TV shows, rentals, live TV (with a $49 adapter) and of course, media streaming. There's even an iPad app, but the killer feature might be its Instapaper-like "watch later" bookmarklet that lets users save videos they find on the web to their Boxee queue for future viewing. Plus it looks like it something out of an M.C. Escher painting.
Another Apple TV lookalike (though a tad smaller and available in purple), Roku boasts an ever-expanding library of some 400 dedicated channels (including HBO Go and Amazon Instant Video), motion-based Angry Birds (with an included Bluetooth remote) and "the biggest selection of live sports packages ever." However, Roku doesn't stream your media like the others here; instead it relies on the help of third-party apps such as Plex or PlayOn.
brandonwalkermedia
March 28, 2012 at 10:14pm
So you write an article saying 'How AppleTV beats any top set box" and then write this?
You must be really stupid/ and or insane.
ken1701
March 28, 2012 at 3:47pm
Listen it's a proven fact that the Apple TV is better then anything you listed, I really don't see your point, and I'll leave it like that.
WD has a terrible UI, It's clumsy and prone to lockups.
Boxes box is good of you don't have a mac mini or a a a PC that you can use the UI on, but no they have taken away the UI for anyone to use do to greed, wanting users to use the whole hardware software package, iits UI is difficult to use and always has been, by using a old XBMC engine,
I Love XBMC EDEN BUT Boxee only gives a poor representation of the full new XBMC is capable of doing and fall flat on its face with a terrible design that takes more clicks to accomplish a simple task.
Any user with a PC OR A MAC OR A LAPTOP AND EVEN LINUX can GET THE FREE VERSION OF XBMC, it trumps this dog by miles. And no added hardware cose cause it's free! Plugins are available for everything and they are growinging nightly!
And now to the Roku... It's a competent device but fails to offer all the integration with iTunes as all the other ones fail also,.
Lets don't forget that AirPlay is a big seller and if you have a Apple TV you can have this option also, and Apple free remote App to control everything is a added bonus.
If you have all iOS devices you lose out by going with any of these option that have been listed, why not get the full bennifit out of your Apple gear by using a tried and true method, that brings more value to your purchase.
Sure the others are fine, but don't offer the full round of enjoyment that IOS based devices offer.
Thanks
