Introduction
If you want to access Online TV on you TV you currently need to either shell out for a new TV, or the cheap alternative is to buy a set-top-box that extends the functionality of your existing one. In this article I'll be looking at three popular boxes and giving my initial impressions of them.
The Boxee.
After plugging in and turning on the logo on the front lights up a vivid neon green which, having grown up in the 80s, I loved. After going through some setup for calibrating the screen, you're greeted with a Create Account screen, which you seem to be unable to skip. You can link it to a Facebook account, or create a Boxee account. Personally I don't like the idea of being forced to register a device before you can use it, but I'm sure there are lots of people out there who relish the idea of being able to link their smart box to Facebook.
Setting up the box is made especially easy with the ingeniously designed remote. Simple start, stop and direction wheel on one side, useful for navigating media, and full keyboard on the other. It's not as easy as a full sized keyboard but with the limited space they've done a great job.
The Boxee has full support for reading media off local and Network storage, and setting it up was surprisingly simple. Select the location of the media (local or network) select the folder and let it scan the contents. Supported network sharing protocols are AFP, NFS and SMB.
I've never used AirPlay before and was surprised to find an Apple technology supported on an none apple device. The implementation isn't quite a seamless as Apple's but it worked well enough to have music streaming from an iPhone to the Boxee.
The apps section of the device had a multitude of player for a seemingly endless list of content provider, including the main player like YouTube and BBC iPlayer.
AppleTV
It's Apple, it's got that minimalist Apple style.
Again the setup was fairly straightforward with all keyboard functions taken care of using the onscreen virtual keyboard. Once configured you're greeted with the reassuringly familiar standard Apple App's screen layout. Services like Netflix, YouTube and iPlayer work via the built in Apps. Apple have a great eye for detail, little things like the reflections of the Movies cover artwork, just make the device feel more polished than the other two.
I do like the Apple remote, shiny, metallic and slim (maybe a little slim), but again it's beautiful to look at and does the job well.
AirPlay worked flawlessly (as you'd expect). Well except when my iPhone decided to drop off the wireless network and switch to 3G, but I can't blame AirPlay for that.
The problem with the AppleTV is its lack of support for anything other than main content providers and iTunes. No support for windows or Linux shares no usb port means you can't plug a usb hard drive in. The best it will do is connect to a iTunes library running on another machine.
WD TV Live
Another simple setup procedure: Select either wireless of wired network, enter the relevant details and away you go. Again, like the other two there's a selection of App's for your favourite content providers NetFlix, YouTube etc, which all work well. Like the AppleTV entering details is through use of an on screen virtual keyboard.
The WD TV Live's remote isn't the best looking especially when compare to the looks of the Apple Remote, or the functionality of the Boxee's. But it does the job.
External media can be accessed using local devices (attached to the USB port), SMB/NFS shares, or a media server. This was all fairly easy to set up, however you only seem to be able to give it the server, not the mount point on the server, so I end up with both folders appearing within Videos and the same for Music.
The WD TV Lives interface just didn't seem as polished as the other two. That's not to say it doesn't look nice. In parts, especially the landing screen, it looks better than the other two. But once you get past the first screen I just felt I was using a glorified file browser. (In know I am on the other two, but you feel they at least make the effort to pretend otherwise).
Conclusion
Despite my dislike Boxee's registration requirement, I think overall I'd have to say my preference is for the Boxee, with second place going to the WD TV Live, Apple having a more polished feel, but being much more limited.
If you want to access Online TV on you TV you currently need to either shell out for a new TV, or the cheap alternative is to buy a set-top-box that extends the functionality of your existing one. In this article I'll be looking at three popular boxes and giving my initial impressions of them.
The Boxee.
After plugging in and turning on the logo on the front lights up a vivid neon green which, having grown up in the 80s, I loved. After going through some setup for calibrating the screen, you're greeted with a Create Account screen, which you seem to be unable to skip. You can link it to a Facebook account, or create a Boxee account. Personally I don't like the idea of being forced to register a device before you can use it, but I'm sure there are lots of people out there who relish the idea of being able to link their smart box to Facebook.
Setting up the box is made especially easy with the ingeniously designed remote. Simple start, stop and direction wheel on one side, useful for navigating media, and full keyboard on the other. It's not as easy as a full sized keyboard but with the limited space they've done a great job.
The Boxee has full support for reading media off local and Network storage, and setting it up was surprisingly simple. Select the location of the media (local or network) select the folder and let it scan the contents. Supported network sharing protocols are AFP, NFS and SMB.
I've never used AirPlay before and was surprised to find an Apple technology supported on an none apple device. The implementation isn't quite a seamless as Apple's but it worked well enough to have music streaming from an iPhone to the Boxee.
The apps section of the device had a multitude of player for a seemingly endless list of content provider, including the main player like YouTube and BBC iPlayer.
AppleTV
It's Apple, it's got that minimalist Apple style.
Again the setup was fairly straightforward with all keyboard functions taken care of using the onscreen virtual keyboard. Once configured you're greeted with the reassuringly familiar standard Apple App's screen layout. Services like Netflix, YouTube and iPlayer work via the built in Apps. Apple have a great eye for detail, little things like the reflections of the Movies cover artwork, just make the device feel more polished than the other two.
I do like the Apple remote, shiny, metallic and slim (maybe a little slim), but again it's beautiful to look at and does the job well.
AirPlay worked flawlessly (as you'd expect). Well except when my iPhone decided to drop off the wireless network and switch to 3G, but I can't blame AirPlay for that.
The problem with the AppleTV is its lack of support for anything other than main content providers and iTunes. No support for windows or Linux shares no usb port means you can't plug a usb hard drive in. The best it will do is connect to a iTunes library running on another machine.
WD TV Live
Another simple setup procedure: Select either wireless of wired network, enter the relevant details and away you go. Again, like the other two there's a selection of App's for your favourite content providers NetFlix, YouTube etc, which all work well. Like the AppleTV entering details is through use of an on screen virtual keyboard.
The WD TV Live's remote isn't the best looking especially when compare to the looks of the Apple Remote, or the functionality of the Boxee's. But it does the job.
External media can be accessed using local devices (attached to the USB port), SMB/NFS shares, or a media server. This was all fairly easy to set up, however you only seem to be able to give it the server, not the mount point on the server, so I end up with both folders appearing within Videos and the same for Music.
The WD TV Lives interface just didn't seem as polished as the other two. That's not to say it doesn't look nice. In parts, especially the landing screen, it looks better than the other two. But once you get past the first screen I just felt I was using a glorified file browser. (In know I am on the other two, but you feel they at least make the effort to pretend otherwise).
Conclusion
Despite my dislike Boxee's registration requirement, I think overall I'd have to say my preference is for the Boxee, with second place going to the WD TV Live, Apple having a more polished feel, but being much more limited.
About the Author:
Want to find out more about Leading Smart Boxes, then visit Tim Gaskins's site on how to choose the best Online TV Equipment for your needs.
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