A brief review of the AppleTV and Roku media players.

Its 2012 already! Which one is right for you?

So to follow up on my last post, here are a few specific products that you can use for viewing pictures on your TV that have the added bonus of bringing a wealth of other services (many of them free) in from the Internet.

AppleTV

If you use iTunes to manage the music on your computer and iDevice than using an Apple TV is a great way to get that music to your TV. It’s a small box about the size of a hockey puck that plugs into an HDMI connection on the back of the TV. It can use either a wi-fi or wired network connection to your computer and comes with a small, simple remote control.

Not only will it let you view and select your iTunes music on your TV but it will also find all of the digital pictures on your computer and show those on your TV as well. You can choose to view photos individually or in a slide show and you can do so while listening to music.

The AppleTV also lets you rent or buy movies and television programs from the iTunes store. You can also access YouTube, podcasts and 1000’s of free internet radio stations from all over the world.

Like most Apple products, it is nicely designed, works well and has a slick user interface. They cost around $100.

Pros: Seamless access to your iTunes library. Access to photos on your computer. Nice hardware and user interface design.

Cons: Limited access to online content (you can only rent through the iTunes store). The only video connection is via HDMI which isn’t available on older TVs.

Roku

If you don’t have an extensive iTunes collection, consider one of Roku’s media players. It too is a small hockey puck of a box that connects to your TV with either an HDMI or a composite video connection. Like the AppleTV, the network connection is via wi-fi (the top of the line XS model can accept a wired connection too). It comes with a small remote as well.

Roku doesn’t support iTunes or allow you to access pictures on your computer but it provides access to a very extensive array of online services. It has a ‘channel store’ - much like an app store – where you can choose your services. For example, there are probably a hundred special interest internet TV channels to choose from along with several rental sites like Amazon On Demand and Hulu.

On the photography & video side Roku allows you to access most of the online sharing sites like Picasa, Facebook, Shutterfly, Flikr (Apple supports Flikr too), Vimeo and Ustream.

While the Roku box has a USB port where you can connect a thumb drive containing pictures, you can’t easily access pictures on your computer directly. However, if you aren’t using a photo sharing site like Picasa or Flikr, you should consider it. While it’s always nice to have a backup copy of your pictures on your computer, posting them to a sharing site will make it MUCH easier to share them with friends. Sending a few large pictures through the email becomes a thing of the past as you can now simply email a web link to an entire slideshow. Sharing pictures on Facebook etc. also becomes easier. Sharing sites also let you access your photos from any computer or smart phone when you are away from home – that a BIG plus when visiting friends and family.

So while the Roku box won’t directly access your photos on your PC, it will access your photo sharing site which, once set up, is even better. The Roku costs from $50 to $100 depending on the model.

Pros: Permits access to an unprecedented level of online content. Both digital and analog video connection options.

Cons: Clunky user interface, no support for local photos or iTunes. No YouTube access (but that is rumored to be coming soon).

The Bottom Line: Both of these boxes are cheap, very easy to set up and will profoundly change your TV viewing experience for the better. At this point its almost a no-brainer - GET ONE!

Questions and comments welcome as always...

Cheers,

John