Topic: Media streaming

[Perspective]

I have a best buy gift certificate to spend and I'm thinking of picking up one of these.
http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/lg-electronics-lg-smart-tv-upgrader-sp820-sp820/10200762.aspx?path=f517339303763b20fa26e77a9a3ea9f8en02


It has a Wii like pointer for mousing which is a great idea. It also has a microphone in the remote so you can use Google's voice recognition for text input (it runs android) which is a pretty cool idea, though I'd rather have a physical qwerty keyboard on the remote like some other devices have. You can also stream media off your computer or DLNA device.
 
I know some of you have the roku box, seems similar but I don't know how input entry would be on that (text and mouse for the web browser). I've used a boxee box before too and the control can be quite frustrating.

Thoughts? Other options?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LLXvQCPopo

[ober]

I liked my in-law's Roku and I think TGM has one.  It was a bit of a pain to type in account settings and stuff, but that seems like a one time pain.  Unless you really plan on surfing the web on your TV (I don't personally have any desire to do so), I would just go with the Roku (it's cheaper).

[kermi3]

Roku.  Have it. Love it. No voice though, that sounds pretty cool. The remote is simple and elegant though - and the iOS app is great. Don't know if there's an android version...

[Perspective]

>Unless you really plan on surfing the web on your TV

I do most of my TV watching on various websites, so I'll use the web browser quite a bit. I guess I could always type things out once and bookmark though.

I'll look at the roku a little closer before I make a decision.....


....and I'm back. Looks like bestbuy doesn't carry it in Canada. =(

[kermi3]

Boo...I got nothing if you want to do bet buy. I'm also a big fan of the straight up media pc thiugh

[Perspective]

Boo...I got nothing if you want to do bet buy. I'm also a big fan of the straight up media pc thiugh

Right now we just plug one of our laptops in with a wireless keyboard, It actually works great. It is a bit of an annoyance to always be hooking/unhooking cables and since I have a gift card to waste.... It's definitely not something I need, but gifts are supposed to be fun toys anyway

[kermi3]

:thumpsup:

[ober]

This is one reason I like my Tivo.  You can buy remotes that include a slideout keyboard, but you can also download the free app for phones/iPad.  So if I get into a screen that requires me to type, I just fire up the app and use the keyboard on that.  Granted, there is no browser app on the Tivo that I have, so I can't exactly surf the web, but there are still several places that require me to type if I want to search for content or whatever.

[Perspective]

I picked up the LG thing and played with it for a couple of days. The pointer remote is great, it's easy to select things, web browse and enter text. It doesn't have the mic like I thought, not sure where I read that... probably a different device.

Streaming video via one of the apps (netflix, youtube) works great. The big problem is that streaming online video through the web browser is garbage. Full screen doesn't work, the video quality is bad, and on some sites the audio is out of synch with the video. Since I mainly bought it for streaming TV from the network sites, it's not going to do. I'll be returning this one and looking for a new gift card target.

[webwhy]

If you're an Apple family, I would recommend an Apple TV. iOS integration is killer.  We've had a lot of fun with it.  Otherwise I don't think it adds much over a Roku.