Dateline: 2007. As the forces of technology sweep through the world, one final battleground remains: the living room. It is there that technology has encountered its last gulf, and there that the climactic battle will take place. But which technology company will emerge victorious in the fight for the hearts and minds of our TVs?
As a Mac user, you’re probably considering the Apple TV when it comes to streaming your media from your Mac to your TV. And while it may seem like a logical choice for most Mac users, there are a handful of other devices for the same niche that are heading your way. Could one of them—gasp!—actually fill your needs better? After the jump, we’ll take a look at three competitors that hope to challenge Apple in its bid for the living room.
Netgear’s Digital Entertainer HD (top right) boasts a few features that the Apple TV lacks: full 1080p high-definition output over HDMI, for one, and connections for standard TVs via composite, component, or S-video. It’ll also let you play content from devices attached via its integrated USB port, play YouTube videos on your TV, and stream Internet radio. Unlike the Apple TV, it has no hard drive, streaming all media over the wireless or wired network connection, but that does allow for some neat functionality: a Follow Me feature that lets you pause content in one room, and then resume it in another (of course, you’ll need multiple Digital Entertainers for that). When it was first announced at CES, Netgear claimed that you’d be able to stream purchased iTunes tracks from your Windows machine to the Entertainer, but that isn’t mentioned on the Digital Entertainer’s product page (it is still mentioned in their press release, though). But while OS X is supported by the device, streaming iTunes purchases on the Mac is not. The Digital Entertainer HD is slightly more expensive than the Apple TV, at $399, but its HD features and broad codec support are nothing to sniff at.
If Netgear’s in the market, you can bet that rival Linksys isn’t far behind. The consumer-oriented division of network giant Cisco is due to roll out their own media streamer, the Linksys KISS 1600 (bottom left). Just announced at the CeBIT show in Germany, the KISS 1600 is pretty similar to the Apple TV and Digital Entertainer HD. It features wired and wireless (802.11g) networking and an HDMI port supporting resolutions of up to 720p. Like the Digital Entertainer HD, it doesn’t have a hard drive, instead relying on streaming all of your media from your computer. However, unlike both the Apple TV and Digital Entertainer HD, it does have a built-in DVD drive, that will also upscale content to 720p. It’ll play both standard DVDs and, apparently, data DVDs with compatible formats. There’s also a USB port for connecting other storage media. We don’t have a price or availability in the US yet, but the KISS 1600 is apparently coming to the UK in April for £260 (around $500). Mac compatibility is unknown at this point.
Finally, streaming media makers Sling Media are still prepping their PC to TV solution, the SlingCatcher (bottom right), due out in the middle of this year. Like Netgear’s and Linksys’s offerings, the SlingCatcher relies on streaming media; there’s no hard drive inside. Details on the SlingCatcher are scarce; it appears you’ll be able to stream content directly from the net (perhaps from sites such as YouTube), but there’s also the suggestion that anything on your computer is fair game as well. The SlingCatcher will also work in conjunction with Sling’s SlingBox, allowing you to access content from, say, your living room TV’s DVR on your TV upstairs. The SlingCatcher will have HDMI, component, and, S-video, and composite ports, making it more versatile than the Apple TV as far as connectivity goes. It’s also the cheapest of the four, with an estimated price of below $200.
Clearly, there’s a lot of competition to get your computer’s media onto your television. Which one’s right for you? With the iTunes Store, Apple remains the only end-to-end solution that takes you from buying content all the way to watching it on your TV. And from what we’ve seen, the Apple TV will be great for that purpose. But most people have more than just iTunes purchased content, and it remains to be seen if the Apple TV will play nice with other formats, without the hassle of lengthy transcoding processes. The other products have greater breadth and compatibility on their side, but they lack the tight integration Apple can leverage, especially when it comes to OS X. And, of course, Apple’s emphasis on design and usability will likely trump that of the other vendors.
At the moment, the SlingCatcher has my eye: it’s the cheapest of the bunch, and it supports HD and standard TVs, which is a problem with the Apple TV and my current setup. But information on it is still hazy at best, so I’ll have to wait and see. Only Netgear’s product is shipping now, though the Apple TV is expected within the next week or so. One thing’s for certain: the battle for the living room is only just beginning.
I've personally been experimenting with the Tivo-Amazon Unbox service that just rolled out full time this week. It's got a couple nice advantages over the AppleTV and iTunes. First, you can purchase content from any computer and send it directly to the Tivo DVR. Second, items you've purchased (not rented) can simply be deleted off the Tivo and then later re-downloaded from the Unbox service which eliminates cluttering your computer with them or worrying about backing up data. Third, it actually works with my standard defintion TV so no need to invest in a new TV. Finally, they have a rental model for movies.
You can already stream mp3's (and, supposedly with some work, AAC files but I've never managed to get it working), and get your pictures to display from your computer so it's almost equivalent to the AppleTV at this point. Plus, it's a DVR.
It's not quite as elegant as the AppleTV will no doubt be, but it's not half bad. I doubt I'll continue to use the Unbox service once my $15.00 credit for registering is gone, but I don't buy much content from iTunes either so it's not like either side is losing anything in the process.
I have been looking at this category of device for a while and unfortunately all the current products (including the ones listed here) fall down one way or the other, this includes the Apple TV. However this merely reflects my personal wants.
I am looking for a media extender for use within the house to 'extend' music, photos, recordings, DVDs, and ideally live TV.
1. The Apple TV, very limited in file formats (for video MPEG4 is the only option), also no support for live TV. Limited to 720p
2. NetGear EVA8000. Initially this looked extremely promising as it listed support for 1080p and live TV from a PC equipped with a tuner. It also supports protected iTunes tracks and all the main music and video formats. However now the user manual can be downloaded I have seen that in order to do live TV it completely takes over control of the tuner rather than as I hoped using Microsoft Media Center. This also explains why it uses its own US only EPG (rather than Media Center's one which is available for many more countries). So close but so far, it even for a product for Windows is not that ugly on screen.
3. The LinkSys KiSS 1600 is also limited to 720p and I don't believe it does MPEG4. It can do live TV as it is a Media Center Extender (and unlike the NetGear product does not hijack the tuner). Basically it does much the same as an Xbox 360 acting as a media extender, costs about the same, but cannot play games.
4. The Sling products don't quite fit the same category as the other products (media extenders) since they are mainly focused on video and not music, photos, etc. they also don't really address my goal of providing the same quality as the original programme.
So, still no winners from my point of view.
I want an apple tv simply because all the tv I watch I buy from itunes (I don't have time to watch tv when its on, and Itunes is cheaper than tivo) and I would love to watch them on my HDTV (I know I know, HDTV but never watches tv. I play a lot of videogames)
To Adam:
I was just wondering how many episodes of TV do you watch a month?
If, it's more than 7 episodes per month, then Tivo is cheaper than AppleTV. Unless you absolutely feel compelled to buy the HD Tivo recorder (which I doubt you are since you seem fine with the quality of TV from iTunes), a Tivo box will run either $99 or $199 with monthly fees from $13-17. Doing the basic math, as long you watch at least 2 shows a week, the Tivo unit is cheaper and you have the wider variety of everything that's available on your cable/satellite service not just iTunes scant catalog. Even if you only watch 4 episodes a month, you save $100 up front at least so you've got the first 6 months of service paid for in the price difference alone.
I'm sorry if I sound like a Tivo salesman, but the idea that Tivo is more expensive than AppleTV is hard to fathom.
George,
You ask how Tivo could be more expensive than iTunes. I think the answer lies in your question. Tivo doesn't have any content itself, it relies on "the wider variety of everything that's available on your cable/satellite service" -- service you have to pay for. Even when bundled with broadband (anyone using iTunes to download video is probably paying for that) it can still be an additional $30 to $60 per month just to get a halfway decent selection of programming from a cable / dish provider.
i guess the box that will get my attention will be the one that plays all of those ilegally obtained music videos i own. as far as i know, apple doesn't care about files with funny extensions, such as .avi :dizzy: and .vob... so tv had no appeal to me whatsoever. i rent tv shows from net flix and i download music videos/musical performances from fan sites. whoever supports those files, i'm sold.
Regardless of it's capability devices like these will not be welcome in my family room is they look like a piece of network gear. The Apple TV and the Linksys KISS 1600 would get my money. The Linksys KISS's form factor fits well with all my other audio/video gear so I would lean toward that one. The Netgear device looks like it belong is basement far away from my TV. Does anyone know where one can find 50 feet of HDML cabling for less than the cost of a small car?