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Broadband Internet Access: Dial-up access isn’t going to cut it. City and suburb dwellers should look into cable modems and DSL. Folks living in rural areas where those services aren't available should check into wireless solutions, such as WiMax. Satellite service is another alternative, although it’s relatively slow and can be very expensive.
A Display: You don’t necessarily need a TV to get smart TV; you can just as easily use the display connected to your desktop or notebook computer. TVs, on the other hand, typically offer bigger screens, and you can connect your existing unit to whichever smart TV hardware you’re using to pull content from the Internet. Newer TVs make all this easier, thanks to their built-in apps and Ethernet support.
A Networked Media Player: If you don’t have a TV with built-in smart TV apps, you’ll need something from this category, which includes devices such as Western Digital's WD TV Live, Netgear's Neo TV, D-Link's Boxee Box, or one of the Roku devices. Most Blu-ray players and home-theater-in-a-box systems include smart TV apps, too. The best solution, of course, is to buy a PC that can be incorporated into your home entertainment system.
Did you find one of the video-on-demand or interactive TV services on the preceding pages to your liking? Now it’s time to delve deeper into the hardware that might support the particular iteration of smart TV that suits your fancy. Here are our choices, ranked from least appealing to most compelling. See the next page for our top recommendation: a home theater PC.
If you don't want to invest in a full-blown home-theater PC, we think D-Link's oddly shaped Boxee Box is the next best alternative.
You might think the best way to get smart TV is to buy, well, a smart TV. Think again! Don't toss your current TV if the only thing it's lacking is smart TV features—we'll show you plenty of cheaper—and in some cases, better—alternatives. If, on the other hand, you've been longing to upgrade to a bigger screen, or if you want to move up from LCD to plasma, or to a model that supports 3D, smart TV features will most likely be included. Don't fret about which services are included, though; concentrate on image quality, instead.
If you really want the Google TV experience, Logitech is blowing out its Revue inventory—we've seen it selling online for as little as $100 (it hit the market at $299). Logitech CEO Guerrino De Luca recently told analysts that the decision to support Google TV, which he described as a "beta product," cost the company $100 million in operating profit. De Luca says the company has no immediate plans to produce a Revue 2. Ouch.
Even hardcore Apple fans were disappointed with the Apple TV set-top box when it was first introduced. The device was capable of streaming content from only four online services—Netflix, YouTube, MobileMe, and Flickr—but has since added support for MLB.TV and NBA League Pass Broadband. We suspect Apple's real aspirations for Apple TV are focused on making the box a conduit for watching movies and TV episodes rented or purchased from iTunes. Apple TV sells for $99, but you'll find plenty of better products for the same price or less.
Microsoft's Xbox 360, Nintendo's Wii, and Sony's PlayStation 3 gaming consoles all have Internet connectivity, and all are capable of delivering various smart TV elements, including Netflix. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 tend to be more smart TV-oriented than the Wii, and the Xbox 360 is even stronger, because it can use your PC as a bridge to connect to online services. You can also play games on these devices, of course, but isn't that what you bought your PC for?
As with new HDTVs, just about any new Blu-ray disc player on the market will include a variety of smart TV features. We love Blu-ray as much for its high-definition audio as its HD video, but we think a home-theater PC makes the best Blu-ray player. Still, most people don't have the budget to put one of those in every room. Netflix support is common, but Vudu support is better if you're interested in renting the latest movies in HD. Prices start at less than $100, but features such as integrated Wi-Fi, multiple HDMI outputs, and SACD and DVD-Audio support will rapidly inflate the MSRP.
Roku manufactured the very first Netflix streaming box, but the company has expanded significantly since then and now offers four models ranging in price from $50 to $100. Even the least expensive model, the LT, includes an integrated Wi-Fi adapter, 720p video resolution, and more than 350 content channels. A lot of that content is crap, however, and only the top-end product will stream your own content (albeit only from a USB storage device).
We like Netgear's streamer just a little bit more than Roku's lineup, almost exclusively because it supports Vudu. It can't stream content you own, but it does have an integrated Wi-Fi adapter and it does deliver video resolution up to 1080p. And it only costs $80.
Western Digital practically owns the networked media-streamer market, thanks to its exceptional WD TV Live product. It supports nearly every important online media service (with the notable exception of Vudu), it will stream all your own content from any network or USB source at video resolutions up to 1080p, it supports every important media codec and container format, it has an integrated Wi-Fi adapter, and it costs just $130.
If you're looking for just a little more than what the WD TV Live can do (Vudu support, the ability to send web videos to the Boxee Box from a web browser, and—coming soon—an optional USB TV tuner), then you should take a hard look at D-Link's Boxee Box. It's priced higher than the Roku, Netgear, and Western Digital products ($180), but the price bump is fully justified by its extensive feature list.
Looking for the ultimate smart TV experience? Pick up a home-theater PC. You can subscribe to any online service your heart desires, stream your own content, and lots more. In fact, these machines can do almost anything a desktop PC can do. Here's a quick look at five classes of HTPC.
An all-in-one PC is a great solution if you're looking for an entertainment system for your kitchen, bedroom, den, or even your garage. This class of machine integrates an entire desktop computer, display, and speakers inside a chassis that's only slightly thicker than the typical monitor.
These machines come with everything you need, including an integrated Wi-Fi adapter, a wireless mouse and keyboard, and a TV tuner. Add an aftermarket USB CableCARD product, such as Ceton's InfiniTV4, and you can watch and record digital cable TV programming—including premium channels such as HBO.
Prices vary according to the size of the display, but models boasting large monitors typically also deliver faster CPUs, larger hard drives, and more features overall. Many higher-end models, such as HP's TouchSmart 610, include an HDMI input, so you can use the display with a game console, set-top box, or other video source. Machines in this price range also typically include an integrated Blu-ray drive, which is useful for watching rented Blu-ray movies (we recommend ripping purchased movies and storing them on a central server).
The obvious downside to buying an all-in-one machine is that it will be almost impossible to upgrade it down the road.
We coined this term to describe a personal computer that's small enough to be attached to the back of a display using that famously sticky fabric (you can read our review of Zotac's ZBox Nano AD10 Plus). Such machines often do not include an optical drive, but they can stream just about any video from a network server or from any of the online media services we've mentioned.
Zotac's ZBox Nano AD10 Plus can be mounted to the back of any VESA-compatible monitor.
A Velcro PC is like a networked media player (e.g., a Roku or WD TV Live) on steroids. Like that class of device, you can connect a Velcro PC to any size display you like—just make sure it delivers video resolution of at least 1920x1080 pixels. Unlike most networked media players, a Velcro PC includes integrated storage, and it will run a full operating system (ranging from almost any Linux distro to any flavor of Windows). And since it's a bona fide PC, online media services such as Hulu can't block it.
This class of computer is a step up from a Velcro PC in that it comes with an integrated Blu-ray drive. You might think of it as an all-minus-one, because the only thing you need to add is an HDTV (and amplified speakers if you don't want to rely on the tiny speakers inside the TV). Acer builds our favorite machine in this category: The super-thin Revo RL100-UR20P comes with a Blu-ray drive and a slick, backlit wireless keyboard/trackpad that's easy to use, even in a darkened room.
When you know exactly what you want in a computer, there's no better way to get it than to build it yourself. One easy solution is to start with a bare‑bones kit, such as the AsRock Vision 3D. This machine includes a Blu-ray drive, an Intel Core i3-370M CPU, and a discrete Nvidia GPU that's sufficiently robust for many newer games. Add Nvidia's 3D Vision kit and hook up a 3D monitor, HDTV, or video projector (our favorite display solution), and you can play games and watch movies in 3D.
If you want to build an all-out home-theater PC that's capable of playing not only Blu-ray movies, but also today's most ambitious games, you can do that, too. We built just such a beast in our December issue, using an Asus Maximum IV Gene-Z motherboard, Intel's Core i5-2500K CPU, and Nvidia's GeForce GTX 560 Ti. Don't have that issue? Just point your browser here.
Want a top-shelf rig for your entertainment center, but don't have time to build your own? That's where boutique PC builders enter the picture. These vendors will start you off with a basic configuration and then let you customize it to fit your precise needs.
The CineMagix HTPC, from boutique builder Velocity Micro.
Take Velocity Micro's CineMagix Grand Theater Entertainment System, for example. This $1,550 rig includes a full-size ATX motherboard with an Intel Core i5-2300 CPU, 4GB of DDR3 memory, an AMD Radeon HD 5450 videocard, and a digital HDTV tuner. Since these machines are built to order, you can substitute and add components as you see fit.
Comments are closed on this article
SalladDazed
January 31, 2012 at 8:17pm
Bizarrely, we found out (the hard way) that 2011 and (I believe) 2012 Samsung connected TVs (using their Smart Hub interface) do not natively support Amazon VOD.
Apparently, this used to be offered via the Yahoo Widgets app (still available in the Samsung app store) but is not for model year 2011 and going forward.
Samsung recently has issued some bizarre but hopeful signs this may change at some point. Yahoo has made no official comment. Though Amazon's site provides arguably misleading language indicating Samsung TVs support their video streaming services, it has released no official comment on the situation.
We have been monitoring a thread on Amazon's site Since April of 2011, but nothing much has changed. Though a recent firmware upgrade included language in its feature list, the language was so poorly worded as to make little sense, and there was no change in the TV's ability to playback this content.
http://www.amazon.com/forum/home%20theater/ref=cm_cd_pg_pg1?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx2DJH5MIDFPGUV&cdPage=1&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=Tx2FSR7GPIMOR0C
jerryfrost
January 31, 2012 at 8:15pm
my friend's step-aunt makes $84 hourly on the computer. She has been fired for 9 months but last month her income was $8799 just working on the computer for a few hours. Go to this web site and read more u.go2.me/57V
MrSelatcia
January 31, 2012 at 8:40am
Good luck getting the MLB network working fully on your Roku, or even android for that matter. Never mind that the Roku's advertise the compatibility. Full MLB access on anything other than a PC or Apple product is an exercise in futility. Maddening considering what they charge.
Atomike
January 31, 2012 at 8:04am
No mention of ESPN 3? This is the only real way to stream sports. And it's not mentioned. Article is wildly incomplete.
Morete
January 31, 2012 at 2:05am
I was told that "due to movie studio restrictions", Vudu content is not streamable to PC in 1080p and it's only allowed to stream to HD TVs at that resolution.
OCFRED
January 31, 2012 at 1:08am
What is the common denominator? lower overall cost than a cable/DVR package. I may grab one of those logitec units since it seems to offer the only experience tailored around what the user wants rather than pushing whats most profitable for content holders and adverts. Lets face it and admit that the net has supplanted and enhanced "stealing" cable in more wonderful ways than we who grew up with VCR's could have imagined. What erodes the old profit model most is that nearly all new content created is complete Sh*t, no artistic integrity with scripted "realities" more perverse than bawdy fiction; at networks there are likely 50 suits selling airtime for every one fostering new talent. I'd rather keep getting 3 classic flicks at a time from Blockbuster through the mail for $22 with no due dates and personal control of playback free of ads. Web offerings are rough but growing everyday and evolving expression with returns for the artist instead of some talentless hack "managing" for indifferent, insatiable shareholders.
Sooner go back to video tapes or buy tickets to live performing art than endure network broadcasting. Entertainment's genesis from live theater to pictures, radio, TV and cable onto the web is only being criminalized by lawyers and the thugs behind them intent to keep their beaks saturated while audiences are left to die of thirst rather than be empowered to change the channel.
JohnP
January 30, 2012 at 9:24pm
I am consistently disappointed with embedded media boxes inside other products. XBox360, DLNA enabled TVs, Blu Ray players with network ports, Apple TV and on and on. Try getting High def and 5.1 surround sound out of these "appliances" is an exercise in frustration. Streaming TV always have their weak points and are only available in certain places in certain formats in certain codecs in certain audio types.
I cannot empathize how well a decent HTPC can rule the roost over all of these myriad formats and types. There is just nothing better out there which makes all these embedded media boxes both unnecessary and an expensive useless device. Just say no.
hades_2100
January 30, 2012 at 6:39pm
No XBMC? I only have 4 XBMC installations in my home and it just wouldn't be the same without it.
DaemonSeed
January 30, 2012 at 3:21pm
Very good article. However I was extremely disappointed that while you posted a bit about Boxee Box, you neglected its root primary parent from whence Boxee came.
XBMC is one of the most awesome media centers around today. I currently run XBMC Eden (Beta 2) and its rawked to the max. The XBMC Team do some really awesome work.
XMBC also has a nice healthy plug in repository to add more features to your HTPC experience. Check it out XBMC.org , available for OSX, Windows, Linux, Apple TV and you can even run a live dvd/usb distro. Do not pass this one up people!
In adittion, XBMC has a great live support forum so you can learn and expand your XBMC knowledge!
athlon11
January 30, 2012 at 3:12pm
If you included the MLB and NBA in that article why not the NHL? So much better than basketball.
