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News
The Battle of the Internet Video Boxes
Wednesday, June 4th, 2008 at 4:00 PM - by John Martellaro
Popular Science pitted three video boxes against each other, The Apple TV, the Vudu and the new Roku box from Netflix. The author decided to send all the review units back -- except the Netflix player.
 Photo credit: Popular Science |
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Sean Captain looked at several categories: Value, Watchability, Ease of Use and a summary "High-Def Smackdown."
The author found the Netflix player generally equal to the others in video quality and ease of use. While the Netflix player doesn’t currently download in HD, the HD selections from Netflix on Blu-ray are much larger, 600 titles versus 330 on Apple TV and 122 for Vudu. In total, about 10,000 titles are available in SD.
In Apple TV’s favor is its ability to watch YouTube videos and stream content from a computer. The author had some problems with the Wi-Fi connection and described the experience as "rough". The version of Apple TV software was not cited nor the ability to watch TV shows.
He thought the Apple TV’s images tended to be a bit fuzzy in dimly lit scenes.
The Vudu box costs a lot more, US$295, and the total movie offerings are lower than Netflix, just 6,000 titles. Mr. Captain thought the video quality was slightly superior to the other units, but admitted its was a subtle difference. He no problems with the operation.
The review was subjective, as all reviews are, depending on the author’s emphasis and unique experiences with the equipment. Anyone considering one of these video boxes, however, will find the face-off review food for thought.
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