What's up with google tv, apple tv, roku xds, etc?

Question

I've been seeing some commercials on these devices and services. I live in a rural area. Roughly between 40 and 70 miles from a large city with broadcast stations, and 5 miles outside the city limits of a small town which doesn't have a local cable company anyway. Up til now the only choices we have had were satellite and antenna. Satellite companies want too much for their services and are unreliable in bad weather. Antenna tv is free but since the switch from analog to digital the quality for rural viewing is vastly reduced. However, we CAN get dsl. Which is what made me pay attention to the first few commercials for google tv, apple tv and hulu. I used to be a lot more tech savvy years ago. I was a cad technician. Being a cad draftsman pretty much forces you to become tech savvy. But I've been retired for over 5 years. As far as technology goes that might as well be 5 decades. I wish someone would cut through all the salesman and techy hype and just let me know if any of these technologies can bring me the type of television service that city people get with att uverse and time warner. What system do I need, how much will it cost, how soon can I get it, and will it work once I've invested the time and money to install it?

Pearls Before Swine · Accepted Answer

None of these devices give you a broadcast or cable TV-like experience. Instead of a bunch of channels that have programming going all day long, you get on-demand viewing of movies and TV shows.

I have a Roku, and I'm very happy with it. It cost me $100. It connects to my home broadband Internet (cable, but DSL would work too), and lets me watch movies and TV shows from Netflix and Amazon. For Netflix, I have to pay $9/month (which gives me unlimited watching which also works on the computer); for Amazon, it's $2 or $3 per movie or show that I watch.

Beyond Netflix and Amazon on-demand viewing (which I think most of these devices support), some also allow you to do things like surf the web, watch YouTube, listen to Internet radio, watch photos, videos and music stored on your computer. etc.

Also note that many newer TVs and Blu-Ray players include similar capabilities - for instance my Blu-Ray player also does Netflix and YouTube.

Laura · Answer

i rarely watch tv. you just don't get the same quality. i mean, try making walden into a television show

Anonymous · Answer

Truly, there is absolutely no evaluation absolutely....simply because watching television relies on the gunky imagination of a Tv set entertainer who's main concerns are budget, ratings and popularity also to Hell with theme integrity, or, for example, anything truly creative.

Gabrio · Answer

turn off the gadgets, turn on your mind

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What's up with google tv, apple tv, roku xds, etc?

4 Answers