Category: Tech

IPTV STB Wars

Having committed myself to Roku as my IPTV hardware of choice, it’s interesting to watch the thrashing that’s going on with the other players in this market. From my viewpoint, I see Apple TV as being an on-target hit, and Google TV as being a misfire. Look at the remote on this Sony Blu-ray with Google TV!

My feeling is that the whole point of having IPTV is to get away from computer keyboards, sit back, and relax. Who ever feels relaxed when sitting at their laptop or desktop? Or, for that matter, when they’re texting on a phone?

For $400, this Sony unit seems to be a bargain compared to Logitech’s Revue for $300, with its much larger keyboard, but without a Blu-ray player. My Logitech Squeezebox Radio is an excellent product, and having seen for myself Sony’s comparatively poor implementation of Netflix streaming, I wonder how its performance will compare to the Logitech Revue? But it’s an academic question for me, because of my two Roku units. Michael Hiltzik at the Los Angeles Times is also a Roku fan, and he has some insight into what Roku CEO Anthony Wood is thinking these days.

Roku Redux

Roku has posted this notice about yesterday’s problem with Netflix. This doesn’t make it clear whether the problem was entirely with Netflix, but I’ve done what it says here, and it worked on the HD-XR, which was still locked on “retrieving” — although the other unit, the original HD, appeared to be fine on its own this morning. Throughput is very choppy at the moment, especially for HD content.